Yesterday, the New York Times ran with a look at the state of the art in robotic soldiers. If The Matrix made you paranoid about destructive machines taking over the Earth, you'll want to check it out. But it was also timely for me on two personal fronts:
One, a college girlfriend of mine from ten years ago in Ohio and I both wound up in the Los Angeles area and recently got back in touch. She's now employed as an aerospace engineer by Boeing's Future Combat Systems division, mentioned prominently in the article. Pretty neat.
Second, the article mentions iRobot's entries into both the military and commercial spheres. As coincidence would have it, I just picked up their flagship commercial product last night at Fry's: the Roomba Discovery. I'd been curious about the Roomba since the original's introduction, and intrigued when I read a vacuum-cleaner roundup in Slate:
I loved this adorable droid, despite its flaws. The navigation program is good, and in the two rooms I tried it in, the Roomba didn't miss a spot. I kept thinking, "No way you're getting under that desk chair, little dude!" and yet it always did.
The talk around the flush-with-cash-but-too-lazy-to-vacuum set last year was that a new model, the Discovery, addressed the problems most people had with the first generation, as borne out by the customer reviews on Amazon. My alpha-geek uncle got one for my aunt this Christmas, and it was the hit of extended family Christmas Eve gathering (the vacuum and the dog chased each other around the living room). So last night, I broke through the vacuum choice paralysis that had held me back for years, bought the Roomba, and charged it up. My thoughts on it after its first run tonight.
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