Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!decwrl!oli-stl!asylum!karl
From: karl@asylum.SF.CA.US (Karl Auerbach)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Let's fix email.  Was: Re: Networks considered harmful
Message-ID: <9140@asylum.SF.CA.US>
Date: 19 Dec 89 17:55:35 GMT
References: <8912190403.AA05387@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Reply-To: karl@asylum.UUCP (Karl Auerbach)
Organization: The Asylum; Belmont, CA
Lines: 26

In article <8912190403.AA05387@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> 702WFG@SCRVMSYS.BITNET (bill gunshannon) writes:
><John Nagle>
>>      Well, in the real world, I understand that electronic mail is
>>on the decline, and is being replaced by fax.
>
>The only reason that FAX is more popular than Email is "PR".

>But the truth is, FAX offers nothing that can't be done with the PC sitting
>on your desk. And the PC can even do it better.

I don't agree with all of what you say.  Even though I have six
computers at home and many more at the office I still find Fax very,
very useful.  I still have lots of stuff on paper and I can still
mark-up a document or draw a picture better by hand.

Voice mail is also becomming very, very popular.  I have it for my car phone.

The current state of e-mail is rather primitive.  It is still stuck
using late '60s technology.  Not much to crow about.

The new e-mail standards recognize the need to bring Fax, voice, and
other media together.  That's why I am such a fan of X.400 (as an
application, not for the underlying ISO protocol stack.)  Then e-mail
would have something that could be splashed onto TV ads.

				--karl--