Free fax-to-email service, mini-review

["mark_harrison_uk2" <mph@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Well, proof positive that UKHA_D has much in the way of useful stuff
on it.

Yesterday afternoon, I got an email from a lawyer who's doing some
work for me in Canada that he needed to send some documents to me.
He's a well-regarded lawyer in his specialist field, but not, shall we
say, exactly at the cutting edge of technology. The electronic mail is
a recent concession, but the concept of the "scanner" is to him a
fey
and dark mystery.

The facsimile machine however, is his stock in trade. Unfortunately,
it has been many years since I've received a fax - to the extent that
while I'm willing to believe that I own a fax modem, I would be hard
pressed to say in which crate of old computer bits it could be located.

As ever, the Hidden Lords of Mark Harrison ltd. have a budgetary
release policy that even the heroes of legend would struggle with -
far easier to divert a river to clean a stable, or steal fire from the
Gods than to get revenue sign off.

Thus, I turned to UKHA_D with my request.

And lo, in the desert in front of him appeared an offer... An 0870
number, which could receive faxes from anywhere in the world, convert
them to PDF (which suits me down to the ground), and send them to the
email of my choice.

Sure enough, I signed up, received my allocated runes, and sent them
off to the lawyer.

The waters of the Styx run slow, as does the office of William P.
Tetley, but sure enough, the "you have mail" indicator popped up,
and
a fax was attached.

Alas, the story has a bittersweet ending. My lawyer has not provided
me with an answer, only another set of questions, supported with reams
of detail to wade through to determine the precise mapping of my round
peg answers onto the Canadian square peg holes.

Nonetheless, after a few weeks of research, the end is in sight.

The service worked great. Mark Boyce has been most helpful, and while
I'm not meant to say anything yet, there are some more interesting
services coming my way from him real soon now.

Thanks Mark B., and thanks UKHA_D.

Mark H