I've been here for several days now, after a fun adventure with Jet Blue trying to get here, and I'm pretty sure I've already gained several pounds, what with all the pizza and Italian cuisine and sushi and gyros I've consumed.
Of course, sitting in all-day meetings hasn't helped, so it's a good thing I've gone out and run the NYC marathon course every evening to get some exercise.
That was a joke, of course. The last exercise I did in NYC was when I was an NYC bike messenger, and in the last routine I perfectly executed there was a pirouhette from the seat of my bicycle into the cab door, and on down onto Park Avenue and into the back of an ambulance to Bellevue Hospital.
That was in July 1986, about the same time that the fax machine started the long, slow decline of the bike messenger business in NYC and beyond.
Eventually, we also saw the long, slow decline of the fax machine.
Everywhere in the world.
Except, according to this morning's NY Times, in Japan, where the love affair with the fax machine continues to this date, despite the advent of the Internet and smartphones.
I'll leave it to you all to read the piece. It's quaint, and culturally intriguing. But I think it also goes a long way towards explaining the decades-long now economic slump in which Japan continues to find itself.
Then again, I guess it's a lot easier to hold on to the past if you can hold a piece of fax paper in your hand.
Someone asked me today if they could send some info via fax rather than email, because faxes are more secure.
Yes, they can be more secure, but we hardly use them. I have to find the best machine for the info to be sent to, and unless I stand over it, the incoming fax is just going to sit in a tray where anyone can pick it up.
Agreed! I think they could use the scanner/fax multi machines to send handwritten notes via email. I didn't notice it in the post, but this may be what they do now. I like your idea of sending messages from a tablet.
Same here. We still have a dozen or so fax machines at the office, but we don't have much use for it nowadays. Pretty understandable, considering we're in the age of IMs and emails.
After reading the article, I think it's not so much that Japan is lagging behind for its love of the Fax as much as Japan loves the particular human interface the Fax provides.
The hand-written characters. I'm pretty sure what they're waiting for is a way for them to quickly transmit their hand-writing. Perhaps a network designed to send low-res, tiny pictures using cheap tablets. Instead of using thumbs to jot a message across a smart or not-so-smart phone, a tablet or even a specialized quick-scanning device sends it instead in picture format.
Do they need this technology? No, but they want something that conforms to their culture -- and shouldn't that be what technology does?
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In advance of the IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit in Nashville next week (see my last post for some background), IBM announced a major three-year agreement today with L'Oréal USA USA for expert procurement services using an advanced cloud analytics solution that will transform how L'Oréal USA buys from its network of North American suppliers.
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Expert Integrated Systems: Changing the Experience & Economics of IT In this e-book, we take an in-depth look at these expert integrated systems -- what they are, how they work, and how they have the potential to help CIOs achieve dramatic savings while restoring IT's role as business innovator. READ THIS eBOOK
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