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Attack of the Floor-Cleaning Robot!
Dec. 9th, 2008 11:21 pmThe Governor of Illinois got arrested. It's so cute that the NYT describes Illinois as 'stunned'. That may be how the papers are playing it, but at street level, it's really more like 'sigh and roll their eyes'. East coast people never really do understand the midwest attitude toward governmental corruption. I recall once, near the end of the Clinton administration, when I was in New Jersey, having a conversation with one of the locals where I was explaining that yes, Bill would steal anything that wasn't nailed down, but of course you had to expect that from an ex-governor. He didn't see it that way.
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I bought my mom a robot. It's a Roomba 416, that cleans the floors. I was worried that she might be resistant to the idea, but that was really kind of stupid of me. As soon as it was set up, she was looking through the catalogue, deciding what accessories she was going to buy, and speculating about installing a charging station in the corner of the living room. If there are nine simple, time-honoured ways of doing something, and one that involves amazing new gadgets, that's the one she'll go with. The fact that the robot actually works (and works well) is just sort of frosting on the cake of novelty.
My mom was born in 1942, when robots were quite en vogue in the popular imagination (a result of Elektro the Robot from the '39 World's Fair), but not really anything that anyone expected to own. For most of her life, having a robot sweep the floor was something one might joke or idly fantasize about. Now she's got one. I think that impresses me more than it does her, actually.
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In a way, it's kind of depressing. I have computers, lasers and robots, yet I'm no closer to World Conquest than before...
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I may get her the gutter-cleaning robot when the weather warms up. It's a little cylinder with caterpillar treads that runs along the rain gutters, scooping out leaves and crud and tossing it over the side.
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The sweeping robot looks sort of like a stylized Trilobite, which I find appealing. I like the idea of a big Trilobite wandering about the floor, scavenging up all the dust and crumbs.
*****
I bought my mom a robot. It's a Roomba 416, that cleans the floors. I was worried that she might be resistant to the idea, but that was really kind of stupid of me. As soon as it was set up, she was looking through the catalogue, deciding what accessories she was going to buy, and speculating about installing a charging station in the corner of the living room. If there are nine simple, time-honoured ways of doing something, and one that involves amazing new gadgets, that's the one she'll go with. The fact that the robot actually works (and works well) is just sort of frosting on the cake of novelty.
My mom was born in 1942, when robots were quite en vogue in the popular imagination (a result of Elektro the Robot from the '39 World's Fair), but not really anything that anyone expected to own. For most of her life, having a robot sweep the floor was something one might joke or idly fantasize about. Now she's got one. I think that impresses me more than it does her, actually.
*****
In a way, it's kind of depressing. I have computers, lasers and robots, yet I'm no closer to World Conquest than before...
*****
I may get her the gutter-cleaning robot when the weather warms up. It's a little cylinder with caterpillar treads that runs along the rain gutters, scooping out leaves and crud and tossing it over the side.
*****
The sweeping robot looks sort of like a stylized Trilobite, which I find appealing. I like the idea of a big Trilobite wandering about the floor, scavenging up all the dust and crumbs.
