I'm laughing. We have cats and a Sheltie and my husband routinely says, "Look girls -- Mommy is making a new cat!" when I'm sweeping ... or using the shop-vac. Julie Krueger ========Original Message======== Subj: [lit-ideas] Re: Hmmm... all hype? Date: 2/11/2007 5:52:04 P.M. Central Standard Time From: _john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxxx (mailto:john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx) To: _lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (mailto:lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx) Sent on: Julie, The McCreerys have been the proud owners and users of a Roomba for it must be going on two years. We have been quite happy with the little beast. It does not replace the need for occasional manual cleaning of corners but does a nice job of keeping the floor of our small, open plan apartment clean. It was particularly useful before our Persian cats died, an easy way to keep ourselves from getting ankle-deep in fur during shedding season. It is, by the way, amusing to watch in operation. The algorithm that controls its motions begins with a random search to work out the dimensions of the space it is cleaning, so it starts out like Mr. Magoo, shooting off in odd directions, bumping its nose into things, from which it recoils like a sentient billiard ball, spinning and zooming off until it runs into something else. John On 2/12/07, JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxx <JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxx> wrote: > > > http://cgi.ebay.com/Roomba-iRobot-Discovery-4310-BRAND-NEW-IN-BOX-4210_W0QQitemZ190081082758QQihZ009QQcategoryZ124101QQtcZphotoQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem > > Just curious to know if anyone out there has attempted to use one of these > things and if it's as totally worthless as I imagine it to be. > > Julie Krueger > wanting to hang up the vacuum and mop.... -- John McCreery The Word Works, Ltd., Yokohama, JAPAN Tel. +81-45-314-9324 http://www.wordworks.jp/ ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html