5 ms·

In Japan they still use fax machines.

usr1106 6y ago
I guess in Germany, too. (Haven't followed the development in the last couple of years.)
ChrisMarshallNY 6y ago
In the US, most medical organizations still use faxes. I hate it. If I need to send something to my insurance company, I have to print it out, and go to the UPS Store (and faxing is not cheap). Otherwise, I hardly ever use my printer.
- minot 6y ago
  I remember seeing an HN comment from someone who runs an online fax thing. I wish I had saved the comment when I saw it. Basically you can just fax stuff from your computer for a small fee.
  - kortilla 6y ago
    The problem is medical related stuff can be quite sensitive and a rando fax internet service could easily be looking at the images you fax and saving the interesting ones.
    - ChrisMarshallNY 6y ago
      That’s why I don’t do that. In any case, it’s infrequent enough, that it isn’t an issue.
  - Brian_K_White 6y ago
    I used to do that for my own company just for our own customers to use via our software. It was just a single T1 line in a data center with a linux box with a Dialogic T1 card installed, running HylaFax+. This got us 24 high speed fax lines on an internet connected server, and all the application servers sent jobs to it via the regular hylafax+ client (which is like a slightly customized ftp) The users didn't use the fax lines directly to send arbitrary files or prints from their desktops, they just used our software which had the option to fax things it generated. For some years there were several thousand end users and back end automated processes generating tons of faxes 24/7 and it hardly ever scratched the surface of that T1, because it often sent the faxes faster than the traditional 9600. Many times the receiving machine could receive at 14.4, and sometimes even at 19.2 or 33.6, and the server queing up the jobs and using all 24 lines could chew through a lot fast, so even when there was a lot of jobs, they didn't pole up much. That wasn't a generic service but an integrated one, but it's only a small step from there to having a generic email-to-fax gateway/service, or a web front end, or even a virtual printer driver that faxes instead. I used to use a generic service like that for a while also. Not one I made, someone else's service. Unity Fax, later renamed to fax.com. It worked like I just said, you could send and receive by email, or through their web site. They gave you your own phone number that anyone sending a fax to that number was sent to your email (or your inbox on the web site). There are many such services just like that.
- andylynch 6y ago
  The UK effectively banned faxes in healthcare earlier this year, it couldn’t come soon enough.
  - anonymou2 6y ago
    It is funny, the NHS uses Microsoft Teams. So faxes are more insecure than giving all their data to Microsoft?
    - rsynnott 6y ago
      Microsoft Teams brings its own potential problems, of course, but faxes are pretty insecure, both because of the transfer medium (they're typically unencrypted and easy to tap) and because they inherently involve making paper copies of sensitive data that should never be put on paper in the first place.
greggman3 6y ago
barely? I haven't used a fax machine in Japan in > 10yrs. 20yrs ago it was indispensable. For example you wanted to go somewhere you'd have the store/museum/etc fax you a map. But, yes, Japan is behind the times many ways. It's apparently on the government agenda to modernize. Social distancing has made it clear that requiring personal stamps to stamp papers has to be replaced by something else.
rsynnott 6y ago
Also in the US, apparently. A company I used to work for didn't have a fax machine until we opened a US office; then suddenly we needed one, as a lot of paperwork had to be faxed. This was about 10 years ago, I suppose; maybe it's better now.

I guess in Germany, too. (Haven't followed the development in the last couple of years.)

In the US, most medical organizations still use faxes. I hate it. If I need to send something to my insurance company, I have to print it out, and go to the UPS Store (and faxing is not cheap). Otherwise, I hardly ever use my printer.

minot 6y ago
I remember seeing an HN comment from someone who runs an online fax thing. I wish I had saved the comment when I saw it. Basically you can just fax stuff from your computer for a small fee.
- kortilla 6y ago
  The problem is medical related stuff can be quite sensitive and a rando fax internet service could easily be looking at the images you fax and saving the interesting ones.
  - ChrisMarshallNY 6y ago
    That’s why I don’t do that. In any case, it’s infrequent enough, that it isn’t an issue.
- Brian_K_White 6y ago
  I used to do that for my own company just for our own customers to use via our software. It was just a single T1 line in a data center with a linux box with a Dialogic T1 card installed, running HylaFax+. This got us 24 high speed fax lines on an internet connected server, and all the application servers sent jobs to it via the regular hylafax+ client (which is like a slightly customized ftp) The users didn't use the fax lines directly to send arbitrary files or prints from their desktops, they just used our software which had the option to fax things it generated. For some years there were several thousand end users and back end automated processes generating tons of faxes 24/7 and it hardly ever scratched the surface of that T1, because it often sent the faxes faster than the traditional 9600. Many times the receiving machine could receive at 14.4, and sometimes even at 19.2 or 33.6, and the server queing up the jobs and using all 24 lines could chew through a lot fast, so even when there was a lot of jobs, they didn't pole up much. That wasn't a generic service but an integrated one, but it's only a small step from there to having a generic email-to-fax gateway/service, or a web front end, or even a virtual printer driver that faxes instead. I used to use a generic service like that for a while also. Not one I made, someone else's service. Unity Fax, later renamed to fax.com. It worked like I just said, you could send and receive by email, or through their web site. They gave you your own phone number that anyone sending a fax to that number was sent to your email (or your inbox on the web site). There are many such services just like that.
andylynch 6y ago
The UK effectively banned faxes in healthcare earlier this year, it couldn’t come soon enough.
- anonymou2 6y ago
  It is funny, the NHS uses Microsoft Teams. So faxes are more insecure than giving all their data to Microsoft?
  - rsynnott 6y ago
    Microsoft Teams brings its own potential problems, of course, but faxes are pretty insecure, both because of the transfer medium (they're typically unencrypted and easy to tap) and because they inherently involve making paper copies of sensitive data that should never be put on paper in the first place.

greggman3 6y ago

barely? I haven't used a fax machine in Japan in > 10yrs. 20yrs ago it was indispensable. For example you wanted to go somewhere you'd have the store/museum/etc fax you a map. But, yes, Japan is behind the times many ways. It's apparently on the government agenda to modernize. Social distancing has made it clear that requiring personal stamps to stamp papers has to be replaced by something else.

rsynnott 6y ago

Also in the US, apparently. A company I used to work for didn't have a fax machine until we opened a US office; then suddenly we needed one, as a lot of paperwork had to be faxed. This was about 10 years ago, I suppose; maybe it's better now.