3/10    Why the hell hasn't fax technology died yet?
               \_ 'cause not everyone has a scanner on their computer?
        \_ 'cause not everyone has a scanner on their computer?
        \_ Because not every document is electronic.  It's more convenient
           to use a fax machine when you're dealing with paper.
        \_ if every notebooks has built-in slot-scanner, i think it will
           help the demise of fax.
           \_ The fax isn't going anywhere anytime soon.  The easiest way to
              get a pile of papers from me to you quickly over a long distance
              is dropping the stack into a fax machine, punching your fax
              number in and coming back in an hour.  And what is a fax machine
              other than a scanner with a phone/modem attached, anyway?  How
              is a notebook based sheet at a time slot scanner going to help
              anyone who uses a fax on a daily basis? (Namely, businesses
              large and small).
              \_ That's it though... the modem thing is outdated. It should
                 just be transmitted through an email. There's no reason that
                 can't be done just as easily, using a batch-scanner with an
                 associated program.
                 A coworker was telling me how his mortgage company has no
                 internet at all and just fax machines. So they use this
                 3rd party that takes their fax and then forwards a pdf to
                 an email address (using character recognition on the cover
                 sheet to find the email address). But they have no way to get
                 it back except fax. It's just stupid.
                 \_ The modem is not out dated.  It requires only a functional
                    phone system without email server, dns, ISP, and provides
                    confirmation of receipt which email does not do.  Just
                    because your friend's company is stupid does not mean
                    one of the technologies they use is stupid.  I'll bet
                    your friend's company has pens, too.  Are pens stupid?
                    Faxes are cheap.  The infrastructure is in place all over
                    the world.  What would your much more expensive and less
                    reliable system get anyone other than slashdot style
                    kewlness?  Long live the fax!
                    \_ The problem is that most of the posters assume fax is
                       useful everywhere.  The fax is useful in places where
                       there is no reliable internet (i.e. cost or shitty
                       POTS service.)  There is no reason I can think of why
                       people still fax shit in the rest of the world.  -John
         \_ are you referring to the technology (the how) or the idea of
            sending fascimiles of documents (the goal), whether it be by
            fax machine or via scanner+email/web/etc?  Signatures still
            rule in the legal world for most documents -- acceptance of
            digital signatures (DSS etc) is not widespread yet.
            \_ A client of mine does a lot of regulatory compliance docs with
               signatures.  They have a system for doing digital signatures
               which is accepted and legally binding (don't ask me how), but
               it is extremely clunky, so they revert to scanned signatures
               most of the time.  I suspect it's more of an issue of their
               cruddy implementation, though.  -John