karl@asylum.SF.CA.US (Karl Auerbach) (12/20/89)
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--
kip%kippu@Sun.COM (David Kipping) (12/21/89)
In article <8034@xenna.Xylogics.COM> loverso@Xylogics.COM (John Robert LoVerso) writes: >In article <5803@umd5.umd.edu> oleary@umd5.umd.edu (dave o'leary) writes: >> In article <6042@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> dls@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (David L Stevens) writes: >> The problem with FAX is that it is by definition, a facsimile of a document. > > >I see `email' (I dislike that term) being the copier-replacing-carbon-paper; >the FAX has come along and started a revolution. There's just no (current) >easy way to get a signed document from here to there using email, without >extra hardware (over any "standard" PC) and a better user interfaces, etc. > One reason that FAX has been accepted so much is that the law in the states has accepted "signed" documents which are faxed as legally binding. As a result it has become common place to "exchange" signatures via FAX on multimillion dollar deals. One thing holding up email in the business community is that to my understanding, commitments emailed are not considered binding. What is needed is to raise the security image of email to make it binding. I won't bring up the legal implications of sending a FAXed, signed document over email. disclaimers() David Kipping kip@sun (415) 336-1013