this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2025
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Fax machines. Government and medical offices would grind to a halt without them. That's just reality.
Came to say this. Fax just refuses to die.
Because it can do something that the alternatives can't do or because they refuse to use something more modern?
"It can't be hacked"
Of course, it can, and a lot more easily than a TLS stream, but try convincing them of that. So, more like they refuse to use something more modern.
Everyone even tangentially related to healthcare is terrified of violating HIPAA in a way that leaves evidence that can be traced back to them. So the corps force dumb shit like this, while the employees are perfectly happy to tell all kinds of private health information to anyone who will listen. Especially if it's funny or gross.
Believe it or not, Canadian health services do this shit too.
Because it works. Every part needed to run those machines, even line of code, every possible cause of failure is well documented and there are layers and layers of redundant protocol to ensure that if something does go wrong downtime is minimal.
The entire purpose of these machines are designed to run for as long as theyβre needed. Theyβre not replaced or upgraded because they were never meant to be. A lot of effort went into this being the case.
That's basically the answer to the opposite question: what is something that someone thinks isn't obsolete, but really is?
Even worse, the US military, at least, is still using teletype machines and COBOL.