Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!toro!nick
From: nick@toro.UUCP (Nicholas Jacobs)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: Networks considered harmful
Keywords: email fax
Message-ID: <1250@toro.UUCP>
Date: 19 Dec 89 16:22:40 GMT
References: <8912190403.AA05387@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Reply-To: nick@toro.UUCP (Nicholas Jacobs)
Organization: Merrill Lynch Municipal Securities Systems Development, NY
Lines: 31

In article <8912190403.AA05387@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> 702WFG@SCRVMSYS.BITNET (bill gunshannon) writes:
>So, someone please tell me "What is so great about FAX?" and why can't
>those of us who use Email all the time convince the rest of the world
>how much better it really is??
>
>                                          bill gunshannon
>                                       702WFG@SCRVMSYS.BITNET

I think that we are coming back to the old bugaboo of user education.
Obviously anyone who participates in this newsgroup is many orders of
magnitude more computer literate than your average corporate user. So
unfortunately, until email is as easy to use as a telephone, many people
will not either not bother or in some cases actually go out of their way
to avoid learning all together.

I think that rather than complain about why can't Johnny Corporate learn to
use computers, why not build fax machines that know how to send faxes to
computers. That way, people who prefer to use faxes can and those of us who
know and love our email will be happy too. Also, faxes are still cheaper 
with respect to initial purchase than computers, but particularly in the case
of support, maintenance, and education. These are obviously important to
companies who must maintain a bottom-line profitabity to satisfy their
stock-holders.

Just my $0.02,

Nicholas Jacobs
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