HCI commentary

There are some interesting answers to this question here, with a significant point about the admissibility in court of faxed but not emailed documents. The rise of fax gateway sites also gets a mention - part of the ongoing popularity of fax machines is apparently due to the fact that now you don't have to worry about the other person actually having a fax machine - there is software that will pick it up and email it to you. And of course the ultimate extreme is that neither person need have a fax machine - most modems come with fax software so you can send your document straight from your screen to someone elses.

But what really caught my eye was the 'subtle' reason given for the continuing popularity of faxes: the blurring between faxes and emails. Is faxing one of those technologies that has woven itself into our lives so successfully that it might never get un-woven? I'm not so sure about all of this, but that's mainly because I've never had much luck with fax machines, either real or virtual...