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breppptoday at 3:02 PM1 replyview on HN

Although I didn't enjoy this fiction of "angry man against system" genre, he did touch an important truth about the fax machine, which this story doesn't properly expand on.

A fax is very useful to bureaucracies because it is hard to prove a fax was ever sent or received at all. It might never arrived and wasn't retried, might have been printed as empty pages, maybe someone else picked it up.

This is why it is so useful when someone on the other end wants to delay (the equivalent of closing a bug as can't reproduce). This is why governments like faxes and why this story is so unlikely (no chance anyone will call back in that event)


Replies

0x3ftoday at 3:06 PM

Surely some of the online fax services are offering retention and certification of what's sent? Seems like free money to add a checkbox at checkout.

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