Word: home
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...thrilled to see that this year's titles include Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, by J.K. Rowling, sequel to last year's sensational Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. So last week we raced to our favorite bookstore to snap up a copy. As we drove home, my daughter cracked it open and started reading aloud. She laughed. She chortled. She did an English accent. And I enjoyed one of those shining moments when you realize that despite your parental shortcomings, things have turned out the way they're supposed...
...daily habit of reading fiction. Last fall we joined with some other mothers and daughters from school and formed a book group. Working from a list provided by a local bookstore, we choose titles appropriate for adolescents and read them together. Once a month we meet at the home of one of the members to eat pizza and discuss our book. Some of the observations are startling, some banal. But the talk is always lively, and we like it so much that we've decided to continue the group through summer and into the next school year...
Luckily, the consumer in need of a home robot has a more affordable (and potentially more useful) choice: Cye, a "personal robot" created by Probotics Inc., based in Pittsburgh, Pa. About the size of a toaster oven, Cye made its debut on the Web www.personalrobots.com) where it goes for $695. An optional vacuum cleaner and wagon add size and dollars...
...control it via your 133-MHz-or-faster PC. A small radio antenna plugs into the PC's communications port and, with the help of Cye's Map-N-Zap software, beams instructions to the robot. Before heading out on an excursion, Cye must be placed on a "home base," an electric pad that doubles as a recharger and orientation point. By dragging your mouse across an onscreen grid--and creating a series of checkpoints at which Cye stops to get his bearings--you chart a route...
Users looking for more practical applications might wait for later versions of Cye. It cannot manage stairs, so forget about its answering the door if you live in a split-level home. And while you can put Cye down in a room and automatically set up a zigzagging vacuum path, it's not recommended since the optional vacuum tends to get fouled in its electric cord. A cordless model is in the works. Likewise, a camera is being considered, which would make navigating--and Stein harassment--that much simpler...