Terse Systems

I tried making a fax from the T610.

In theory, simple. Windows TAPI has been around for at least five years, I’ve got a scanner/faxer thingie, no problem. Except that Windows couldn’t install Fax Services without SP2 files… which wouldn’t install. And there’s no way to get new SP2 files, given that the only available downloads are through Windows Update.

However, there’s nothing stopping me sending a fax through the Powerbook. OSX comes through on this. Print document, click fax, enter a phone number and… nothing. Phone blinks for a second and then hangs up.

Fifteen minutes of searching teh interweb and I find out that T-Mobile allows “circuit switched data” voice calls through, but blocks CSD fax calls unless you pay them $10 a month. (References here and here). Why T-Mobile does this is not immediately clear, as it’s not as if I make faxes often enough to sign up, and I’d be happy enough (well, satisfied) to pay a one time 5 cent charge to fax something.

I always wondered why telephony never really took off, but now that I have a phone that talks to computers, the answer is obvious. The software is crap, the hardware is opaque, and the experience is frustrating and boring at the same time. It would be one thing if this were some cool new video conferencing software, but this is a fax. Stone age.

So I scanned the document as a PDF and e-mailed it. I never liked faxes anyway.