On a sunny day (Thu, 10 Apr 2014 08:47:04 -0700) it happened John Larkin
wrote in
:


Get used to it. Everything nowadays has a computer in it.

Tennis rackets. Stoves. Refrigerators. Telephones. Toilets.

Imagine when everything is online to "the internet of things." You'll spend most
of your life reprogramming, debuggung, repairing, or returning every lamp,
faucet, thermostat, and toaster oven in your house. Upgrade that blender code
from 0.12.313b 3.19.501a to fix some stack overflow vulnerability, when you'd
rather be making margueritas.

We bought a new kitchen stove ("gas cooker" in some places) and I wanted one
without digital controls. The computerized ones are everywhere and cost about
$500. The ones without computers are in the $2000 to $5000 range. Can you
imagine a worse environment for cheap electronics than in the top of a stove, or
a dishwasher?

We got an NXR for about $2K.

I also ripped out the programmable thermostat in the cabin and replaced it with
an analog one. Guests were always leaving the old one in all sorts of bizarre
modes and states.

Our Orec vacuum cleaner must be close to 10 years old and works fine. It needs a
new belt maybe once a year, but replacement is obvious.

Don't get me started about the controls on my Audi.

Yea, well I also bought a DirtDevil spider, for a fraction of the money the LG rombot costs.
It has (AFAIK) no computah, no remote, and no cameras, it has a bumper sensor with micro switches it seems.
I did great cleaning under the bench, TV table, its only 7 cm high.
I does not scream, complain, it jumps over cables, is not stopped by low hanging curtains like the LG hombot,
did I mention that LG hombot cannot even find its own charging station?
The Spider you just need to plug in yourself to charge.
It probably has some micro, but it works so good there there is no need to investigate it, it just works.
It sucks less than the LG, both for real and figuratively speaking :-)
Never Repair Something That Works.