Senseless Office
When I was younger, I was a great believer in the idea of paperless office. I was excited about the idea that technologies like computers, PDAs and Tablet PCs will completely replace the paper for transferring and managing information. At that time, in the beginning of the former decade, it seemed promising, however both technical and conceptual problems prevented this dream from happening.
And I left this concept behind as well. I couldn't leave my notebook and replace it with a laptop or a PDA. To make things even "worse", I found out that using paper actually helps the environment: apparently most of the world's paper is made in North America where trees for paper production are being grown in huge tree farms, or as we call them "artificial forests". The paper companies want to keep producing papers, which means that for every tree they cut, they have to plant at least one to replace it. This means that ironically enough, paper is one of the more ecological products you can buy. In fact, the recycling of paper is probably much more damaging to the environment than original production of it.
But paper still costs money to the consumer. And when you print, you have to add to it the cost of toner powder or ink and electricity, so I still try to avoid printing. I also try to avoid the usage of fax machines. The way I see it, fax should have disappeared the moment email became common. Using fax when you have access to email or Dropbox seems as logical to me as watching a VHS cassette when you have a wide-screen HD TV and a Blue-ray player. And yet, apparently I'm a minority, so I still have to use a fax machine.
Today I had to send a form using fax. I decided not to print and send it, but instead I downloaded the file, edited it and sent it directly from my computer. Everything went smoothly: I configured the fax, it appeared as a printer in Word and I simply entered the number and sent the fax. I quickly went to the fax machine, and admiring the wonder of watching my combo printer-scanner-fax machine working on its own, as if operated by an invisible ghost: dialing, sending, and ending the transmission. The geek in me was happy, until.. the fax machine started printing a copy of the fax that I just sent.
Oh well, I guess the paperless office will have to wait a little longer. Or maybe it will never happen. But at least I don't feel like a tree killer anymore.
And I left this concept behind as well. I couldn't leave my notebook and replace it with a laptop or a PDA. To make things even "worse", I found out that using paper actually helps the environment: apparently most of the world's paper is made in North America where trees for paper production are being grown in huge tree farms, or as we call them "artificial forests". The paper companies want to keep producing papers, which means that for every tree they cut, they have to plant at least one to replace it. This means that ironically enough, paper is one of the more ecological products you can buy. In fact, the recycling of paper is probably much more damaging to the environment than original production of it.
But paper still costs money to the consumer. And when you print, you have to add to it the cost of toner powder or ink and electricity, so I still try to avoid printing. I also try to avoid the usage of fax machines. The way I see it, fax should have disappeared the moment email became common. Using fax when you have access to email or Dropbox seems as logical to me as watching a VHS cassette when you have a wide-screen HD TV and a Blue-ray player. And yet, apparently I'm a minority, so I still have to use a fax machine.
Today I had to send a form using fax. I decided not to print and send it, but instead I downloaded the file, edited it and sent it directly from my computer. Everything went smoothly: I configured the fax, it appeared as a printer in Word and I simply entered the number and sent the fax. I quickly went to the fax machine, and admiring the wonder of watching my combo printer-scanner-fax machine working on its own, as if operated by an invisible ghost: dialing, sending, and ending the transmission. The geek in me was happy, until.. the fax machine started printing a copy of the fax that I just sent.
Oh well, I guess the paperless office will have to wait a little longer. Or maybe it will never happen. But at least I don't feel like a tree killer anymore.
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