We have one for our downstairs. When we used to work in offices I had it set to run daily. Now that we’re home we usually run it once or twice a week. It picks up a lot.
If you’re buying one now, definitely get one that has the mapping technology. It’ll clean a lot better and keep it from bumping into shit constantly.
I’d recommend springing for one of the Roomba models that can map rooms. I have the basic one that just floats around randomly and I’m always having to redirect it. Sometimes it’s easier just to break out a regular vacuum cleaner.
Overall, I like it, though.
Lol yea it’s better to just let it go when you’re not home, it’s too tilting to watch
“ According to a recent robocall report from Transaction Network Services (TNS), which offers robocall identification and mitigation services, people accept calls from unknown numbers only 10 percent of the time. Like a hiker in Colorado, who was missing for 24 hours last October because he wouldn’t answer calls from an unknown number (in this case, that number happened to be the Search and Rescue Team).”
“Amish-made” has become super scammy so I’d watch out for those. Market is flooded with hucksters. Do you have preferences for style? If you’re buying wood, it’s SPECIFIC solid hardwoods that are best suited for this application, and those will cost. Walnut, oak and maple I’d imagine are still top tier excluding exotics. After that, it’s woods that are more affordable but generally not as good for furniture (poplar, beech, pine (awful), etc.).
I think you mentioned it before, but I’m in the market for a new bed (i.e, not mattress). I think you mentioned a couple of stores/manufacturers that make good quality stuff. Can you remind me of what those were?
I’ve gotten 7 spam calls today.
I like my Romba, but I wish I sprung for one that maps. Mine just runs into everything for a while until it deems things are clean or the battery is low. Still works pretty well though.
The wifi is a handy feature too, you can kick off a cleaning session from your phone when you’re away or ask Alexa to kick it off as you’re leaving home.
In Canada you can have your phone company set it so incoming calls have to hit a number to connect. You have to call and request it though. Maybe states does too?
Not a request, just a straight product recommendation: Backblaze Cloud Storage
My hard drive died not long ago. This wasn’t super stressful, since I have a manual process where I back things up to a portable hard drive, and synchronize that drive on my work computer. But I keep an archived folder of things that get deleted, just in case I end up wanting/needing something. And that archive is only on my desktop, not the external drive. The biggest concern is that we have like 20 years of photos and videos on here, and there would be an uncomfortable discussion with mrs. spidercrab if they were to disappear.
Anyway, I figured I’d try to get the whole backup from Backblaze, including the archive directory. I hadn’t looked into it too much before, but there are 3 options:
I got the hard drive in less than a week, it was encrypted with a passcode that was only available to me through my online control panel, and I copied it over to my newly installed hard drive with no problem. Since I gave my new hard drive the same letter as my dead one, the links even worked fine. (e.g., when I opened Quicken for the first time, it opened the right file with no prompting even though the E:\ drive was physically different.)
Anyway, it’s nice to know that the insurance I’ve been paying for for years is actually helpful.
The only glitch in this process (for me) was that I didn’t realize Backblaze excludes some folders and file types from backup. The folder exclusions weren’t a problem, but two of the file types were: .exe and .log. The .exe exclusion meant that I lost application files that I had purchased/downloaded, and the .log exclusion meant that I lost the .log files of my SAS and Stata programs for work. That would have been bad. But fortunately I noticed they were missing, and re-copied them over from my hard drive. Those exclusions are editable, and I’m now backing up .log and .exe files like I assumed I was from the beginning.
Anyway, everyone should have all of their data backed up, and Backblaze is my current choice.
***Fun fact, I got a linux machine for my first academic job, despite the fact that I didn’t know anything about linux. Within the first month or two, I managed to delete the entire file system by basically saying delete * from the root directory. Good times.
I need a new toilet seat and was going to just buy a basic one but I’ve heard how people love bidets and was wondering if anyone has any good recommendations for a bidet seat that doesn’t need power. If it has to plug in the cord would have to go across the bathroom and that wouldn’t be great.
Most of the ones I’ve seen just attach behind/under the actual seat and do not include a seat. No power necessary, but they do need to hook up to the water obviously.
Yeah only fancy ones need power (heated seat, heated water). I have both kinds and they both work great, no specific recommendations here. We got an outlet put next to the toilet for out heated one.
In Japan, Toto and Lixil (Inax) are the most popular washlet brands, but there are two basic types.
The better ones have a retracting nozzle that extends out and performs the wash function when you press a button.
The cheaper versions have the water come out at an angle from a stationary nozzle.
You definitely want to get the better-quality nozzle as it makes all the difference.
Late to the Roomba conversation, but I have a Eufy (by Anker) robot vacuum that is amazing. It was ~$200 iirc, cheaper than Roomba. Picks up more dog hair than I knew existed. It was pretty easy to train our dog to ignore it too.
I’m going to be laptop shopping in the U.S. soon. I love my Surface laptop and am leaning toward just getting another one, but also want to consider Macs.
Any MacBook users here? What would you recommend?
anything with an m1 chip
No Mac recommendation, but I love my Surface Book 2 and am coveting a new Surface Laptop Studio.
I got one of these a few weeks ago (studio). Its… fine? I guess if I watched more videos on it the modes would be good but its damn heavy. And kinda sharp? Windows 11 is… a thing. Can’t get a battery % in the taskbar lmao.
The things I love about the Surface Book are its keyboard, which is the best keyboard I’ve ever used on a laptop, and the drawing capability. I annotate everything on my notes as I teach. Hopefully those are just as good in the Studio.
I don’t do a ton of traveling with it, so its weight isn’t a huge deal. If I traveled more, I’d go for the newest Surface Pro instead.