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

[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.