Apple's come up with many, many beautiful-looking computers in its twenty-odd years in the business, and we imagine every Apple-watcher's got a favorite. The original toaster-style Macintosh holds a special place in our hearts, as do the latest PowerBooks (which are somehow even sleeker than last year's Wall Street models-- something we hadn't thought possible). Then there's pretty much every Newton MessagePad ever shipped, and even the blue-and-white Power Mac G3s have their own degree of alien charm. Sure, there have been misses, too, like the regrettable boxy blahness of the 4400, but personally, we like to think that the curves and colors of the iMac more than erase the design sins of the past. Yes, to us, the iMac is still the quintessential "beautiful computer." It's like an eye magnet or something.

So if you're one of those people who harbors an irrational dislike for the French, we're going to give you another reason to be ticked off; the French postal service has actually managed to find a way to make the iMac ugly. If you don't believe us, just check out NoBeige, who has a picture of the kiosks being installed as pay-to-surf public 'Net access points in French post offices. Brace yourself-- with its bevy of weird curved wings sticking out in all directions, its boxy angles and soulless slots, and the most hideous combination of yellow and blue we've ever seen since Gemini Jr. High's school colors, it's not for the faint of heart nor the sensitive of taste. And peeking out from within sits a poor, dejected iMac, robbed of its natural right to make the world look just a little bit better. Yuck.

We should note that we are extraordinarily impressed that anybody could come up with such an effective way to transform the world's prettiest computer into something that looks like the hideous anti-creative mental offspring of a gestalt consciousness formed by Bill Gates and every contributor to the Museum of Bad Art. But leaving aside the issue of the kiosk's unfortunate colors and design, we applaud the French government for providing thousands of public Internet access terminals in post offices across their nation, and for realizing that the iMac is ideally suited for such a task-- low cost, low maintenance, high performance, and a terrific overall experience for the end users. Provided that they don't go blind or start projectile vomiting upon seeing the kiosk, that is.