Facsimiles

[gfish]

'Fax' is a cool word. Why did we waste it on such a stupid technology? I think it's very telling that faxes are the only form of long distance communication ever invented that never attracted a geekish/hacker following. There is nothing interesting or aesthetic about the technology. There is only suck.

Comments

[tylik.livejournal.com]

In fact, there was apparently a whole subculture around faxing humorous notes and drawing between different offices... which I'd compare to the inspirational spam my mother (still! after several family conversations wherein we all begged her to stop and tried to explain the applicable nettiquette) sends me.

Kind of anit-geek.

[tylik.livejournal.com]

er... anti. *sigh*

[sistawendy.livejournal.com]

I've read that at least in Japan, where formal business communication was still written with a brush when faxes were invented, faxes fit into the culture better than they did here. I wonder if that's still true.

[mdlbear]

It's still true.

I work for a Japanese company that makes fax machines. Typing a Japanese character requires three keystrokes on a PC keyboard with half-a-dozen extra shift keys; it's not hard to see why handwriting is still popular.

[hpapillon.livejournal.com]

I find faxspam much more amusing than mail or email spam... there's something peculiar about someone being able to MAKE SOMETHING APPEAR in the office.

Anyway, I hate faxes and grumble about places that still want me to use them for sending contracts...

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

It's not amusing when you get 5 or 6 fax spams a day. They're using up resources, which is why it's illegal in the US. My office is signed up with one of those companies that goes after and sues fax spammers for free.

[mathochist.livejournal.com]

I love faxes. I also love that I receive faxes by email, so I can keep them in electronic form. I hate snail mail, and I do not trust the post office.

[stellar-dust.livejournal.com]

How apropos! We tried to fax in our lunch order today. It failed twice. And then we found out that, despite the fact they're a brand new restaurant, and the menu says "Fax in your order!" .... their fax machine is broken.

I'm going to take it out back and shoot it one of these days. Along with the color printer.

Of course, we also get gems like "Bob's School of Orbital Mechanics: Big Profits as a Fully Trained Orbital Mechanic!!" (I kid you not) complete with glowing testimonials, so I guess it evens out.

[gfish.livejournal.com]

Wow, that seriously wins. :)

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

I keep getting a fax spam that purports to be from the "Official Internet Registry & Optimization Bureau" with "Please Forward to Accounts Payable - For Annual Review" at the top. Made to look as though this is some kind of government-required service and fee.

I laughed for a good long while when it first came (their URL isn't even a US domain!) but of course then I thought about the fact that a goodly percentage of recipients are, I'm sure, taken in by this. (My bosses would be, if they didn't have me around...)

[neuro42.livejournal.com]

Hey, I *LIKE* faxes. They're like email, except they actually work.

[ilmarinen.livejournal.com]

These day, scans on my co's copier auto-email to my workstation that I then forward to other folks' email works pretty damn well.

Other than that whole arbitrary size limit on email attachments causing problems occasionally.

-B.

[randomdreams.livejournal.com]

I've read that there were functional fax machines before phones, like the 1860's. They used scanning needles with conductive ink, I believe, for the transmitter, and a synchro scanning pen for the receiver.

[avicado.livejournal.com]

Now if we could only invent the technology of matter faxing, as detailed in Wil McCarthy's sci-fi books... then it would have a geek following!

Link to interesting writings by author (http://www.wilmccarthy.com/hm.htm)

[book-addict.livejournal.com]

In my view, the suck-est part of fax is the special paper that was used for it in the 1980s and early 90s. It's already all degraded. I went through boxes of what looked like blank paper -- used to be someone's correspondence files.
Not a good thing at all.

[memegarden.livejournal.com]

What I hate about fax machines is that, being both electronic and mechanical, they can fail in more ways than almost anything, and generally do. I do not like facing faxing a 20-page document; I know it will take all afternoon to succeed or give up.