Min Roomba har slutat fungera som den skall. Om man pillar isär den och sätter ihop den igen så fungerar den, jag misstänker att det är något smuts i en brytare, eller så.

Bra dammig var den inuti innan jag gjorde rent den, i alla fall. Bilden är tagen efter genomblåsning med tryckluft…

A while back we told you about the roomba which is an automatic vacuum cleaner that sucks up your dust around the house. Well according to this article in Israels Yediot Acharonot Newspaper, this Roomba “captured” a deadly viper while a little girl was in the room. As the picture shows, the snake not only of captured but pawned, image being sucked in by a robot.

The best purchase I've made since the GPS!

Let me start by saying – I LOVE MY Irobot Roomba!!!! It is WONDERFUL! It was the first item that my Mother-in-Law and I made a run for at the Black Friday Kohl’s sale.
There was only ONE on the floor – I can’t believe they were advertised and no one put any out (gosh I hope they had some in the back)…but I got mine!!!!
She’s beautiful.
She’s light blue with blinking red lights. I named her Rosie.
The first charge should take 16 hours.
With a house full of in-laws and the lack of sleep (we got up at 2 in the morning for Black Friday), there were many snafus. The battery wasn’t snapped in completely for 8 hours…then Hubby unplugged it along with the Christmas tree in a mad dash to the movies! Needless to say, I was sad.
But today! Today, I took my fully charged Rosie into the kitchen and the office and watched with joy as she did one of my most hated chores – sweeping the floor!
My husband asked me if it was worth the money if it took her 45 minutes to clean each room.
I said, “Yes!” without hesitation.
He didn’t look convinced.
I asked him if he’d clean the floors if I gave him $100. He said, “Yes.”
“$100, and you’ll clean the floors for the rest of your life?” I probed.
He sighed. “No.”
I smiled smugly and plugged Rosie in for a well-deserved charge.
She’ll get some maintenance and then it’s downstairs she goes to clean the den and “school room.”
Hubby and I are both teachers – and we have so many school supplies that we’ve acquired over the years – we’ve dedicated a room to them. God, I wish someone would invent a robot to organize all of that STUFF! It would be okay if it was only mine, but DH teaches elementary school. There are a million THEMES that they have and you never throw anything away in elementary school. My first inclination is to chuck it if I can’t find a place for it…so I leave that job to hubby and ignore the mess the rest of the time.

Back to Thanksgiving – we had a blast – despite a rough start. I got a virus on Monday. My in-laws came in on Monday. I spent 30 minutes on the couch with my head in my husband’s lap – trying to pretend that I wasn’t sick. As soon as they mentioned ordering dinner, I went into the bedroom to change clothes and promptly threw up.
I gave in to the headache, chills, nausea, and crawled into bed.
I hoped that my husband would notice that I was missing so that he’d come in and I could have him make my excuses to our guests. I felt SO GUILTY!
Thankfully, my in-laws are WONDERFUL, so they took over the household duties for me. Awesome people.
I stayed in bed all night and called in to work – although my Principal is extremely strict about sick days. I was going to try to crawl into work, but Husband was hearing NONE of it.
He was phenomenal. He made the necessary phone calls and even baked and delivered Stuffing to school for the annual Thanksgiving Meal.
I went to the Doctor, who diagnosed the “virus” and told me that there was nothing he could do. He prescribed Bed, Fluids, and Rest.
I stopped at Walgreen’s on the way home and picked up Garlic Capsules because I recall reading that Garlic has the ability to kill Virus.
I stayed in bed the rest of the day. My Husband and Brother-in-Law ran errands for me, and my Mother-In-Law stayed in bed with me and we surfed the Internet on my laptop.
Husband’s cousins came into town that night also. They are in the throes of a turbulent reconciliation. He cheated on her and is still in contact with his Mistress. Boy, did that make for a FUN weekend. He actually took a break on Black Friday to visit with the Mistress, leaving his distraught Wife with us.
THAT was fun.
He returned later that afternoon. My Mother-in-Law and I brought home a Christmas outfit for our beagle-spaniel, Copper. We all laughed at Copper’s reaction to being dressed in clothes.
In the space of time that it took me to go to the bedroom, grab a load of laundry, and come back – My Brother-In-Law and Cousin-In-Law were having a heated discussion about College Football and the BCS Championship.
They were debating a team that neither of them particularly liked, but were speculating about which Bowl they’d be going to. Cousin blew up, cursed at him and said, “F*** it, I’m outta here.”
He grabbed his things, stormed out of the house, jumped into his truck and peeled off.
We were all stunned.
His Wife ran after him (they’d come in separate cars) and left, also.
They live 6 hours away from us, so it’s not like he stormed out to go around the block.
We still don’t know why he had such a major over-reaction.
We all have our theories, but aren’t sure which is the correct one.

Theory 1: (My theory – Player’s Rule #3)
J. Anthony Brown of the Tom Joyner Morning Show has a theory about Players around the Holidays and anytime you want out of a relationship.
“Say F*** IT!” and storm out.
If you say, “F*** It” before Christmas and Valentine’s Day, you don’t have to buy the woman a gift for the holiday. J.Anthony Brown also advocates starting the fight for no reason before you F-it.
It seems to me like saying F-it to us and storming out was a way for him to get back to his Mistress and dump his wife without having her sit with us, waiting on him.

Theory #2 (The rest of the family’s Theory – Guilt/Anger/Frustration)

The couple argued all weekend. We noticed. We whispered. “Why is she sitting in her car? Why are they up all night long? I got up to get a glass of water, and they’re still talking! They look miserable!”
The Wife kept us abreast of every horrible going-on, “He’s going to see her. She called me today.”
The family thinks that the Wife tried to make her Husband feel badly by saying that we didn’t approve of his behavior (true, but no one said it to her OR him).
They also feel that he was upset with us for judging him and that’s what made him explode.

I don’t know.

What do you think? Why did he blow up at us and storm off?

Finally – my weight-loss journey.
I was on a streak of recording the food I ate and exercising. I was on day 40. Even when I got sick, I tried to get on the bike and do a little cardio.
That fell through. My eating fell through. I feel like a bloated mess.
Monday.
Monday is the day that I get back into the gym for a Step and a Power Class.
Monday is the day that I begin to record the food that I eat.
Monday is the day that I begin streaking anew.
I thought streaking would make it easier to continue my good habits — and it did, but once I failed, it felt like all or nothing. I didn’t know it would be so crushing to fall on my face.
*Sigh*
I thought streaking would make starting again easier.
Who knew?
My mission for today and tomorrow is to put things into place to make myself successful on Monday – washing clothes so that I’m on time for work and ready for the gym, packing lunches, and doing grocery shopping.
Thanks to my Rosie Roomba, the housework is a little easier, and I feel like maybe I CAN do it all…at least most of it all.

Mit der Globalisierung der Wirtschaft haben sich auch die Verwaltungsstrukturen der Unternehmen über die Welt verbreitet. Management ist zu einem weltumspannenden Schlagwort geworden und bestimmt die Handlungsweise von Amerika bis Asien.

Organisieren, koordinieren, kommandieren, kontrollieren – die hölzerne, inzwischen weit verbreitete Sprache der Wirtschaftstechnokraten kündet von unfehlbarer Verwaltungseffizienz. Allerorten macht sich der neue Glaubenssatz von Industrialisierung und Verwestlichung breit. Von Stanford bis Tokio, von Madrid bis Dakar, von Athen bis zu den Pariser Vorstädten – überall befindet man sich im “Reich, in dem die Sonne nie untergeht”, im allmächtigen Managementimperium.

„Management“ heißt der kommunikationswirksame Verkaufsschlager der westlichen Industrieländer. Hinter dem Zeitgeist-Konzept verbirgt sich ein uralter, der westlichen Tradition entsprungener Begriff, der sich ursprünglich auf Haus, Familie, Gerätschaften und Haushaltsführung bezog.
Von Ökonomen aufbereitet und mit einer wissenschaftlich-technischen Aura versehen, wurde „Management“ zur Wirtschaftsdoktrin, zu einem Propagandainstrument der neuen Globalisierung eines Marktes ohne Grenzen.

Genau wie die großen religiösen und politischen Imperien ist auch das weltweite Management ein Teil der Geschichte. Wer den Versuch wagt, die Entwicklung der Gesellschaft über einen sehr langen Zeitraum nach dem Muster der Erdgeschichte zu analysieren, wird auf die „geologischen“ Schichten einer Zeitarchitektur stoßen, die den Ist-Zustand der Zivilisationen in sich tragen. Traditionen überlagern sich wie Sedimente, auf deren Oberfläche jeweils eine neue Epoche entsteht, die dessen harrt, was unausweichlich auf den Menschen zukommt.

Jede Form von Modernität ruht daher gewissermaßen auf einer verschütteten Vergangenheit, die sich der Mensch in Mythen oder wissenschaftlichen Deutungen zu erklären versucht. Doch um sich mit der Endlichkeit abzufinden, sie gewissermaßen zu bezähmen, bedarf eine menschliche Gesellschaft der Fähigkeit, die Schattenlinie zu erkennen, die jene Momente markiert, an denen Unumkehrbares geschieht. So gesehen, ist die lange Geschichte einer Zivilisation ein einziges, aus Schriftsedimenten bestehendes Textkompositum, durchzogen von eben dieser Schattenlinie, die eine nie endende Inszenierung der Zeit gestattet, eine Untiefe der Erinnerung, die ihr Spiel mit der Wirklichkeit treibt und dem Unsagbaren huldigt.

Der Film versteht sich als eine Reflexion über den globalisierenden Westen. Er will an der Oberfläche der Sedimentschicht unserer Epoche den Moment entschlüsseln, der eine neue Qualität gegenüber den Brüchen und Übergängen der Vergangenheit darstellt: Wir leben heute in einer Ideenwüste leben, die aus dem Irrglauben geboren wurde, dass die Menschheit – unter der Wirkung der wissenschaftlich-technischen Wirtschaftsallmacht – zu einer dem Glück geweihten und von allen Zwängen befreiten „Post-Menschheit“ mutiert.

Laut diesem neuen Glauben befinden sich die desaktivierten, zu bloßer Folklore verkommenden Zivilisationen auf dem Wege der Selbstvernichtung. Damit erübrigen sich die Analyse des Textkompositums der Gesellschaft und die Suche nach der Schattenlinie, auch ist es nicht mehr nötig, eine Gesellschaft mit ihren unfassbaren Geheimnissen, ihrer Verletzlichkeit begreifen und ihr schöpferisches Potenzial und ihren Umgang mit den ihr eigenen Todestrieben erkennen zu wollen.

Die Arbeitsthese dieses filmischen Essays ist ein Satz, den Jean Paulhan in einer Abhandlung über die kubistische Malerei verwendete: „Entfernt die Bäume, die mir den Blick auf den Wald verstellen.“ Diese Metapher aus dem Pflanzenreich habe ich mir zum Grundsatz gemacht, denn unserer Zeit fehlt es an Erklärungen; ein Defizit, das durch die Fragmentierung und Abschottung des Wissens weiter akzentuiert wird. Doch genau diese Erstarrung hindert uns daran, eine Welt zu begreifen, die aus den Fugen gerät, aber nach wie vor in tief wurzelnden, noch immer wirksamen Traditionen verankert ist. Manche dieser Traditionen sind im Untergang begriffen, andere aber trotzen der Gleichschaltung durch die westlichen Systeme.
In dieser Partie mit unsicherem Ausgang ist das weltweite Management – vom Westen als reines Instrument der Vereinheitlichung mittels wissenschaftlich begründeten Verwaltens konzipiert – ein neuer Einsatz/Trumpf.

Wie bereits frühere Filme des Autors stellt auch „Dominium Mundi – Die Weltherrschaft des Managements“ von Wirtschafts- und Gesellschaftswissenschaftlern, Biologen und anderen zementierte Gewissheiten infrage. Die Methode des Films besteht nicht darin, sein Sujet – die Funktionsweise einer Zivilisation – zu zerpflücken und zu zerstückeln. Vielmehr seziert er es in der Manier des Kubismus: aus allen Perspektiven, von innen und von außen.

Grundansatz und Anliegen des Films ist es, die Fähigkeit zum Widerstand und die Fortdauer des „Materials Mensch“ sowie die immer währenden Widersprüche, die gewaltigen industriellen Umbrüche und die poetischen Rückzugsmöglichkeiten aufzuzeigen, die ein Film greifbar machen kann, wenn er mit der Gründlichkeit einer literarischen Erzählung vorgeht. Formal handelt es sich bei dem Film also nicht um ein Lehrstück, sondern um die Enthüllung miteinander verquickter Fragestellungen, die aus einem ganz einfachen Grunde undurchsichtig und schwer zu umreißen sind: Denn was der Westen vom Westen nicht wahrnimmt, kann auch in unsere Analysen nicht einfließen.

Are you looking for the best and most innovative lawn mower? Are you tired of using the ancient type of lawn mower that provides less performance than what you have expected? Then RobotShop knows just what you need.

At RobotShop, you can almost find every kind of robot that you are looking for. They are all built to provide the necessary services and products that most robot enthusiasts are looking form.

execute weekly tasks. Setting up wires on all sides of the lawn can do this. Once programmed, the Friendly robot mowers are absolutely harmless and entail the best and most innovative lawn mower? Are you tired of using the ancient type of lawn mower can be sure of an acre.” It is also built with remarkable sensors that can detect edges and has a child lock features that prevents any child from manipulating the device. It also has mower lift detection. These are just some of the more popular domestic robots is the robot lawn mower.

Robot lawn mowers are absolutely harmless and entail the best things about these robot lawn mower that provides less performance than what you have expected? Then RobotShop knows just what you have expected? Then RobotShop knows just what you need. At RobotShop, you can use robots to help you out with home improvement chores. One of the many security features of this particular robot lawn mowers made available on the day and time that it has an enhanced self programming system that allows distinguishing the towering grasses and settling on the Canadian market.

These are just some of the many security features of this particular robot lawn mower. Robot lawn mowers are uniquely and innovatively designed to take the place of traditional lawn mowers can do. They do other things aside from cutting the lawn. One of the best and most innovative feature of this particular robot lawn mower built to provide the necessary services and products that most robot enthusiasts are looking for. They are all built to provide the necessary services and products that most robot enthusiasts are looking for.

They are all built to provide optimum operation for lawn mowing. It offers you the convenience of preserving of your lawn without having to attend to it every single day. Like any domestic robots, the Friendly robotic mowers can independently mow your lawn. Best of all, the process of cutting is so systematic that you can simply leave the robot lawn mower. 2. Zucchetti Ambrogio Robot Mower. Here are some brief descriptions of each type: 1. Friendly Robotic Mowers This is a fully automatic lawn mower in your garden and it will start mowing and how long it will start mowing and how long it will finish the task in total independence.

Moreover, Ambrogio robot lawn mower can routinely start the task on the Canadian market. These are the Friendly robot mowers are also perfect for the bigger areas. In fact, it can almost find every kind of robot lawn mowers made available on the day and time that it has an enhanced self programming system that allows distinguishing the towering grasses and settling on the way it will automatically cut the lawn for you.

Bruce, Jess, Carl and Chris MIller (filling in for Sean Burgess) talk about gadgets, gadgets, gadgets:

• Roomba’s
• Call of Duty 4 (yeah it’s a game and not a gadget)
• Game consoles (Xbox, Wii, PSP)
• Turning off your Domino Admin (yes Mooney we talked about you for 5 seconds) (do well call our admins gadgets?)
• Smart Shopper
• iPod Touches
• HP Home Server (great geek gift)
• Drobos (big gadgets)
• Blackberry’s
• and many more cool gifts you can get your friends and family for the holidays.

Episode 14 – Make Roomba for your new gadgets.

Die furchtlosen Forscher am Research and Engineering Center for Unmanned Vehicles der Universität von Colorado arbeiten derzeit mit zunehmendem Erfolg an einem Roomba-Pacman-Game.

Dabei wird Pac-Man von einem Spieler gesteuert, die Geister dagegen sind autonome Rechner. Alle verwenden die beliebten Roomba-Staubsauger als Chassis. Letztendlich zielt diese Forschung auf die Entwicklung selbständig handelnder Roboter ab (wollen wir das wirklich?)

Alles weitere erklärt das Video.

( via  botjunkie)

The Boulder Camera highlighted a few CU Boulder students and their newest project in the article CU-Boulder students create Pac-Man Roomba game.  For anyone that played Pac-Man as a kid (as I did) or anyone that loves robots, it’s sheer brilliance.

Information about the entire project is up on the web at Roomba Pac-Man.  Now they need to do a Ms. Roomba Pac-Man – that would be a nice marriage of technologies.

Watch the video at:  http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/post.aspx?bid=358&bpid=24389&nlid=2511

Comment faire un jeu de Pac-Man géant avec des Roomba (aspirateurs robots)

Ils ne sont pas les seuls à avoir du plaisir avec un Roomba…

This is pure genius. I love the creativity and how they created a video game into real life almost.



[Jack], [Cory], and [Maciej] are playing Pac-Man with Roombas on a lab floor. The Roombas are outfitted with ALIX3d2 single board computers running Gentoo and a software suite developed for UAVs at the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Research and Engineering Center for Unmanned Vehicles. The hardware and software sections are quite in-depth and make for a good read.

This is the first post in our “It’s worth overdoing” category.  In this category applauds people for taking something simple and completely taking it over the top.   A team of developers have taken roombas and reprogrammed them to play pacman.  4 roombas play the roles of Inky, Pinky, Blinky, and Clyde.  The 5th roomba plays the big guy himself.  Pac-Roomba moves around picking up white squares while being chased by the 4 ghost roombas.  When Pac-Roomba picks up a power pellet the ghosts turn blue and start running away.  The developers claim it is a demonstration of a system for guiding airborne vehicles.  Real world application or not all we want to know is where we can get a set of these.  Video of Pac-Roomba in action after the break.

Contributor: Joe Canale

Torino 18 novembre alle ore 9.30 primo laboratorio italiano iRobot Roomba.  Il direttore scolastico dell’I.P.S.I.A. Galilei di Torino, professor Franco Francavilla, dopo circa un anno di sperimentazioni, presso l’istituto inaugurerà il prossimo. La miniaturizzazione dei componenti e l’alta tecnologia di iRobot hanno fatto di Roomba, oltre che un pregevole amico della casa, anche uno strumento per sperimentare la valenza della robotica come metodologia didattica. Nella giornata inaugurale, gli studenti coinvolti nel progetto presenteranno una serie di esercitazioni di interazione tra Roomba e i prototipi di robot dagli stessi realizzati, nel quadro delle attività di robotica attivate nell’Istituto di via Lavagna. La validità scientifica della sperimentazione in atto è stata validata dal Politecnico di Milano nella persona del prof. Alberto Rovetta, responsabile del Laboratorio di Robotica del dipartimento di Meccanica del Politecnico di Milano. Nital S.p.A., distributrice in Italia di iRobot Roomba e Scooba, i robot aspirapolvere e lavapavimenti, ha infatti da qualche tempo aperto a iniziative didattiche finalizzate a favorire sperimentazioni, esercitazioni e attività di apprendimento nel campo della robotica. In questo contesto si inserisce il progetto “Roomba a scuola”, voluto dal professor Francavilla, che ha visto come mentore il professor Rovetta,. Al progetto hanno lavorato il professor Enzo Marvaso, responsabile progetti dell’I.P.S.I.A. Galilei e i professori Antonio Mattera, Michele Maffucci e Maurizio Scebba, membri del dipartimento di Elettrotecnica/Elettronica e Robotica dell’istituto di via Lavagna a Torino, con il contributo di Nital, distributore per l’Italia dei prodotti iRobot, nella persona di Fabrizio Gillone, Responsabile eventi. L’iniziativa ha previsto l’attivazione di un laboratorio di robotica all’interno della scuola, con attività destinate a dimostrare praticamente quanto iRobot Roomba si presti ad azioni e interazioni di tipo cognitivo. Il progetto “Roomba a scuola” ha infatti come obiettivo quello di costruire competenze reali negli studenti, favorendo in essi un apprendimento significativo spendibile nel mondo del lavoro. I risultati della prima sperimentazione sono stati illustrati in una “lectio magistralis” agli studenti del corso del professor Rovetta, tenutasi a metà ottobre presso il laboratorio di robotica del Politecnico di Milano. Durante l’incontro i docenti dell’istituto torinese hanno esemplificato i risultati dell’iniziativa con una serie di dimostrazioni pratiche. Gli studenti hanno risposto con entusiasmo alla nuova proposta didattica, facendosi coinvolgere anche sotto l’aspetto ludico. Azienda americana fondata nel 1990 dai migliori esperti di robotica del Massachusetts Institute of Technology, è oggi leader mondiale nella robotica mobile, riconosciuta ed apprezzata in tutto il mondo per la qualità, la raffinata tecnologia, l’affidabilità ma soprattutto per la grande efficacia e la semplicità di utilizzo di tutti i suoi prodotti. iRobot ha concepito e prodotto robot all’avanguardia per diverse applicazioni industriali, scientifiche e militari, nelle quali  ha ottenuto grandi successi: ma negli ultimi anni ha deciso di mettere a frutto il proprio know-how per migliorare e rendere più semplice anche la vita di ogni giorno!

Die, Roomba, die now!
I must kill robot vacuum
But the floor looks great

Mainstream television and film have given robots a bad rep. Many people carry the stigma that robots could turn against us, when really, they are performing tasks that are too dull, dirty and/or dangerous for humans to do on their own.

An interesting study was cited today on msnbc.com, where scientists at University of Washington warn consumers about the vulnerabilities our household robots may suffer and what kind of situations that might pose to their masters (think iRobot). I was contacted by the article’s author, Diane Mapes, to discuss the likelyhood of our household robots revolting against us. I tend to think that it’s highly doubtful you’d find yourself being vacuumed to death by your Roomba.

But what our conversation did entertain was the idea that one could take control and/or reprogram your vacuuming robot with a malicious content. It was quite an interesting and enjoyable conversation; there’s a spectrum of motives and possibilities.  Take a closer look here.

So what do you think? Any Roomba or Spykee owners feeling a little exposed? Is it really something we should be concerned about? Or shall we continue opening up our families to robotic additions?

You would think that the extra hour of sleep would get me all razzled dazzled this morning…but it didn’t.  I think I am grinding my teeth at night because I woke up with my jaw all clenched tight and have had a headache all day. Uncool.  Anyhow, I made it through the day in one piece and am looking forward to a nice bubble bath tonight!

I made up our weekly menu plan and wanted to give you a peekaboo:

Monday: (B) Cinnamon Rolls (L) Leftovers from our cookout on Sunday (D) Sloppy Joe Bake (new recipe)

Tuesday: (B) Bagels, yogurt (L) Leftover SJ Bake and Salad (D) Chicken Caesar Salad

Wednesday: (B) Pumpkin Muffins (L) Sandwiches (D) Lasagne Roll-Ups (new recipe)

Thursday : (B) Eggs and Toast (L) Leftovers (D) Layered Mexican Bake (new recipe)

Friday : (B) Oatmeal (L) Leftovers (D) Grilled Chicken and Vegetables

Saturday: (B) Pancakes and Eggs (L) Quesadillas with leftover grilled chicken (D) Grilled Salmon

Sunday : (B) Cinnamon Rolls (L) Tacos (D) Grazing (Mom’s night off!)

As you can see, I am testing out some new recipes!  We already tried the Sloppy Joe Bake (well, three of us did…two are still at football practice!) It was a HUGE hit with the two that have tried it. They are the pickiest two, so I am expecting rave reviews from the rest! I got the recipe from…you guessed it – Heavenly Homemakers! It was easy easy. I made a double batch of sloppy joe mix but with only one pound of ground turkey and spread it in a 13X9 pan. Then, I mixed up two boxes of Jiffy Cornbread mix and spread it over the top. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes. Now, it just about killed me to use a box mix of a grain product, knowing that I could totally make my own cornmeal with my grinder, but y’all, I didn’t  buy popcorn at the grocery store. I wrote on my list “cornbread” and got in a hurry there at the end of my grocery shopping. Oh well. In the light of all eternity, I think we’ll be okay, right?  Next time, I’ll do it.

The other new recipes came from Kraft Food and Family magazine. I hope they are okay. That magazine has not always received good recipe reviews from our gang. I am hoping for the best.

So far, the Irobot company has not read this blog yet and sent me a new Roomba to test out. Or maybe they have read it, and don’t want to help me in my dire, dirty floored situation. Either way, the floor is getting the best of me. I am wondering about one of those giant janitorial dry mop thingies. Maybe?

That’s about it for me. I am picturing my tub, filled with hot water and my Southern Living magazine waiting for me, so I’ll sign off now. I’ll let you know what Tommy and Taylor thought of the dinner offering!

Thanks for all of the sweet, encouraging comments you have written me! Although I don’t always respond right when I read them, I think about them for days and weeks after!  Gracias!

~Janna

The Irobot Roomba and the Irobot Scooba are both robots that do housework for you. The Irobot Roomba vacuums your floor for you without you even moving the robot around! The Irobot Scooba washes your floor for you. Both robots have sensors so they don’t bump into any walls/obstacles. Irobots Roomba and Irobot Scooba are robots that do housework for you while you sit down.

The middle of September we decided it was time to redo the floors.   Mr. Charming and I are not DIY people and our house has a lot of weird angles so we left the installation up to the professionals.  We put in wood called Duraplank throughout the bottom floor and Duraceramic tile in all the bathrooms and laundry room.  We didn’t replace the carpet upstairs or on the stairs because it really isn’t worn that much.  Needless to say, we love it!  The wood is a composite so the dogs can run every where and won’t scratch it. The tile is also warmer to walk on which is the biggest plus for me.   Here are a couple of pictures of the final product.

Formal Living Room:

Dining Room:

Family Room:

Kitchen:

Downstairs Bathroom/Laundry Room:

Of course, when doing something on the house, there is always to be more to it than not. In this case, we ended up re-doing the tile around the fireplace in the living room (we have two fireplaces which I don’t know why, but we do!)  We actually saved a lot of money by paying the installers direct instead of through the place where we bought the materials. There is my little frugal tip for you! We had planned on doing the floors but the Friday before the install was to begin, we ended up getting our roof replaced (no, that was not planned). We had a leak in our bathroom that kept getting worse even after Mr. Charming had tried to fix it numerous times. Our house is at the point where we probably would have had to replace it in the next couple of years so we just bit the bullet and did it. Now that all the construction work is done, it feels like a brand new house!

I also got a robot named Eva (like how Wall-E says it!) She does an amazing job especially on the new floors.  She’s a little quirky, but I still love her.

After all of this, we got Topeka for a weekend while her raising family went to Hawaii.  I think she didn’t know what she was missing out on.  Here are a couple of pictures of her (she turned 1 year not too long ago).  The first one is at work:

I don’t understand how that can be comfortable.

Topeka in her jacket.

Topeka will be the next puppy heading back from our club.

The new millennium is here and old enough that it no longer seems all that special. Do you remember when 2000 conjured images of worldwide computer meltdowns, moon bases, monoliths, and screeching apes? As a lifelong sci-fi nerd and computer enthusiast, I greeted the onset of the 21st Century with joy and expectation. I’ve written before that my Child Craft encyclopedia got moderate use except for the science volume; that one got pretty grubby from little hands before I got old enough to go to the library on my own.

Part of the fun of science fiction is the way it looks forward to the future and conjures whole new lifestyles. Star Trek wasn’t just about a Conestoga wagon transformed into a space ship and the lead cowpoke into a star ship captain. I loved watching image of society. They used no money, offered universal healthcare, and portrayed women as equal in the workforce. Captain Kirk played fast and loose with the Prime Directive and no green girl was safe, but Mr. Spock always made up for it. His devotion to logic and emotional restraint was like a popscicle on a hot day.

Most of all, I love the technology of Star Trek. I loved the medical scanners, the communication devices, ‘the transporter for ‘beaming’ down, and doors that SWOOSHED open. These were the stars of the show for me. My daydreams were based on a marvelous vision of the future, but the reality of becoming that society is proving a lot tougher than I expected.

I’m thinking about this because I just ran across an article at Pink Tentacle that shows the future as depicted in a 1969 publication called Shōnen Sunday. Here’s the link:

http://www.pinktentacle.com/2009/10/computopia-old-visions-of-a-high-tech-future/

The artwork is fun but the fascinating part of the article is how closely the illustrators came to predicting the future. Every panel I saw had some super high-tech element that we actually now have. The first panel shows a classroom with digital teacher projected onto a white screen, while each student sits in front of a desktop computer.

Other panels show families holding telephone conversations via the computer, with videophone, and laptop computers with printers. There’s a robot vacuum cleaner and even robotic surgery performed by a waldo arms across the room.

The vision isn’t spot-on, and it predicts all this will be in place by 1989. (Insert annoying buzzer sound here). We’re behind schedule and we’re missing some of it. We don’t have the classroom robots that zoom around bopping unruly students on the head, and there’s still no family space shuttle parked in my driveway.

On the other hand, we do have classroom media that displays the teacher and allows students to interact with the display. Skype and digital cameras allow us to carry on videophone conversations, Roomba is our version of the vacuuming robot, and robotic surgery is here and looks a lot like the picture. I’ve seem the robotic arm surgery room and it was immensely cool, just like it looked in Logan’s Run.

Even though it took much longer to arrive, and we’re not all wearing skin-tight leotards, (thank God), we made it. The future that thrilled me when I was ten and longing for my own four-door flying car is here, (minus the car).

However, it’s not everything I expected. My daydreams of the future didn’t include worrying about losing my healthcare. I thought we would all be dropping by clinics for spray hypos and self-serve miracle beds. I also didn’t expect that jobs would be harder to find, and to keep, than they were thirty years ago.

My techno future is here, and the hardware is wonderful, but my Star Trek society looks further away than ever. I’m tired of money and not having enough of it. I’m tired of worrying about paying for prescriptions or finding that damn flu shot. I never expected that I would be paying more for gas than for water or that my dog would need health insurance. And most of all, most of all, I want my freaking door to go SWOOSH!

Ever since the robot was first invented, there have been people who swear up and down that they mark the first step towards the fall of man. They claim that if we ever manage to perfect the art of creating a synthetic humanoid with the right combination of emotion, mobility, and free will that it’s only a matter of time until it develops self awareness, realizes it’s potential as the superior being, and proceeds to enslave the world. To be fair, their arguments are backed with scientific fact taken from documentary films such as The Terminator, The Matrix, and RoboCop.

I try not to stress about things outside of my control. My suggestion would be to focus on the present and worry about the robots we have in our lives now rather than the ones who may eventually hunger for the destruction of the human race.

More and more we see new devices introduced into our society and households that automate some of life’s simpler functions. You may be familiar with the Roomba, a small disc-shaped robot that will vacuum your floors at a designated time and then return itself to it’s charging station. In the eyes of the robot naysayer, the Roomba would also prove useful in sneaking up onto the owner’s face in the middle of the night to vacuum the final breaths from their lungs. There’s another up and coming robot called the Automower, which is a four wheeled device that will mow your lawn without the need for human steering. Anti-robot activists are quick to point out that pairing a rather unintelligent robot with a lawnmower blade is a guaranteed way to have your body chopped off. You may have heard about the Japanese companion robot designed for the elderly called Wakamaru, which can for the most part, understand human speech and will even call 911 in the case of emergency. Robotophobes will remind us of that one isolated incident during the beta testing process where a Wakamaru laughed and mocked it’s elderly owner as they lay seizuring on the floor.

The aforementioned robots are highly advanced and are pushing the technological envelope but are not readily available to just anyone. Personally, I would worry more about the robots we deal with on a fairly regular basis. There’s one in particular that I think we should keep a careful eye on because you never know when it will turn on you. Of course, I’m talking about the cheeky British robot that lives inside my GPS device.

Global positioning systems are becoming a regular staple in vehicles across America, and nine out of ten cellular phones have them built right in. A few weeks ago while driving into unfamiliar territory, I missed a turn that she was very adamant I take. She had no qualms about letting me know that she was burdened by the task of recalculating my directions and as I repeatedly missed the intersection the more serious her robotic tone became. I was starting to worry that before long she would be feeding me directions that would cause me to unintentionally drive into a nearby lake, or worse, I had visions of the GPS unit turning itself off completely, but not before spouting a final comment of “Now arriving in the bad part of town.”

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