this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2024
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Stallman Was Right
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and our long term aim should be to make printers go the way of the fax machine.
Unlike fax, printers weren't completely superceded by computers and the Internet. They'll still be useful for decades or more
i dunno. i genuinely can't remember the last thing i had to print out. maybe some expense claim forms in 2019 before the pandemic accelerated paperless processes? can't think of any after that.
it's not all that far-fetched a notion.
I mean I only use my own printer once a year at most but plenty of other people still have to print things personally and professionally for various reasons. Many printed things can be replaced by technology but not everything. Fax was just a way to get information from one place to another - every single part of what it does is done better and easier with email and other tech
So?
Unfortunately, I still access to a fax, and have trouble finding it. (Some sort of security-by-obscurity method that the medical world clings to.)
There's a few industries that cling to it for that (weak) reason but it's obsolete as soon as they let go
Yep, wishing and hoping.
I know of at least two professionals who make their notes with a Remarkable to pdf. Personal printers can go away.
Oh damn well if 2 people are doing it in your industry, printers must be useless to everyone!
When I worked in the field I carried a laptop but still mostly worked off of paper. Paper-sized ectronics are pretty useless on ladders and plans are too hard to read on a phone. Paper can also fold and go in a pocket
You missunderstood, one is a psychiatrist, the other a social-something. I just say it's a thing already.
No, i don't see how paper is a neccesity in your examples. And i did work in a company for a while, creating software for phones/tablets/notebooks for exatly those usecases, optimizing workflows in industry. Especially plans can be vastly more useful in digital form, look up IFC format.
You don't see how paper would be significantly easier to use when you're on top of a ladder splicing wires?
Or how it might be preferable to a touch screen on a dirty construction site?
No, they don't. And they won't, unless they work on a dirty construction site on top of a ladder wearing protective gloves themselves. Or have to actually use plans.
No, they don't. And they won't, unless they work on a dirty construction site on top of a ladder wearing protective gloves themselves. Or have to actually use plans.