I have no fax
16/10/06 12:14 Journalism in practice
As you'll have gathered from over a decade of hype,
this is the information age, we're all tethered to
the information superhighway and so on.
Well, sometimes. I've been looking at digital cameras and cameraphones just lately - or I would have. Unfortunately I have no fax. You remember faxes - we weren't going to need them once e-mail had set in, and more often than not I still don't. I have an Internet-based fax number on which I can receive the things if people insist, but the idea of sending one is simply antiquated.
Or so I thought, until I discovered once again the vagaries of the PR machine. Yes of course we'll lend you a camera to evaluate, they said. Just print this form, sign it and send it back and that'll be fine.
Grr. I can assure everyone I am not a thief. If I tell you I'm borrowing a camera and I'll send it back, that's what I'll do. Indeed I'm not sure that signing a physical bit of paper would be any more binding than an e-mailed exchange in an instance like that; I'm either a crook or I'm not, and a signature's not going to get in my way if I am.
And yet everyone with loan kit insists on sticking with old technology. Baffling...
Well, sometimes. I've been looking at digital cameras and cameraphones just lately - or I would have. Unfortunately I have no fax. You remember faxes - we weren't going to need them once e-mail had set in, and more often than not I still don't. I have an Internet-based fax number on which I can receive the things if people insist, but the idea of sending one is simply antiquated.
Or so I thought, until I discovered once again the vagaries of the PR machine. Yes of course we'll lend you a camera to evaluate, they said. Just print this form, sign it and send it back and that'll be fine.
Grr. I can assure everyone I am not a thief. If I tell you I'm borrowing a camera and I'll send it back, that's what I'll do. Indeed I'm not sure that signing a physical bit of paper would be any more binding than an e-mailed exchange in an instance like that; I'm either a crook or I'm not, and a signature's not going to get in my way if I am.
And yet everyone with loan kit insists on sticking with old technology. Baffling...
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