Roomba

Prompted by a post by Luis Villa, I finally got Roomba. I'm quite happy with it so far, although it should be made very clear, that thing is loud. It is, of course, to be expected: it is a vacuum cleaner, only robotic. Luis writes:

The biggest improvement is the noise- I used to not like to run the roomba while I was in the room, because it was too loud. I’m typing this with the new roomba running around the same room I’m in, with no substantial irritation. I know it is there- it isn’t that quiet- but I have no desire to run away to another room.

Well, the thing is, that is only the case on a carpet, but I have laminate floors. To give a more objective estimate, if I imprison my Roomba in my room (which is carpeted) with a closed door, then if I am in the kitchen, the fridge will drown it. Getting anywhere near it though, and you run a risk of missing a phone call (which was probably a telemarketer anyway). It is possible to talk over Roomba running on a laminate floor, but you have to raise voice.

Anyway, I am just writing all this so that nobody gets wrong ideas about noiseless vacuum cleaners. As a convenience, Roomba is outstanding. The most important advantage of it is that you can do something else while it minds its own business elsewhere. That's the baseline. The rest is just details.