1989 fax machine - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: German_EE
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 10, 2019, 12:17:31 pm
content: What! No teardown!Congratulations on 1000 posts BTW

author: Lord of nothing
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2019, 09:39:59 am
content: Fax Machine are still used by today a lot!

author: GlennSprigg
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2019, 11:06:06 am
content: Quote from: Lord of nothing on June 17, 2019, 09:39:59 amYes they are, and that surprises me. Even today, here in Australia, modern Doctors Surgeries stilluse them to send hard-copy records/info/bookings to other medical departments/doctors, insteadof using email, or the now almost nationwide database. I've also noticed that, (although I only usePC's), that virtually ALL medical facilities here use Apple/Mac systems. I guess they must be good!Re: Faxes. I remember my Grandfather years ago, having been shown this, refused to believe it !!Said it was ALL just trickery to try and fool him ! I guess it was sort of like explaining reality today,to poor 'Flat-Earthers'....... You just give up even trying...... sigh....

author: soldar
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 19, 2019, 04:20:47 pm
content: I have not used a fax machine in over twenty years. That's what email is for. Anyone using fax today is just way behind the times.Fax usesCCITT G4compression so if you scan the paper and compress it into a TIFF file using G4 you are sending exactly the same information via email.I use this compression a lot for B&W documents because it is very efficient.

author: Kleinstein
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 19, 2019, 05:32:22 pm
content: Fax machines were still quite popular in Germany since about last year. By than many of the phone lines were converted to voice over IP and this does not work well with fax. AFIAK the problem is due to a slight delay that interferes with the error correction protocol. I think the increasing problems with fax transmissions finally will make them less popular.

author: Zbig
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 19, 2019, 06:03:45 pm
content: Quote from: GlennSprigg on June 17, 2019, 11:06:06 amSigh... my dad is like this, in this day and ageIf he doesn't understand something, he's trying to deny/play down/marginalize/ridicule it. Whole frickin Internet included. He still thinks you're politically educated when you watch TV news as opposed to these silly people reading nonsense in this Internet thing. Heck, the mere fact that someone's acquired their knowledge on the Internet makes their point irrelevant from the get go. When I've shown him that the detour suggested by my Internet-connected satnav did, in fact, make sense as it's routed us around a traffic jam and we arrived at exactly the ETA it's given us, he was quick to write it off as a "coincidence"

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 19, 2019, 06:23:05 pm
content: Quote from: soldar on June 19, 2019, 04:20:47 pmGet with the times pops, we're living in a modern world, we don't use that stanky "EMAIL" anymore. I send all of my documents to people by taking a picture of them with my phone and shoving it over Discord.Tsch, elders.

author: Zbig
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 19, 2019, 06:32:28 pm
content: Quote from: Ampera on June 19, 2019, 06:23:05 pmJokes aside, yeah, e-mail is a poor file transfer medium due to the inherent need to encode (read: bloat-up) everything into 7-bit text. It's an ancient kludge and it annoys my OCD self a bit that so many people still do that, given the alternatives available today.

author: soldar
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 19, 2019, 08:05:01 pm
content: Yeah, fax is so much better.

author: Benta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 19, 2019, 10:37:17 pm
content: There's a reason fax is still used by doctors/lawyers/officials/public authorities etc., and it has nothing to do with backward technology, it's a legal issue.Emails or other electronic communications carry little weight in court, as they're so easy to spoof. Fax, on the other hand, can be tracked easily over the POTS and both sender and receiver have a copy as well as a receipt. Furthermore, it's pretty difficult to intercept and modify a fax.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 20, 2019, 12:38:16 am
content: Was going to say exactly that. Fax is simple, dependable, very hard to fake and unlikely to be intercepted. It creates an authenticatable permanent record, something you can't do by sending and printing an email.

author: vk6zgo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 20, 2019, 05:15:19 am
content: Quote from: GlennSprigg on June 17, 2019, 11:06:06 amFax has been around since the early 1900s.

author: soldar
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 20, 2019, 01:47:11 pm
content: Quote from: Benta on June 19, 2019, 10:37:17 pmYou cannot be serious. Really? A FAX is a scan of a piece of paper. I used to routinely put my boss's signature on documents and fax them. It is trivial. It does not matter whether the scan was sent by fax or email, it is just as easy to forge. I have done it dozens of times.As for the tracking the phone call maybe in a case of murder or terrorism you can get the court to order the release of records -- which they may or may not have any more. The phone company may or may not have the records from months ago but in any case, those prove nothing about the contents of the call. Nothing.You can say I sent you a fax where I accepted to pay $723 and I can say no, my fax said $273 and here is my copy. Which copy is the real one? The phone company cannot say.Fax is accepted on a basis of mutual trust, not because it offers any security. Big companies I worked for had all gotten rid of faxes by the mid 1990s.The only reason FAX has any use is because people are set in their ways and do not want to change. Fax is extremely easy to spoof.Today there are digital signatures, encryption and other digital security measures and that is what banks, the military, etc. use. Not fax.Anyone who says fax provides any security has not a clue about security.I can send you a fax apparently originating from the White House phone line whereby Donald Trump himself sells you the White House building and its grounds for one dollar and with the signature of Donald Trump himself.With that fax and $3.50 you can get a latte at Starbucks. That's how valuable it is.