Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!ucsd!ucbvax!sprite.berkeley.edu!elm From: elm@sprite.berkeley.edu (ethan miller) Newsgroups: comp.society.futures Subject: Re: Looking backwards Message-ID: <33646@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> Date: 12 Jan 90 22:35:56 GMT References: <9001102206.AA04989@gslisf.lis.uiuc.edu> <9001111411.AA02351@jeremy.prime.com> Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Reply-To: elm@sprite.berkeley.edu (ethan miller) Organization: Berkeley--Shaken, not Stirred Lines: 39 In article <9001111411.AA02351@jeremy.prime.com> jeremy@jeremy.prime.COM writes: %> %> %> A few thoughts on this subject (particularly fax) from Dr. N. Negroponte's %> talk at the American Library Association's mid-winter meeting. %> %> Fax has been an incredible step backwards. People sit at their word- %> processors and create computer-readable materials, then print it out in order %> to turn it into a non-computer readable fax message! This will eventually either %> change or be superceeded. %Fax has one major advantage over the current computer mail setup. You %plug in a fax machine to the wall outlet, connect a phone cable to it, %and you are ready to receive/transmit faxes from/to all over the %world. Computer mail is incredibly complicated compared to that. Fax %will start to become obsolete as soon as $600 "computer mail machines" %are available that can be plugged in, connected to a phone and are %ready to go. Even then, we need a scanner and a computer independent %way of sending graphics. Why is it necessary to spend $600 for an "e-mail machine"? For about $300, you could put together a system with a keyboard, display, 8 or 16 bit CPU, and 1200 or 2400 baud internal modem. The price would go down with high volume, too. Of course, this wouldn't be a general purpose computer (though you could certainly program a Mac to emulate it), but even those people who didn't need a more powerful computer could afford one. As someone else said, all we need now is a protocol for sending messages over a phone line to a phone number. It should be simple and not require a dedicated phone line. Better still, it should not cause normal phones on the line to ring (so letters can be sent at night when rates are low). It's probably possible to do this with an auto-answer modem and a PC or Mac, so why shouldn't we start now? There are over 5 million PCs in the country; that's more than the number of FAX machines. ethan ================================= ethan miller--cs grad student elm@sprite.berkeley.edu #include {...}!ucbvax!sprite!elm Witty signature line condemned due to major quake damage.