- Oct 9, 1999
- 21,019
- 156
- 106
Estimated reading time: 50 seconds. No cliffs.
Spent most of the last two weeks out on the road and on Monday I got a report emailed to me that I needed to review and comment on immediately. I had my laptop but without a printer it was going to be very tedious; for example, making sure what was said in one part is consistent with what is said in other sections. This is very time-consuming without a paper copy.
So I checked with the front desk to make sure incoming faxes were free (they were). I had WiFi in the hotel so I fired that up, used VPN to securely connect to the company network, used the fax software on our network to convert the document to a fax, and faxed it to myself at the hotel. I pat myself on the back for figuring out how to get a printed copy at no charge.
Hey, that worked good, so why not do the same thing with that other report I have to review? So I did. About an hour later I head down to the desk to pick up my "faxes". The clerk tells me it just finished. He hands me a stack of about 100 sheets and says "Here you go, but please don't do it again."
"Um, what?"
"Don't use the fax as a printer. It ties up the fax machine for too long and I can't send the outgoing faxes."
"Uh..."
"Here, see on your cover sheet? From: kranky, to: kranky."
Oops, busted. The fax software automatically fills in the sender's name (mine) based on login, and he understood what I was doing. I just said "Thanks and sorry for the inconvenience." Pretty smart desk clerk.
Spent most of the last two weeks out on the road and on Monday I got a report emailed to me that I needed to review and comment on immediately. I had my laptop but without a printer it was going to be very tedious; for example, making sure what was said in one part is consistent with what is said in other sections. This is very time-consuming without a paper copy.
So I checked with the front desk to make sure incoming faxes were free (they were). I had WiFi in the hotel so I fired that up, used VPN to securely connect to the company network, used the fax software on our network to convert the document to a fax, and faxed it to myself at the hotel. I pat myself on the back for figuring out how to get a printed copy at no charge.
Hey, that worked good, so why not do the same thing with that other report I have to review? So I did. About an hour later I head down to the desk to pick up my "faxes". The clerk tells me it just finished. He hands me a stack of about 100 sheets and says "Here you go, but please don't do it again."
"Um, what?"
"Don't use the fax as a printer. It ties up the fax machine for too long and I can't send the outgoing faxes."
"Uh..."
"Here, see on your cover sheet? From: kranky, to: kranky."
Oops, busted. The fax software automatically fills in the sender's name (mine) based on login, and he understood what I was doing. I just said "Thanks and sorry for the inconvenience." Pretty smart desk clerk.
Facebook
Twitter