Hey everybody! Long time, only occasionally see. I’ve been busy with life stuff and have only been able to pop in a couple of times a week.
I know the site is always hungry for content, so I figured I’d share the story of the dirt cheap robot vacuum I bought off ebay.
I’ve always been interested in robot vacuums since I was first introduced to them in college. My capstone project for my engineering degree involved coupling an Xbox Kinect to a Rooma via a microcontroller on a custom PCB. I wrote the navigation algorithm for the device, an algorithm that was probably more sophisticated than most of the robot vacuums have in them today. Unfortunately, that isn’t saying much.
I am now the somewhat happy owner of three robot vacuums, all bought at some level of discount, all some level of disappointment. The third vacuum is the one with the most potential, and is the focus of the article. However, the back story will explain why I own three robot vacuums.
The first one I got was a clearance refurbished Roomba 860 a little over a year ago. This is a base model Roomba, equipped with little more than a vacuum motor and a pair of wheels. The “deal” price of $179 I paid for a refurb was okay at the time, but you can get a new one for $150 now, and it’s hardly even worth that. Not the best deal I’ve ever made.
One thing I learned quickly about robot vacuums is that the way they differentiate between models is how much they cripple the software. There are hardware differences, too, but often the main difference is the navigation algorithm. For the 860, affectionately named “Mister” by my then 4 year old, the navigation algorithm was essentially random. Drive off the dock, point in a direction, and go. When you hit a wall, turn a different direction and go.
As you can imagine, this method of cleaning is, erm, less than ideal. The dirty little secret is that robot vacuums, especially the base model ones, are designed for Swedish studio apartments. A 500 square foot apartment with a bed and a dresser and two chairs is right in this robot’s wheelhouse. A 2200 square foot house filled with nooks and crannies and a zillion toys is not.
It was obvious that Mister was a bit over matched by our house. Mister would hit the same area 5 times and never hit another area. The extremities of the house were never vacuumed. He tended to get lost and die under a bed or behind a chair rather than making it back home to his charging dock. This first experience was disappointing because I knew it could be done so much better. He was retired 3 months later to be replaced by <del>Snowball III</del> a Roomba 960 we affectionately called… you guessed it… Mister. The original Mister will eventually go under the scalpel and receive some upgrades that are TBD. I need an electronics workbench before I start doing brain surgery on that particular robot.
The Roomba 960 was an immediate step up in quality, and at $228 for a refurb, it was getting into that “okay this is coming out of the hobby budget” territory. You can get them for $250 refurbished today, so this deal is holding up a bit better than the first one.
Mister 2 is much closer to what we need, and therein lies the problem. Mister 2 makes neat little rows and maps out the house to get every nook and cranny, but the software is crippled in frustrating ways. Yeah, I can see the map it makes, but I can’t exclude it from the workout room where it always wedges itself under the bench or that one dresser with a scalloped front edge that it gets stuck on. There’s no way to tell it to go clean the entryway after a kid walks in with grass all over their shoes or to hit that spot where the crackers spill. You can’t program it to vacuum the living room on Saturday and the kitchen in Tuesday. It’s binary. On or off. It also has a tiny dust bin that is usually full after 2/3 of a run. It’ll keep going, but becomes less effective when the bin is full.
Anyway, being somewhat disappointed with the functionality of Mister 2, I decided to do some research and I settled on a new target for upgrade. The problem was that we were getting into some serious money. The two options were the Roomba i7 and the Shark AI. The i7 is $750 new and the AI is $540 new. Both are absurd prices for vacuum cleaners, no matter how fancy they are.
I chose to go with the Shark. The Roomba had too many unnecessary features, and I’m a bit annoyed with iRobot for crippling their software so thoroughly on their mid-range robots.
I found a listing on eBay for a Shark AI with a cracked base that “just needs a handyman to epoxy the charging contacts back in” and gave an offer of $185. Seller countered with $200 and I took it. He had free returns, so I’d just send it back if it was more damaged than he said.
Turns out it was.
This thing must’ve fallen off the back of a truck or something, because the base was really jacked up, and the vacuum itself had some damage and some evidence that somebody had tried to repair it. However, I was able to test it out and figure out that the vacuum was in okay shape minus a pesky error with the dust bin (which could be replaced if need be). The base wasn’t salvageable. I initiated a return because it wasn’t as advertised.
To my surprise, the seller countered with a partial refund of $100. I accepted in a second flat. I was now the proud owner of a really messed up $550 robot vacuum, and I only had $100 in it. A quick perusal of ebay again found a refurbished replacement base for $65. Now, this wasn’t factory refurbished, and that part becomes relevant in a moment.
Once I received the replacement base, I plugged it in and confirmed basic operations. It charges the vacuum fine, and it sucks out the vacuum’s dust bin just fine. However, that pesky dust bin error was still happening, and the base’s dust bin was also acting up, as it had gotten stuck in the base. Tackling the second problem first, I took a screwdriver to the base, trying to pry the dust bin out without destroying the plastic of the base itself. I eventually got the dust bin loose and the rattling noise of a component made the problem obvious. There are top and bottom retaining tabs that are supposed to retract together when you push the release. The rattling component is the piece that causes the bottom tab to retract. Thankfully, I had a second base that was completely screwed up except for the dust bin. A simple swap later, and I had a perfectly working base.
The vacuum’s dust bin issue was a bit more tricky. There is a rectangular port near the bottom of the back of the dust bin where it hooks up to the base for extracting the dirt. There’s a little flap inside that opens up when it plugs into the base, and I noticed it wasnt closing back up when it was supposed to. Manually pushing it shut fixed the error, but that wasn’t a solution. Thankfully, the problem was glaring, and the solution simple. Rather than a rectangle, the bottom edge of that opening had been caved in, impeding the operation. Of that door. One pair of channel lock pliers and about 20 seconds of prying later, it was rectangular again, and the door opened and closed with ease. If it ever causes an issue, a new dust bin is $40 or so. As of right now, the error is fixed and the robot runs properly. Sharky Mister, as the 5 year old calls it, is roaming the house, doing what it does best. Mister 2 will eventually be used again when we buy a multi-story house.
I got a bit lucky with the purchases I made, but it shows that you can get a pretty dang good deal on robot vacuums if you shop eBay. I had written ebay off as too risky in the past, but this project has given me some confidence in that site. I was able to get a $550 vacuum (with a few cosmetic dents and scratches) for $165.
Have any of you gotten good “some assembly required” deals on ebay?
What is this word “vacuum,” please?
An area of extreme low air pressure.
A utensil I haven’t used since my kitties went to heaven a couple years ago and I decided the floor sweeper was “good enough”.
What is this word “vacuum,” please?
It’s one of the Holy Sacraments of Wifedom, along with cooking, laundry, cheerfulness, quietude, and eagerness for sexyfuntime.
Oh huh. I fail on almost all counts. Does that make me not a wife?
And I check off most of those boxes myself.
/Looks around room shiftily
How you doin’?
I…
*thinks*
#metoo
And better taste in cartoons? Sorry, tok, I rescind my previous comment.
Nature abhors a vacuum, and I am a natural woman.
Well… except for the hair color… and the eye makeup…
Relevant.
That title always reminds me of this (even better, IMO) song with the same phrase in the refrain: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Yil2a8vAGcg
Nice!
By the way, I am enjoying The Unthanks. Ibought the whole album that “Magpie” came from. I love it when the whole album is gems.
👍🎶
Neither of you thought of this?
Or this??
Well… except for the hair color…
So the carpet doesn’t match the drapes?
Sounds like more trouble than forcing an orphan to do the vacuuming.
I have a kept husband for the household chores.
There are some perks to being the young and employed member of the house. I’m not even sure how to operate the washer and dryer.
Mister 2 makes neat little rows and maps out the house to get every nook and cranny, but the software is crippled in frustrating ways. Yeah, I can see the map it makes, but I can’t exclude it from the workout room where it always wedges itself under the bench or that one dresser with a scalloped front edge that it gets stuck on.
Some robot vacuums come with magnetic strips you can lay down across a doorway that supposedly trigger the robot to turn around instead of going into said room.
https://www.amazon.com/Housmile-Boundary-Magnetic-Compatible-Alternative/dp/B08K8D6GQN/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?keywords=magnetic+strips+for+robot+vacuum&qid=1662480620&sr=8-2-spons&psc=1
The early Roombas had little “virtual wall” bases that you could point across doorways and the like to prevent the vacuum from going in there.
The original Mister will eventually go under the scalpel and receive some upgrades that are TBD. I need an electronics workbench before I start doing brain surgery on that particular robot.
Put a low blade on it and program it to push the Legos back into the kids’ room(s).
Anti-personnel mine and tasers.
If you have a cat does it ride on top of the robot?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-yY9RfSwj4
Here is a roomba hitting dog poop and then spreading it all over the house. Trashy, there should be a market for poop detectors for those things.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASjLXrbVlMw
There was a “Best of Craigslist” ad that started with “Free to good home…” that went like that.
How do you trigger the firing mechanism on the claymore?
“Clack on! Clack off!”
That was supposed to be “Plow” blade.
Stupid keyboard.
Back in college when I took digital electronics for my CS degree, my eyes would glaze over with boredom over the AND/OR combinations.
However – rusty that I am these days – it would be fun to try and write a smart vacuum cleaner. Given the limited inputs – no radar? – it would be a challenge to make something seem smarter than the sensor/software combination.
Uh, do you all like my metallic chapeau? It also pees on your oatmeal.
So very sorry!
I hear that those appliances are all doing remote intelligence.
I’m very old-fashioned.
Cool stuff, I wouldn’t be confident I could fix all that was wrong with the bot… In the end you’re happy with sharky mister?
Specifically, I have many of the same home issues you do, how does it react to Legos, weird furniture, getting into alcoves, etc?
Good deal, some assembly required.
https://palmettostatearmory.com/psa-18-rl-223-wylde-15-mlok-moe-ept-rifle-kit-w-mbus-ss.html
100% OT: Last week we signed a lease for another antique booth. This one 60 square feet for $120/month. I was able to move in and setup everything in one day with the help of my family. And, at the end of the day, I felt completely dragged out after hauling so many shelves and boxes.
Even my y 80yo dad pitched in – and I can see quite the marked physical reduction ability in him. He was never the kind of guy who worked out; instead he hiked and chopped wood with the added bonus of being a stubborn SOB. Well stubbornness can only go so far. Since they’ve moved to their new house; he no longer walks miles every day and no longer chops and stacks wood. He couldn’t help with the shelves. And could barely lift a big picture frame up onto the loading dock.
Lesson? Keep being physical as long as you can while you can.
That’s terrifying… I suspect different people have different rates of muscle waste. I think you mentioned losing a lot of weight from COVID… I easily lose muscle if I don’t keep at things. Wonder if these are related.
I skipped my morning workout today, but built a shed on Monday, so I’m calling it even.
I think I look pretty good for 52 – but damn if I don’t keep working out then muscle will slough off me. I’m genetically geared toward the big Dutch Farmer stomach and legs, and long thin monkey arms. Everything is a battle, especially with age.
Some supplements help – Amino Acids and HMB.
Skinny-ass hardgainer here. I really should start exercising again. I’m down about 18 pounds since my mom died. I stop eating when I’m anxious or out of sorts, and the first place it comes off is the show muscles. I’d probably be a pitifully frail old geezer, but I get the feeling I probably won’t live to see geezerhood anyway.
The first place mine comes off is my boobs, and I didn’t have that much to begin with.
Weight comes off?!
It’s SUPPOSED to, anyway. I spent my whole freshman year at college losing weight without noticing till I saw my reflection and the ass of my jeans was dragging the concrete.
Sounds like we have the same type of education, although I was in school from 1990-1995. I did build an 8088 board and we used that for some interesting projects. My career path took me into web applications so I don’t do the building part anymore. One of my “win the lottery” daydreams is to have the time and money to build robot for BattleBots.
Love that show – been watching episodes on TeeVee
WITCH DOCTOR RULEZ!!! 💀🎩
Is your Roomba spying on you for Amazon?
https://www.zdnet.com/article/exclusive-roomba-ceo-responds-to-spying-story/
See my reply above.
Welp, that obviated the need for my privacy schizo ramblings, and with considerably more brevity.
The only way for them to keep such a promise is to never have the data in the first place.
Privacy schizo time:
The higher end robot vacuums use cameras, LIDAR and WiFi to map out your home’s floor space, as well as recording telemetry data, such as total square footage vacuumed, frequency of cleaning, battery charge times, operating errors, etc. If you elect to connect your robot vacuum to the internet or use the phone app provided by the vacuum manufacturer, every bit of that data is sent back to the manufacturer to be used for whatever purpose they feel like. Some of it’s used for product development and AI algo training, but mostly it’s sold to advertisers just like every bit and byte of data we generate on a daily basis to subsidize the manufacturing costs. There’s nothing saying it couldn’t also be sold or otherwise handed over to law enforcement agencies, your local utility provider, child protective services, or any Tom, Dick or Harry who asks for it.
Now, it won’t be long before the 802.11bf standard allows our WiFi routers to act as a real-time surveillance device that can precisely track the location and movement of anything inside our homes within an accuracy of a few inches, but until then, just think carefully about the data you’re generating and where it’s going.
So how is WiFi location sensing suppose to work?
I’m no expert by any means, but as I understand it, the tl;dr version is that it basically uses the multitudinous WiFi signals from the various WiFi-enabled devices inside your home to triangulate your location based on your proximity to any given device and the router.
He says they can detect falls and even detect breathing. That would be really sophisticated radar.
I imagine some of the same “AI” signal processing currently being used for beamforming will play a role, combined with a large number of datapoints as most people have a lot of wireless devices in their home. It sounds more like a large array of ultrasonic motion detectors than something like conventional radar.
Asking for a friend: are room vacuums of any use against F-15s?
https://www.memedroid.com/memes/detail/3143948/Alexa-release-the-Roombas
No, but a farmer with a rifle can shoot down a Russian jet.
Silly! From the picture it was a shotgun.
Wonder how you have to lead a jet…?
I thought it might be a shotgun, but wasn’t sure… Could have been an elephant gun? A shotgun makes it even less believable.
I mean, yes, flak guns exist, but there is a small matter of scale…
“One in a million, doc!”
Old Glory Insurance – SNL
https://youtu.be/g4Gh_IcK8UM
I’ll say the same thing my wife told me about my recent Raspberry Pi hobby:
“Good thing you had a few thousand dollars in spare parts lying around, otherwise your hobby would be really expensive.”
Also, I buy regularly on eBay and only once was truly scammed. And eBay backed me up. The vast majority of dealers are just as you described. It is an excellent place to buy used equipment.
I am cursed by the craving to be an “early adopter” of new tech (Dell Axim, anyone?) so I got the original Roomba.
It worked out pretty well for my house, which included two active stepsons and a cat at the time.
The vacuum “kit” came with a little laser relay you could set up as an invisible barrier from certain locations. That turned out to be necessary because the roomba had a terrible time with the fringe on oriental rugs.
Eventually I sold the roomba at a garage sale and let trophy husband retire on the condition that he become the housekeeper.
He mostly keeps up his end of the bargain. Mostly.
Lol, I still have my dad’s Axim sitting somewhere in a box full of old cables, hard drives, a broken OG Game Boy, and other assorted e-waste. I think I sold the CF 802.11b adapter he had for it. I have a lot of purging to do when I move.
I really should get rid of that Palm Tungsten that’s in the basement.
And pretty much everything else that’s in that box.
I don’t really need that 4-channel VGA switcher + cables anymore. Probably.
Every time I throw out a cable or adapter I don’t think I will ever possibly need again, I inevitably end up needing it within a few weeks. I’ve still got IDE cables and HDD caddies from my Xbox and Tivo modding days. You never know, I might pull out the old lime green Halo edition Xbox some day, re-seat the d0 pin on the modchip, and boot into Gentoox so I can remember what KDE 3.5 looked like.
so I can remember what KDE 3.5 looked like
Ooh. I miss the multicolored brushed metal effects I was able to get with the Baghira application style.
I stuck to the defaults. After the goofy ass Fisher-Price UI on Windows XP I remember thinking KDE 3.5 was like returning home. I still prefer it to any modern Linux DE. I actually haven’t used a full DE in years. I’m not quite autistic enough for a tiling WM just yet as I still use the mouse quite a bit, so I’ve settled upon JWM.
I spend way too much time tweaking L&F (in Plasma), but I enjoy it. So JWM is out. I do not like most modern WMs (Windows and Linux), since they all decided that everything should behave like a smartphone.
Nothing should behave like a smartphone, they have a dumb interface.
I’m convinced most Gnome devs are actually on Apple’s payroll and trying to make the worst possible Linux DE to drive people to macOS.
I was a KDE user for a long time, even stuck it out through the KDE4 dumpster fire, but the telemetry thing with Plasma 5.whateveritwas pissed me off (I know it’s opt-in, but it’s the principle). I realized I wasn’t using about 50% of the KDE software stack anyway, so a stacking WM was the right choice. I like JWM because of the single XML config file. Stupid easy to get everything set up to my rather bland specifications, and in the event of a reinstall I’m back to my desired desktop in the few milliseconds it takes to rsync the config file. I have an openbox/tint2 configuration that mirrors my JWM exactly, just in case ol’ Joe ever gets bored with developing a WM that almost no one uses.
Looks a little something like this
I’m convinced most Gnome devs are actually on Apple’s payroll and trying to make the worst possible Linux DE to drive people to macOS.
The CADT Model
(jwz did end up switching to Macs)
CADT model, LOL.
Fixing bugs isn’t fun; going through the bug list isn’t fun; but rewriting everything from scratch is fun (because “this time it will be done right”, ha ha) and so that’s what happens, over and over again.
As it happens, most of my time is spent finding and fixing bugs (mine and others), and it pays well. Old geezers like me are grateful that the younguns have better things to do.
Lol, that’s more feedback than Gnome devs typically give.
“Justify your use case”
*Proceed to justify your use case*
“You shouldn’t do things that way, your workflow is wrong, closed WONTFIX”
On the bright side, I hear GTK5 will finally get thumbnails in the filepicker, and we can put that meme to bed after 18 years and counting.
As it happens, most of my time is spent finding and fixing bugs (mine and others), and it pays well.
That’s one of the short-comings of open source – unless someone is paying you to do it, fixing the fiddly bits isn’t fun, so it doesn’t happen that often.
The very best open source projects are those where the authors use it themselves. Teaching Wireshark to decode TLS when given a client TLS keylog is cool and useful.
Nobody wants to spend their free time chasing down bugs with a printer configuration dialog box.
This “enhancement” that removed the tray icon for Transmission because Gnome deprecated tray icons was gold:
It’s a good thing nobody besides Gnome uses GTK or anything…
That is quite nice, Pat – might check it out myself.
LXQt is also a nice little DE. More minimal than KDE, but still based on Qt and KFrameworks, so you can use the same themes and so forth.
The Dell Axim was the shiznet.
I took it on long international flights and entertained scores of adults and kids with short films and games. I even bought the compact flash camera so I could take pictures with it!! Lol. It became obsolete as soon as the iPhone debuted, but the Axim was the star up until that. EBooks, music, vids, MS office compatibility for work stuff—you name it.
I sold it on eBay to some dude in Africa, where smart phones and cellular connectivity hadn’t quite made it yet.
Amazing what I now take for granted in a mobile “phone”.
I’ve got an Axim in a drawer somewhere and the GF has a Clie stuffed away.
The only way for them to keep such a promise is to never have the data in the first place.
But honest injun!
Luckily? I don’t live in a big house. Because of the wood floors up and down, it only takes a few minutes to vacuum the rugs.
God bless all the Swiffer products. Sooo good.
OT: The UK has a new prime minister today. Does this affect our lives?
Yes? No? We are thinking of going there next spring.
Who the hell knows?
Truss appears to be a bit of an enigma, having switched politics multiple times over her career.
So probably terrible. Like every other prime minister of GB.
She wants to be the next Margaret Thatcher, but I read somewhere she’s been to Davos. So who knows.
I’ll believe she’s the next Margaret Thatcher when I see it.
Crackdown on the Green/Commie crap?
All the lady PMs are Tories. Whycome Labor is so misogynistic?
Donno about Labor but Labour’s quota system doesn’t produce strong candidates.
As others have said, something that is mapping my home is not…ideal. Also I heard some funny stories about Roombas vs. dog shit.
See link above. It is “funny” as long as it doesn’t happen to you.
Thought of you this weekend, KK – met some friends who bought a Living Vehicle tow-behind for their post-retirement travels.
Holy smokes. It’s nicer than my condo.
(about as expensive, too)
Love the little balcony!
The whole thing is super-well thought-out. I spent about 2 hours watching the videos the other night.
The couple we know, the dude was a CFO and did tons of in-depth research on class As, tow-behinds, etc. before settling on that. Even rented an Airstream for 3 weeks (“shoddy pieces of crap”).
Between the trailer and the giant Ram 3500 he bought to tow it (18,000 lbs. before you get your stuff into it), he definitely spent more than my condo is worth.
13,000 miles in the last few months (in Acadia now), so getting their money’s worth. Plus, Living Vehicles will buy yours back whenever you like – they look to hold their value extremely well.
That thing is sweet!
I’ve never been a trailer dude, but that one could sway me.
Pricy, though.
I could definitely deal with that for an extended period.
One of the cool things is that there’s enough solar power that they just leave the AC running while they’re towing the trailer, which is awesome.
They sprung for pretty much all the bells and whistles (but not the pull-moisture-from-the-air system), including the backup generator – they haven’t had to use it even once yet.
Early solution: don’t have a dog/cat
Ding dang it.
The smoke detector has started chirping, and it’s a hardwired one so a simple battery swap won’t do it.
Probably the sensors have aged out, it happens.
When I lived briefly in California, ALL the hardwired smoke detectors started chirping within a 3 week timeframe. I was impressed at the precision obsolescence,
Now of course I have to wonder if the replacement ones I need will contain surveillance equipment.
ISTR they need to be replaced after 7(?) years, by law.
I bought a <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Kidde-Monoxide-Hardwired-Interconnect-Combination/dp/B098PJCFPH"4-pack of Kidde units from Amazon – as you observed, once one goes, the others won’t be far behind.
Cool, link, bro.
https://smile.amazon.com/Kidde-Monoxide-Hardwired-Interconnect-Combination/dp/B098PJCFPH
That’s what I got for the Cali house. As luck would have it, the plastic base that is the part screwed to the ceiling didn’t match the Kidde ones, so I had to screw in new ones all around. Definitely the most time-consuming part of the process.
The problem I have now is that the ceilings in the Nevada house are quite high, so I’m going to have to go up the ladder pretty far.
In my physical condition, that’s a bit scary. Have to have a “spotter”.
Throw some money at some younger, spryer folks and have them climb the ladders.
Whycome they can’t standardize on mount and connector?
EU to the rescue!
I mean, if you need a hand I’m local.
I hate how expensive they are.
There is a logic to needing to replace them after a while, but damn….
Although I also need to buy some adapters, now that I think about. So check your plug styles.
By Law? Must be a MA thing. I know of no such thing in NH.
Or PA. I don’t remember it when I lived in PA.
10 years
https://www.mass.gov/service-details/smoke-and-carbon-monoxide-alarms
That means they’re pre-programmed to obsolete themselves from a specific date of manufacture. Kind of like a Best By date.
Yup.
Now wired smoke detectors also have battery backup. Good news is that they now have a battery that lasts the useful life of the detector.
Cheap ones won’t have surveillance.
When one started chirping at the old house, I went to Menard’s and bought a bunch and replaced them all. I fucking hate the hardwired ones.
Local code requires hard-wired (for condos, at least – not sure about single-family homes).
Annoying when my neighbor’s cooking sets off my alarms (although that hasn’t happened since she renovated her kitchen, come to think of it).
Jesus. Sounds like hell.
Kicked in a bit when I first bought the place, hasn’t happened in quite a while.
Just a 2-unit building, so not as bad as it would be in some multi-unit monster
Here I was imaging 4+ units and some joker seeing it of making popcorn at midnight. Still, it would remind me too much of living in a dorm. There is something about condos that is viscerally unappealing to me.
Cali was the same, wired with battery backup. And one in each room.
Which is totes awesome when one goes off at 3am in the corner of the house with three rooms…
Mine’s hardwired, but so far swapping the backup PP3 cell has ended its chirpiness when it starts acting up. I have no idea how old it is, but it was there when I moved in, what, 9 years ago.
My mom moved into a brand new duplex. Her first morning in it doing laundry, the washing machine somehow malfunctioned and got water everywhere, which set off the hard-wired smoke detectors. I’ve only seen my mom lose her cool like that a handful of times in my lifetime. The noise was deafening, there were two big problems going on, and it was early on a Sunday morning. I don’t remember what I did but I got the screaming alarms to stop then got the washing machine right again. She was just sobbing, so I’m thinking there was a lot more going on in her life right then.
Unfun. But yeah, sounds like the last straw situation. I hope things have improved since.
Well, that was in 1999. I haven’t seen her lose it since then.
👍👍
Have you tried vacuuming the dust out of it? Dust can build up inside and create an ion trail.
Low battery chirping is annoying. False alarms when the ionic detectors age out are beyond annoying.
Fake news. It’s not 2:30am.
Have any of you gotten good “some assembly required” deals on ebay?
Sort of. Back in MN I had a wonderful old John Deere snowblower that was ’80s vintage. All metal, etc. Problem was no parts new from JD. The gear teeth on the chuse were almost completely gone. So I jumped on ebay and found the exact model all parted out. I emailed the seller asking for detailed pics of the teeth. A few minutes and $50 later, it was on the way.
Regarding the robovacs, we are currently using a Roomba i4 that I impulse bought at Costco one day. Out first one was one of the dumb ones. Not really worth it IMO. This one doesn’t get used a ton, but it seems to work well. I never set the smart features up, so we just punch start and let ‘er rip.
Thanks for the article trashy! Nice to see you back.
My wife and I recently had a 1900 sq ft house built, all floors are tile or laminate, and for a moving-in present I purchased the latest and greatest Roborock vacuum whom we affectionally named Roxanne. This is a vacuum and mop, and has all the bells and whistles. I paid a lot for it, but having the whole house vacuumed and mopped while we are at work it very nice.
We looked at a model house recently. The new floor surfaces are great – I would never pay for real wood instead.
I did my kids’ floors in my old POS house with peel-and-stick wood-look vinyl planks. They were awesome. You could only tell if you walked on them with bare feet.
I hate the sound of the moisture barrier underneath engineered floors. Real hardwood or GTFO for me.
Hearing loss for the win!
We built on a slab so it would have been even more expensive to add a subfloor for real hardwood. The laminate flooring available are really nice, have a long warranty, and the ones I got are textured like they have been through a bandsaw. I really like them and how they feel under feet, guess we’ll see how well they hold up.
My rental has laminate floors and the top layer is peeling back on the edges of the planks. It’s not enough to be worth replacing, but it is enough to look a little unkempt.
Ugh, I’m hoping it lasts longer than I do.
It all comes down to quality. I’ve had hardwood, engineered wood, laminate and luxury vinyl. Loved them all and each has its place.
Current house has luxury vinyl throughout the first level. Looks amazing, feels great on bare feet and seems to be dog-proof.
I’m a fan.
I did my basement in this. Rock and roll.
It’s odd, in these overfull tech team meetings, I find myself on the same side as the annoying DBA more and more. I get the feeling we both want to go “Stop harping on this pointless item.”
Two hours is too long for even a ‘working’ meeting.
Germany caves.
Iowahawk brings the wisdom.
That thread is gold.
Look, I’m not saying Lisa Simpson is Hitler, I’m just saying Lisa Simpson is Hitler with a speechwriting team full of 40-something Harvard Lampoon alumni living in Santa Monica
So much this. I figured that out ages ago, right around the time I stopped watching.
The IJ is the best. Surprised Forbes ran this:
How Government Officials Set Up Cameras On Private Property And Get Away With It
Cunts.
That story boils my blood every time I get the IJ magazine.
Peak FYTW.
No expectation of privacy, okay, but what about trespassing, etc?
The government is so evil dumb.
What would happen if you found and smashed one of these cameras on your property? If you could be charged for destruction of Gov property, then the execution and interpretation of the 1924 is not valid. Fuck you come back with a warrant.
No need for you to do it. Just smear it with peanut butter and bacon, then leave.
Open it up and piss in it?
But times have changed in the decades since these rulings.
Yes they have. People are fighting back against the tyranny.
We have the Bagotte vacuum. He’s named Romeo, because Bagotte sounds Italian, he roams around the house, and my wife thinks Italian cleaners are sexy. The only problems with it are that it gets stuck under some of the furniture and he loses the wifi connection, so he doesn’t operate on the regular schedule. He’s Italian after all. All in all, he sucks, which is good for a vacuum.
Another pretty girl goes out jogging and doesn’t come home.
We had our own here in Iowa a few years back. Shortly after that I bought my daughter a pistol and a case of practice ammo.
Then I taught her how to shot.
It’s what any loving father should do.
She jogs, bikes, and kayaks all the time. And she carries when she goes out.
I’m not even going to try to watch The Rings of Power on Amazon.
Good.
The fewer views they have the more it crashes and burns.
Drinker’s take after watching the first two episodes was entertaining
Plus, his doggos!
I posted this rant a couple of days ago.
TLDR — For a modern streaming fantasy show, it’s entertaining in its own mediocre was. As Tolkein, it’s pure shit.
But they aren’t selling as an Amazon original fantasy show, they’re selling it as LoTR.
Correct. He says as much in the video.
But not to worry — nothing in the video would encourage me in any way to look up the show on Amazon.
Have any of you gotten good “some assembly required” deals on ebay?
No, but I have bought some books on eBay. I consider them good deals because I couldn’t find the books anywhere else.
If you haven’t before, try https://www.abebooks.com/
They are both very good resources for used and/or rare books.
I know about them.
I have found some stuff there.
It’s a good site.
gets stuck under some of the furniture and he loses the wifi connection
So he can’t call a row truck?
Fuck ebay, and fuck paypal.
what about paybay and epal?
Ruck tem too.
You’ll be glad to know that since eBay and PayPal’s corporate divorce, eBay has dropped PayPal as a payment processor. You’ll be discouraged to find out that they replaced it with Adyen, which is even worse. Only you never actually interact with Adyen when selling on eBay. eBay holds your money in purgatory/escrow until they feel like paying you, if they feel like paying you. Remember PayPal disputes in the olden days, where a customer could send you back an empty box and as long as they uploaded the tracking number they’d get a full refund because PayPal is shitlessly terrified of chargebacks? Well, now instead of having to wrangle with PayPal, eBay summarily decides the issue in favor of the buyer without subjecting you to the flimsy pretense that there’s any kind of decision making process, and if you don’t like it, well, tough shit, because the money never left eBay’s escrow account.
I haven’t gotten any fixer-uppers off eBay, but I have bought hundreds of dollars in tooling for my business that would have cost thousands new. A lot of new old stock for sale there. eBay has helped my business be successful.
Yeah, I’m not going to trash eBay or Paypal, either. I mean, eBay’s got problems, no doubt, but I have been very successful at decluttering by selling on eBay and have made a chunk of change doing it. Paypal, well, I’ve been with them for 20 years, run my business revenue through them, and I have no complaints at all.
What does PayPal charge/skim?
2.9% + $.5 per transaction for normies, and there’s some trivial discount for business accounts.
*$.05
At one point, Square charged more, but off the top of my head, I can’t remember what. I don’t know what it is now because I haven’t used Square in forever because when I was using it, I couldn’t send an invoice that the client could pay by cc securely (which Paypal has always done). I had to take the cc# over the phone and I won’t do that anymore because of security reasons.
I only got Square because it has a cc reader, which I used but with limited success and no efficiency whatsoever. Again, that was years ago.
This. I don’t need anything for a business, but finding parts for a 75 year old piece of machinery in any kind of timely manner is impossible without it. Plus, I sell a bunch of stuff through them. People seem happy enough.
I’ve gotten some very good deals on NOS US made tooling from Ebay. It has also become a back-up supplier for a lot of electronic components I can no longer get in a timely fashion from my normal suppliers.
Glibfitters, don’t do this!
If only Epstein had included that exercise in his routine.
Maybe he did, and then they unzipped the body bag and he sat up, like in one of those Now You See Me movies.
Of like when they were putting Anne Heche in the ambulance.
Of course it’s a Planet Fitness.
“Never miss Throat Day”
It looks like he could actually need some help getting out of the loop, or he is trying to make himself hang proof.
Is he is trying to follow the Henry Rollins and Glen Danzig school of workouts?. “Neck day all day and every day.”
Yes, I will post this tune each time a bad work out reference is made. It is a fun song and a fun video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9i7aBnoaYPQ
Hah!
You’ve linked it before – it’s perfect. Keep it handy, as I have a lot more videos where that came from.
Not as cringy as r/idiotswithguns, but close.
Also, pay attention to 1:30. Your welcome.
It’s really a song about how being not shitty as a man is somehow good enough today.
I had a conversation with a good friend of mine this weekend. He just had some of his nerves fused in his spine to attempt to dull some of the pain he is under. He was really jacked at some point in his past, but has since gained 100+lbs after his back started interfering with any physical activity. The point of this is that he was very irresponsible about over doing working out and heavy weights/form. We wondered how many men and especially women cross fitters are looking at long term joint and spinal issues. I know if done right there less risks for damage, but how many do you see at the gym with bad form, lifting too heavy, or just too much?
tHe KiPpINg pUlLuP iS a FuLl-boDy MOvEmeNt…
Good points.
I don’t like the idea of not lifting heavy, though. Lifting is just as much about your skeleton as it is your muscles. Jacked guys are often really messed up guys. A bagillion reps of a gagillion exercises is kind of silly, except for competitive bodybuilders (and even the best of them lift heavy).
I am 55 years old, so I have to pay close attention to form, etc., but following the rule of minimal effective dose for lifting seems to do the trick. Deads, squats, bench, OHP and chin-ups are about it. Cleans if I’m feeling sassy. Slow and steady.
I am not a fan of crossfit or any of the other high intensity nonsense. I mean, do it if it flats your boat, but very few people can sustain it. As one trainer I know says: “I love Crossfit. I make a lot of money every year rehabbing CrossFitters.”
You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like
He’s not wrong.
Look, when I shared that picture without my rubber mask on, I had no idea how it would be used.
Smart. Just because a man likes what he likes, doesn’t mean he has to end up like David Carradine.
I hope the people who “bought” stuff from me on ebay enjoyed their presents, because I never saw a fucking penny from it.
Good luck when it’s your turn to settle a “dispute” with them.
Yeah, ebay is terrible for low volume sellers because of how they handle disputes.
Fair enough. I haven’t sold anything on there in years because they DO screw the small seller on shipping charges (limits them no matter how much the actual shipping is), but the last time I did, it was out-of-print embroidery patterns and they made my mortgage that month.
I sell patterns on eBay and fabric on Etsy because of the search mechanisms.
SAP should be burned to the ground and their employees sold into slavery. Concur used to be an ok system before those pissheads got their hands on it.
Could be worse, it could be Salesforce.
Also this.
This.
Clot shot, or tinfoil hat time?
I would have to rely on more than one source for this type of claim. Everything other than the mortician named in the article is hearsay and 2nd hand accounts. Also what if anything was done to the body after death that might account for the effect?
My tinfoil hat is massive and full of splendor. It dwarfs my head like a costume afro. But still this article, which I have seen repeated almost verbatim a number of times, doth reek of hearsay.
So, the question is, where would we look for corroborating or refuting data?
Not sure. It has not been readily presented. A deep dive into statistics for death would be needed.
This failed to gain traction last year.
Maybe this year is different?
I’d seen mentions, but still short on key eliments needed to dispel doubt.
I don’t know what others have seen one way or another.
I’ve seen numerous morticians talk about this – I don’t think anyone in the medical community wants to touch it for fear of being hurled into the void.
“If we were to give a simplified estimate, I guess the total would be close to what you said,” Matsuno said in response to a question speculating that total costs would reach about 1.7bn yen.
I find it very quaint to find a government that actually seems slightly embarrassed when called out when it lies. Talking with my friends people are not happy as more and more of the Moonie connection to the LDP is becoming more and more clear. They don’t want to pay for this over general principles.
Japan’s state funeral for Shinzo Abe to cost more than £10m
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/06/japan-state-funeral-shinzo-abe-opposition