Report: Fax Machines Still Pretty Impressive If You Think About It

have to love the Onion:

WASHINGTON—Fax machines, despite using 40-year-old technology and having come into prominence in the 1980s, are actually still pretty impressive if you think about it, a new Brookings Institute report confirmed Tuesday. "Yes, the words 'fax machine' evoke this arcane image of a bulky telephone apparatus that makes a dial-up modem sound, but come on, if you take a step back and think about how, with one press of a button, it's capable of transmitting a facsimile of a document thousands of miles away over a standard telephone line, there's no way you can't find that slightly remarkable," the report read in part, adding that one has to admit that even with all the technological advancements over the years, the fact that fax machines are still viable communication devices in offices around the world is "pretty goddamn amazing." "People still use these things. They rely on them. It's not uncommon for someone to say, 'Send me a fax.' When's the last time you heard someone say, 'Can I borrow your Discman?' See what we're saying?" The report concluded that the mere fact we're even talking about fax machines right now should be evidence enough of how great they still are.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Valentino Martinez on October 18, 2011 at 8:10pm

@Tim--while you've listed this report on fax machines on the Recruiter Humor Group site on RBC--I can tell you the "early" fax machines, back in the early 1970s were not a laughing matter. Unfortunately I was their in the Pentagon using them quite regularly. The machines used a chemically treated film-paper wrapped around a spinning drum that delivered the message. The friction from the spinning drum seemed to cook the inked text & images on the film causing a smell so bad you (I) had to leave the room to get fresh air.

The elders among us can appreciate the advances in fax machine technology, certainly the speed for getting a hard-copy document for a variety of reasons. And it continues to be our legacy to hang on to having stuff on paper rather than just on a hard drive. I love my fax machine that can also scan, print, store info, call (dial-up) and fax of course.

Permalink Reply by Tim Spagnola on October 18, 2011 at 8:56pm

@Tino - Sarcastic wit aside, I am a HUGE fan of the fax. My first few years on a desk the fax was an extremely important tool used daily. All of our CV, candidate submissions, fax agreements, and references came via fax. The buzz of the machine running always brought a mixture of anticipation, excitement, and sometime heartbreak. I salute you fax machine and miss your presence today.

Fax Machine History

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