OT - great quote
Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA
>You may have seen the references to a study that found people become "deeply attached" to their Roomba automatic vacuum cleaners (even, apparently, dressing them up - there's a whole industry there waiting to be born: clothes for your robot. Shopbots, of course, will be dressed in work wear, with wee Normite toolbelts). The author, or one of the authors, of the study, a computer engineering prof, is quoted in our local paper, saying, "If we can design things that are somewhat emotionally engaging, it doesn't have to be as reliable."
Leave it to a computer engineering professor to announce as new information something that owners of old cars, motorcycles, houses, and other things already know intuitively.