Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!softart!ashok
From: ashok@softart.UUCP (Ashok C. Patel)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Request for poll of ten best/worst products of 88
Message-ID: <48@softart.UUCP>
Date: 27 Dec 88 19:40:34 GMT
References: <210@imspw6.UUCP>
Organization: Softart Microsystems Inc., Waterloo Ont. Canada
Lines: 27

>         The proliferation of cheap FAX machines, X percent of which attach
>         to computers.  Not that there arent legitimate uses for a FAX
>         machine here and there, but sometimes I think American businessmen
>         must all take stupid pills;  most if not all of the uses I actually
>         see FAX machines being put to could be far more effectively and
>         inexpensively handled by cheap modems sending WordPerfect formatted
>         files over the phone lines using Procomm.  Media hype wins again...

Another case of a computer user assuming that everyone in the entire
universe has a computer, a modem, software and (to top it all off) KNOWS
how to effectively use them!  We do *ALL* of our business with modem
manufacturers and most of our customers don't know how to use Procomm or
any Xmodem style protocol.  Some of them don't even have continued access
to PCs!  For us, the FAX has been a Godsend!  Without it, we would have to
spend countless number of hours and dollars on the telephone talking to
someone that can read English but can't speak it very well!  I think that
most of the business world is the same.  Think about the lawyers, government
types and the BIG business types all of whom probably have people under
them with computers but none of whom have or use computers themselves.
The FAX machine provides an alternative to expensive couriers.  (My lawyer
has saved the price of the FAX machine in courier fess already!  And that
is just to run things from his office to City Hall!)  And, by the way,
American businessmen don't earn millions of dollars by taking stupid pills!

-------------------------
Ashok C. Patel
Softart Microsystems Inc.