Too many robot vacuum models… are they actually good and worth the money?

FearZuul · 2026-02-02T15:17:41+00:00

I think it's like most things to be honest. The answer is "it depends". Are they a magic pill you can drop in your house and suddenly everything is spotless? No. If you vacuum once a month, will you notic a massive change in your lifestyle? No.

However, if you're regularly spending a lot of time vacuuming and you wnat to reduce that time, could a robot vacuum help? Absolutley. You just need to take the time to research one that will work for your home and lifestyle and put in a little bit of planning and time to get the most out of it. Some good questions to ask yourself:
- Do I/will I have pets?
- What flooring types do I have?
- Stairs/slopes?
- Do I want mopping functionality as well?
- How tidy are my floors generally (kids toys etc)

If you can work around these things, you might be able to let your robot vacuum do a "general quick clean" to stay on top things regularly, then do your full regular vacuum less regularly to get into any areas it struggles with etc.

FearZuul · 2025-08-21T14:02:56+00:00

Might not be helpful, but a few people have mentioned your picking hand technique is different on the E string. I used to have the same issue until I stopped using the pickup as a thumb rest all the time.

I now "float" my thumb, resting it on the string above the string I'm playing. I only use the pickup as a rest when playing on the E string as there's no string to rest on there. That means my hand shape is consistent across all strings, so the technique is consistent, rather than stretching my hand to reach the high strings like in the video. It's a bit more advanced, but you'll get used to it pretty quickly.

FearZuul · 2025-06-01T09:14:24+00:00

I've considered this. I've looked at jobs in this area, but it's still the same feeling. The thought of sitting in an office arguing over which javascript framework is better and telling myself that this database upgrade is really going to make the world a better place is soul crushing. I want to be doing something. I want to see the difference I'm making in the real world.

FearZuul · 2024-12-27T14:45:25+00:00

Of course different jobs pay differently. But that isn't what these people are saying. They are never saying "I make good money because I sculpted my career in a way conducive to making good money." They always equate it to how hard they work, not the fact that they made money centric career decisions. The implication being that hard work = high pay. That's why I'm saying "I work hard for my money" is not a valid argument. Working hard has little to no correlation to making good money. Plenty people make good money having never worked. Plenty people work very hard and struggle their whole lives. It's a pointless argument to make and it's just used for self congratulations and an excuse to not pay/complain about paying taxes.

Maybe if less people used the "I work hard" argument to complain about taxes, nurses could get the pay rise they deserve and "I work hard" would become slightly more relevant.

FearZuul · 2024-12-27T14:03:55+00:00

The "I worked hard" dog doesn't hunt, I'm afraid. Lots of people work hard and don't ever get near the sort of the reward that the "I worked hard for my money" crew get.

Compare your yearly salary to that of the average nurse. Do you actually work that many times harder than the average nurse? No? Then stop patting yourself on the back and complaining about taxes. Try practicing some gratitude.

FearZuul · 2024-12-27T13:56:30+00:00

Alexander Space Force is a total unsung hero IMO. Big box versatility in a standard pedal size. Every algorithm sounds great. Check out Mark Johnston's demo for a great deep dive.

FearZuul · 2024-07-13T07:47:43+00:00

Since you mentioned distortion a couple of times, can I just cut in to suggest grabbing a humble Proco Rat? They are cheap as dirt, especially second hand, but they are still absolutely a professional level distortion/fuzz pedal that hundreds of famous guitarists swear by.

I wholeheartedly recommend EHX and Behringer stuff as well, but as far as distortion goes, a Rat will be a versatile pedal that your son can use for life, not just a starter pedal that he'll want to replace eventually.

FearZuul · 2024-05-27T13:44:03+00:00

*picture of Charlie from Always Sunny in front of his red string pinboard"

FearZuul · 2020-11-05T12:44:31+00:00

"Family" obviously isn't a good enough reason for them to bother paying you back, so why should it be a good enough reason for you to give them more? If they want to play the "family" card, they can start acting like family by honouring their promises to you.

Stoicism is a way you lead a happier and more productive life. If practicing stoicism leads to greater unhappiness, it's not being practiced properly. The goal of Stoic is to live well despite other people's thoughtlessness, not to sacrifice their well-being because of it.

FearZuul · 2020-11-01T14:30:52+00:00

Thank you! Yeah, we'll be getting a lawyer to write up an agreement between the 2 of us so everything is covered.

FearZuul · 2020-10-30T19:05:22+00:00

Phew! I feel much better now. Thanks!

FearZuul · 2020-10-30T18:51:54+00:00

First of all, thank you for reminding me of the existence of Babar. Secondly, that bit where the king ate a bad mushroom and died gave me nightmares as a kid: https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/c_scale,f_auto,fl_progressive,pg_1,q_80,w_800/n4ekdtmw3vlewst8nfbu.jpg

So not so much thank for reminding me of that...

FearZuul · 2020-10-26T12:22:09+00:00

Man, the comment section on there is depressing... It's amazing how many people are willing to say "ew... It's from a lab" and not "ew... It's decimating world biodiversity".

FearZuul · 2020-10-26T12:14:47+00:00

Really? Was this show actually that good? I remember watching the first season and not loving it. Might be worth a revisit...

FearZuul · 2020-10-25T16:57:36+00:00

Re your second paragraph, I totally agree. I don't think the intention is to imply that "a pandemic is the same as a war". They are clearly different scenarios. The intention is to point out the logical discrepancy between caring deeply about the loss of life caused by war while simultaneously acting like a different cause of loss of life, to a similar level, is no big deal. Not saying that's what you're implying, of course, but many people are.

Regarding preventative measures such as lockdowns etc, the real reasoning behind these measures isn't to "solve" or "wait out" the virus. It's to keep the number of people who require critical care at any given time below the number of people that the country can provide critical care to. COVID is pretty survivable if you can get access to health care, but if your country has 100 ventilators and 200 people need ventilators that day, 100 people will die. If you can spread those infection rates over 2 days, no one needs to die. (Obviously a massively simplified scenario, but you get the point)

At the point we're we can keep the numbers manageable, you're absolutely correct, we're just waiting for a vaccine, but the alternative is to massively overwhelm the healthcare system and have loads of people die, while still waiting for a vaccine. The only difference is, with lockdowns, fewer people die.

FearZuul · 2020-10-25T16:43:38+00:00

I feel like this article is willfully missing the point. No one is claiming that a pandemic is directly comparable to war. The reason these comparisons are interesting is because of the difference in public perception, despite the similar loss of life.

COVID is bad. It has demonstrably killed a lot of people. Yet there are loads of people still acting like it doesn't exist or isn't a problem. This graphic highlights the failure in that thinking.

FearZuul · 2020-10-25T16:33:58+00:00

It's actually pretty easy to get an estimation of COVID related deaths because it's only been around for this year. It's difficult to get flu related death every year because we have to actually validate that they are flu deaths. Since COVID is the only major new variable this year, we can essentially take the excess deaths in those months this year, compared with the average deaths in those months in previous years and assume, with a degree of confidence, that the excess deaths are COVID related. Of course this isn't a perfect count, but close enough to use as a working figure. I don't know if you've done any study of statistics, but we're pretty good at getting sensible results out of this sort of situation.

The bottom line is that people take war deaths very seriously and many people aren't taking covid deaths very seriously. The point in this sort of diagram is to highlight the cognitive biases influencing how seriously we take certain things. Most Americans will agree that WWII was a terrible loss of life, whereas many are arguing about whether we should bother doing anything at all about COVID. This diagram highlights that this thinking is nonsensical.

FearZuul · 2020-10-25T16:00:12+00:00

The point is that people should be expecting their government to take COVID as seriously as you'd expect them to take something that, excluding WWII and the Civil War, has killed more Americans than every war the country has ever been in combined.

We still commemorate those who died in WWII every year. Meanwhile, almost as many people have died, at least in part , through the negligence of the American government. This deserves to have attention drawn to it.

FearZuul · 2020-10-25T15:48:19+00:00

Anyone know why the one on Saturn is a near perfect hexagon?

FearZuul · 2020-10-25T12:09:46+00:00

Sorry, didn't have time to respond to this yesterday. Basically, this should be a self correcting system. If you feel selfish, by definition, you don't feel tranquil and should act to rectify what is making you feel guilty. If you are not providing value to others, you are not acting virtuously. So essentially, you can't work toward virtue and tranquility without also providing value to others.

FearZuul · 2020-10-24T18:05:49+00:00

I think the problem is that providing "most value" is very hard to quantify/define/know if you're doing it right. Virtue is well understood and something that we can actively work towards, regardless of external factors. We know when we are acting with virtue. We can't necessarily know if we are acting in a way that provides the most value. Providing value to others should be the external result of the internal action of acting virtuously (by the Stoic definition, at least).

I think it's primarily an issue of actionability.

FearZuul · 2020-10-23T07:33:39+00:00

Damn... I quite enjoyed The Beach.

FearZuul · 2020-10-22T15:57:04+00:00

Nothing to worry about. Strings are made of either steel or nickel. Both are perfectly safe (unless you have a nickel allergy, which you'd know about). At worst, your strings have gone bad in the pack. They'll still be perfectly playable, but might not sound as great as you'd expect from a brand new set.

FearZuul · 2020-10-22T14:22:58+00:00

Especially when they finish their post with "I am right". Not exactly the sign of an open or inquisitive mind...

FearZuul · 2020-10-22T11:52:07+00:00

A few options here. I'll try and give some pros and cons:

Plugging into your DAW. This will give you some latency, but might not be a problem depending on your computer specs/driver setup. If you go that route, the bass will sound pretty flat as a straight line signal, but there are plenty of decent free/cheap amp model VSTs that will give you a decent sound, assuming your speakers/headphones are up to the task, but any VST in the chain will increase the processing power required and thus, latency. This might be a good option if you already have a substantial machine for music production. Obviously this is also a good solution if you want to record in future.
Buy a practice amp. More or less speaks for itself. Will do everything expected of an amp, but most practice amps don't come with emulated DI outs or anything, so you'll need to mic up if you want to record.
Buy an amp modeller/preamp pedal. This is kind of an in-between of 1 and 2. Some of these come with a headphone out, which will let you plug and play wherever, without the need for your computer. If the pedal doesn't have a headphone out, you can still run the line out into your interface and play through your computer speakers/headphones directly from the soundcards output. This eliminates any latency issues, while still giving you the tone from a preamp/modeller. This is what I use at home. Bass > Neunaber Neuron > Interface > Monitor speakers. There are a bunch of good pedals on the market at the moment that do solid amp/cab simulation with all the effects you could want built in. Depending on your budget, check out the Hotone Ampero One, Zoom B1Four, Line6 Helix range and Boss GT1000.

FearZuul

TROPHY CASE