weekend bits

[cellio]

Seen while walking home Saturday: a car with blinkers on, being followed by two police cars with flashing lights but not sirens, all going about 30mph, and all running a red light at a busy intersection. If the police were escorting the car I would have expected one in front and one behind; if they were chasing the car, they weren't doing a very good job of it. There were plenty of places to pull over, so it wasn't a traffic stop in search of handy road-side. The whole procession turned a corner and I lost sight of them. How odd.

This weekend I read about a new (expensive) geek-appeal gadget, a robotic vacuum cleaner. It wanders around your house and automatically goes to the docking station to recharge or empty itself when needed. The review I saw said that it's slow -- its navigation isn't the greatest, so it might do a stretch several times before getting to parts it hasn't done yet -- but since it's the robot's time, the reviewer doesn't care. He was out running errands. :-) This sounds handy (though I do wonder how pets would view it). Now if they could just build the laundry robot, the shopping robot, and the kitchen-cleaning robot, life would be grand. (At $1500, I should clarify that this is wishful thinking, not a planned purchase.)

Shabbat morning we had another new torah reader (and new service leader, the mother of the torah reader). They both did good jobs and I think the mother, at least, will sign up to do this again (and even read torah). I am pleased by the progress our minyan is making, building participation one person at a time. We need to think about workshops or tutorials or something for people who lack self-confidence. (There are several people who I think would do just fine, but they don't think so yet.)

Today was the local SCA group's 12th-night event. It was a fun, low-key event, like many I remember from 20 years ago. This was the second year we've done it; I hope this establishes the tradition. :-) Free site (university), pot-luck feast, good mix of planned activities and schmooze time -- very pleasant and comfortable.

Mapquest says Pittsburgh to Cincinnati is a 4.5-hour drive (slightly under). Is that really right? I thought Pittsburgh to Columbus was close to four hours, and Cincinnati is a good deal beyond that. I thought Cincinnati would be 6 or 7 hours just from looking at a map.

Comments

[geekosaur]

Re Cincy: Add 2 - 2 1/2 hours from Columbus.

[sk4p.livejournal.com]

and Columbus is 3.5 to 4 from Pgh.

[ralphmelton.livejournal.com]

The robotic vacuum cleaner that I've heard of is the Roomba, which is much cheaper than the price you quoted--about $200, if I recall correctly. You may be describing a different model, though.

[cellio]

I failed to retain the name of the one I read about. The reviewer did say that the product he reviewed will be for sale in the US later this year; he reviewed a European product (and translated the price into dollars). So who knows what that'll translate to when they market it here?

Off the top of my head, I'd guess that the cheaper model requires more human intervention, such as, perhaps, not being smart enough to recharge itself. The real appeal to me is not that, when I decide it's time to vacuum a room, I can set up a machine to save me the 10 minutes; rather, I'd like to be able to just set it in motion, say, on my way out in the morning, and come home to a vacuumed first floor. (The review mentioned that it's smart enough to not fall down steps, though of course you have to carry it upstairs yourself.)

a bit from the event

[cellio]

There was a boffer tourney. Boffers are padded weapons, used without armor and without requiring fighter authorization. This particular implementation used pillows, which I find much harder than tubes of foam that are vaguely club-like.

Anyway, they asked people who have actual fighting experience to handicap themselves in some way, though this was left to entrants to work out. My first-round opponent was a fencer, so he put one hand behind his back. I had been prepared to call it even; while I'm not currently a fighter or fencer, I have been in the past. But instead, I took off my glasses. I figured that was fair. :-)

(The pillows were large enough that I would have had non-trivial control problems if I could only use one hand. My opponent's hands were bigger, so he could actually control a pillow one-handed.)

I lost, but it wasn't because of the glasses. It was because he's better than I am, and has longer arms. :-)

[cellio]

Thanks.

If I'm not mistaken, the canonical route to Columbus is via the turnpike (I-76). For Cincinnati, Mapquest recommends I-70 (so south to WV and then west). Thus, you go nowhere near Columbus if you follow their route. I don't know if that's actually an appropriate route, of course. Having been burned in the past, I now use Mapquest as opening advice only. :-)

[geekosaur]

Er? 70 is a straight shot from a little south of Pgh. into Columbus (which is at the confluence of 70 and 71); you then follow 70 further to either 75 south or 675 to get to Cincinnati.

[geekosaur]

And 76 takes you north to Cleveland, you end up pretty far out of your way and it's more complicated. (76->[80->]480->271->71, figure 7 hours (!))

[cellio]

Oops, my mistake -- the WV part is just the northern panhandle, which hardly counts. For Cincinnati, Mapquest recommends 79 to 70 to 270 S to 71 S to local stuff. 284 miles, mostly on 70 and 71. I've only been to Columbus once, and I was obviously misremembering what we did. (Mapquest says 70 for that, as you suggested.)

[geekosaur]

71 to local stuff sounds a little odd, I wouldn't expect that to be significantly faster or shorter than 70W->675S. (You do still want to take 270 around Columbus, though; staying on 70 looks obvious but you really want to avoid going through downtown Columbus.)

[rani23.livejournal.com]

Columbus is two hours from Wheeling, WV. (So sayeth the West Virginian.) :)

[sethcohen.livejournal.com]

From what I've read, the Roomba works every day. You tell it when you want it to work (e.g. it knows you're not home from 9am-5pm) and it just covers the area. It also can recharge itself by going to its docking station.

The downside is that it memorizes one room (and one room only) at a time. In a house your size, it might make sense for the bedroom, but not the downstairs.

[geekosaur]

About the vacuum: The Roomba is indeed the most readily available robot; it's not very smart and apparently has serious problems with things like throw rugs. More recently another, smarter (and more expensive) robotic vacuum became available which is apparently much nicer; I'd have to go digging into archives to get details though. (I think the person commenting on it lives in England so it might even be the same one you heard about.)

lessee...
http://trilobite.electrolux.co.uk
(review here) It sounds like it's in the price range of the one you were looking at.... Then there's this one from Samsung, about the same price as the Roomba but reportedly smarter.

[eub.livejournal.com]

I wonder if this might have been the Trilobite (http://www.livejournal.com/users/eub/139559.html).

[cellio]

Sounds like it could be, from the comments on that entry. (The link to the original article seems to have rotted, alas.)

[cellio]

Sounds like it was probably Trilobite. Thanks.

[murmur311.livejournal.com]

once you get through columbus it will actually only take 1.5-2 hours to get down to cincinnati (depending on how fast you drive and also at what time of day you are going through; i suggest using the 270 loop around columbus, going south/west to avoid actually driving through columbus, which is a pain; 270 hooks up with I-71 south which will take you right down into cincinnati). depending on where you are staying or if you are headed straight to HUC, i can probably give you better directions than mapquest.

(i typed I-75 before and actually meant I-71)

[cellio]

If, as it appears, I'm looking at a roughly 5.5- or 6-hour drive, I'm going to at least try to find out if buses or trains go there before deciding to just drive. I dislike driving, especially when I don't know the area ("foreign" cities are bad; I can't assume I'll be able to read the street signs), and especially road trips without company.

It's not a phobia; it's a rational aversion. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. :-)

And this is all assuming I get accepted to the program at HUC, of course. Otherwise, I have very limited reasons to visit your fair city. (If I do end up driving, though, I'll be sure to get in touch with you for advice.)

[goljerp]

There are busses from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati; Greyhound seems to have around 5/6 a day on Sundays, and the estimated travel time is between 5.5 and 9 hours.

Amtrak doesn't seem to have trains which go between Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. You'd have to go to Philadelphia, down to DC, and then over to Cincinnati.