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 ...
I'm pretty much up to date now, technologically, (for a baby boomer).
Ping?
I never used a travel agent.
They got why fax machines are still used wrong. It’s really all legal, verified unmodifiable point to point transmission of data. Very powerful in legal disputes.
-—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.-—
Seeing as the Fourth Amendment is all but meaningless, I don’t see a fax machine as all that obsolete.
Difficult to email a signed document unless you have a scanner, easy to send with a fax machine.
I’m obsolete technology.
Any lawyer will tell you there’s no substitute for a signed original with an original signature. Notaries public are still around and with good reason. Personally, I miss having a bank return an original check as proof positive that certain key payments were, in fact, made.
Despite all the problems with paper ballots, they’re still far more secure than electronic voting.
What the heck is venmo?
What the heck is venmo?
The FAX was invented in 1843, many decades before the telephone itself?
And yeah, the rest of the article is just as dumb.
“Ancient” bits of tech? WinXP?
If you have to ask, it’s not important to you. (I don’t know either)
I’ve got a scanner app for the iPhone. Works quite well.
Oh, I see the author is some “Rachel”...technology and broads...two worlds colliding.
In computer technology years, WinXP is ancient.
This was spinning yesterday.
Our company still uses fax machines because medical records are sent there. It still uses Windows XP because they are too cheap to replace it.
I had to use a fax to send information for my CCW permit. they would not accept emails. And I still write checks to the IRS.
I just did a search and it’s a “digital wallet”. I stopped right there.
Thanks to PROCON for the ping!!
I'm also pinging ShadowAce on this one for his Tech Ping List. Hey ShadowAce! Hope you're doing better and moving along on the road to recovery!! Prayers still going up for you and your wife.
Refuse to own a smartphone, particularly any iProduct. Cell phone is only rarely turned on. Life is still good without that crap.
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