Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] Holiday Geek Game Review...

["Jonathan King" <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On 1/1/07, Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED> wrote:
> On Mon, 1 Jan 2007, Pawel Slusarz wrote:
>
> > Does Roomba count as a geeky present?
> >
> > I can't offer an honest review yet, since I have my in-laws in town, and
> > the floors are just too clean to give the robot a fair chance at doing
> > its job.
>
> Doesn't it move randomly around the room?  So won't it spend a lot of time
> cleaning parts that are already clean and won't it miss some dirt?  I
> thought it looked like fun, but they want $200-$300 for the thing!

Well, that's cheaper than a PS3, plus it actually cleans your rugs. :-)

In any case, that does count as a geeky present. As far as coverage
goes, I'm guessing I go over every spot at least twice when I vacuum
(back and forth), and it's an empirical question of programming
whether the roomba can efficiently achieve 2x or 3x coverage of the
carpet by its (nearly) random sweeps. A really smart roomba would
remember where it found the dirt, and therefore spend most of its time
near the couch where you drop your chip crumbs, but I don't know if
we're quite there yet.

Speaking of fun toys, my son got an AIPtek MPVR for Christmas (he
wanted to make his own movies, and these were on sale for really
cheap). The MPVR plus $15 worth of SD card is a total blast, even if
you're not sure you really want your geeky eleven year old making a
documentary of your life. The one annoyance is that the movies are in
.asf format only, but I guess that's why we have FFmpeg.

jking

_______________________________________________
discussion mailing list
EMAIL:PROTECTED
http://mlug.missouri.edu/mailman/listinfo/discussion