Facebook ...

Facebook and I have never got on.

While I've had an account for years I've only really used it for authentication services. I've never seen the point of Facebook, preferring twitter, blogger and wordpress, plus reading my news via rss.

Since moving to the country that's been changing. Turns out a lot of cafes and small restaurants use Facebook to announce menus, and specials like a Friday night pizza and beer evening with a band, not to mention small specialist backyard operations like small scale plant nurseries, or the man who makes traditional ie strong farm and garden tools as a hobby and sells them on the side.

So, reluctantly, I'm less of a refusenik, but I still don't really see the point ...

Faxes ...

For long after everyone else has stopped using faxes I've maintained an online fax account.

Not any more, it's gone. You would think it should have died years ago, but every time I've gone to delete it it's suddenly proved stupidly useful.

Builders use faxes to send orders and sketches, lawyers still use faxes due to their end to endness - ie you can get a receipt and a record it's been received at the other end (yes we know about read receipts and email but these are not universally implemented) and doctors offices still use them to send confidential documents for much the same reason.

And of course, if you need to test something, or indeed sign off on an order to a builder, or get a copy of your medical file from overseas, you need a fax machine, or in my case, something that emulates a fax machine. And suddenly it's clear why many multifunction printers still have fax options, and why office supplies superstores still carry fax machines -  they're still in use out there on the outernet ...