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Why do people mock faxes?

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  1. #1

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    Why do people mock faxes?

    Most HK offices still have one. Government departments still use them. In Japan I gather they're still used quite religiously. Meanwhile lots of other people mock them.

    I'm wondering why.

    Sure, we have scanners now, and email, and scanning apps on phones.... but surely nothing beats the simplicity of putting a completed form in the paper feeder, dialling a number, and then buggering off to make a coffee while you can leave the machine unattended.

    Surely beats sticking form in a scanner, firing up software to scan, then email app, then compiling email, then finding the attachment and adding the few polite pleasantries to go with it.

    Or even with a "one button scan" device, it's still more steps than a fax.

    Are they really that bad??


  2. #2

    No but I did have an amusing situation this week.

    I'm currently in exile in a serviced apartment in Auckland and missed a tax filing date. The kindly IRD said I could fax a letter of explanation to them (not email) but the place I am staying at got rid of their last fax machine years ago so .... I had to email the letter to a friend who had to print it out so she could fax it to the IRD.

    This discussion reminds me of telex machines which were still in many offices but seldom used when I started my first post-university job in 1990. People clung to them but eventually the convenience of the fax rendered them obsolete.

    shri likes this.

  3. #3

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    +100000000 to the post above.

    With faxes, without exception I have to print the document, find a fax and then send it.

    Some documents need to be scanned or photographed (passport...) and then printed and faxed as you cannot feed them into the old faxes (not flat bed)

    I also doubt they will come back I to fashion like vinyl records...


  4. #4

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    Why do people mock top hats and horse drawn buggies?


    Quote Originally Posted by tparker:
    but surely nothing beats the simplicity of putting a completed form in the paper feeder, dialling a number, and then buggering off to make a coffee while you can leave the machine unattended
    Of course: completing and signing a PDF document in Adobe Acrobat surely beats printing out your stupid piece of paper just to feed it into the fax machine again.
    Insomnia, alexdown, jgl and 1 others like this.

  5. #5

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    **duplicate***


  6. #6

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    What is a Fax?

    greenmark, biffski and midorosan like this.

  7. #7

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    Quote Originally Posted by shri:
    +100000000 to the post above.

    With faxes, without exception I have to print the document, find a fax and then send it.


    Some documents need to be scanned or photographed (passport...) and then printed and faxed as you cannot feed them into the old faxes (not flat bed)

    I also doubt they will come back I to fashion like vinyl records...
    Unless you hand write it, then fax or , god forbid, mail it

  8. #8

  9. #9

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    Nirvana would be a photocopier with a proper interface and keyboard. Scanning and emailing concurrently is perfectly possible on them, but generally a horrible experience given crap UI and crap touchscreens with rubbish keyboards. In our office the keyboard pops up in alphabetical order which is surprisingly impossible to use.

    One of my early memories of consultancy (before public WiFi in offices was a thing) was wandering over to the office fax machine during lunch time, unplugging what was generally the only analogue line in the building, and sticking it into the computer to dial up and sync emails, hopefully before someone from the client came back to shout at me for making them miss critical faxes!

    TheBrit and shri like this.

  10. #10

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    An old machine that takes precious space, wastes paper, requires a land line and forces you to do things in one place. No thanks!


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