Many of you will have already read Viacom chair Sumner Redstone’s letter to Forbes laying out the reasons (kinda) for his current fight with daughter Shari. I was more intrigued by the format than the content.
Because it’s a fax. Yes, really, a fax. You remember those?
(A brief primer for the young’ns out there: “Fax” involves printing stuff, cramming it into a stubborn fax machine slot, and then sending the pages veeeeery slowly over phone lines — accompanied by lots of Kraftwerk-ish noises — to someone else with a fax machine. Yes, it’s as dumb as it sounds. More importantly, it was even harder to get out of work by claiming you didn’t get the fax than by claiming you didn’t get the email. Last I checked, most remaining fax machines now mostly receive unsolicited toner offers, interspersed with the odd Mazatlan group vacation package.)
Anyway, here’s my question: Who, other than lawyers and real estate agents, still use faxes anymore for day-to-day communications? I don’t, and haven’t this century, as is the case with most people I know. And that, if for no other reason, should be sufficient cause to send Sumner to the nearest floating bit of ice.
As an aside, Sumner (aka Cryptkeeper) has helpfully included his fax number on the missive to Forbes. So, if you’ve still got one of these “fax” thingies, feel free to let Sumner know how you feel about other stuff, like his company’s copyright suit against Google, at 212.921.4728. (Valleywag has noticed this as well.)
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Commercial insurance industry loves faxes. The actual insurers as well as the people needing proof of your insurance. Hopeful prediction: touchscreen mobile phones (I refuse to use the “i” word for reasons of personal envy and feelings of inadequacy) will be able to serve as an alternative to faxes for transmitting your actual signature electronically on amended contracts, new policies, or whatever, after they’ve been received by the phone through the aether and viewed by your eyeballs.
Paul, facsimiles of signed contracts remain ubiquitous. In a business transaction, nothing beats the immediacy of sending a contract for co-signature via a fax. Until such time as people and companies can agree on verifiable electronic signatures I don’t think there will be a significant shift.
Paul,
If the kids don’t know what a fax is, they sure wouldn’t know who Kraftwerk is!!
And Dano is right. Virtually every deal we close still involves faxed signature pages. It is the only reason I still have a fax machine, other than to receive exciting offers of cheap mortgages and life insurance.
I still use faxes, although it is electronic faxes through companies like Efax.com . There is nothing like cutting out the unnecessary paperwork and clutter throughout the day.
european hotels love faxes!