While the day had its challenges – we all had cabin fever, Kelly and Hallie on the mend from colds/flu – there were some highlights. We made a fresh loaf of bread this morning and then went to Durant Nature Park to shake the cabin fever stuff. The kids rode their bikes to and from the park and we hiked all the way around the lower lake, marveling at the telephone pole-sized tree trunks the beavers have been sawing through.
I was also thrilled when the Fedex guy brought us our newest addition to the family: a Roomba Discovery. A coworker had alerted me to reconditioned Roombas being sold on Woot that afternoon, so I jumped on it. A hundred bucks plus shipping later and it arrived – quickly, I might add.
The Roomba is a robot vacuum (for those that aren’t familiar with it) and it feels its way around the room as it cleans. Does a decent job, I might add. Kelly had already run our standup vacuum around the house before I dispatched the Rhoomba to clean. To my surprise, Rhoomba still acquired an impressive amount of hair and dust in its robot belly.
What I like the most is the sticker I found on the Roomba’s shrinkwrap. It says that the Roomba’s manufacturer, iRobot, actually encourages its customers to hack the Roomba. Yes, iRobot actually empowers its user community to help make its products better. How cool is that?
Apple certainly doesn’t do that. Cisco doesn’t do that. Cisco’s Linksys subsidiary, makers of the Linux-based WRT54G, doesn’t do that. I can’t name any other company that extends such an open invitation to its user community. iRobot embraces its customers like few others and as a result those customers have become quite loyal. They’ve even responded to this creativity with a robot kit made just for hackers. Impressive in this day and age.
I’m a long way away from teaching our Roomba new tricks but I do look forward someday to delving into the world of robotics while simultaneously keeping the floors clean.