Ode to My Roomba

I recently brought a Roomba Discovery robotic vacuum cleaner off eBay. I was looking for a new toy to play with, and heck, for $150, I just couldn't resist. I've been running this thing continiously for the past day and I've become quite attached to it.



Roomba just randomly moves around the floor picking up whatever crap it finds. It's kind of like a cat, but instead of shedding hair everywhere, it picks up dirt and leaves my carpet happy and clean.

Apparently you can hack Roomba. iRobot, Roomba's maker, will soon release an API that you can use to create random Roomba accessories--including attaching a digital camera (so you can photograph all the crap your vacuum is sucking in).

Either way, digital camera or without, I hopefully won't find myself in the nasty situation where I haven't vacuumed for 6 weeks anymore. All I need to do is to press a button, and voila!, Roomba chuggs along and automates my cleaning.

The gadget gods are smiling today.