The feedback has also led to warmer wards in the cold weather, an end to noisy vacuum cleaning first thing in the morning, and better access to TV remote controls.

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At the higher end, a few stores specialized in rice cookers and vacuum cleaners, and a few others sold headphones and MP3 players.

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These robots--whether designed to cut your grass or merely to keep you entertained--are luxury items, and with the exception of the relatively inexpensive Roomba robotic vacuum, they are owned mainly by hobbyists and high-end gadget enthusiasts.

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''If we get it wrong, we could end up with nothing, and at the moment we're in a vacuum which creates a financial limbo and a planning limbo.

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You had merely to lead them to the plate-glass porch door and point out a squirrel or a cat running on the railing, or the automatic pool vacuum flipping its tail in the water as it carried on, side to side, end to end.

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Foreign Secretary David Miliband said on Tuesday the war in Afghanistan was not a "war without end" but stressed the need for a "clear political strategy" so as not to leave a "vacuum which the Taliban will quickly fill".

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