OT - I hate that faxing is still relevant in today's business world

kl8ton

At work, I have done away with the fax machines, but we are still required to maintain a fax number.  Some of our customers ONLY send official paperwork (such as purchase orders) via fax! Their systems are antiquated and they haven't invested the capital necessary to upgrade anything in 20+ years.  Our fax number is in "the cloud", so i receive faxes via scanned attachment in an email and I simply forward to the appropriate individuals, but COME ON!  It is 2017.  As a former computer network engineer (that is what my degree is in), I was trying to do away with it 13 years ago.  Faxing still has a pulse, albeit weak, and it just won't die.

Eoin

I can safely say that faxing is dead for me.  Nobody uses it in the UK any more. I haven't sent of received a fax for a couple of years now, and for the 5 years before that it was 1 or 2 per year.  Amazing that people still use them.

55drum

Agree!!  I absolutely cringe every time a customer/vendor asks me to fax something over...get with the times...

Also why can't our local municipalities leave the 70's behind...if I need a permit for something...have to go get form, type it up hand carry or mail back to them...what a PIA.....they're using the same forms since the county was founded....why can't these documents be filled out online....

saluki2007

I believe it was either 2015 or 2016 the NCAA finally allowed kids to sign their letter of intent and send via email instead of fax.  If the NCAA can move past the fax machine then everyone else should be able to too.

Fred19Flintstone

   https://youtu.be/imNRmIujsPk


Dinosaur 

fishlessman

we just replaced our fax with another fax preferred getting engineering drawings in the mail on the appropriate sized piece of paper with front, top, bottom, left side, right side views on one piece of paper. something that a welder/fabricator could read. now its a stack of unorganized pages and im redrawing the part on a napkin so the welder understands what he is making. working with big magnifiers on an e sized drawing reduced to an a size is horrible and resizing the print from a to e the stupid dot matrix is unreadable.

DoubleEgger

#firstworldproblems 

fishlessman

i should add that i work with some older people, i download something, hit print, printers in the other room, i get paged because i just received a fax   theres one guy here that can not turn his computer on or off and i was getting paged for help so often i took the computer away here is a big question i have, why do i need to change browsers when working in some systems, filling out some forms the other day and only google chrome would fill out the forms online after rotating thru firefox, internet explorer and aol

lousubcap

Agree with admin streamlining but regarding municipalities and technology , it's all about jobs.  The requirement to show up and sign etc won't go away soon (at least here).  

poster

fishlessman said:

we just replaced our fax with another fax preferred getting engineering drawings in the mail on the appropriate sized piece of paper with front, top, bottom, left side, right side views on one piece of paper. something that a welder/fabricator could read. now its a stack of unorganized pages and im redrawing the part on a napkin so the welder understands what he is making. working with big magnifiers on an e sized drawing reduced to an a size is horrible and resizing the print from a to e the stupid dot matrix is unreadable.

Ya, the fab business is funny. You get a huge diversity of customers. I absolutely hate drawings sent in .pdf, its almost as bad as fax, which we still have by the way.  I will use MasterCAM (big $ prgm) to draw up and program some parts, then its either sent to a Miller direct, or off to the plasma table via 3.5" floppy lol. I just found a floppy to USB emulator that I will try out soon. It is big $$ to upgrade controls, so I can see why some people hang on to older technology as long as possible.

fishlessman

poster said:

fishlessman said:

we just replaced our fax with another fax preferred getting engineering drawings in the mail on the appropriate sized piece of paper with front, top, bottom, left side, right side views on one piece of paper. something that a welder/fabricator could read. now its a stack of unorganized pages and im redrawing the part on a napkin so the welder understands what he is making. working with big magnifiers on an e sized drawing reduced to an a size is horrible and resizing the print from a to e the stupid dot matrix is unreadable.

Ya, the fab business is funny. You get a huge diversity of customers. I absolutely hate drawings sent in .pdf, its almost as bad as fax, which we still have by the way.  I will use MasterCAM (big $ prgm) to draw up and program some parts, then its either sent to a Miller direct, or off to the plasma table via 3.5" floppy lol. I just found a floppy to USB emulator that I will try out soon. It is big $$ to upgrade controls, so I can see why some people hang on to older technology as long as possible.

upgrading my machines would put me out of business, they are big and manual and old 99 percent of what i do is just a 1 of a kind. i do have 1 cnc and one tapedrive that runs off floppys and have somehow kept that 1980's computer working. when i say old,  my plate roller is 1902 and is used everyday. some of my big lathes are belt drive, a new one would cost more than the building its in

poster

fishlessman said:

poster said:

fishlessman said:

we just replaced our fax with another fax preferred getting engineering drawings in the mail on the appropriate sized piece of paper with front, top, bottom, left side, right side views on one piece of paper. something that a welder/fabricator could read. now its a stack of unorganized pages and im redrawing the part on a napkin so the welder understands what he is making. working with big magnifiers on an e sized drawing reduced to an a size is horrible and resizing the print from a to e the stupid dot matrix is unreadable.

Ya, the fab business is funny. You get a huge diversity of customers. I absolutely hate drawings sent in .pdf, its almost as bad as fax, which we still have by the way.  I will use MasterCAM (big $ prgm) to draw up and program some parts, then its either sent to a Miller direct, or off to the plasma table via 3.5" floppy lol. I just found a floppy to USB emulator that I will try out soon. It is big $$ to upgrade controls, so I can see why some people hang on to older technology as long as possible.

upgrading my machines would put me out of business, they are big and manual and old 99 percent of what i do is just a 1 of a kind. i do have 1 cnc and one tapedrive that runs off floppys and have somehow kept that 1980's computer working. when i say old,  my plate roller is 1902 and is used everyday. some of my big lathes are belt drive, a new one would cost more than the building its in

Ya, I hear ya. We've been upgrading as much as possible as the old talent retires and the newer guys (tough to find) make their way in. The older crowd doesn't like buttons and the newer guys don't like levers and dials

buzd504

I freaking hate faxes.

However, we have an older clientele that isn't exactly tech savvy.  We have a form online that many customers need to fill out.  I swear to god we have had people take  print it, fill it out and fax us the print out.

SamIAm2

fishlessman said:

we just replaced our fax with another fax preferred getting engineering drawings in the mail on the appropriate sized piece of paper with front, top, bottom, left side, right side views on one piece of paper. something that a welder/fabricator could read. now its a stack of unorganized pages and im redrawing the part on a napkin so the welder understands what he is making. working with big magnifiers on an e sized drawing reduced to an a size is horrible and resizing the print from a to e the stupid dot matrix is unreadable.

Yeah, I hear you. Their default "printer" seems to only have A size as a selection. Technology phobics don't know/care that different sizes can be added. Used Microstation, Autocad, and others for many years and always created appropriate sized print files, usually as PDF so engineers could print them on large format plotters/printers or just read the document on their computers. Be glad you don't have J size drawings to deal with from customers

poster said:

fishlessman said:

poster said:

fishlessman said:

we just replaced our fax with another fax  

Ya, I hear ya. We've been upgrading as much as possible as the old talent retires and the newer guys (tough to find) make their way in. The older crowd doesn't like buttons and the newer guys don't like levers and dials

Felt your pain for a lot of years. Old retired guy here, just saying. 

SciAggie

I had to contact an organization yesterday. The three options were: snail mail, fax, or leave a message. Fax was the best option. Geez, I know. 

fishlessman

email attachments that have nothing to do with anything bug me the most. i just opened 8 attachments that were logos and page layouts etc, then three that were the drawings to be quoted on

SamIAm2

SciAggie said:

I had to contact an organization yesterday. The three options were: snail mail, fax, or leave a message. Fax was the best option. Geez, I know. 

Lawyers love Fax machines. PITA to modify and easy to spot with an original in hand. 

JohnInCarolina

I can't remember the last time I sent or received a fax.  Might have ben ten years ago or more.  We just scan and email everything these days.

Eggcelsior

It's too bad data sent via internet is so inherently insecure. We'll never move from facsimile transmissions in the near future in healthcare until PHI can be assuredly protected within HIPAA law via computer.

kl8ton

When the last company I worked for first started implementing corporate-wide email, our internal mail lady would print an email sent to her, hand-write her response and deliver it to you on her mail run.   

buzd504

Eggcelsior said:

It's too bad data sent via internet is so inherently insecure. We'll never move from facsimile transmissions in the near future in healthcare until PHI can be assuredly protected within HIPAA law via computer.

There are plenty of secure email and messaging solutions over the internet.  The problem is most providers/facilities won't invest in them.

DoubleEgger

I used to save all of the corporate memo faxes. I had a half dozen 4" binders full each year. My memory bank was the search function. Good times....

Eggdicted_Dawgfan

Kinda off topic here but worth a shot. I have a couple clients who send drawings/files/PO's/RFQ's that come through as a winmail.dat file and I can not view them on my phone. They are sending PDF but it shows as a .dat on my iPhone. Anyone know how to resolve this? Apple tells me it's the sender and AT&T doesn't have a clue. 

kl8ton

@Eggdicted_Dawgfan

See article here:
https://www.lifewire.com/prevent-sending-winmail-dat-attachments-1173717

Edit: is your client using Outlook?  2007 or earlier?

Eggdicted_Dawgfan

I'm not sure what they are using but I can find out. My guess is they are using a more recent version but not positive. Bout to lose wifi on the plane but will read this article when I can. Thank you for the info.

Eggcelsior

buzd504 said:

Eggcelsior said:

It's too bad data sent via internet is so inherently insecure. We'll never move from facsimile transmissions in the near future in healthcare until PHI can be assuredly protected within HIPAA law via computer.

There are plenty of secure email and messaging solutions over the internet.  The problem is most providers/facilities won't invest in them.

Oh, I know. But they have to be HIPAA-compliant. If there is no way to certify the recipient is opening the message, we are in violation. This is why we have a patient portal to send messages in. Too bad patients won't use it then complain why we "can't just send an email". We can use an application that is 100% secure on our end but if it's not secure in the patient's home, we are in violation of the law. A fax just needs a cover sheet.

kl8ton

Eggcelsior said:

buzd504 said:

Eggcelsior said:

It's too bad data sent via internet is so inherently insecure. We'll never move from facsimile transmissions in the near future in healthcare until PHI can be assuredly protected within HIPAA law via computer.

There are plenty of secure email and messaging solutions over the internet.  The problem is most providers/facilities won't invest in them.

Oh, I know. But they have to be HIPAA-compliant. If there is no way to certify the recipient is opening the message, we are in violation. This is why we have a patient portal to send messages in. Too bad patients won't use it then complain why we "can't just send an email". We can use an application that is 100% secure on our end but if it's not secure in the patient's home, we are in violation of the law. A fax just needs a cover sheet.

No guarantee that the patient is the one taking the fax off the fax machine.  It can get passed around the office before it arrives at the patients desk.

Eggcelsior

kl8ton said:

Eggcelsior said:

buzd504 said:

Eggcelsior said:

It's too bad data sent via internet is so inherently insecure. We'll never move from facsimile transmissions in the near future in healthcare until PHI can be assuredly protected within HIPAA law via computer.

There are plenty of secure email and messaging solutions over the internet.  The problem is most providers/facilities won't invest in them.

Oh, I know. But they have to be HIPAA-compliant. If there is no way to certify the recipient is opening the message, we are in violation. This is why we have a patient portal to send messages in. Too bad patients won't use it then complain why we "can't just send an email". We can use an application that is 100% secure on our end but if it's not secure in the patient's home, we are in violation of the law. A fax just needs a cover sheet.

No guarantee that the patient is the one taking the fax off the fax machine.  It can get passed around the office before it arrives at the patients desk.

I know. But that is all that is required along with a verbal "ok" from the patient. 

It comes down to the ease of sharing. It's much easier to forward an email to 1,000 people that walk a sheet of paper around to the same group. It seems silly, but that is the basic reasoning behind the guidelines.

fishlessman

Eggcelsior said:

kl8ton said:

Eggcelsior said:

buzd504 said:

Eggcelsior said:

It's too bad data sent via internet is so inherently insecure. We'll never move from facsimile transmissions in the near future in healthcare until PHI can be assuredly protected within HIPAA law via computer.

There are plenty of secure email and messaging solutions over the internet.  The problem is most providers/facilities won't invest in them.

Oh, I know. But they have to be HIPAA-compliant. If there is no way to certify the recipient is opening the message, we are in violation. This is why we have a patient portal to send messages in. Too bad patients won't use it then complain why we "can't just send an email". We can use an application that is 100% secure on our end but if it's not secure in the patient's home, we are in violation of the law. A fax just needs a cover sheet.

No guarantee that the patient is the one taking the fax off the fax machine.  It can get passed around the office before it arrives at the patients desk.

I know. But that is all that is required along with a verbal "ok" from the patient. 

It comes down to the ease of sharing. It's much easier to forward an email to 1,000 people that walk a sheet of paper around to the same group. It seems silly, but that is the basic reasoning behind the guidelines.

this is insane, the patient has no rights to how they want their info sent. no wonder why we have to fill out the same info with every visit over and over again last time i went to a dr they didnt have emails so i guess i cant complain

fishlessman

JohnInCarolina said:

I can't remember the last time I sent or received a fax.  Might have ben ten years ago or more.  We just scan and email everything these days.

wikileaks has all your emails

GrateEggspectations

What's a "fax machine"?