igital network

silences shouts

From page &2

cal! over and over and over trying to
Bet 4 person as soon as they were
available? Now you can call once,
leave a message on the other person's
answering machine and sit back and
wait for the person to retum the call.
If you always leave the answering
machine on, then you can sereen your
own calls by just letting the machine
answer and waiting for the callers to
identify themselves after the beep.

Many people use these handy
devices with wit. You can buy all
sorts of tapes of celebrity voices to
give your machine's voice a distinc-
tive thrill. The problems come when
people get tired of always getting a
machine and think: “I wish, just for
once, I could talk to a real person
instead of a machine.”

People can get to dread that lousy
beep tone and they won't even leave
a message. Why not a nice chime for
a change? In the old days, when the
phone rang, you would saunter off to
get it. Now, you must run to catch it
before the answering machine does.

A variation of the answering
machine is voice mail. This is a high-
ly sophisticated version of the
answering machine and is a comput-
er managed system.

More than likely, you have experi-
enced this. You call a company or the
government and you get: “Welcome
to... If you know the extension of the
person you wish to reach, you may
press their number at any time during

_this message. Press 1 if you would
like service in English, press 2 if you
would like service in French.” You
pick a number and the ordeal contin-
ues. And so it goes a5 you weave your
way down an invisible path, much
like a maze, hoping that at last, you

_ may reach a real person.

‘The system is meant to make the
process of locating the person you
wish to reach, fast and simple.
Sometimes, however, what it seems
to do is shift the call direction confu-
sion to the caller.

-Here is another device to have
around. It makes a copy, albeit, not as
clear and crisp as the original and
only in black on white, of any sheet
of paper, and presents it on another
machine at the location you have it

telephone. The copy is called a fac-
simile or fax for short. The fax has
found its way into just about every
business. :

One wonders

if faxes could

replace regular mail. It hasn't hap-
pened yet, even though faxes have
been around for many years now, All
it would take is for the major compa-
nies having to send out huge numbers
of bills, statements and other forms to
discover that they could save vast
amounts of money if they simply
faxed the items to the customer,
Imagine, what would happen if these
companies decided one day to
charge customers for sending regular
mail, F suspect that more homes
would have fax/phones (a phone
which has a fax machine built in) and
the machines’ prices would drop.

You can have a fax machine set up
in your business or home with a ded-
icated phone line. There are alterna-
tives that allow you to have your
phone line run with a phone, answer-
ing machine and a fax machine. You
ca also use a fax/modem to commu-
nicate directly to and from your com-
puter.

Remember walkie-talkics? There
is a relatively new version of this

‘form of communication. It is a phone

with no wires and therefore is more
like a radio or walkie-talkie (sounds
like one at times too) where the signal
has to go through buildings. It’s a bit
complicated, but, in short, it is a
series of transmission stations each
covering a select area called a cell.

The signal is passed from one sta-
tion to the next as you move out of
range of one and into range of anoth-
ef.

It is convenient. Or is it? The edi-
tor of this column recently reached
me in the labor room at the hospital
during the birth of my baby boy.

“Hi, we're having a baby now!"
“Really, you mean right now?” “Yes,
now, I'll get it to you as soon as |
can... I mean the column.” “OK, sec
ya.” It was a rare moment in techno-
logical history.

One last thing regarding cellular
phones — they are expensive to oper-
ate,

Bob Grahame is president of Edge
Systems Inc., a company involved in
publishing, communications and
information technologies. Contact
Grahame at 985-2131 or by e-mail at
Edgeways! Infolink, a FirstClass sys-
tem at 984-2777, or on the Internet at
Changes @ Edgeways. Vancouver.lbe.c
a ;

Contact North Shore News Editor
Michael Becker at 985-2131, by fax
at 985-2104 or by e-mail at mbeck-
er@wimsey.com

When you receive our Christmas Appeal letter this year,
share what you can. Return your donation in the envelope
provided to The Salvation Army, 611-198 West Hastings
Street, Vancouver, B.C. V6B 1H2. This Christmas, so many
are counting on you to remember. ..the envelope, please,

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