You should watch the mockumentary Citizen Cam to the end to understand that it’s not a documentary and also that there aren’t 200 cameras in Reykjavik whose footage is shown on its own TV channel. Otherwise, it could get embarrassing if your conversation partner knows better.
About the difficulties of finding a good Mail2Fax service
Actually, I had thought that Mail2Fax services should be a dime a dozen. There are also services, just not those that you can really seriously use. The use case: I have a signed document that I have to fax to a company. I can scan this and then save it as a PDF on my computer. I could also scan my signature and put it in a document and then create a PDF from it. The second option doesn’t really look good, and I don’t have time to take care of it. In the next step, I would like to put this PDF file in an email and send it to a Mail2Fax gateway, which sends the file as a fax to the fax number given in the subject or elsewhere, in the best case with a header that contains my fax number and my name. Shouldn’t be that hard. I also don’t want to pay for it monthly, but only per fax, because sometimes I don’t send a fax for months. It all sounds very simple, doesn’t it? My first thought was web.de. In fact, you can send a fax there from the web interface, but unfortunately you can’t attach any documents. Deceased. Then I thought of the Unified Messaging of Puretec/Schlund & Partner/1&1/United Internet, after all, this was the buzzword that was always printed in bold in their colorful brochures that tumbled out of every computer newspaper. Although web.de is now a subsidiary of United Internet, I still had the hope that the services had not yet been consolidated and that there would be another product at Puretec/1&1. In fact, something like this is offered, but not in my expensive hosting plan. Only if I also took DSL, then I could use the Mail2Fax gateway. As it is, however, I can only send a fax from a web interface. If you click on one of the many advertising links on a search engine after the search “mail2fax”, you will usually only find services that cash in monthly. It was only after some time that I found an offer that requires a set-up fee of a few euros, but then only charges per fax; the provider is called Xaranet. Although access is apparently only activated after a slow bank transfer and is not for spontaneous decision-makers, the money is not transferred to an account in the Bahamas, but to that of a German GmbH. The managing director, Timo Dreger, not only answers support emails personally, but also writes his own company blog. There were some small teething problems, but once I understood the principle, I can finally send faxes without having to buy a machine or apply for a second line. Interesting that there is no Web 2.0 solution yet, something like DropSend for faxes; Some time ago I thought that faxes were a dying species, but some things just can’t be solved with e-mail or Skype yet. This makes it all the more surprising that there are so few providers.
Blackberry orphans
In the Wall Street Journal’s December 8, 2006 article “Blackberry Orphans,” Katherine Rosman discusses the role reversal that takes place in many families: Instead of parents making sure that the kids don’t spend so much time in front of the TV, the kids are worried because their parents secretly check e-mails when they should be taking care of them. The article also features kids who report that their parents read and answer e-mails in the car instead of paying attention to the road. The children are relatively powerless, especially when they understand that the parents have to work to earn money. But not everyone puts up with the ever-decreasing attention spans:
When nothing else works, Lucas turns to the highest of authorities. “I go tell my mom that Daddy’s not listening and then my mom yells at him.”
The article also provides tips for email addicts, such as not checking emails while eating, not using the Blackberry while driving, and having Blackberry-free zones and times at home (of course, these rules aren’t limited to Blackberry devices alone). On the other hand, a Blackberry defender is quoted as saying that children should ask themselves whether it is better to have their parents away from home only 20 percent or 100 percent.
After this sentence, I decided not to buy a Blackberry or similar.
Business idea: track down the daughter in Second Life
Second Life is still something for the early adaptors. In 10 years at the latest, however, kids will spend their time in virtual reality, and since feelings can be just as real there as in the real world, it’s no use running around the house with a sword to protect your own daughter from bad guys. House arrest is of little use. Computer ban perhaps, but how is that supposed to work when the computer and the Internet are essential for the fulfillment of school obligations?
My idea: Watchdog for virtual worlds. I’m opening an agency for parents who want to know what their children are doing in the virtual world. This can also be expanded: Wives will have to hire detectives who are familiar with virtual reality to uncover their partner’s infidelity.
Imbecility? We’ll see 🙂