Firmware: Neato Custom

Time bent around the project. Members moved on, jobs changed, a marriage bore a child, and the grad student defended a thesis. The garage rearranged itself into a living room once more. Yet the Neatos — units plural now, modified and patient — continued their rounds, now with custom routines humbly woven into household life. One of the members, years later, would remark at a reunion that they had not just altered a vacuum but helped articulate a model for what devices might offer if released from the tyranny of canned behavior: responsiveness, transparency, and a humble respect for privacy.