Saturday, December 30, 2006

Roomba Review



For Christmas this year, Santa brought our family an iRobot Roomba vacuum cleaner. It's small, red, and we named him "Rusty".

Roomba Review Summary
We charged him up and set him on the task - vacuum our small but dusty apartment. It took about an hour to make it through about 1000 square feet, and I have to say it did pretty good job for such a small machine, that only cost about $150.

Roomba Review Problems
The Roomba isn't perfect. Mine got stuck in two spots and was unable to recover, eventually shutting itself off and issuing a distress call (think unhappy robot sound). One spot was admittedly challenging - half on the rug, half off, under a table, with a power cord to get tangled in. The other spot has to be more common, simply under the couch sofa, where is got stuck by the flap.

Another issue is the Roomba's ability to figure out its way from a "trap". In my case, the trap was a dining room table chair, where the Roomba found itself unable to find its way out for approximately two minutes. I was so impressed when the Roomba finally made its way out from under the chair, only to be disappointed when less than 15 seconds later it went right back in. Again it took over two minutes to find its way out again. It repeated this process one more time before I intervened and set it on an entirely new course.

This really surprised me, as I expected that the design team, working with a limited supply of battery power would pull out all the stops to prevent wasted energy, like in the case of the "chair trap".

Roomba Review Benefits
I recommend the Roomba. It is inexpensive, small, lightweight, and automated. Therefore, the convenience factor is high, and the storage requirement is low. Any consumer product that has a positive return on investment (ROI), is gets a positive review in my opinion.


Do you own a Roomba? If so, I'd love to hear about your experiences with it.

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Staples Coupon a bit late


I got my Staples business card statement in the mail today, and it includeed a coupon expiring on December 23, 2006. Seeing how today is the 26th, the coupon has already been expired for 3 days. Way to go Staples! It is extra funny seeing how the coupon is for shipping!

Monday, December 25, 2006

CompUSA's Future



What do you think about the future for CompUSA? With tough competition from online tech retailers like Newegg, and brick and mortars like BestBuy, its difficult for me to expect a bright future for the computer retailer. We reported on CompUSA closing 15 stores months ago, but since then I haven't heard much.

Last Minute Shopping

This holiday season has a perfect setup for an increase in last minute shopping sales. With Christmas falling on a Monday, shoppers had an entire weekend to hit the malls in search of the perfect gifts.

Thankfully I had my shopping done early, but in a last second purchase I bought "Glengary Glenross" on DVD from Amazon.

For more information on this holiday season's sales figures, check out this article from the International Herald Tribune.

Friday, December 22, 2006

Last Minute Shoppers

Besides a minivan driving into a mall, a car crashing into a party store, and a few Xmas robberies (some break and entries, some smash and grabs), this Christmas shopping season has been fairly problem free. With just a few days left before the big day, what are you scrambling to get?

Friday, December 08, 2006

BJs new commercials RULE!

Have you seen the new BJs commercials? Like them? I do! They rule. They have some crazy actors and actresses acting zany to "I can't fight this feeling anymore..." by REO Speedwagon. I definitely like this commercial better than the Citi Victor commerials...

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Goods for Cash


Heheh, I just found this old picture I drew years ago. I've always gotten a kick out of it and I hope you do too. I'm pleased this uses the word "wicked", which corresponds with this blog post about Victor the new Citibank spokesperson.

Monday, December 04, 2006

Salem Five's Retail Bank Branch in Boston

I went into Salem Five's branch in Boston late last week to make a deposit, and while the parking was no fun, the branch itself was quite nice. Its near Post Office Square which is a very nice part of town, so its busy.

Check out Informed Banking's Salem Five Bank page for more information about my experience with the bank.

100th Post

Here's my 100th post on Are You Going To Buy That Blog!

Bloggers I'm connected with

Here's a list of blogs and bloggers I'm somehow connected with:

Gary Hedrick
All Eyes On Jenny
Telecom Rebirth
Docunext Blog

What do you think?