Re: fax question

[nathan@cco.caltech.edu (Nathan Mates)]

In article <4jmqbg$b5c@news.ysu.edu>,
Adalbert Goertz <be404@yfn.ysu.edu> wrote:

   [Let me preface this by saying that, _yes_, it is around the
April 1st usenet spoof/troll time, but this post arrived here fully
12 hours before April 1st, so if it was supposed to be one, it sure
wasn't executed well.]

>Here is a question for you fax experts:
>I dont have a fax machine, so I cant receive fax messages
>or can I?
>I am wondering, if a fax machine can, instead of sending
>a messages to a fax machine, configure a message in image
>GIF format and send it to my mailbox.

   What ever gave you the idea that such a thing might be doable right
now? If something doesn't work precisely the way Adalbert wants
(without bothering to read the documentation or know what the heck is
going on), it MUST be a bug, right? Anyways, no such thing exists as
far as I can tell, merely because of this simple reason:

- The internet is not a phone service. _AND_
- The phone service is not the internet.

   Yes, you call up your local provider to get internet messages, but
there is _no_ implicit connection between phone numbers and email
addresses. That is, there is not a phone number for each email account
you have, nor is there a email address for your phone number. Deal
with it.

   Some enterprising company might want to start such a service, where
they provide a number to FAX things to, and then their computer deals
with translating the FAX to GIF format, and sending it on via
email. But, there's this basic problem: in dialing a phone number in
order to send the FAX to, there is no way to specify an email address.
I don't know how long it's been since you looked at a phone when
dialing (I don't need to do so most of the time; the numbers are
always in the same place), but there's no @ sign, and no easy way to
punch in text. [Yes, you could hit '2' twice for C, but that'd get
ugly real fast for most long internet email addresses]

   Some hacker could do this for their personal use, but that'd
require buying a dedicated fax modem, a dedicated computer, etc. Why
not go out and spend the $80-150 on a fax machine?


>In the past, if someone offered to send me a fax message, I always
>responded: Sorry, I dont have fax.
>Can I say, OK, I dont have a fax, but I can view GIF files,
>please send me GIF message?

   Yes, only if the person on the other end of things has a clue as to
computers. If the other person has things in GIF format anyways and a
decently fast net connection, it's trivial for them to do so. If the
person on the other end is as clueless as to how things work as you
appear to be, ferget it.


>What are the GIF capabilites of fax machines? Do they have any?

   None at all. FAXes are their own format, which is optimized for
sending FAXes. GIFs are different. There has been no need to send out
any other format from a FAX machine, so there's no need to bother.

   A better solution would be to get a FAX modem, FAX software for
your computer(s), and most likely another phone line such that the
computer could answer the phone, receive the FAX from the modem and
decode it from there. Not sure if PMPFax or Faxination support this,
but it would require having the computer on any time you wanted to
receive a fax.

   Many local copy shops (Kinko's, for example) have FAX capabilities,
where you can send out things, and possibly receive them as well. For
the occasional fax that you know when it's coming in, you might want
to check out them. Or, you could always do what so many others have
done-- go out and spend some money to get a real fax machine.
Guaranteed to work better than any other hack proposed above.

   There are times to make do with what capabilities you've got, and
there are times when to add another _FEATURE_ (not a bug, silly), you
have to go out and spend some money. Deal with it.

Nathan Mates


-- 
<*> Nathan Mates http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~nathan/      <*>
# And he said to them, "To you has been given the secret of the
# Kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything comes in 
# parables" Mark 4:11, NRSV