Japan’s Smile Scanners a Classic Misuse of Technology

As pointed out on the Freakonomics Blog:

Japan’s Keihin Express Railway Co. has set up “smile scanners” at 15 of its stations, where railway employees have their smiles assessed by software in the hopes of perfecting a customer-friendly look.       LINK

This is such a classic misuse of technology by a corporation.  The goal of the company is to provide more positive and friendly customer service but their technique of using a “smile scanner” is going to have the opposite effect.  Nobody likes to be forced into happiness and the employees will end up resenting the scanners, their bosses for making them use the scanners and the customers for expecting them to smile.

Instead, a smart company would try to figure out how to make their employees genuinely happy so that they smile because they want to smile.  This would create endless positive outcomes for the company, the employees and the customers.

Sometimes technology can look like it provides a quick fix when, in fact, it is just an illusion.

CNets Jumps On My Cable-Cutting Band Wagon

Way back in December I severed my Time Warner Cable TV connection because I was tired of paying $100/month for thousands of programs I never watched – oh, and dealing with their notion of customer service gave me nothing but aggravation.

Since then, the economy and new applications like Boxee are making it easier than ever to cut the cord.

CNet has a pretty good roundup of set-top boxes that let you move the internet-video experience to that big flatscreen monster in your living room:

I’ve done a little digging through the CNET Reviews archives to highlight the top 10 boxes/computers for accessing video-on-demand content via the Web. Here’s a brief summary of each, in no particular order. You can see at a glance what makes each one cool and what makes it not so cool. And you’ll get a general idea of how much each one costs.

I’m sorry to say that I haven’t found a box that offers me everything from all the top movies and TV shows to the best local and live TV programming. But the market is still evolving. And I promise you that the landscape could look very different in another 18 months, so stay tuned. (via)

Of course, if you don’t want to spend money on what is basically place-holder technology, you can just run a cable from your computer to your TV and enjoy.

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