I had my first laptop around 1993–94 (with Linux SLS installed), so ... yes, of course. By then, hard drives were getting into the 100s of megabytes on desktops, and maybe around 80 MB on laptops (my memory's a little fuzzy after 30 years). The first affordable gigabyte hard drives for PC's came out in the mid 1990s, and for laptops by the later 1990s.
In the 1980s people were lugging things like Mac classics around, but that was a couple of iterations earlier in Moore's Law.
And since @RickiTarr mentioned 1990s technology, this old mini-billboard is still up in my neighbourhood. I guess no one wants to climb up and take it down.
Doctors still (?) use those damn things or did last I checked. Pharmacies still (?) talk about faxxing in prescriptions. And we all remember the horror stories of wrong numbers with sensitive drug prescription renewals sent to wrong numbers...
Many people probably use a fax from desktop system by now, though my spouse's office has a real one to communicate with hospitals. It's still used because of its point-to-point nature with no intervening opportunities to view patient/client information, and the relative confidence in fidelity of the copy.
Yep. I actually set up a desktop fax years ago for a company. Why buy a device when you can use software? (aside that's also true for those of us who do amateur radio packet or rtty!) I had read somewhere there were moves to do secure email prescription instead hence my hedging. Yes point to point lessens the chances of MiM attacks. Just make sure you get the phone number right.
In the US, at least, and I suspect elsewhere fax is often used in a non-literal sense it’s just the word for “sending in a prescription” by whatever means. For most chain pharmacies here it really means them using a provider account on a website to submit it. At a previous job I was often amused when I was helping them troubleshoot part of this process and they would use the word fax in the manner. I know in some contexts it’s a literal fax but in many it’s not. Much like I get paged out but haven’t seen an actual pager in decades.
This does not at all surprise me. I will also note that VoIP systems can (and do) mangle the tones used for FAX now anyway. I can't imagine a 56K Courier modem making it through a modern VoIP system. P.S. Anyone else remember velcro'ing banks of Courier modems together for ISP dial in? I do! P.P.S. 64K analogue modems were developed but they cross talked like mad. TPC was using 64K or 56K lines internally. (Digital instead of the old fashioned FDM system) and of course provisioning for ISDN was 56K (with 8K reserved for signalling) or 64K. (ISDN was very popular here for small companies at one time. Two POTS and one POS link to bank!)
once upon a time, I helped build Rogers Home Phone. We had to do the whole “test fax tones” thing and “engineering” still wouldn’t sign off on it (for a while). 56k also worked; I still have the USR modem I used to test it. It’s VOIP but only on the Rogers network; it hits a Nortel switch and goes on the PSTN from there.
I had the (mis?) fortune of working with ISDN once. Businesses used to love it. Depending on provisioning 64K or 56K hence a 64kpbs modem was very near the limit. It would be interesting to see the "twist" on such a network as they roll off the top and upper end for voice. (On SSB hamradio they really roll off bottom and top)
VOIP to PSTN rolls off because there’s no point, someone is going to bandwidth limit you where you don’t control it. This is why (for example) FaceTime and Ooma can do so much better a job on bandwidth as voice quality than PSTN can. And frankly the cell folks don’t get it, so they’ll keep a circuit live for voice and sacrifice data transit to do so, but that’s another story.
I have not delved into it much but Cell phone using COFDM are finally looking into "stealing" a subcarrier for data whenever possible with LTE. I always remember the Telebit vs. Hayes USEnet posts and in fact, Telebit had the right technology at the wrong time.
"Misdirected faxes are the leading cause of unauthorized disclosure of personal health information in Ontario, according to the province's Information and Privacy Commissioner. Nearly 5,000 privacy breaches related to misdirected faxes were reported to the commissioner's office in 2021." cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ont…
To be fair, there was a time when having a fax at home was popular. I remember my dad using one to keep in touch with my sister on a year trip to Australia. Hence much more exposure to misdirected faxes. Nowadays, who has a FAX?
is there a better solution than an online service? Especially looking for a code implementation of a fax modem, and I don’t have the time to write one right now. (I did write a Link-11 modem, back in the Stone Age, but that’s another story.)
mgetty+sendfax is still in FreeBSD ports. .. Sendfax sends the named g3 fax files to the fax machine at "phone number". The g3 files can be created with pbmtog3(1) or GNU's GhostScript with the "digifax" driver. IFF one had a modem that could support it ;)
Yes. In the Amateur Radio world we have long given up on external modems plus heavy teletypes etc. and do it in software. It depends on what you need. The reason I mentioned an external modem is if it's a one of, one might not want to have to deal with the hardware end. Firmware/software can do 99% of the work. I'd look into SIP FAXing. No need to do POTS you could do it all over IP.
David Megginson
in reply to Ricki Gray Area Witch Tarr • • •I had my first laptop around 1993–94 (with Linux SLS installed), so ... yes, of course. By then, hard drives were getting into the 100s of megabytes on desktops, and maybe around 80 MB on laptops (my memory's a little fuzzy after 30 years). The first affordable gigabyte hard drives for PC's came out in the mid 1990s, and for laptops by the later 1990s.
In the 1980s people were lugging things like Mac classics around, but that was a couple of iterations earlier in Moore's Law.
David Megginson
in reply to David Megginson • • •David Megginson
in reply to David Megginson • • •And since @RickiTarr mentioned 1990s technology, this old mini-billboard is still up in my neighbourhood. I guess no one wants to climb up and take it down.
#fax #tech #1990s #Ottawa
Dianora (Diane Bruce)
in reply to David Megginson • • •David Megginson
in reply to Dianora (Diane Bruce) • • •What brand of fax machine are you going to buy?
@RickiTarr
Dianora (Diane Bruce)
in reply to David Megginson • • •Dan Neuman
in reply to Dianora (Diane Bruce) • • •Dianora (Diane Bruce) reshared this.
Dianora (Diane Bruce)
in reply to Dan Neuman • • •Dak (D. A. Keldsen)
in reply to Dianora (Diane Bruce) • • •Dianora (Diane Bruce)
in reply to Dak (D. A. Keldsen) • • •arch-packetmancer
in reply to Dianora (Diane Bruce) • • •Dianora (Diane Bruce)
in reply to arch-packetmancer • • •P.S. Anyone else remember velcro'ing banks of Courier modems together for ISP dial in? I do!
P.P.S. 64K analogue modems were developed but they cross talked like mad. TPC was using 64K or 56K lines internally. (Digital instead of the old fashioned FDM system) and of course provisioning for ISDN was 56K (with 8K reserved for signalling) or 64K. (ISDN was very popular here for small companies at one time. Two POTS and one POS link to bank!)
Dak (D. A. Keldsen)
in reply to Dianora (Diane Bruce) • • •Dianora (Diane Bruce)
in reply to Dak (D. A. Keldsen) • • •Dak (D. A. Keldsen)
in reply to Dianora (Diane Bruce) • • •Dianora (Diane Bruce)
in reply to Dak (D. A. Keldsen) • • •Dak (D. A. Keldsen)
in reply to Dianora (Diane Bruce) • • •Dianora (Diane Bruce)
in reply to Dak (D. A. Keldsen) • • •"Misdirected faxes are the leading cause of unauthorized disclosure of personal health information in Ontario, according to the province's Information and Privacy Commissioner. Nearly 5,000 privacy breaches related to misdirected faxes were reported to the commissioner's office in 2021." cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ont…
To be fair, there was a time when having a fax at home was popular. I remember my dad using one to keep in touch with my sister on a year trip to Australia. Hence much more exposure to misdirected faxes. Nowadays, who has a FAX?
Dak (D. A. Keldsen)
in reply to Dianora (Diane Bruce) • • •they are massively and shameful still in use. I’m reluctantly having to build fax into a solution right now.
I can say with nearly complete certainty that every pharmacy in Canada has literal fax. I’ve found no exceptions.
Dianora (Diane Bruce)
in reply to Dak (D. A. Keldsen) • • •David Megginson
in reply to Dak (D. A. Keldsen) • • •Yes, pharmacies have to have fax, or they wouldn't be able to send prescription-renewal requests to most doctors' offices. 😕
@dan613 @RickiTarr @Dianora
Dianora (Diane Bruce)
in reply to David Megginson • • •Dak (D. A. Keldsen)
in reply to Dianora (Diane Bruce) • • •Dianora (Diane Bruce)
in reply to Dak (D. A. Keldsen) • • •IFF one had a modem that could support it ;)
Dak (D. A. Keldsen)
in reply to Dianora (Diane Bruce) • • •Dianora (Diane Bruce)
in reply to Dak (D. A. Keldsen) • • •silverwizard
in reply to Dianora (Diane Bruce) • •@Dianora (Diane Bruce) @David Megginson @Ricki Jorkin Depeanus Tarr @Dan Neuman my parent's fax line was one digit off the fax line of a local rehab
Our fax machine was a goldmine of PIPEDA violations
Mark Connolly 🍻 🚴🏼♀️ (he, him, his)
in reply to David Megginson • • •Dianora (Diane Bruce)
in reply to David Megginson • • •Liam O'Sullivan
in reply to Ricki Gray Area Witch Tarr • • •Shantell Powell
in reply to Liam O'Sullivan • • •