My mom called me crying recently. She’s 68 years old, overweight, inactive, and suffers from a litany of “old-age ailments” including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, borderline diabetes, arthritis, and hearing and vision limitations. Her situation probably sounds familiar to a lot of baby boomers and their kids.

Every Sunday evening, she loads her four-by-seven pill case with her 12 prescription medications, three vitamins, and two over-the-counter pain relievers. She can’t remember or even pronounce the names of most of these pills. She can barely recall which are for her heart and which are for her joints. Sometimes she skips taking her pills altogether. She figures if she’s feeling good, why mess with it? My mom is not alone.

This is also a Sunday evening task for me, too. Doesn't reduce me to tears exactly, but it does give me lots to think about. I love what people are working on—a centralized database for tracking medications, better storage methods, better ways to track your medications, and more.

How the Humble Washing Machine Is Getting a Digital Spin

On August 9, 1910, 101 years ago to the day, the U.S. Patent Office granted Alva J. Fisher of the Hurley Machine Co. a patent for an electrically powered washing machine.

In recent years, the washing machine has been transformed from a utilitarian appliance to a tweeting, texting, mobile-friendly and Internet-connected addition to the digital home.

We saw a few clever washing machine hacks, inspired by Twitter, introduced between 2007 and 2009. At CES, manufacturers such as LG teased audiences with the notion of a smart home, where appliances would talk to each other and the web. Some of these washers are just now becoming available for consumer purchase.

What’s next in the evolution of the washing machine? With Wi-Fi prevalent in homes and social media the preoccupation du jour, should we expect to see washers, dryers and other in-home appliances become sophisticated extensions of our digital obsessions? Or is this a fad that will fade with time? Chime in with your thoughts in the comments.

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Laundry Room Twitter Bot

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Roland Crosby created the @laundryroom Twitter bot in early 2007 during his freshman year in college. The bot spoke on behalf of a laundry room, at Needham, Massachusetts’ Franklin W. Olin College, with two washers, two dryers and a condom dispenser — it would update followers on the availability of each machine.

As of 2010, Crosby’s bot has ceased to update followers, but the creation did get ample press mentions and was mentioned in conjunction with other sensor-based applications at the heart of the web 2.0 movement by Tim O’Reilly at the Web 2.0 Expo in 2008.

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The Washing Machine Hack

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In 2009, Ryan Rose made headlines for his Washing Machine Twitter Hack.

Rose’s replicable machination calls for a network port, BS2 Stamp, 9 volt power inverter and a limit switch to detect wash mode. When added to a washer (an old Maytag model in Rose’s case), the end result is an automatic way of getting notified by tweet that your laundry is done.

Rose’s washer @PiMPY3WASH is, to this day, still updating the world via Twitter with each completed load.

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Smart Washers

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The Internet-connected washer of tomorrow promises those with a penchant for digital and social behaviors a way to get more function out of their appliances, without the need to hack or modify the machines on their own.

LG demonstrated the potential of connected appliances with a preview of its THINQ line and futuristic home appliance strategy at CES in 2011. The product line proposed to offer homeowners a way to manage their appliances via PC, tablet and mobile applications.

“This year will be the beginning of a new era of home appliances. By that I mean that we have reached the tipping point where appliances are now run entirely by CPUs and computer code,” Young-ha Lee, president and CEO of LG’s Home Appliance Company said at the time. “Just as automobiles became rolling computers a decade ago, home appliances are experiencing the same transformation.”

Now, LG’s Smart Washing Machine, model FR4349BAYZ, is making its debut in Korea. The machine allows users to monitor and control the appliance via an Android application. The device is expected to be released in more markets before the end of the year.

Two weeks later, Emerson wrote a letter to a friend and mentor, an older minister named Henry Ware, who had been critical of Emerson's speech. Emerson wrote: "What you say about the discourse at Divinity College, is just what I might expect from your truth and charity, combined with your known opinions. I am not a stock or stone, as one said in the old time; and could not but feel pain in saying some things in that place and presence, which I supposed might meet dissent, and the dissent, I might say, of dear friends and benefactors of mine. Yet, as my conviction is perfect in the substantial truth of the doctrine of this discourse, and is not very new, you will see, at once, that it must appear to me very important that it be spoken; and I thought I would not pay the nobleness of my friends so mean a compliment, as to suppress my opposition of their supposed views out of fear of offense. I would rather say to them, these things look thus to me; to you, otherwise. Let us say out our uttermost word, and be the all-pervading truth, as it surely will, judge between us. [...] I heartily thank you for this renewed expression of your tried toleration and love."

Today's the anniversary of Emerson's Divinity School Address in 1838. Even more than the story of the speech as retold on The Writer's Almanac, I was struck by Emerson's reaction to criticism. I wish we showed the same openness anrsed generosity of heart in our discourse today.

Economics correspondent Paul Solman revisits Lincoln Electric, a welding manufacturing company based outside Cleveland, Ohio. Through its use of merit-based profit-sharing and a no-layoff policy, the firm is an unlikely Rust Belt success story that hasn't laid off anyone for financial reasons since World War II.

This report from the PBS NewsHour on July 13, 2011, attracted my attention at first merely because it was from a hometown company. But I found the story of pay for performance really fascinating. The managers in the story acknowledge that it's harder to administer a system like this, and the employees acknowledge that it's not for everyone—they don't feel that everyone can produce at the level required. I made an immediate association with the contract proposed to teachers in Washington, DC. They were offered a chance to earn higher salaries or bonuses if they gave up tenure. I don't think teaching results are exactly similar to manufacturing productivity, but I wonder how this model could have been applied here, and with what results.