Posted on 08/06/2016 1:34:34 PM PDT by PROCON
Have you had to write a rent check lately? Or maybe fax some important documents? Despite things like Venmo and email that normal people use every day, these ancient bits of tech and culture just keep hanging on. There's clearly better technology, it's just that not everyone is using it.
Here are nine outmoded technologies that just won't disappear.
Fax Machine
When they were invented: 1843
Purpose: Sending copies of physical documents over phone lines
Where they're still used: Doctors' offices, lawyers, the CIA (which demands the FOI requests be faxed, rather than mailed or sent online), people in Japan
Why they're still used: Sometimes you have to send a paper document, and sometimes you have to send it where there is a phone line but no internet access. Faxing can also be more secure than email; faxes are hard to intercept because they are a direct communication from the sender to the receiver, while emails get moved through a central server. That means you need physical access to a specific phone line at just the right moment to intercept a fax instead of being able to just access the main server everything goes through. Though if it's just left on the machine, a fax is particularly easy for any random person in the office to pick up. Nowadays, fax machines are most widely used in Japan, where 1.7 million fax machines were purchased in 2013 for use in for business transactions, restaurant orders, and other communication.
(Excerpt) Read more at popularmechanics.com ...
“That is true. But there is nothing that makes an 8” floppy inherently more hack-resistant than a USB thumb drive. Neither of these is stored in a machine.”
Except that even if you got hold of a 8 inch floppy you have a really hard time reading it. The drives haven’t been made 35 years
Oh, man, does that bring back a recent disaster.
I was moving from one state to another and decided to really purge my belongings. One such collection that needed the heave-ho was my tape collection going back to the early 1980s.
For the heck of it I decided to listen to the tapes while working on other aspects of the move. You could hear the tapes squealing and then break. Only a few tapes were played as it kept happening and trying to pull all the tape out of the tape player was getting old fast.
- and yes, the tape player AKA Boom Box made its way into the dumpster as well.
Sorry to hear that. You have my sympathies!
I was suprised 8 inch floppy were still in use in the miiltary...come on guys time time upgrade... they need to go the way of the 16 inch Winchester Drive
OK, I’ll grant that. But I think it’s safe to say that this is not a well-thought out strategy by the US government — “We’ll keep using 8” drives! Overtime, they will be uncommon because they are so inferior! But we’ll keep using them! Because then our resilience against hackers will increase!!”
No. The government continues to use 8” floppies because it is lazy and stupid.
If MQA really works as well as TAS says, the vnyl record may finally have met its match.
Double-DSD files ripped directly from analogue master tapes are also very good, but rather hard to get.
I’ll be doggone:
“Scottish inventor Alexander Bain worked on chemical mechanical fax type devices and in 1846 was able to reproduce graphic signs in laboratory experiments. He received British patent 9745 on May 27, 1843 for his “Electric Printing Telegraph.”[2]” (wikipedia)
When I was a tech in the medical field a few years ago I heard that the VA was still on XP. I bet they still are, and it doesn’t surprise me that much that the Navy is. The thing is, they have systems, some of them critical, that will break if they try to transfer them, or put another way they’ve probably spent boatloads to try to transfer them and they can’t.
Some other things that refuse to die! Just yesterday AMAZON had a deal on for “Graphite Transfer Carbon Paper”! I used to lust for the premium types that could be used more than once. Typing a school paper or any kind of required military document without using it could mean the end of life as you knew it. With the carbon copy, you had proof if the original had an adventure, without - bad news!
Second, the best of not ancient technology, the great IBM Selectric Typewriter! The young-uns have no idea of what an object of desire that was for a student or writer. The most basic had a single fixed typing ball, then came the exchangeable typing balls, then came the ones with a correcting ribbon and the final ones, the last of a great breed, were the ones that had memory so that when you had proofed the entire document, you pressed a button and just fed clean paper for a dazzling finished product! (I know that there were other follow-ons but these were the ones I had lust in my heart for!) I know of offices where the heavy steel machines still get used - it is just that repair on them is almost impossible.
Third is the original mini-HD iPods, the ones with the video screens. They also refuse to die and the 128GB and 64GB versions are actually commanding prices higher than what they originally sold for. Don’t come to me, I lost mine, I swear it!
Ah, memories!
My precious, original British made Rogers LS35A's, coupled with mated Satterberg woofers went to my youngest son who appreciates them immensely.
Quality audiophile and videophile equipment is well worth the price of admission and worthy of being passed on to one's heirs.
I wholeheartedly agree on the IBM Selectric. It was the workhorse of many an office secretary and others for decades.
In 1964 Xerox Corporation introduced LDX (Long Distance Xerography), an invention that is generally considered the first “commercial” version of today’s fax machine.
Xerox’s 1966 Magnafax Telecopier could be connected to any telephone line, and could transmit a letter sized document in six minutes.
Japan became a leader in technological innovation in the fax market, bringing a number of compact inventions to the market. As competition in the market evolved, fax machines became smaller and quicker.
It was in 1980 that the ITU G3 Fascimile Standard was developed, primarily by Japan’s domestic telephone company NTT and overseas telephone company KDDI.
This standard helped lead to a surge in fax technology, both as a national and international form of communication.
I just bought a new one....
Why checks? Some government agencies charge you a “fee” if you go online and try to renew your license tag with a debit card or credit card. If you send a check, there’s no fee. Ridiculous, isn’t it!
Agree. We use one nearly daily where signatures are required on documents.
You give me hope!
“Who still uses them: Americans, landlords, people without bank accounts”
Are they speaking of the people that break into your home and steal your checks? How do you write a check without an account?
Here’s the best explanation why the Japanese still rely on faxes.
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-19045837
I often deal with off shore companies to get competing bids. A lot of Japanese companies won’t even give an email address to contact them. So they lose out since I refuse to fax them the request.
All of my field service years (’73 - ‘77) depended on Telex or snail mail. No faxes at construction sites in those days.
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