Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!BBN.COM!haverty
From: haverty@BBN.COM (Jack Haverty)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: Networks considered harmful
Message-ID: <8912230541.AA07763@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 20 Dec 89 14:04:42 GMT
References: <22979.630044353@cheetah.nyser.net>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
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Marshall et al,

I agree wholeheartedly with your reasons:

>Reason 1:	FAX is turn-key in every aspect: any office person can
>		install and use a fax machine without any serious training.
>
>
>Reason 2:	FAX uses an already existing, global infrastructure.
>

and I'd like to add one which has been especially frustrating lately:

Reason 3: FAX is able to carry almost anything that can be put on paper
(at least in black&white)

I keep having experiences which I'm sure are pretty common among
people who use Email and Fax, for example:

I have a computer on my desk, connected to the Internet, and I know how
to use it; therefore reasons #1 and #2 are less of a problem for me
personally.  Last month I wanted to send a draft copy of a report to a
colleague on the West Coast for review and comment.  The report of
course has some graphs, diagrams, etc. in it.   She also has a computer,
and is on the Internet; in fact we both have Macintosh'es, which should
make it a piece of cake.

1/ I "BINHEXed" up my report so it could get through the mail system;
this of course is far more arcane and complex a task than you'd like to
inflict on a computer-naive user.  Then I sent that result via e-mail.
[Note: if you try this without verifying a priori that the recipient
will be able to deal with it, you run the risk of intense reactions,
invectives, speculations about your sanity and genetic background, and
the like.  It's even better than ICMP pinging to test if a remote site
is alive.  Take it from one who knows.....]

2/ My colleague reported back that the message arrived, and she
successfully decoded it from BINHEX into a file.  Unfortunately, I had
prepared it using Microsoft Word 4.0, and she was using 3.0 (at least we
were using the same brand of word processor).

3/ I went back to the word processor, and output a file in "3.0" format;
fortunately the program provides this capability.  I BINHEXed it, and
sent it off again.

4/ My colleague reported back that the message arrived, decoded
properly, and she could read it into her PC.  Unfortunately, the FONTs
that I had in my machine included some that she did not have, so that
the report was unintelligible.

5/ So much for standards...  Plan B took over.  I once again fired up
the word processor, and created a PostScript output file.  This involves
unearthing the book of folklore and finding the right magic incantation,
which involves a combination of keystrokes and timing that guarantees
that only wizards will be able to perform the rite.  Another round of
BINHEXing, and off it goes in the mail again.

6/ My colleague reported back that it all decoded, and she had
successfully sent it to the local printer.  Several pages of the
document came out, and then a page which said something about stack
overflow and offensive commands.  PostScript-related error messages seem
to me to be competitive with error reports I see from various electronic
mail systems in terms of incomprehensibility and uselessness - i.e.,
giving the recipient some hint of what to do about the problem.  Not
seeing any obvious place to sacrifice a goat, ...

7/ I took my paper copy of the report, walked down the hall to the FAX
machine, and sent it.  She had it in her hands 30 minutes later.

Assuming my experience is not a fluke, does anyone wonder why mere
mortals might use FAX instead of e-mail?   As one of the players in
e-mail in the 70s (historians see RFCs in the early 700s), it's a little
saddening to see the state of "user-friendliness" that has persisted for
the last 15 years.   For the non-technical world, E-mail provides a
capability somewhat akin to TELEX and Telegrams - the ability to send a
text-only message electronically, assisted by a wizard who will help to
figure out the proper string of magic characters needed to specify the
recipient properly.  Anything beyond that is too hard for most users,
except where specific custom software packages which go beyond the
standards have been created and are used within a community of such
users.   FAX provides a fundamentally different service.  I
wholeheartedly agree with the comment that a synergy between FAX and
E-mail has the potential for a great advance in the utility of both.

Jack