Posted June 12th, 2010 by sharkdancer
Robot Vacuum cleaners have the appropriate skill to clean a house. These machines are rapidly becoming the ultimate cleaning gadget. The features, size and design of one such unit makes it a perfect machine to clean every corner of the house.
These are a lot more efficient than the traditional cleaning units. Since, these units have a variety of cleaning options, keeping the house clean takes less time and labor.
An overview of Robot vacuum cleaners can best show the performance of this machine.
Shape and Size
These units are small in size and their shapes are mostly flat. This helps it to reach every corner of the house making the cleaning process more efficient.
Automated to prevent bumping
These units have sensors attached on their body. These sensors prevent the machine from bumping against any furniture or other equipments inside the house. The gadget is also prevented from falling off stair cases because of these smart sensors. The user can now avoid the task of shifting things from one place to another while the cleaning is being done.
Easy Maintenance
Generally, these vacuum cleaners are not fitted with complicated dust bags. This makes the cleaning of the unit easier. As a result, it also consumes less time.
Superior Cleaning Technology
These modern vacuum cleaners are accompanied with sensors that help them in detecting each and every dust particle that needs to be cleaned. These sensors also help in reminding the machine if any specific part of the house has been left untouched during a cleaning session. This makes the gadget highly efficient in cleaning the house.
With the passage of time these cleaning machines are becoming more efficient as newer technologies are being incorporated in them. Some modern gadgets of this kind are coming with the option of disinfecting the house. This helps in cleaning as well as keeping the house germ-free.
Laser vision technology is the latest integration in robot vacuums. This will assist the gadget in avoiding most of the obstacles present inside a room. Smarter a cleaning machine becomes, lesser the time the user has to spend in cleaning the house. After all, a cleaning machine is installed to save time, so why not save more?
RobotShop is one of the leading robot suppliers in USA. You can contact them if you want to find the latest robot vacuums in the market.
Posted June 11th, 2010 by sharkdancer
In part I of this article, we examined the effects of management ignoring customer service to focus on “sexier” parts of the business, and introduced a couple of the negative things that can happen as a result. Let’s continue on:
VOICE MAIL HELL
This is my pet peeve and the pet peeve of many other people as well. I’m a tech guy, and love the application of leading edge technologies to reduce labor costs. But enough, already! A number of otherwise good companies have taken automated voice mail attendants way too far. They make you feel like a mouse in a 6 square mile maze. Companies need to remember that when you pick up the phone to call, it’s with the intention to TALK TO SOMEBODY. Using technology to quickly route people to the correct department, or answer simple inquires like directions to the company, is an efficient use of technology for both the company and customer. But making it extremely hard to get through to ANYONE, even after wading through seemingly endless nested menus—is just ridiculous. The only purpose it serves is too alienate your customers and prospects. This is truly the definition of “penny wise, pound foolish”.
UNTRAINED OR UNDER-QUALIFIED CUSTOMER AND TECHNICAL SUPPORT REPS
After waiting in voice mail hell, you think it can’t get any worse. But wait. After the one half hour wait, your call is now answered by someone so green, so incompetent or so rude that frustration turns to rage. You are asked to enter your account number on the phone pad. Then the rep answers, and again requests the exact same information. You haven’t reached the right department, of course, so you are transferred to another department, where the rep asks you, yet again, for the exact same information. After this rep finally fills in his or her form (not answering ANY questions until it’s complete), you ask them about your situation, that cries out for an exception to normal company policy. The rep robotically and coldly repeats the company policy—which you already knew. Think someone will want to do business with this company again? Customer and technical support is CRITICAL in the long run. It’s one of the true long term differentiators in the market. Spend a little more to hire and retain good people, train them well, and empower them to actually take care of real world customer issues. It will pay back many times in the future.
UNFRIENDLY HOURS OF OPERATION
I’m on the West Coast of the US, so this happens all the time. Try to call customer support in the early afternoon, but the office closes at 5P Eastern Standard Time. This is a particularly important issue for those of you serving consumer markets—many people can’t easily call support lines from work, without putting their employment in jeopardy. In this day of inexpensive, fast communications technology and worldwide commerce, there is no excuse for inconvenient business hours for the markets that you serve.
PREDATORY SUPPORT COSTS
This is something that has continually degraded for customers over time. It used to be that technology companies supported their products for free. The economics of competition has, in the long run, made this go the way of the dinosaurs. Many times, this is with good reason. A well-priced maintenance contract, from a B2B software company which provides an 800 number, unlimited supported, and all major and minor updates, can be a really good value. If it is priced at the industry standard 18-20% of product cost, and enables the vender to provide excellent support—that’s great. But what if the support is lousy and it’s priced at 30% of the cost of the product annually? Or how about a consumer software company that is charging $100/hour, without even the benefit of a free 30 day startup window, to troubleshoot their buggy and non-intuitive product? Give me a break! If you want to stand out in today’s market, try providing an intuitive, bug free product, coupled with free or reasonable support (there won’t be many support calls needed if you do this!). People will beat a path toward your door—and tell every friend they have. This won’t show up in the Controller’s cost control report—but the benefits to your company’s top line will be enormous.
So these are some of the low tech ways to screw up a high tech business. Software and Tech CEOs, keep your eye on the customer service ball. Otherwise, a savvy and opportunistic competitor, with lesser product technology, may take advantage and steal a piece of your market share.
Posted June 10th, 2010 by sharkdancer
Space science is the study of everything above and beyond the surface of the Earth, from Earth’s atmosphere to the very edges of the universe. Space Technology refers to the technology in satellites and ground systems used by space scientists to study the universe (looking up) and the earth (looking down), or to deliver services to users on the ground. The vast majority of satellites are launched into space to provide services to people on Earth.
Satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavor. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon. Space is the property of the universe, in which matter is physically extended and objects have positions relative to one another.
In classical mechanics, space was treated as being separate from time and is thought of as one of the few fundamental physical quantities. In Isaac Newton’s view space was absolute, and held that it exists permanently and independently of whether there is any matter in the space or moving through it.
Space exploration is the use of astronomy and space technology to explore outer space. Physical exploration of space is conducted both by human spaceflights and by robotic spacecraft. Space exploration has often been used as a proxy competition for geopolitical rivalries such as the Cold War.
The first human spaceflight was Vostok 1 (East 1), carrying 27 year old cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on April 12, 1961. The spacecraft completed one orbit around the globe, lasting about 1 hour and 48 minutes. Gagarin’s flight resonated around the world; it was a demonstration of the advanced Soviet space program and it opened an entirely new era in space exploration — human spaceflight.
Space Shuttle Discovery (Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-103) is one of the three currently operational orbiters in the Space Shuttle fleet of NASA, the space agency of the United States. (The other two are Atlantis and Endeavour.) When first flown in 1984, Discovery became the third operational orbiter, and is now the oldest orbiter in service. Discovery has performed both research and International Space Station (ISS) assembly missions.
Space technology is technology that is related to entering space, maintaining and using systems during spaceflight and returning people and things from space.
Space technology has a huge impact on the everyday lives of people; and something as simple as checking the weather or watching satellite television or receiving a parcel guided by satellite, it touches most people’s lives on any given day.
Posted June 10th, 2010 by sharkdancer
Technology relates to both the physical aspects of machines, equipment, processes and work layout, and the actual methods, systems and procedures involved in the carrying out of work. Technology is therefore a major influence on the general climate of the organization and the behavior of people at work.
During a study in a new American car assembly, developed by Chrysler, Walker and Guest, researchers examined the effects of mass production. They describe the characteristics of assembly line as: repetitious and machine paced; involving a minimum of skill; using predetermined techniques with no choice of tools or methods; and closely defined divisions of the production process. The workers were able to perform their jobs with only ‘surface mental attention’.
The nature of the job, the technological layout and the high level of noise restricted the amount of social interaction and contacts that workers could have with each other. The opportunities for interpersonal relationships were important, and when these were missing the workers felt deprived. The workers’ main contact with authority was through the supervisors and this was an important factor in job satisfaction. There was little contact with the managers and as a result relationships with management were considered of little importance. They also had a higher rate of absenteeism than workers did in jobs with fewer characteristics of mass production.
Although these negative results exist in most of today’s business units, information technology can have a severe positive impact on job satisfaction. New patterns of work organization are demanded, the nature and content of individual jobs is altered, the function and structure of work groups is subject to change, supervision systems are being renewed, responsibilities are shifted, and the management task adopts a new role.
Speaking generally, the major effect of computers, robots, and other new technologies on job design seems to be that the role of the human half of the partnership has changed, not that it has become less important. The new technology is creating a need for better-trained employees, in almost every case. The computerization of the banking industry has considerably expanded not diminished, teller training needs for example.
Because automation increase the need for skilled employees, research finds that the people who see automation as a threat to their job security tend to be skilled in opposition to those with higher skill levels. Employees with high skill levels react more favorably, seeing the situation as creating opportunities for them to expand their work skills.
Posted June 10th, 2010 by sharkdancer
My earlier article entitled “Adverse Effect of Technology” resulted in an avalanche of e-mail from readers, all predominantly favorable. In that article I put forth an observation that “As the use of technology increases, social skills decreases.” I want to take this concept a little further herein.
Before we had computers and the sophisticated communication devices we now have in the work place, there was a lot of manual processing involved. Orders were processed manually, as were shipments, financial transactions, and many other business processes. All involved considerable paperwork with documents, reports, journals, logs, spreadsheets, etc. We of course used the latest technology of the day which included such things as typewriters, adding machines, filing systems, cash registers, and tabulating equipment. Nonetheless, the emphasis was on manual processing which meant we were forced to work together, like it or not, hence the need for better interpersonal communications. In other words, out of sheer necessity we were forced to socialize in order for the company to function properly. Since the business processes were so laborious, companies would worry about losing time on a task, hence the need for long range planning.
Today, electronic automation is used to implement just about every business process in a company. The idea of operating without computer support or electronic communications is unimaginable. True, such devices have been able to expedite the processes, but in doing so people no longer have to interact in order to fulfill their jobs, hence the breakdown in interpersonal communications. And because our tasks are not as laborious as they once were, the technology allows us to make changes on the fly. Consequently, long range planning has been sacrificed and reactionary management practices have taken their place. In reality, long range planning is still very much needed in order to remain competitive in a world economy, but this is not the mindset in today’s corporate cultures anymore.
As I mentioned in my article, we have developed an overt dependency on our technology which results in three areas of concern: first, that a company comes to a standstill when the power is disrupted (we can no longer perform the business processes); second, it tends to emphasize short-term planning as opposed to long range (whereby we are content to perform small tasks), and; third, basic interpersonal relations are negatively affected because we are no longer forced to interact with others.
Again, I am most definitely not anti-technology, but neither am I anti-human socialization. If I have learned anything in the 30+ years of experience in the information systems industry, it is that people matter most of all; that it is people who use information, not technology; that projects and business processes are executed by human-beings, not robots; that it is the human-being which is of paramount importance in everything.
I have always found it rather easy to teach people technology, In fact, it is relatively easy to program a person to use a particular device. But it is much more difficult to teach them the socialization skills to effectively interact with others. This is why our corporate slogan remains, “Software for the finest computer – the Mind.”
If you would like to discuss this with me in more depth, please do not hesitate to send me an e-mail.