Why wont fax's just die already?

[Kryoclasm]

I wish there was free pdf generation without paying Adobe for their software.

Open Office

http://wiki.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation/OOo3_User_Guides/Getting_Started/Exporting_to_PDF

[Rick Law]

Newer and more powerful technology doesn't necessarily means better.

Most old ladies can get a fax at the store, plug it in to the phone jack and it works.  Can't say that for PC's or Pads.

It takes no training for a truck driver to go over to the fax and get the delivery information.  It takes specialized training (SAP, whatever) for the truck driver to log in and print the delivery information...not to mention the cost of the software.

The best solution is the cheapest and simplest one that can do the job with minimal fuss.

You've obviously never been a truck driver.  You can scan your load documents in cab with a scanner over qualcomm now.  When I was driving I didn't have one but all of the major truck stops have the scanners as well.  Not to mention, there are numerous things that you can do in and to a truck that require being geeky.

You are right.  I have never been a truck driver myself, but I had worked with some that logging on was a major learning curve.

[david77]

Fax machines still have their place, especially for technologicaly challenged people.
My mum refuses to order the stuff she needs for her classes (home economics) by email. She doesn't believe the supplier
gets them because she doesn't get a piece of paper back that says "Transmission succesfull" and she can't write her order by hand as she's done it for decades. The fax does both and she's happy.
I can't see the problem with that.

Personally I haven't used the home machine much, email's so much more convenient. But I used to use the fax daily in my previous job, the boss insisted on orders being made by fax for much the same reasons.

[David_AVD]

Faxes belong in the same antique room as cheques (checks to the USA folk).   

[BravoV]

She doesn't believe the supplier gets them because she doesn't get a piece of paper back that says "Transmission succesfull"

Imo, this is kind of a hard copy and proof for the return receipt that matter most for those oldies, and it will be much-much easier to use whenever there is a dispute raised because of communication failure, email just can't beat this easily in term of simplicity.

Edit : Imagine this scenario ...
"Hi GMail Support, I'm looking for the proof of the mail that I sent yesterday whether it was arrived & received properly at xxx@yahoo.com or xxx@hotmail.com(GMail competitors), yes, I did tick the return receipt part too. Could you please provide me the SMTP log or what ever mechanism that GMail used to communicate for email exchange with the Yahoo/Hotmail server (again, these are Gmail's competitors)." 

[Bored@Work]

Imo, this is kind of a hard copy and proof for the return receipt that matter most for those oldies, and it will be much-much easier to use whenever there is a dispute raised because of communication failure, email just can't beat this easily in term of simplicity.

In some countries fax receipts got the status of legal proof of transmission of a document. That happened at times when they had a single government-owned telephone network operator, when you had to get your separate fax line and the approved fax machine from that operator, and when the operator configured your machine so it would really only send your number in the fax status line.

What could possibly go wrong? Progress hit. And deregulation. And the laws didn't keep up, so a fax receipt can sometimes still be a good thing to have in case of a dispute.

At my employer we got rid of almost all physical fax machines. One reason was that with every generation of fax machines they got more complicated. Especially when you were only occasionally sending a fax.

Page up or down (no, these artistic icons supposed to tell you the page orientation aren't of any help)? Top or bottom first? First dial number and wait for connection, then insert pages? Or first inserting pages, then dialing? Or insert paper after dialing but before or after connection? When does the thing do automatic redialing? Can the pages be removed already during redialing? Dial *, **, R, #, ## or whatever to get a line? But don't forget to insert one or two 'P's for pause between the * (or was it R?) to wait for a line. Oh wait, it isn't sending anything? Instead, it thinks you are loading it with a template? Well, ok. Lets just hope that no one manges to press the magic button combination to send the template to all numbers in the build-in address book, again. Yes, it happened. New rule from management: Don't have any numbers in the build-in address book. Yeah, if that thing wouldn't like to add numbers to it almost on its own.

[BravoV]

B@W,

I have nothing against what you said at all, its just you just can not use that argument while helping oldies like your grandma, aunties, uncles, grandad or your parents that still love to use fax and have strong resistance against email as their serious/biz related communication tool.

Of course if you have no one like above that you really care about , then I'm whole heartedly agree with your fine post there. 

[dyazdani]

Fax comes in handy every now and then (although I almost never use it).  We lost our network for a bit, but kept things flowing over the copper.

[Electro Fan]

"First the website had all these glitches, and now people are getting a busy signal when they try to apply over the phone. So you can’t use the Internet and you can’t use the phone. And now fax machines are like, ‘Look who’s come crawling back to Mr. Fax Machine.’” –Jimmy Fallon

[G7PSK]

Fax's are used quite a lot still in the engineering world here in the UK and by engineering I mean things like production engineers. Just the other day I wanted some bits machined up I phoned the company chosen for the job and they asked for a faxed drawing , the advantage is speed of changes I fax a drawing they make any changes they might need regards manufacture techniques they have I can then fax back yay or nay for relatively simple stuff its faster than cad and email which goes to the office I get to talk to the man on the floor virtually instantly with sketches of what I want what they can do and any improvements that can be made by the operative with many years of machining experience. 

[sca]

Just wait until some helpful person scales off your faxed drawing....!

[David_AVD]

Faxing drawings is just crazy.  Give me an emailed drawing (dxf or whatever) any day.  Engineering companies that don't use electronic formats annoy the hell out of me.

[G7PSK]

Just wait until some helpful person scales off your faxed drawing....!

As the drawings for this are usually free hand and I always put do not scale and not to scale I see no problem and if they do not work to my dimensions they have to re do all the work. I am only talking about things like bushes here nothing complicated but if I need a bush fast a sketch with measurements sent via fax means I can send it in and its ready for pickup by the end of the day.