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The Geek Toy Vacuum Cleaner
TheDarkpoint sent us a new device sure to be on all neat-nik geek Christmas lists. It's an automatic vacuum cleaner. Cool little device and the polite gift for those who just aren't quite up to clean-snuff.
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Yeah. It sucks.
I met the inventor, James Dyson, earlier this year; he's quite a cult figure in the UK having re-invented the vacumn cleaner (by removing the bag, and using an internal vortex for suction.)
anyhow, he's a major engineering guy, and is trying to spearhead a movement to bring engineering and design back into schools.
he's a top man...check out here
Scope it out... they have a patent pending on their "spiral cleaning path." Sorry dudes, but I think this is yet another stupid patent idea. Patently obvious and been done before.
If it can pick up microwave red baron pizzas that have been ingrained into the floor, determine which of my multitude of mtn. dew cans are full, empty, or "flat", and figure out which printouts I want to save and which ones I want to discard... I won't just buy it, I'll *marry* it.
How about a solar lawn mower instead? I saw one of these in action a couple of years ago. They're pretty cool, they use buried wire to mark the border of the yard, and they just roam freely, constantly cutting grass. And they set off an alarm if someone tries to haul it away without punching in a password.
Photos of bits of the past hiding in the present: afiler.com
This brings up another question: what would it take to change the tracking system to actually target the cat instead of avoid it?
Avery
Editor, ScowlZine
Avery
Editor, ScowlZine
"A quarter-pound of hostility and a pickle spear on the side"
Episode IV
A New Troll
It is a period of civil war on slashdot. Striking from a hidden base, the trolls have won their first victory against the evil galactic moderators.
During the battle, troll spies managed to steal secret plans to the moderator's ultimate weapon, the post vacuum, an open sourced virtual vacuum cleaner with an enough power to suck up an entire thread of trolls.
Pursued by the moderator's sinister agents, open source man races to create another off-topic thread to expose the moderator's plans and restore freedom to slashdot...
thank you.
does anybody have a clue to how these new "SR" motors are supposed to work?
SR Motor = Switched Reluctance motor
Let's see here..
Quick search found this site:
http://www.vtt.fi/aut/kau/results/srm/
There's even a few GIF animations to show how it works.
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- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
I own a Dyson vacuum cleaner (DC03) and it does a wonderful job.
Dyson has really shaken up the UK manufacturing establishment; and done it in a very engineering-oriented way. All credit to him.
Its easy to get carried away when we hear about so many really stupid patents, but Dyson risked an awful lot to build his company; it got its start from his exploitation of the Dual Cyclone technique.
Perhaps we should make a distinction between software patents (stupid), biotech (dangerous) and the more traditional physical invention types that have (generally) served us very well.
C-x C-s
Why does the thought of my vacuum cleaner feeling "distressed or threatened" amuse me?
I wanted one then, and I want one now.
If you haven't read the book, I highly recommend it. A little outdated technology-wise, but still an excellent story with good engineering, time travel, and a cat. What more could you ask for?
Stupid people will be persecuted to the fullest extent allowed by law.
I don't know if any of you have watched the avi, because you're gonna have a nice clean room, well that is only the middle of the room. The thingy stops about 30cm before any object. Well it's a nice try, but don't get rid of your girlfirend just know ...
:)
Murphy(c)