“From pagers to fax machines. Why is this stuff still around?” …
I still use six of these nine. My favorites: Vinyl LPs and Windows XP.
I’m actually donating four old fax machines to Goodwill today! My spouse kept bringing them home from his work and putting them in our workroom “just in case.” Enough is enough.
I still writes some checks. We still have vinyl records. I used a travel agent when I was planning a pretty complicated trip that involved three destinations, and having our daughter fly from a developing country to meet us. I just could not coordinate it all…but the agent did. She was terrific!!
My neighbor has a fax machine. But I seldom use it anymore because I have a scanner app on my phone…and I can scan, create a PDF and email. Works just fine.
Some of that stuff I never used…beeper?
I wish the newer versions of Microsoft worked as well as XP.
If there’s still a computer in your house running XP, it’s a fast way to download photos from your iPad or iPhone. XP doesn’t know what they are so it “reads” them as external storage devices and you can just open files and copy and paste. Or at least that’s how it worked before we all had to upgrade at work. Much faster and then my iTunes account wasn’t on my work computer.
Our home printer is a scanner and fax machine. I end up using the fax machine 2-3 times a year. Chase told me quickest way to send a doc was fax. So I plugged in the phone line. Some docs need to be sent in pharmacies with fax by law.
Still right some checks. A lot fewer than I did several years ago though.
We don’t have a fax machine. It frustrates me because so many people and businesses are still in the stone age and insist on faxing or receiving by fax. Doctor’s offices, real estate offices - get with the program! And don’t tell me you can’t send something by US mail, that’s actually impossible.
We rarely use checks personally and my company is trying to phase them out. Still have some things at work that I have to fax, though.
I think vinyl records are in a different category from all the rest – they have made a “comeback” because of their vintage appeal and because of a whole new generation of audiophiles who have decided that they like the sound better. It’s also given birth to a market for some cheapo Crosley (or similar) record players that sound awful, and are all about style (not quality or durability).
I still do checks for places like our garbage company. They don’t have an online paying service. I also use them when giving money for gifts. We send school records by fax still.
I have TWO fax machines and still use them as some places still require them or snail mail. I still use checks when I’m not using credit cards. We just gave away some discs because there are so few readers any more. I do have some cassette tapes but can’t remember the last time I listened to them. We gave away all our vinyl records
I have rediscovered vinyl, and also have a tube amplifier, I like the sound and it is just a lot of fun. It gets crazy, there are turnables that cost 10 grand or more, same with amps. For me it is a lot of fun, plus I have been able to pick up records here and there, from goodwill and other places, that is just fun. I also have a collection of old classical 78’s, some of them quite rare, which again are fun.
I still fax using my printer/scanner/fax machine for items that don’t already reside on my computer because I find that sitting a piece of paper on the scanner, entering a phone number and hitting “send” is quite a few steps shorter and faster than scanning something, saving it as a pdf, and then creating an email to attach it to–and then be left with one more file in my computer that I don’t need. I also find it a lot faster to dash off a check and throw it in an envelope than go to a different website for each bill, log in with password, enter the required info, and then for many, deal with a confirming email I’m supposed to check. Newer doesn’t necessarily mean better, and “obsolete” is in the eye of the beholder.
@thumper1 may I ask what scanning app you use???
Scanner Pro. It’s fabulous.
Fax machines are considered HIPAA compliant, but many emails are not. Yes one can encrypt them. Password protection alone may or may not be HIPAA compliant. So don’t yell at the Drs!
Our city only takes checks so every few months I have to find my checkbook to pay the water bill. So annoying.
Other than that, nope none of these. Everything is held on my portal for the doctors- even in between two systems. Not sure how that works with HIPAA compliance but as long as I don’t have to fax anything, I don’t care.
The doctors at the ER where I was a few times recently didn’t seem to have beepers but they did have those old brick walkie talkies. It’s possible that their pagers were just somewhere I couldn’t see them.
I believe some of our residents still carry pagers.
That article says fax machines were invented in 1843. Say Whaaaa??? That’s ridiculous.
For any utilities/regular payments who do not accept electronic payments, my bank cuts a check when I use online banking.
Sometimes it’s easier to simply take a picture of something on my phone and send it via text or email than to scan or fax.