BuzzLife

Wah.. did you all read the Star Intech today on pg 8? We may have heard of the newest dishwashers which can rely on dirt-sniffing electronics devices and not timer to shut off. Or the vacuum cleaners which can adjust their suction power automatically when they detect how much soil and grime is on the floor. Or the high-tech microwaves which can detect the weight of popcorn and then apply the right amount of heat to get the perfect pop, or the neuro fuzzy electronic rice cooker which can detect the ratio of the rice and water and make rice cooking perfect for you! These technologies are nothing new to us.

What if your washing machine can call you on your handphone or email to you or send a pop up message to your TV once your laundry is done and tells you if you forgot your fabric softener, warns you if the lint filter is clogged or if you overload your laundry or starts your machine if you forgot to start it?

Whirlpool teams up with Panasonic, Hewlett Packard and Microsoft to provide the next generation of home solution appliances via internet connected home network to help consumer to save more time, boost efficiency and make our homes more livable. The so-called revolutionary technology test, dubbed the Laundry Time kicked off the pilot monitoring projects in 3 families in Altanta in July for a period of 6 weeks.

I couldn’t help wondering whether these giant companies did an insight market research on consumers’ cloth washing behavior before they invent this machine? I clear my lint filter after every wash, I have never put an overloaded laundry in my machine. And I can’t recall I have ever forgotten to start my washing machine! And I don’t use fabric softener because the detergent I am using is formularized with softener. It would be more helpful instead if it can warn me if I accidentally put the not-for-machine-wash fabric or colors run fabric into the washing machine!!

Well, I for one, would not pay extra to own the Laundry Time unless if it can iron and fold my laundry for me as well. Then, that would make my laundry day more complete!

For more details, read here.

Picture courtesy of AP Photo

Most of us multi-task one way or another.. be it at home, at work, during leisure time, during driving, during "berak"ing, I could go on and on. Talking on the phone as you type in your computers, as you drive, as you do housework, reading as you "berak",  are all part of multi-tasking. But when you are supposed to cover the duties of more than one person in your work place, that would be something which needs pondering.

Multi-tasking at work? Hmm.. a corporate buzz concept made these days that a few can be made to do the work of a lot. Looks like it is a trend to layoff the so-called "redundant" employees and let the stayers work more and more and more for the same pay. The latest being MAS, our national airlines which will release 2,600 employees out of the 4,500 who applied for Mutual Separation Scheme (MSS), and another further 3,900 through retirement and contract expiry. Oh.. call it VSS, MSS or natural attrition or whatsoever, the rule according to the employer is once it is done on a mutual basis, nobody is forcibly made redundant. The next question will be what’s going to happen to the morale of the loyal employees who stay behind, especially those who opt for MSS but were rejected because the company still "needs" them? Is the company going to give them a special performance incentive for covering the jobs of their colleagues? Now.. this is where the terms multi-tasking comes in or as the employers’ claim.. increase in productivity!

Do you ever wonder why you can’t recall what you did yesterday? Or even what you did an hour ago or what do you suppose to do or which task to complete first? This is an interesting article on how multi tasking makes you more stupid, a scientific research reported by Sue Shellenbarger of The Wall Street Journal.. Some excepts here: "A growing body of scientific research shows one of the jugglers’ favorite time-saving techniques, multitasking, can actually make you less efficient and, well, stupider. Trying to do two or three things at once or in quick succession can take longer overall than doing them one at at time, and might leave you reduced brainpower to perform each task.

There is a scientific evidence that multitasking is extremely hard for someone to do, and sometimes impossible, says David Meyer, a psychology professor at the University of Michigan. Chronic high-stress multitasking also is linked to short-term memory loss."

Well, do think twice the next time you multi-task..