The Seattle Post-Intelligencer's Todd Bishop reports that Microsoft, Whirlpool and other members of the CABA Internet Home Alliance are testing a system that connects a washer and dryer to a wireless home network and sends notifications to your PC, TV or mobile phone when your laundry's done.

"The 'Laundry Time' system also goes further, to let people control the washer and dryer from a distance -- pressing a button on a cell phone, for example, to keep the dryer going a few extra minutes until you get home," bishop writes.

This news has already been Slashdotted, resulting in a range of mostly jeering responses, including, "An oven should be an oven. A refrigerator should be a refrigerator. A dryer should be a dryer. Any added networking technology (or any other whiz-bang gizmos) for what are basically a hot box, a cold box and a heated drum is just insanity."

"Several families in Atlanta will test the Laundry Time system in an eight-week study scheduled to start next week," Bishop writes.

Doesn't sound like insanity to me at all -- in fact, I'm jealous: sign me up!