Things continue to look bleak for the original robot vacuum maker. iRobot’s third-quarter results, released last week, show that revenue is down and “well below our internal expectations due to continuing market headwinds, ongoing production delays, and unforeseen shipping disruptions,” said Gary Cohen, iRobot CEO, in a press release.

This meant they had to spend more cash and are now down to under $25 million. “At this time, the Company has no sources upon which it can draw for additional capital,” said Cohen.

The Roomba manufacturer has been struggling for several years in the face of increased competition from Chinese manufacturers. A sale to Amazon in 2022 looked to be its lifeline; however, regulatory scrutiny scuppered the deal, and the company was left in further turmoil. It laid off over 30 percent of its staff, lost its founder and CEO, Colin Angle, and was left with substantial debt as a result of the fallout.

This year, iRobot launched an entirely new line of robot vacuums, ostensibly to better compete with companies like Roborock, Ecovacs, and Dreame, adding lidar navigation to its line for the first time (over VSLAM). The new models look significantly different from the original Roombas and more like their competitors. They also use a different app with fewer features, but added some new hardware features the previous models lacked, including spinning mop pads and a roller mop.

In a regulatory filing earlier this month, the company warned it may be forced to seek bankruptcy protection following the breakdown of advanced negotiations with a potential buyer, and if it couldn’t secure additional funding.

Roomba customers are understandably concerned about the impact these current financial troubles might have on their home cleaning robots.

Earlier this month, fellow American robot vacuum manufacturer Neato, which shut down in 2023, pulled the plug on its cloud services, leaving its robots unable to communicate with the Neato app. However, the vacuums can still be controlled manually.

Similarly, if iRobot goes out of business and its cloud shuts down, most Roombas should still continue to work in offline mode — pressing the physical button on the robot to start, stop, and dock it. However, they likely wouldn’t be controllable via the app for features like scheduling or specific room cleaning, or via voice commands. This potential dilemma just further highlights that cloud-connected devices should be enhanced by connectivity, not reliant on it.

CNN profiled the non-profit Internet Archive today — and included this tidbit about how they archive parts of the internet that are now "tucked in conversations with AI chatbots."

China and Japan have repeatedly faced off around the Japan-administered islands, which Beijing calls Diaoyu and Tokyo calls the Senkaku.

A China coast guard ship formation passed through the waters of the Senkaku Islands on Sunday on a "rights enforcement patrol," the coast guard said in a statement, as Beijing ramps up tensions with Japan over its prime minister's remarks about Taiwan.

A diplomatic spat between China and Japan has intensified since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told parliament on Nov. 7 that a hypothetical Chinese attack on democratically ruled Taiwan could trigger a military response from Tokyo.

The remarks sparked an angry response from Beijing, which has signaled that it expects Takaichi to retract them in some fashion.

Google will start taking action on Android apps in the official Google Play store that have high background activity and cause excessive battery draining.

Not sure if this is allowed, but I'm sure the mods will let me know.

Memories. LOL Things were so simple way back then it seems.

Did anyone host a BBS? I found this article kind of funny about 'fixing' WIndows by C:\FORMAT C:. Some things don't change. LOL

youtube.com/watch?v=x4aciUXmmT…

Everything you wanted to know about using Cloudflare Zero Trust Argo tunnels for your personal network. For those like me who were still confused even after reading the article, I think this is the lowdown:

• ZT tunnels let you expose private resources/services to the internet (or your users) via Cloudflare’s edge network. You install cloudflared on an internal host, and register a “tunnel” so that requests to a hostname or IP get forwarded securely into your network (similar to tailscale).
• Unlike classic VPNs (which open full network access) or traditional Cloudflare tunnels (which merely publish a service), this approach adds granular access control; you can define exactly who can access which resource, based on identity, device posture, login method, etc.
• It also solves NAT/firewall issues often faced by P2P-based overlays (e.g., Tailscale) by routing everything through Cloudflare’s network, avoiding connectivity failures when peer-to-peer fails.

For in-browser auth you can then use Cloudflare Access, or you can install the cloudflare Warp client which is a VPN-like thing that would give you full control over the access to whatever service(s) you were exposing this way.

According to the Open Hub website, Linux has 37,016,567 lines of code, but this is small compared to NetBSD and OpenBSD, which have 72,065,568 and 81,902,070 lines of code, respectively.

Is there a reason why Linux has fewer lines of code compared to NetBSD and OpenBSD? I'd like to know.

The Trump administration has a new European target in its crosshairs: China's state ownership of Piraeus port in Greece.

“It is unfortunate, but I think there’s ways around it, that something could be worked out, whether you pursue a path of enhancing output in other areas or perhaps that Piraeus could be for sale,” the U.S. ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle, said in an interview with local outlet Antenna TV.

China invested heavily in debt-ridden Greece during the country's lengthy economic crisis, with the goal of making it a hub for Chinese exports. Athens actively courted Beijing as companies from other Western countries turned away from Greece, spooked by its financial woes and infamous bureaucracy.

I'm being hyperbolic [the greatest book ever is obviously Capital (/s)], but I really do love Quotations. It was the first piece of theory I ever read and I think it really helped me although I don't follow it religiously [although maybe I should in a few places]. Idk, in a good mood today so wanted to share that

I'm almost there guys

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/9782130

It's a church non-profit classified as a "retail" thrift store.

Meant to aid the homeless and needy.

Here in Virginia, I needed it.

I certainly needed the income because my funds or money have dried up or almost have.

But goddamn, tomorrow's the first day.

It's a small building and it's pretty homely from what I've seen of it.

Commute is 30 minutes long, but I'm transferring to another area that's about 10 to 15 minutes away in a month or two.

I'm on a probationary period as a full-time worker for three months so my job seems safe for the time being.

But I have to do cashier-work, pricing and stocking, and lift to about 50 lbs., among other retail work.

Honestly? Nobody ever had me do cashier-work before in all the time I've worked retail before. Is there a video or source online that walks you step-by-step on how to do it? And what about pricing and stocking items?

Usually, I did backroom work before and even that I found a bit hard.

I get paid $13.00, which is more than I received before.

They said it would be busy now.

I'm sure I can do it... but goddamn, I'm nervous...

Can someone give any insite how I can put pin or biometric locks on apps using stock android?

I can't take a lot of cold medicines, but I wish I was unconscious right now.

What makes you feel better in this situation? Hot showers? Whiskey? Soup? Watching that comfort movie your mom put on when you were a kid?

The nation’s most advanced aircraft carrier arrived in the Caribbean Sea on Sunday in a display of U.S. military power, raising questions about what the new influx of troops and weaponry could signal for the Trump administration’s intentions in South America as it conducts military strikes against vessels suspected of transporting drugs.

The arrival of the USS Gerald R. Ford and other warships, announced by the Navy in a statement, marks a major moment in what the administration insists is a counterdrug operation but has been seen as an escalating pressure tactic against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Since early September, U.S. strikes have killed at least 80 people in 20 attacks on small boats accused of transporting drugs in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean.