Best old-school communication device?

2 Tin cans and a long string worked for me! :rofl::rofl::rofl:

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Burning Tom Hanks GIF by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

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We need to stop enabling fax machines… Absolutely worthless in 2021. A phone or tablet can do it easier, faster, more reliably and wide-spread than fax. When someone asks for a fax they’re basically asking you to go to FedEx.

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Landlines are great because you can’t text - actually talk to each other. That said, i recall in 1983 when my office (in a consulting firm) got the first fax machine and 6 secretaries were looking at it because the vp asked her to fax something. Someone said: “ah just fedex it.” I (at 22 yrs old and MUCH lower in status) said “we’re a bunch of very smart women. I’m sure we can figure this out.” 3 mins later the machine was set up, the 2 page letter was sent and 6 secretaries were grinning - “no more typing fed ex labels for a 2 page letter!!!”

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Just because they’re still used doesn’t mean it isn’t old technology

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If it weren’t for fax apps, I’d lose my mind. I work for an insurance company that is #41 on the Fortune 500 list. I have to print a form, write in the dates, times and $ amounts for my daycare reimbursement, take the form to daycare, have it signed, and then fax it to the Employee Reimbursement department and hope that they receive it. Why??? It’s the most frustrating process. Not because it’s hard or difficult, but because it is so archaic. I use the FaxFile app, and it’s only like $.10/page, but it still makes me so angry when I have to fax anything.

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11 meters! 27MHz. That’s CB radio, good buddy.

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But then how will we get updated Chinese food delivery menus?

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Might as well use a can and a string.

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Oh, that’s our local network. The landline is for long distance service :stuck_out_tongue:

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Phone Finland GIF by ThisisFINLAND

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If you have the funds to spare, land lines are worth keeping. When regional disaster struck, cell towers were dead. Many land lines remained functional. 911 calls via cell did not go through. The only hope was a functional land line.

Interesting factoids: Land lines are independently powered by phone company power and may function for a corded phone even if your main power goes out. When the phone is not in use, it is maintained at about 50-60 volts. When the phone rings, the signal is a 20 hertz AC signal at about 90 volts. When in use it is a modulated DC signal between 6 and 12 volts. We maintain phone line fax machines more for this adaptive preparedness purpose. We could otherwise eFAX including workstation to FAX print in Word.

ATT had a push to talk system (PTT) that seems all but gone. It worked during Katrina.

They replaced it but it is restricted to first responders. Believe it is 5G based and on a heavily restricted use band. Reasonable since swamped cell towers means emergency communications otherwise fail to get through paralyzing response.

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Ahh, the legendary Nokia 3310. The Chuck Norris of phones.

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Off their website with click to add to express order and payment? Then curbside pick up?
I pity wait staff displaced by COVID, but a lot of even the Mom and Pop restaurants have evolved.

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I think faxes are considered “original documents” though. Which in some instances is a legal necessity. I think that’s the only thing keeping them in use in so many places.

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Yes but a serial killer can’t cut your cell phone wire in the middle of the night

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Fists. They get the message across.
Angry Bruce Lee GIF

The last time someone asked me to fax something to them, I asked them “…where to fax it to? 1983?”
80s fitness GIF

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It’s not a device but anyone remember being a kid and screwing over 1-800-collect when you needed a ride home?

I do and I don’t regret it

Vince Mcmahon Laughing GIF by WWE

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Thank you but it is for a different purpose. The land line is not for daily use and I have not used it for 3 years. It is a backup that may never be used. It is when all cell towers are swamped and no cell calls going through. I have been in that situation.

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