Facsimile: Difference between revisions

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The successor in “almost-immediately obsolete contraptions” to the [[telex]] machine, nowadays the [[facsimile]] machine is mostly useful for affording bragging rights, both for those<ref>Experience and wisdom.</ref> who can remember having to use them and what they were for, and those who can’t<ref>Youth and beauty.</ref>.
The successor in “almost-immediately obsolete contraptions” to the [[telex]] machine, nowadays the [[facsimile]] machine is mostly useful for affording bragging rights, both for those<ref>Experience and wisdom.</ref> who can remember having to use them and what they were for, and those who can’t<ref>Youth and beauty.</ref>. the Fax was the last stand of truly analogue communication. It started out life as a piece of paper and ended up as a piece of paper. A horrid, waxy, faded piece of payment resemblent of that loo paper you get in nasty educational establishments.
 
Granted, there was a digital component — the document was digitised and send across a PABX network as a series of ones and zeroes — only to be undigitised and rendered full useless at the other end, the usable digital information lost forever in a squeal and whirr of odd boinky noises and static. So close, but so far away.


A [[fax]] that ran out of paper was an important [[McGuffin]] in the ''denouement'' of John Grisham's [[espievie]] thriller, ''The Firm''. Not to be out-done, [[Hunter Barkley]]’s forthcoming novel is going to involve a malfunctioning [[telex]].
A [[fax]] that ran out of paper was an important [[McGuffin]] in the ''denouement'' of John Grisham's [[espievie]] thriller, ''The Firm''. Not to be out-done, [[Hunter Barkley]]’s forthcoming novel is going to involve a malfunctioning [[telex]].

Revision as of 10:23, 1 May 2019

The successor in “almost-immediately obsolete contraptions” to the telex machine, nowadays the facsimile machine is mostly useful for affording bragging rights, both for those[1] who can remember having to use them and what they were for, and those who can’t[2]. the Fax was the last stand of truly analogue communication. It started out life as a piece of paper and ended up as a piece of paper. A horrid, waxy, faded piece of payment resemblent of that loo paper you get in nasty educational establishments.

Granted, there was a digital component — the document was digitised and send across a PABX network as a series of ones and zeroes — only to be undigitised and rendered full useless at the other end, the usable digital information lost forever in a squeal and whirr of odd boinky noises and static. So close, but so far away.

A fax that ran out of paper was an important McGuffin in the denouement of John Grisham's espievie thriller, The Firm. Not to be out-done, Hunter Barkley’s forthcoming novel is going to involve a malfunctioning telex.

See also

References

  1. Experience and wisdom.
  2. Youth and beauty.