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Written by Tony Phelps
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Thursday, 17 November 2005 |
Some years ago, when IBM ruled the computer world with monstrously big
and monstrously expensive mainframe computers (before the personal
computer caught on in the early 80’s), IBM predicted the paperless
office. All written communications would take place and be stored
electronically. That is still a utopian dream, alas.
However, in spite of the much greater ease we now enjoy for pumping out
streams of professional-looking paper documents, in full glossy colour
if we choose, we are a lot closer to being able to greatly reduce our
reliance on paper for storing our documents and records.
Touted the “universal inbox”, it is increasingly possible to receive
all forms of communication in one place. The average PC (personal
computer) is capable of being setup as a telephone answering machine
(giving you voice-mail) and as a fax machine (giving you fax-mail) in
addition to an email Inbox.
Naturally, achieving this isn’t easy, and as always there is a plethora
of choice on exactly how to go about it. Different software packages
offer different facilities, and need different hardware and/or
supporting operating systems. But the point is, it is no longer
necessary to have a room-full of equipment to meet your communication
needs ; a reasonably up-to-date and well set up PC can combine many
into one.
And as a bonus extra, you can start doing clever stuff with automation.
With a bit of investigation (otherwise known as reading the manual,
RTFM) you’ll be able to automatically sort faxes according to sender,
automatically forward a fax from X to Y, automatically send yourself an
SMS whenever there’s voice-mail or email voice-mail to yourself at home
outside working hours….
All this does lead to a great reliance on the PC, so if it’s sick so is
everything. And backups become VERY important. But everyone already
does regular backups, n’est-ce pas??
Oh, happy birthday to the cutest PC of all (Personal Child, that is) -
2 years old today. Next week's column, by the way, will be about PC
ages and when are they "old".
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