(no subject)

[tinyjo]

[Poll #1205918]

Comments

[deslea.livejournal.com]

I voted "meh" because I have open plan spaces and occasional furniture, and my robot (admittedly a cheapie) is too stupid to figure them out. It gets confused and just goes over the same territory.

But I understand the more expensive ones are better, and in terms of basic suck-up, they're fine for increasing the time between "proper" vacuums. They might not handle things like animal hair and big spills that well, but they'll handle your basic bits of dirt and fluff that come off your clothes and shoes everyday. They have their place, but I think that place is a home with defined rooms, not much occasional furniture, and probably no kids (unless it's a much better robot than mine).

[deslea.livejournal.com]

Oh - I just clicked the Amazon link, and that one is much smarter than mine. Mine doesn't even return to dock when its battery is low, the stupid f**k.

[tinyjo.livejournal.com]

Cool. I also have good reports of the cat hair handling abilites of this one which makes it very very tempting.

[applez.livejournal.com]

I take it that robot hoovers still have several critical design flaws:

1. They are early Dalek prototypes and can't take the stairs.
2. They aren't self-cleaning
3. They aren't self-upgrading

[zengineer.livejournal.com]

Not being self upgrading is a good thing. The only stupider thing than that would be to arm robots with guns or rockets and let them kill people.

[applez.livejournal.com]

I dunno, at least some sort of self-repair system...made from the dust bunny material collected - that'd be kinda cool. ;-)

[sarahq.livejournal.com]

In case of boredom, go to youtube and search for "cat roomba". Such entertainment! I don't even much care if they don't vacuum particularly well; vacuuming moderately well + tormenting the cats is good enough for me.

[malerin.livejournal.com]

More to the point, I'm terrified that if I get one, it'll hoover up my toes or something. (And I have mostly hardwood.)

[dave [earth.li] (from livejournal.com)]

It's more likely to eat your phone charger and your post from the mat than your toes. My friend with one keeps finding post in the bedroom where the robot dragged it.

An american friend used to use his scooba to clean the table as it is designed for squeegeeing hard floors.

[jinty]

How big a table does he *have*?!

[dave [earth.li] (from livejournal.com)]

They spilled beer on it regularly then allowed it to dry, and as a bunch of men they wouldn't do it otherwise. Damn students.

Blimey!

[jinty]

That's a large technological hammer to crack a small [societal] nut.

[lady-angelina.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't mind getting one of the higher end models. Because spending fifteen minutes every weekend vacuuming is way too much for a lazy ass like me. XD

*LOLs at all the people who voted that they would fear it would "transform into something and take over the galaxy* Reminds me of the South Park episode where Chef accidentally clicks on the wrong thing on his new TV, and it enables "Human Eradication Mode." ;)

[tinyjo.livejournal.com]

Me too! Seriously though - it is totally laziness that makes me want one, even though I tell my Mum it's so I can have something that hoovers under my sofa :)

[timscience.livejournal.com]

My 80 year old mum has one and she think's it's great.

[tinyjo.livejournal.com]

And if she's anything like my grandparents, she'd be hard to please so that's quite a recommendation!

Legless, furless round robot kitten

[damiancugley.livejournal.com]

This New Scientist article on emotional robots discusses robot vacuum cleaners considered as pets, comlete with dressing up and naming. I think if I got one it would be more as a cat substitute than as a serious attempt to clean the carpets.

[phlebas.livejournal.com]

I'd love one, but I have a house full of Stuff without sufficient connected regions of available floor for it to be useful.