Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: capt. apathy on February 18, 2005, 06:35:03 AM

Title: my mother and technology
Post by: capt. apathy on February 18, 2005, 06:35:03 AM

I think I've found something to make my mother feel the advancements in technology are finally worth while.

a couple weeks ago I bought her a rumba discovery from iROBOT.  she was as happy as a little kid at Christmas, I don't think I've ever seen her that happy over a gift.

from her point of view someone has finally found a practical use for computers/robots, they built one to clean her house.

(http://www.totalvac.com/store/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=totalvac&Product_Code=4210)

Title: my mother and technology
Post by: Saintaw on February 18, 2005, 07:08:38 AM

Cool, I was looking for something for my Mum, thx for this tip!

My mum's a lawyer, the only use she has with her PC, is the monitor... that's where she glues her 500 post-its...

It runs in the family,  I built my Dad's PC two years ago, when he can't "reach his hotmail" he'll call me immediatly to fix it. Never mind that he's in Japan and it's 4 AM for me ... ;)

My sister is a Mac user... enough said.

Title: my mother and technology
Post by: capt. apathy on February 18, 2005, 07:56:43 AM

it won't replace the main vacuum, but you can run it more often a spread out the regular vacuuming a bit.

the main reason I picked the discovery model is the remote for it.  now I don't have to worry about a call from her being injured trying to move beds to vacuum under them (which she does a couple times a week).  now she just uses the remote to drive it under the bed and chooses the spot clean setting (it just goes in an expanding spiral in this setting).  it even has an optical dirt sensor, so if it hits a patch with too much dirt for one pass it starts beeping a bit and a little blue light flashing as it takes a U-turn and keeps vacuuming that area until it's clean.  when the battery gets low or the room is clean it then locates it's base station and returns to recharge.

it won't fall down stairs, and it comes with a couple 'virtual walls'  that provide a barrier to keep it out of areas where it could get broke or tip over fragile things and break them.

there's another brand that goes for about $1,300, that has some nice features.  it also does the return to docking station but it's docking station also has a large vacuum built in so it empties the robots dustbin @ the base station.  it has enough power to do deep shag as well. and you can program it to 'remember' the layout and clean different rooms on schedule ( you have to tell the IRobot version to begin, either with the buttons on the unit or the remote).  with the self emptying and charging, you could set it up and it would keep the vacuuming done while you are away.  it's a bit bigger than the iRobot model so can't go under as tight of an area but it does have a few limit switches mounted on top so instead of getting stuck it just runs in revers for a few feet and sets a new heading if the switches are tripped.  a lot of cool additional features but $1,300 for a vacuum is a bit steep for me.

the iRobot rumba discovery is only about $230.  I got a bit better deal than that on my moms.  I ran into a guy carrying one into a pawnshop and gave him $50 for it, still brand new with all the paperwork and just missing the box.

it won't do deep shag, and cords on the ground and fringe on throw-rugs mess it up a bit too

btw- if you're one of those people who has to have all of the vacuum tracks lined up parallel in the carpet, you won't like this machine.

Title: my mother and technology
Post by: Nilsen on February 18, 2005, 08:20:00 AM

Quote

Originally posted by Saintaw
My sister is a Mac user... enough said.

no no, please elaborate!

Title: my mother and technology
Post by: Saintaw on February 18, 2005, 08:30:25 AM

She died her hair blonde, and often wears a hat...  ;)

Title: my mother and technology
Post by: Nilsen on February 18, 2005, 08:36:48 AM

lol...

mac user you say... what an intelligent young woman! :)

Title: my mother and technology
Post by: Saintaw on February 18, 2005, 08:56:26 AM

:mad: :mad: :mad: DUDE... you tryin to hit on my sis' or sumethin' ???


;)

Must be a 'scientist' thing... she studies Physics. My ex wife is also a Mac user... and she's a statistician(sp?).

I could never get used to that sily yo-yo... or whatever they dare to call a mouse.

Title: my mother and technology
Post by: Nilsen on February 18, 2005, 09:01:30 AM

then use any other mouse... :)

Title: my mother and technology
Post by: boxboy28 on February 18, 2005, 09:05:14 AM

wait till she trips on it and breaks a hip!

:rolleyes:

Title: my mother and technology
Post by: BUG_EAF322 on February 18, 2005, 09:19:29 AM

Remind me of my dad he used to maintenance aircraft.

Get a turbine engine repaired etc.

But he just doesn't learn his PC

Even a simple mail is to much

sigh

Title: my mother and technology
Post by: Charon on February 18, 2005, 09:35:09 AM

Get one of those and a "Real Doll" and a guy is pretty much set :)


Charon

Title: my mother and technology
Post by: Furball on February 18, 2005, 11:03:02 AM

Quote

Originally posted by Saintaw
She died her hair blonde, and often wears a hat...  ;)

YOUR SISTER IS NILSEN!?!

Title: my mother and technology
Post by: Lizking on February 18, 2005, 11:15:58 AM

I use the Roomba in my office, which is 11x10 hardwood floor, with nothing except my chair to get in the way-it works great.  It didn't work well in any other room in the house though.

Title: my mother and technology
Post by: Nilsen on February 18, 2005, 11:40:16 AM

Quote

Originally posted by Furball
YOUR SISTER IS NILSEN!?!

only in your wet dreams furby!