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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]]. | ||