For this week’s gear grinding post, I wanted to rant about how much I hate that some technologies, no matter how bad they are, survive the test of time. My best example is the fax machine.

I had to fax some paperwork today and I realized how much I hate fax machines, It’s about 10 times easier to scan something with a $30 scanner and email the PDF than it is to use a fax machine. On top of that, fax machines are horribly slow and the quality is worth than a 3rd grader’s attempt at reproduction. Somehow these devices have survived many technologies such as OCR, broadband, UV scanners, and USB connections without ever upgrading. The only real upgrade to fax machines over the generation is software that can decipher an incoming fax through a modem on your computer and save it as a PDF. The document still had to be sent via fax machine so the whole process is a waste.

Hopefully these machines will slowly but surely drop off from the face of the Earth.