There's a fantastic recent episode of the Joe Rogan podcast where he interviews Marc Andreeson (for those who don't know him, he was one of the founders of the Mosaic web browser--the first graphical web browser--and now a prolific tech VC investor/visionary). He talks in depth about the widespread, deep skepticism by most in the mainstream/positions of authroity around personal computers, the internet, email, etc. -- pretty much every digital tool we take for granted today, the majority of "experts" at the time were convinced were either completely useless or would never be successful. It's fascinating how far we've come in just 30-ish years, and those naysayers have eaten a lot of crow. I remember seeing the first stand-alone word processessor (basically a typewriter with a digital screen), using ICQ messenger in the college computer lab to talk to random strangers at another college, sending my first email (internal only) at my first job, and using dial up to find websites of companies before Google--you had to know the URL specifically and type it correctly to get there. It was a novelty then. Now, it's literally the basis of my entire career as a freelance writer in the PR/marketing business. Being a Gen Xer has been a wild ride!
I have to admit, I was amused at the video of the sea lions showing people trying to escape the attack by running in to the ocean. Isn't that where the sea lions normally live?
Speaking of bad judgement, I remember in Library School in the 70’s, one of my teachers predicted having personal computers and phones you could carry in your pockets. I let out a big laugh! “Are you kidding? Wed have to own a mansion just to house the databank!” Been eating crow ever since.
In the same timeframe you are discussing, I was involved in a project to allow doctors' offices to fax patient medical records to our central server for storage. Idea was to preserve scanned signatures, doctors' notes, etc. in a retrievable way that could be shared with other doctors. Questionable idea then (but, hey, they are spending the customers' money).
This week (July 2022 !) the Wells Fargo credit card department told me that they would ONLY accept a faxed document. And that, if I wanted, I could visit one of their branches where they would fax the document for me. Sheesh!!
I have no earthly idea how banning a few gas stations is going to help global warming. But hey, it's California and they do really goofy crap that makes no sense to anybody living in the other 49 states, lol. Sounds to me it's more a case of politicians trying to get re-elected. What-evvv-errr...
The James Webb telescope is worth ever penny we paid for it. Same thing with the Hubble telescope. I can't wait until I can see pictures of the beginning of time that the Webb telescope will provide.
Fantastically, wonderfully great job by everyone associated with the program. Y'all get an attaboy, or attagirl, from this taxpayer. Well done!
I still remember when my employer at the time got its first fax. It was kept under lock and key. Big step up from using a telex machine. And from that memory I can also confirm that ageism is alive and well.
Meanwhile, a number of Medical Practices, Doctors' Offices and Financial Institutions still either welcome or require "faxed" documents. Why? They say it's much easier to confirm receipt and then
manage the documents without having to find them in e-mail accounts and them print them. What's old is not always bad.
I just read your daily update on my apple watch. I've been a tech guy since the early 80's so you can imagine the changes since then. The pace of change is hard to believe sometimes. Now if we could just get Substack to let us comment without reauthenticating everytime, we'll consider it a major tech accomplishment, right there with the Webb telescope.
It's hard to imagine a time when receiving on-demand faxes was a thing, but it was.
I do kinda shake my head that faxes are still used today to send important documentation like prescriptions to pharmacies. Whyyyy?
I’ve had issues with faxes and printers during the working outside the home part of my career. I've experienced so much frustration working with equipment that was not up to par.
Can you imagine that the hospital where I worked had bought a used fax machine from a construction company. Lord in heaven. I would walk in most mornings to a paper jam. Oh, joy.
In health records, we had a printer with one of the trays being nonfunctional. That was fun. Not! I had thoughts of taking that printer outside and smashing it much like it was done in the movie Office Space.
We also had a microfilm reader with a USB that required us to unplug and replug it after pretty much every copy. We had to soothe ourselves by saying we were paid to do this no matter how tedious this process was.
I have a friend that worked in a school where the fax machine was giving her agony. Her requests to replace it fell on deaf ears. Well, she accidentally dropped the machine. Oops! Then it had to be replaced😉.
That's enough of a rant for today. Suffice it to say that I am happy to choose much of my own office equipment now. On top of that, my husband is an electronics technician so I'm pretty hooked up when it comes to getting help for the little things that may come up.
Referring to the Fax on Demand article, I can provide an older example. In the early 1970's, in Omaha Nebraska, I took a journalism class from Gunnar Horn, at Benson High School. Part of the instruction used a book he co-wrote with a couple of other people in the early 1940's.
As we were going through the book one day, someone asked what "facsimile newspaper" was, I believe in a list of public communication methods. Mr. Horn explained this was a forward-thinking prediction they added to the book, when they thought newspapers would morph from something delivered to something printed in the home. He conceded this was probably never going to happen, and asked us to cross out that line in the copy of the book we had.
Great teacher. He retired about five years later, after I had graduated.
I enjoy your newsletter. FYI -- I, too, was a fledgling newspaper sports writer in 1995 and was earning 18.5K exactly per year. Those were the days! I l also remember when fax-on-demand was the new tech. Email ruined it.
No, please don’t fax save paper!!
There's a fantastic recent episode of the Joe Rogan podcast where he interviews Marc Andreeson (for those who don't know him, he was one of the founders of the Mosaic web browser--the first graphical web browser--and now a prolific tech VC investor/visionary). He talks in depth about the widespread, deep skepticism by most in the mainstream/positions of authroity around personal computers, the internet, email, etc. -- pretty much every digital tool we take for granted today, the majority of "experts" at the time were convinced were either completely useless or would never be successful. It's fascinating how far we've come in just 30-ish years, and those naysayers have eaten a lot of crow. I remember seeing the first stand-alone word processessor (basically a typewriter with a digital screen), using ICQ messenger in the college computer lab to talk to random strangers at another college, sending my first email (internal only) at my first job, and using dial up to find websites of companies before Google--you had to know the URL specifically and type it correctly to get there. It was a novelty then. Now, it's literally the basis of my entire career as a freelance writer in the PR/marketing business. Being a Gen Xer has been a wild ride!
I have to admit, I was amused at the video of the sea lions showing people trying to escape the attack by running in to the ocean. Isn't that where the sea lions normally live?
Speaking of bad judgement, I remember in Library School in the 70’s, one of my teachers predicted having personal computers and phones you could carry in your pockets. I let out a big laugh! “Are you kidding? Wed have to own a mansion just to house the databank!” Been eating crow ever since.
In the same timeframe you are discussing, I was involved in a project to allow doctors' offices to fax patient medical records to our central server for storage. Idea was to preserve scanned signatures, doctors' notes, etc. in a retrievable way that could be shared with other doctors. Questionable idea then (but, hey, they are spending the customers' money).
This week (July 2022 !) the Wells Fargo credit card department told me that they would ONLY accept a faxed document. And that, if I wanted, I could visit one of their branches where they would fax the document for me. Sheesh!!
Cali gas stations:
I have no earthly idea how banning a few gas stations is going to help global warming. But hey, it's California and they do really goofy crap that makes no sense to anybody living in the other 49 states, lol. Sounds to me it's more a case of politicians trying to get re-elected. What-evvv-errr...
Sorry, my FAX machine is in the shop.
Sorry, my FAX machine is in the shop.
The James Webb telescope is worth ever penny we paid for it. Same thing with the Hubble telescope. I can't wait until I can see pictures of the beginning of time that the Webb telescope will provide.
Fantastically, wonderfully great job by everyone associated with the program. Y'all get an attaboy, or attagirl, from this taxpayer. Well done!
I still remember when my employer at the time got its first fax. It was kept under lock and key. Big step up from using a telex machine. And from that memory I can also confirm that ageism is alive and well.
One of the ugliest beaches I've ever seen.
Meanwhile, a number of Medical Practices, Doctors' Offices and Financial Institutions still either welcome or require "faxed" documents. Why? They say it's much easier to confirm receipt and then
manage the documents without having to find them in e-mail accounts and them print them. What's old is not always bad.
I just read your daily update on my apple watch. I've been a tech guy since the early 80's so you can imagine the changes since then. The pace of change is hard to believe sometimes. Now if we could just get Substack to let us comment without reauthenticating everytime, we'll consider it a major tech accomplishment, right there with the Webb telescope.
It's hard to imagine a time when receiving on-demand faxes was a thing, but it was.
I do kinda shake my head that faxes are still used today to send important documentation like prescriptions to pharmacies. Whyyyy?
I’ve had issues with faxes and printers during the working outside the home part of my career. I've experienced so much frustration working with equipment that was not up to par.
Can you imagine that the hospital where I worked had bought a used fax machine from a construction company. Lord in heaven. I would walk in most mornings to a paper jam. Oh, joy.
In health records, we had a printer with one of the trays being nonfunctional. That was fun. Not! I had thoughts of taking that printer outside and smashing it much like it was done in the movie Office Space.
We also had a microfilm reader with a USB that required us to unplug and replug it after pretty much every copy. We had to soothe ourselves by saying we were paid to do this no matter how tedious this process was.
I have a friend that worked in a school where the fax machine was giving her agony. Her requests to replace it fell on deaf ears. Well, she accidentally dropped the machine. Oops! Then it had to be replaced😉.
That's enough of a rant for today. Suffice it to say that I am happy to choose much of my own office equipment now. On top of that, my husband is an electronics technician so I'm pretty hooked up when it comes to getting help for the little things that may come up.
Referring to the Fax on Demand article, I can provide an older example. In the early 1970's, in Omaha Nebraska, I took a journalism class from Gunnar Horn, at Benson High School. Part of the instruction used a book he co-wrote with a couple of other people in the early 1940's.
As we were going through the book one day, someone asked what "facsimile newspaper" was, I believe in a list of public communication methods. Mr. Horn explained this was a forward-thinking prediction they added to the book, when they thought newspapers would morph from something delivered to something printed in the home. He conceded this was probably never going to happen, and asked us to cross out that line in the copy of the book we had.
Great teacher. He retired about five years later, after I had graduated.
I enjoy your newsletter. FYI -- I, too, was a fledgling newspaper sports writer in 1995 and was earning 18.5K exactly per year. Those were the days! I l also remember when fax-on-demand was the new tech. Email ruined it.