Author Archives: anachostic - Page 20

Taming the Excess

Posted by on July 12, 2019 No comments

Over a year ago, I had written a review of some CD cases that were gifted to me and I was impressed with the quality.  They’ve been in use ever since I got them.  They were initially for my “overstock”, which were CDs of which I had duplicates or had replaced with better versions.  Essentially, the cases held my sell/trade copies.

Over some time, I’ve been scoring a lot of smooth replacement jewel cases, so I started storing them in with my trade collection as my “supplies” collection.  As you would imagine, the supplies come and go with the growth and management of my collection, but the trade selection just keeps growing.  Part of this is because I feel I have some decent value trades.

Let’s address that irrationality of mine right off.  The value of CDs is nothing.  The value only matters to the few people that collect CDs.  I know this.  Otherwise, the CD pressing has no bearing to a person that just wants to hear More Than A Feeling and Smokin’ by Boston.  Again, I know this.  But, my reluctance to simply take them to the local shop and get $1 or less for these is not because I feel I deserve more money for these unique pressings.  My reason is that I’m holding them for the right owner who wants them.  I’m not going to gouge them for the discs.  The money is less important than having the disc appreciated.  And that, is far more irrational than what you might have thought at the beginning of this paragraph.

But that’s not the point of this post.  The point is that I had run out of space with my supplies and my overstock.  When I received the CD storage boxes, my brief research said they cost $65 each.  Out of consistency’s sake, I searched for more cases of the same make.  I figured there would be some used ones on EBay for cheap.  What I found on EBay were brand new ones, with double the capacity, for $37.  And, if I bought two, the price was discounted to $26!  And they had free shipping!  Well, I guess I’m unexpectedly spending some money today.

So, when these cases come in, my overstock storage capacity will go from 120 to 360.  It just seems to be the next logical step in me becoming “the CD guy” at the local flea market.  That’s sort of been my long-range, expected, retirement plan (for social enrichment, not financial).  How many CDs do you need to have an impressive storefront?  Not quite sure, but I should be there when I’m ready.

It wasn’t buyer’s remorse that set in right away, but I started to get a real suspicion that I had bought cheap knockoffs.  You know, “too good to be true” certainly applies here in the price department.  I began studying the pictures in the listing very closely.  They looked nearly identical to the authentic Vaultz product with two exceptions.  There was no Vaultz nameplate on the ones I bought, and the drawers had adjustable velcro dividers.  Both of these differences seemed like reasonable design changes over a few years, and I couldn’t really find any official Vaultz imagery to prove otherwise.

Then UPS sent me a delivery notification that my package would arrive tomorrow.  It was being sent by… Yahee Technologies.  Oh, there’s that sinking feeling.  I’m already preparing a scathing feedback message for them misrepresenting their product as Vaultz.  And you know, they got me.  Shipping these things back will cost me probably half of what I spent, so I might as well keep them.  I guess the best I can hope for at this point is that the quality isn’t complete shit.  Maybe there’s actual wood construction and not fiberboard.  The aluminum edge protectors look decent and the rubber feet look just like the Vaultz. 

I received the cases and as expected, they are not authentic Vaultz product.  However, they are a very close replica.  The locks are different and a lot of the construction that is wood on a Vaultz is thick fiberboard (again, as expected).  I jumped on EBay to vent about it, but after reading their “please contact us before leaving negative feedback” pleas, I slowed down and thought about the whole situation.

All things considered, these cases aren’t too bad.  They aren’t as flimsy as I expected.  Honestly, they were packed quite well and had no China smell.  To be fair, they were exactly the quality for the price you should expect – not cheap, not premium.  For a replica/knockoff/ripoff, they’re well done.  And I think I can live with them.  So instead of negative feedback, I just chose to leave no feedback.

Is that fair to future purchasers?  I think so, because I don’t think the great majority of people who are buying these cases would be like me, actually looking for additional authentic Vaultz product.  They would have no basis of comparison, as as such, they would be perfectly happy with what they got.  After all, I found the product decent for what I paid, too.

The Next Collector’s Goal

Posted by on July 11, 2019 No comments

It was almost five years ago that I made a concerted effort to collect the entirety of a music label, the MCA Master Series.  The Master Series is a collection of largely instrumental “new age” music from the late 80’s.  For a little while now, I’ve been kicking around the idea of trying this again with another label.  I’m going to make a start on it now.

The label this time is IRS NoSpeak.  It’s another instrumental label from the same time period.  The label considered themselves “anti-new age” in the sense it was much more rock-oriented.  The scope of the collection is much smaller, with MCA having been 40+ releases, this label is only 19 strong.  With the price of CDs being depressed across the board, plus having these CDs never really reaching a large audience outside of individual fan groups, these should be obtainable for a reasonable cost. 

It’s kind of funny that with as much as I shop at thrift stores and get CDs for a buck or two, shopping online is actually a little unreasonable.  When you have to pay $3-4 for shipping on a $3-5 cd, that money can get you a good haul at a thrift store.  But when you want something specific, your chances of finding what you want in a random thrift store are pretty slim, so you gotta pay.

My history with the IRS NoSpeak label is pretty limited, and honestly, I don’t like most of what I already have.  But what I do like, I really like, so I’m hoping that I can find some winners again.  I did find some amazing stuff as I built my MCA collection, so maybe this good fortune will happen again.

The first album I got on the NoSpeak label was their first release, Guitar and Son, which was a guitar-based album.  Every time I hear it, I’m taken back to the days when I’d be playing the CD on repeat, over and over, while reading the monstrous Computer Shopper magazine and dreaming of getting back into computers again.  Those were simpler, happier times.

Maybe when the collection is complete, I’ll do the same as I did with the Master Series and make a set of pages for them here on the blog.  The album artwork is nice, although of a much different style than the Master Series.  It might be suitable for framing. 

Current stats: 6 on hand, 3 on order, 10 remaining.

You All Fail Economics

Posted by on July 1, 2019 No comments

https://www.ibtimes.com/nasa-asteroid-tracker-eyes-giant-golden-asteroid-could-make-all-humans-billionaires-2803286

Have you seen the headlines for this news story?

NASA Asteroid Tracker Eyes Giant Golden Asteroid, Could Make All Humans Billionaires
NASA to explore heavy metal asteroid 16 Psyche that could make everyone rich
Golden Asteroid Could Make Everyone on Earth Wealthy

Who?  Who believes this?  First of all, who thinks that anyone, corporate or government entity, is going to spend the money to capture a distant asteroid, haul it back to Earth, then distribute the asteroid’s contents to all people on the planet, making everyone rich instantly?  Like they will do it out of the kindness of their hearts?  Just trying to make everyone’s life better, you know.

Then there’s the simple economic reality that gets in the way.  Let’s say that this crazy idea is implemented.  Is everyone rich now?  Of course not.  Everyone is exactly where they were before, because all that happened was the floor was raised.  Your net worth increased by two billion dollars – you’re rich, bitch!  But your neighbor’s increased by the same amount.  Are you both rich?  You’re richer than everyone you were richer than before.  Good job!

The sad reality is that the one(s) that will be rich beyond comprehension will be those in possession of the asteroid.  And even then, will they be rich?  Kind of.  Because wealth is really just an illusion.  Maybe you’ve read some fringe articles that express disbelief that our world economy even functions.  How does it function?  It’s all on faith.  We all agree a dollar is worth so much.  What makes it worth that much?  Agreement.  That’s it.

Value is determined by scarcity.  If there is less of something and with the assumption that demand for that something remains equal, the value rises.  If supply increases or demand falls, the value falls.  It’s simple supply and demand equations we all should have learned in school.  Now, take a mega-millionaire like Bezos, Gates, or Zuck.  They are mega rich because they have tons and tons of stock in their respective companies.  Yeah, they’re rich, but what if they wanted it all in cash, right now?  If they sold all their stock, the supply of stock for the company would explode and because it’s not scarce anymore, the value falls.  They aren’t as rich as they are on paper, when they control the supply.

And that’s what would happen to the golden asteroid owner.  They can’t cash all the gold in right away, because the price of gold would plummet.  Even if they dole out the gold over a period of time, it’s still going to affect the quantity available, reducing scarcity, reducing value.  Just like a company owner, it’s a stockpile of wealth that can’t really be utilized directly.

I could go on about this, but my only real point was the stupidity of the headline suggesting that everyone on Earth could be made a billionaire.  While it may technically be true, it doesn’t mean that anyone would be wealthy as a result.

Holding My Ground

Posted by on June 27, 2019 No comments

I got another friendly visit from a Spectrum salesperson.  Wonderful.  This time, when I got the inevitable question about how much I’m paying for what services, I got a response of, “Wow.  You are paying WAYY too much!”  Well, thanks.  It’s always smart to suggest your potential customer is stupid.  When I was asked how long I’ve had Frontier, I said since they arrived in the neighborhood.  She replied, “Well, I guess you’re just really loyal.”  Uh huh. Don’t think I didn’t detect only the tiniest pause before “loyal”, as if she wanted to say something else.  Ok, then.  Let’s play.

Obviously, I’m not going to change my service.  I didn’t last time they came by and this time is no different.  But this rep was motivated.  Unfortunately, when you fail at establishing rapport and you just start to go off the rails, motivation can be a bad thing.

This time, I was prepared, because last time, I didn’t get the opportunity to explain that I wasn’t going to switch from a company that has been good to me for 15 years to a company I have no history with.  I told her so.  Her response was that Charter (Spectrum’s owner) had the highest customer satisfaction ratings.  Let’s check that.  According to BroadbandNow, yes, Charter has higher customer satisfaction than Frontier.

Next she made the claim that you can tell the strength of a company is through their stock price.  Let’s check that, too.  And yes, comparing the stock charts between the two is no contest.  Frontier is sinking like a stone and Charter is shooting upward.  So far, her information is accurate, even if I couldn’t verify it at the time.  But then, things started to turn dark.

Along with the claim that Frontier is fading, she said that Frontier is trying to sell FIOS, because they’re losing money on it.  Checking the news, this is true as well, although maybe overblown.  I was told that Charter had the chance to buy Frontier but they turned it down.  Why?  They’re just going to wait for Frontier to go out of business, then they’ll take the customers for free.  Then I was strangely lectured on the greatness of monopolies and how Charter had complete control over certain nearby towns.  It sounded mildly threatening, and I made the comment, “well, I guess I’m just delaying the inevitable, aren’t I?”

I reiterated that I wasn’t interested in switching until I was given a reason to.  Again, she went back to price.  She brought up that new customers are getting the same thing I’m getting for $30/mo and I’m paying $75/mo.  Well, yeah, it’s an introductory offer.  I know about that.  Obviously, a company can’t afford to always offer their service at that price. 

And as we closed our conversation, I got one last threat.  When Frontier goes out of business and Spectrum is the only service provider, there’s not going to be any special offers or introductory prices, because there won’t be any other options.  Yes, that’s right.  She did say that.  I did get to fire back, “Well, that’s just what a good company would do” and we parted ways.

There’s no shortage of words spent on the evils of monopolies, but I have always imagined that the evil was concentrated at the top of the organization.  I’ve never had the thought that the domination and control mindset extended right down into the culture of the company and reached the front lines where it became a threatening sales tactic.

So, You Want To Work Here

Posted by on June 26, 2019 No comments

My current activity in job seeking has gotten me thinking about the interview process.  It’s something I’ve written about before – in anger – but my recent thoughts have been more antagonistic.  These would be more suited for a prank skit, since you just couldn’t get away with jokes like these in a real situation.

My first idea, which has a slight bit of validity, is to give a coding challenge that has a task to be accomplished, but the results don’t have any bearing on the required task.  For example:

Write a small application that tests a number to see whether or not it is a prime number, then output that number to the screen.  Use values 1 through 50.

The candidate would probably be confused, because as requested, the output would be a list of numbers from 1 to 50, with no indication of whether each is a prime or not.  That’s exactly the point.  Two things would need to be verified: that the output only had numbers 1-50, and that the code to check if the number is a prime does exist.

What this could establish is how the developer deals with odd requests.  Are they going to fight you and say the prime test is irrelevant (which it seems to be)?  Are they going to skip it and output 1-50 and expect that the end justifies the means?  You could learn a lot about an employee this way.  After the arguments, you could say that there is an actual reason for the test, like you have to measure CPU usage in a standardized way and the prime calculation provides that.

The other idea I had was to use a really offensive statement as industry jargon and then act disappointed when the candidate doesn’t seem to understand it.

“Ok, then.  So, do you shave your balls?”

“Excuse me?”

“When you’re done coding, do you shave your balls?”

“I’m not sure I can answer that.”

“Sigh.  When your code is all done and working, you go back and clean up the whitespace and format it all nicely.  You know… shave your balls.”

“Oh.  I do clean my code up afterwards, yes.”

*shakes head and writes down a brief note*  “Very well, then.”

“I’d never heard that term before.”

“I see.  Well, moving on.  When in the coding process would say it’s time to stick a dick in it?”

Female candidates would be especially fun to deal with.

An Unmissed Milestone

Posted by on June 24, 2019 No comments

It was April, 2013 when I hit my first milestone in my car.

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I honestly don’t remember when the second milestone was hit, but I do remember I was kind of upset about it because I missed it.  I have no photographic evidence it happened.  This time around, I wasn’t going to miss it.

And I did not.  I actually took a picture every mile leading up to the rollover.  I won’t bore you with those pictures because they’re moot with the final picture.

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This is kind of a big deal for me, especially since I’ve never owned a car that even got to 200k.  For sure, this is the best car I have ever owned.  I’m starting to get the itch for a different vehicle lately.  Mostly, because the MX-5 is not well suited for long highway drives.  It’s rough and loud, like a sports car should be.  I’ve lived it and enjoyed it for nine years now, but I’m ready to relax a little more.  Not that I’ll be getting rid of the MX-5.  It will still be in the stable for cooler days and evenings.

So in the nine years and 300k miles, what’s been done to the car?  You would imagine as it gets up there in years and miles, some stuff is going to begin failing.  Here’s a list of major repairs I’ve had done.

  • New engine at 75k (my fault for driving into a flooded street).  You might say this invalidates the 300k claim, but it’s still 300k on the body.  And I’ll get back to you at 375k.
  • New starter in 2018
  • New cooling fan in 2019
  • New radiator in 2019 (my fault)
  • 2x AC recharge
  • 2x spark plug changes
  • 2 new MAF sensors
  • New o2 sensor
  • Permanent air filter, cleaned 2x
  • Brakes, rotors, tires, many times over
  • New struts all around
  • New headlight/fog light bulbs
  • New headlight lenses
  • New rear view mirrors (because someone snapped one off, not exactly a mechanical failure)
  • New key (yeah, I wore out the key)
  • On the short list: AC blower fan is near failure

That pretty much all I can recall.  It’s not too bad; all things that you might expect.  I’ve kept up on fluid changes, so things should be pretty good going forward.

The next adventure, when it’s time, is going to be a sportwagon.  It seems after my initial experience with standard vehicles, I prefer the unconventional.

The Mission

Posted by on June 18, 2019 No comments

What are your thoughts when you read a company’s mission statement?  On first blush, it usually reads like bullshit.  It’s usually a bunch of feel-good words with a touch of fake humility and naïve optimism.  Mission statements are an easy target for people who want to attack a company for not fulfilling any promise they may or may not have explicitly made.

Who is the mission statement made for?  Cynics would say it’s for the owners and executives to make them feel like they’re changing the world.  Less cynical people would say it’s for the employees of the company to be inspired and motivated to do their best for the company – working for a higher good.  And then some people think it’s part of the company’s marketing strategy.

I was following a box truck for a company that had that particular viewpoint.  On the back of the truck, covering the entirety of the door, it read.

Our mission is to fulfill the specific needs of each customer by offering quality product, exceptional customer service and exemplifying Jesus Christ in every facet of business and life.

I have many issues with this.  First, I don’t believe a mission statement is a marketing statement.  Can you tell what business they are in?  No?  So, there’s your marketing success.  Then, the statement is so generic, it wouldn’t even inspire an employee or even an owner.  Every company wants to offer the best product and service, right?  Then, there’s the obvious.  You are putting your religious beliefs in your company’s mission statement.  Since there is nothing else differentiating your mission statement from any other company, and you are choosing to use your mission statement as marketing, your business proposition boils down to, “Do business with us because we are Christian.”  That’s about as compelling as saying, “Do business with us because we’re white.”  Oh wait a minute, that doesn’t make my point at all.

My primary point is that this is a dumb use of advertising space on your company vehicle, unless you feel the need to remind your employees of what they are working for every time they close the truck door.  What is their goal?  Be like Jesus.  No pressure, guys, just try to be the son of God while you’re on the clock.  And off the clock, too.  You did notice that little bit in our mission statement, didn’t you?

UberBastards

Posted by on June 17, 2019 No comments

I just got a piece of spam mail, to my Uber email address.  I don’t recall saying I was ok with that.

The email is sketchy as fuck.  A company name of “Opinion Research”?  None of the proper CAN-SPAM hallmarks like indicating what email address this was sent to, or why it was sent.  Only because I use unique addresses for every account, do I know this came from my Uber signup.

image

The survey is run by Qualtrics, which doesn’t mean much, since they’re just a survey platform, like SurveyMonkey.  This company has their own subdomain, opinionresearch.co1.qualtrics.com, so they’re at least somewhat legit (as legit as it looks so far).

As you see in the email screenshot, I did click to unsubscribe, which I thought would bring me to a page asking if I was sure.  It didn’t, it just took me off that list.  and it gave me another link to unsubscribe from all lists.  ALL lists?  How many have I been put on?

It’s really not a big deal.  If I see that my Uber address suddenly gets spammed, I’ll shut it off and create a new one.  But really, the point is, Uber has sold me out.  Those mother fuckers.

Then, I clicked on the privacy policy.  In bold type, in very simple to understand language:

image

No fucking thank you.  Recall what the original email said, “…will not be used to sell you anything.”  However, they will tailor the ads you see to the information you have given to them, then will ask you why they were or were not effective, so they can try harder next time.  What is this world coming to?

As a recent implementer of Pi-Hole (maybe a future post on that), this wouldn’t have worked at all for me anyway because my entire network is actively ad-blocked.  Suck my dick, Opinion Research!

Not A Fan – You Thought I Was Capable

Posted by on June 14, 2019 No comments

If you had read the previous post about issues with my car’s cooling fan, you might have the impression that I had a clue as to what I was doing and everything was going to be awesome.  Well, think again.  If you thought things were pretty ridiculous before, the sequel kicks it up a notch.

To recap quickly, my car was lacking heat, so I got the thermostat replaced, then the car started overheating, which I determined was caused by a large frog stuck in the cooling fan.  Then, the car started overheating again, which I determined was the fan blades separating from the fan motor.  When we left off, I was going to save myself hundred of dollars by installing the fan myself.  Silly me.

To start the task off right, I begin working on the car in the late afternoon on a weekday instead of first thing in the morning on a weekend.  You know, giving yourself a few hours with no backup plan for the next day is the proper way to work.  And I got to disassembling and removing all the pieces involved.  That only took about half an hour, which is reasonable.

What became unreasonable very quickly was how many hoses and wires were secured to the fan assembly and additionally, how little space was gained by removing everything I did.  There simply was not enough space to get the fan out.  Not without removing the front bumper, that is.  And is that what I wanted to start with the sun going down?  No.  So I put everything back together for the night.

One of the pieces that I had to take out was the ECU, which is the brains of the car.  After I got done reassembling everything, I planned to give the car a quick start to reset everything.  The reason for that is when you disconnect the ECU, there is some recalibration that the engine has to do on first startup.  But, for whatever reason, I got distracted and didn’t remember until after it was dark outside.

When I did remember, I tried to start the car and it was dead.  The warning lights were lit up everywhere and the gas gauge didn’t move.  Well, this is a wonderful turn of events.  It’s now dark out, I have to go to bed to go to work tomorrow and I have no working vehicle.  I wondered if I somehow fried the ECU while I was working on it.  If so, that’s the end of this car.  But I can’t think about that now.  I have to get to work tomorrow.

I go online and get a rental car for a week.  The next morning, I use Uber for the first time to get to the rental office.  Days go by and I finally return to the car to find out what’s wrong.  My primary thought was that I reversed the plugs to the ECU and I hoped that didn’t ruin it.  When I dug down into the car and got to the ECU, I discovered you can’t mix up the plugs in any way.  So now what?  I posted a question on a car forum asking for help and the unanimous response was, dead battery or bad battery connections. 

The next day, I pulled the battery and charged it up (from 95% to 100%, so I doubted that was the problem).  When I went to reinstall the battery, I looked at the terminal clamps.  The negative clamp had a thick layer of corrosion around the inside of it.  It wasn’t noticeable from the outside, but clearly it was interfering with the electrical connection.  A quick effort with some sandpaper cleared that up right away and boom, the car started right up.  I’m back in business!

I decide to make the most of my car rental and drive it for the remainder of the week.  Monday, I returned the rental and got back to the house.  I started up my car and headed out to lunch.  A few miles down the road, the engine starts overheating.  Not a problem, I crank the heat and fan like I normally do to cool it down.  But no heat is coming out, and the temperature is climbing very quickly.

I make a quick decision to head back home and since I can’t make it back before the engine would seriously overheat, I stopped in a parking lot to let it cool down.  Since I can’t get any heat from the engine, I make the diagnosis that I introduced some air into the system while I had all the hoses disconnected.  That would prevent the coolant from circulating into the heater core.  Once I got the car home and let it cool, I could “burp” the system and get the air out.

Mid afternoon (again), I start the burping process.  I add some water into the reservoir and begin.  But still, no heat before the engine begins overheating.  I check the reservoir and it’s empty again.  I add more water.  And more water.  Where did all the coolant go?  I hear it gurgling.  Then, with reservation, I look under the car and see where all the coolant is going.  On the ground.

I don’t remember missing any hoses when I was putting everything back together, but I checked anyway to see if there were any loose connections.  There was one.  Except it wasn’t loose, it was snapped off.  Apparently when I was yanking on the fan assembly, trying to get it out, I snapped off one of the connections to the radiator.  The reality hit me like a sack of money.  Now I had to buy a new radiator.  That’s it.  I give up.  I call and reserve another rental car.  Get another Uber ride to get the car.  Then I broke down and called a mechanic to replace the radiator and install the cooling fan. 

Let’s now summarize how much money I saved by doing this work myself.  Initially, I was estimating $700 to have a dealer replace the fan.  I bought a replacement fan for $150.  I was confused by a bad battery connection and spent $300 on a rental car for a week.  The new radiator and install is about $900.  Plus my second rental car, which will be about $150.  Plus towing the car to the mechanic, maybe $50.  It will literally cost me more than twice as much to do this myself.

As it turned out, my insurance’s roadside assistance considers rendering your car inoperable in your own driveway a valid roadside assistance request, so my tow was free.  I got the call from the mechanic the same day that my car was ready, but the rental office was closed, so I just planned to pick it up the next day after work.  The bill was actually less than I was quoted, so I assume they found the radiator cheaper than it was estimated.

I was able to drive all the way to work with no overheating and AC on, so I think it was a successful fix.  The AC is hissing now, so I think I’ll need to pick up a recharge kit and… wait a minute.  $50-some dollars for a recharge kit and the chance for me to ruin something else, or $100 to have a professional recharge it.  I think I’ve finally learned my lesson here.

My Non-Concern For The Coming Robot Apocalypse

Posted by on June 7, 2019 No comments

I’ve heard the warnings.  I’ve read about the myths.  They say a vampire can’t enter your house unless invited, and one would surmise the same would apply to robots.  But I have added a new automatron to my brood, without consulting its natural-born enemies, the cats.  It’s a new Roomba, my future Terminator.

Since I’ve recently replaced all the carpet in my house with laminate, I now have all hard-surface floors, which is a virtual playground for a Roomba.  I’ve considered buying a roboto vacuumo a few times in the past, but, damn, they were expensive.  Now, it seems you can get the older tech pretty cheaply, so I was able to justify the purchase based on the lack of interest I had in cleaning my floors and the amount of stuff that was on the floors.

With two cats, the biggest things I have to deal with are: cat hair, cat litter and the dust that comes with it, and shredded cardboard from their scratchers.  I suppose I shed a lot of hair, too.  But, without kids or dogs, I don’t really have to deal with wet things: puke, slobber, drinks.  So a Roomba to pick up all the dry items blowing around like tumbleweeds is perfect for me.

But, back to the idea of extinction.  I’m certainly not afraid of robots killing us off.  Even watching Boston Dynamics nightmare videos doesn’t do it.  I have no fear because really, robots actually suck pretty bad.  I mean, they work, but they’re in no way autonomous.  It’s also why I will never own a self-driving car in my lifetime.  Autopilot?  Mmmm hmmm.  Sure.

My first experience with the Roomba was when I set up the charging base and set the vac down on it.  It lit up and started charging.  I went off to read the manual and I heard something talking.  The robot was talking to me.  I have no idea what it said, but when I came back, it was blinking a couple of lights at me.  They looked like alert and battery lights.  I assumed it was because the battery was run-out dead and needed to get an initial charge, but an hour later, they were still blinking.  I pushed some buttons and it spoke to me again.  “Charging error 1!”  Ok.  Research says this could mean a failed battery or a poorly-seated battery.  I took the vac apart – and to iRobot’s credit, this is extremely easy – and pulled the battery and reseated it.  The Roomba was now charging.

My next experience was when it was on its maiden voyage around the house.  I was satisfied with how it was behaving and the cats were generally spooked by the same.  I went out to dinner and in line for my food, I get a message on my phone. “Clean roller brush!”  Yeah, this vacuum can complain to me remotely.  How wonderful.  Since I’m away from the house, I am unable to serve my robot’s demands and have to wait until I get home.  I find that the little death machine has sucked up a washcloth and became inoperable.  I’m so worried for my life.

The last experience of the night was when I was winding down for bed and the Roomba was wandering around under the watchful eye of the little cat.  I heard it bumping into things over and over and over.  I looked across the house to see it had gone into the bathroom and shut the door, trapping itself in the room.  I’m sure the floor is pretty clean in there now, but again, I’m not worried that robots are going to figure out every potential way a door can be blocked in order to get through.

And that’s my first night with my new Roomba, the T-671.