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eorAs I posted earlier, my mom gave us a Roomba for Christmas.
First off, it's neat. The people who wrote the software for this thing knew what they were doing. It can get into, and more importantly out of, places you'd never imagine possible. It's movement seems like a combination of the standard "follow the rightmost wall" and "turn at random and run in a straight line until you hit something". It doesn't seem to remember obstacles. If you move something it will probably end up cleaning where it was. For geeks it's major neato.
And it does it job. Somehow its drunkard's walk is very effective. It gets into corners I didn't think it could handle and while you're busy thinking it's taken the same path three times it's cleaning the floor.
So why would I be anything but a cheerleader for Roomba? Primarily because I'm philosophically opposed to it.
It does the equivalent cleaning of a human with a broom, a dustpan, a mop, and a bucket. The broom that I have is in excess of five years old and still quite serviceable. My mop handle is more than a decade old and will probably last another decade. A mop sponge lasts me close to a year and doesn't take much space in the landfill. The bucket and dustpan are both plastic and will probably outlive me.
In contrast, the Roomba uses electricity which in today's world means non-renewable resources. Among it's consumables are a filter, which is a little paper surrounded by an excess of plastic, and brushes, also plastic. The battery is hopefully a longer term consumable, but will create a toxic addition to a landfill in two years at best. The Roomba design, although clever, is also bad. It thunks head first into everything. Thunk, whir, thunk, whir. Watch it do this for an hour and it's hard to conclude it will last as long as a new car warranty. That means in five years you've got a hunk of plastic and hard to reclaim electronics headed for the landfill with a belly full of battery acid.
Add it up and the Roomba is an completely inappropriate replacement for the broom and mop.
It's cute. It makes fun noises. It cleans the floor while I sit on my ass getting fatter. It does a damn good job at it too. It is evil and it is wrong.
First off, it's neat. The people who wrote the software for this thing knew what they were doing. It can get into, and more importantly out of, places you'd never imagine possible. It's movement seems like a combination of the standard "follow the rightmost wall" and "turn at random and run in a straight line until you hit something". It doesn't seem to remember obstacles. If you move something it will probably end up cleaning where it was. For geeks it's major neato.
And it does it job. Somehow its drunkard's walk is very effective. It gets into corners I didn't think it could handle and while you're busy thinking it's taken the same path three times it's cleaning the floor.
So why would I be anything but a cheerleader for Roomba? Primarily because I'm philosophically opposed to it.
It does the equivalent cleaning of a human with a broom, a dustpan, a mop, and a bucket. The broom that I have is in excess of five years old and still quite serviceable. My mop handle is more than a decade old and will probably last another decade. A mop sponge lasts me close to a year and doesn't take much space in the landfill. The bucket and dustpan are both plastic and will probably outlive me.
In contrast, the Roomba uses electricity which in today's world means non-renewable resources. Among it's consumables are a filter, which is a little paper surrounded by an excess of plastic, and brushes, also plastic. The battery is hopefully a longer term consumable, but will create a toxic addition to a landfill in two years at best. The Roomba design, although clever, is also bad. It thunks head first into everything. Thunk, whir, thunk, whir. Watch it do this for an hour and it's hard to conclude it will last as long as a new car warranty. That means in five years you've got a hunk of plastic and hard to reclaim electronics headed for the landfill with a belly full of battery acid.
Add it up and the Roomba is an completely inappropriate replacement for the broom and mop.
It's cute. It makes fun noises. It cleans the floor while I sit on my ass getting fatter. It does a damn good job at it too. It is evil and it is wrong.
