EUGENE VOLOKH IS READY TO ROOMBA: Actually, he’s Roomba-ing right now, and reporting on the results. I bought one of those automated vacuum-cleaners and returned it after a week. We have a lot of hardwood floors with pretty thick oriental rugs on them, and the Roomba seemed to have trouble with the transition. It was also pretty noisy. The result: you couldn’t leave it to clean in your absence, and it was no fun having it clean in your presence. I think they’ll eventually solve these problems, but this model didn’t do the job for me. It did seem to clean quite well in the spots it could get to.