clips of logic

A group of designers came up with an idea to help those who can’t tell if a fruit is rotten, pick the fresh ones.

In supermarkets where loads of veggies is stacked and dumped, freshness may not be a priority. Keeping a track of all that’s been brought in can be time consuming and not all buyers may have a knack for freshness count. The Fresh Code offers a simple solution to this problem; it’s an intelligent barcode with a graph that indicates the freshness level. As time passes by, the graph on the barcode keeps receding, till it finally reaches “0”; indicating that the veggie needs to be dumped and not sold – Yanko Design

If only they have one that also tell you if you are being ripped off by the supermarket. I might actually enjoy shopping then.

Not gun fights or fist fights but goals and tasks that you decide to challenge in your everyday life. You can’t just get yourself into every fight and expect to win. Here’s some tips to prepare yourself for the next challenge.

1. Divide and Conquer – Split the objective into smaller ones. This should be intuitive. You are not Ip Man so stop trying to fight 10 battles at the same time.
2. Henchmen first, Boss last – Like in movies, the protagonist always fight his/her way through the henchmen before confronting the boss. Complete the simpler tasks first to build up confidence.
3. Skip some fights – There is no reason to fight every single battle out there. It is wise to only fight those you need to and let your sidekick handle the rest.
4. Don’t bring a knife to a gun-fight – Make sure you are well-equipped. You are going to need all the help you can get.
5. It’s okay to run – If it’s just too hard, retreat and fight another day. Go for something that’s easier first (Rule #2). Don’t waste time on fights that you can’t win (yet).

If you keep these tips in mind, you’ll never lose a fight again.

When I was kid, I was quite proud with the fact that I knew the names of all the 9 planets (yes it was 9 back then) in the Solar System. I read about them in books and one of my favourite book was the Oxford Children’s Pocket Book of Facts. It’s like a mini encyclopedia with lots of colorful illustration.

In high school, however, the only books that I read or rather forced to read are textbooks. Textbooks are these evil tomes of facts strung together in random order to vaguely resemble a story. Basically, reading a textbook is boring and that somehow made reading itself seemed boring too.

My passion for reading books was re-ignited with the release of The Da Vinci Code after I just entered the workforce. From there, I went on to non-fiction books like The Innovator’s Dilemma, Crossing the Chasm and Permission Marketing. It’s more fun when you get to choose what to read.

Some of these books literally changed my life and the best part is about reading is that the more you read, the more you want to. There is always more things to learn out there. Things you’ll never learn in school.

So is it possible that the negative experience from reading textbooks in school is the reason many of us stop reading? Or could it be that the education system actually stifled our curiosity and creativity? Whatever the reason, I do hope everyone can rediscover their passion to read again. It shouldn’t be that hard. After all, you are reading this post.

If you think women have good memory and seems to be able to recall even the tiniest of details, the web is probably a million times better at it. It remembers every post you blogged, every picture you uploaded and every status update you tweet.

Google crawl and index everything on the web. The Wayback Machine archives web pages which allows you somewhat go back in time and as of 2009, has accumulated 3 petabytes (3 million gigabytes) of data.

Facebook is now the biggest photo site on the web followed Flickr and Photobucket. Geo-location on Twitter now tracks not only what you are doing now but also where you are.

People are now sharing almost every part of their life on the web sometimes with dire consequences. RobMeNow is a site created to warn us about the danger of sharing our current location to the world.

The web used to only contain histories and memories of our life. But with the recent rush of real-time technologies like Twitter and Foursquare, it is possible to find out up-to-date information about someone on the web.

Think twice before you post that status update about your vacation or that rant about your boss on the web. Think of your online presence as your personal brand and try not to taint it. Don’t forget that the web never forgets.

There is no doubt that in some point of your life, you may have been motivated by monetary rewards. Your parents might have offered a nice sum if you pass your exam or you reconsider your resignation after your manager give you a pay raise.

But does this always work? Economists set up an experiment to see if offering to pay for blood donation effects our behavior. It turns out that the act of paying for blood donation somehow tainted this act of altruism and less people show up. In this case, monetary incentive actually reduces the performance of the activity.

If monetary incentive don’t work all the time, what about monetary punishment. In another experiment, a kindergarten decided to fine parents who come late to pick up their child. Instead of reducing the number of children staying back late, it increases the amount of late parents. They can now be guilt-free by paying the fine.

Money being an extrinsic motivator, seem to back-fire in some cases. They say money can’t buy happiness. It seems there is much more that money can’t buy.