Paperless transactions

[Metspitzer]

I went to the doctor today. The secretary made me a 6 month follow up
appointment and printed me a reminder.

I do know that email is not considered secure. Is anyone working on
making email useful and secure?

 

[David]

"Metspitzer" wrote in message

I went to the doctor today. The secretary made me a 6 month follow up
appointment and printed me a reminder.

I do know that email is not considered secure. Is anyone working on
making email useful and secure?


----------> Hackers, Phishers and Spammers <----------

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

I went to the doctor today. The secretary made me a 6 month follow up
appointment and printed me a reminder.

I do know that email is not considered secure. Is anyone working on
making email useful and secure?

Look into PGP.

 

[Char Jackson]

I went to the doctor today. The secretary made me a 6 month follow up
appointment and printed me a reminder.

I do know that email is not considered secure. Is anyone working on
making email useful and secure?

The mechanisms for making email secure have been available for years,
but adoption has been somewhere between slow and stalled. Gene
mentioned PGP, but both sides need to support it, and it's not likely
that your doctor's office is going to implement it anytime soon, if at
all.

In related news, reports say that email is dying a fairly quick death,
or a slow death, depending on who you believe. Usage is down sharply
and continuing to decline. Interpersonal communications have shifted
heavily toward social media, (Facebook, Pinterest, etc.), and texting.

 

[Peter Jason]

I went to the doctor today. The secretary made me a 6 month follow up
appointment and printed me a reminder.

I do know that email is not considered secure. Is anyone working on
making email useful and secure?

Just as important is a means of electronically
storing one's static biology such as blood
grouping, allergies, fingerprints, medical
insurance details, past procedures including
dental, medications, all on a swipe card -
protected by a password - so that booking a
hospital stay can be sure and faster. Even
biometrics can be so stored.

At the moment here this is not available, even if
voluntary, so that if the hospital has "upgraded
their computer" (a quaint euphemism for lost
data)and a tedious slog of form filling and
remembering is required.

 

[Allen Drake]

The mechanisms for making email secure have been available for years,
but adoption has been somewhere between slow and stalled. Gene
mentioned PGP, but both sides need to support it, and it's not likely
that your doctor's office is going to implement it anytime soon, if at
all.

In related news, reports say that email is dying a fairly quick death,
or a slow death, depending on who you believe. Usage is down sharply
and continuing to decline. Interpersonal communications have shifted
heavily toward social media, (Facebook, Pinterest, etc.), and texting.

I think email is simply leveling off and good that it is. All the
meaningless childish drivel is going where it belongs. I would never
think for one second email is dying. How will I be getting my
notifications of transactions from banks and purchases made?

Stop and think how many ways people use and need email. I can't wait
until the Post Office shuts down or at least they provide a trash bin
at my mail box.

 

[Bob Henson]

Look into PGP.

You have to be rich to use PGP these days. However, GnuPG is free and
the same. It's certainly the answer, but Metspitzer uses Forte Agent,
and I don't think you can easily incorporate it into Agent - if I
remember correctly it's why I switched away from Agent many years back.
You have to use a third party program like WinPT - but that method of
incorporating the code is deprecated amongst cryptology aficionados.
However, it's no big deal to set up Thunderbird for just the e-mail and
Thunderbird/Enigmail is the best way to use GnuPG by a country mile.

--
Bob
Tetbury, Gloucestershire, UK


There are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary,
and those who don't.

 

[mechanic]

I went to the doctor today. The secretary made me a 6 month
follow up appointment and printed me a reminder.

I do know that email is not considered secure. Is anyone working
on making email useful and secure?

Printing and handing you a paper reminder is not email. What's the
connection?

 

[Metspitzer]

You have to be rich to use PGP these days. However, GnuPG is free and
the same. It's certainly the answer, but Metspitzer uses Forte Agent,

I use Gmail. If I worked for the CIA or something, I might be worried
about some spy intercepting my next doctor's appointment.
I don't, so I am not. Just send me an email. I will take the
security risk.

 

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per Metspitzer:

I went to the doctor today. The secretary made me a 6 month follow up
appointment and printed me a reminder.

I do know that email is not considered secure. Is anyone working on
making email useful and secure?

"Paper-Free by '83"

 

[Ken Blake]

I think email is simply leveling off and good that it is.

I don't know, but I sure hope that you are right and the reports that
Char quotes are not!

Stop and think how many ways people use and need email. I can't wait
until the Post Office shuts down or at least they provide a trash bin
at my mail box.

I'm with you entirely. The post office now provides a service that is
essentially unneeded. I get almost nothing in my mailbox but junk
mail, and I mail almost nothing myself.

The only real exception for me is Netflix, and they don't have to use
the post office for what they do. It could be streaming using devices
like Roku boxes.

It's a waste of money.

 

[Char Jackson]

I think email is simply leveling off and good that it is.

I meant email usage in general, not just your personal use of it.

All the
meaningless childish drivel is going where it belongs. I would never
think for one second email is dying.

First, dying does not mean dead. At your age, email will likely
outlast you and therefore you have nothing to worry about.

How will I be getting my
notifications of transactions from banks and purchases made?

Seriously? Have you forgotten the past 100 years? Two things to keep
in mind are that when one technology fades away, it usually gets
replaced by another technology that's better in some ways, and second,
in the worst case you might have to have someone check your mailbox
now and then to bring you your mail.

Stop and think how many ways people use and need email. I can't wait
until the Post Office shuts down or at least they provide a trash bin
at my mail box.

Millions of people would say the exact same thing about postal mail
that you just said about email.

 

[Char Jackson]

I don't know, but I sure hope that you are right and the reports that
Char quotes are not!

There's no vast conspiracy to take email away. It's just that many
people are no longer using it, or are using it much less than they
used to, so in the aggregate the overall volume of email traffic is
down sharply, and is expected to continue that downward trend.

<http://www.comscore.com/Press_Event...the_U.S._While_Mobile_Email_Usage_on_the_Rise>
<http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2025027/email-usage-plummets-teens-mobile-social-networking>
<http://allfacebook.com/email-use-declines-59-among-teens-can-messages-surge_b31816>
etc.
I've seen better sites than those, but those were the first hits that
came up just now so I used them as examples.

On a personal note, if I send information to my son via email, he'll
eventually see it but it can take several months. OTOH, if I send a
message via Facebook, he usually replies immediately. His age group,
early twenties, is plugged into Facebook almost exclusively. Email is
seen as passe, old school, not cool, or whatever you want to call it.

I'm with you entirely. The post office now provides a service that is
essentially unneeded. I get almost nothing in my mailbox but junk
mail, and I mail almost nothing myself.

The only real exception for me is Netflix, and they don't have to use
the post office for what they do. It could be streaming using devices
like Roku boxes.

It's a waste of money.

Millions of people rely on postal mail and have no real alternative.
Take it away and they're stranded with nothing.

 

[Ken Blake]

There's no vast conspiracy to take email away.

Of course not. I didn't mean to suggest that you said that.

It's just that many
people are no longer using it, or are using it much less than they
used to, so in the aggregate the overall volume of email traffic is
down sharply, and is expected to continue that downward trend.

Yes, but if it dwindles sufficiently, it will die. Just as Usenet is
dying.

On a personal note, if I send information to my son via email, he'll
eventually see it but it can take several months. OTOH, if I send a
message via Facebook, he usually replies immediately. His age group,
early twenties, is plugged into Facebook almost exclusively. Email is
seen as passe, old school, not cool, or whatever you want to call it.



Millions of people rely on postal mail and have no real alternative.
Take it away and they're stranded with nothing.

There are fewer and fewer and fewer all the time. A couple of years
ago, I knew lots of people who didn't have an e-mail address. Today, I
don't know anyone.

And for the few that don't have it, spend the money now spent on post
offices, salaries, etc. by giving them inexpensive devices that can
get e-mail.

 

[Paul in Houston TX]

I went to the doctor today. The secretary made me a 6 month follow up
appointment and printed me a reminder.

I do know that email is not considered secure. Is anyone working on
making email useful and secure?

There are probably tens of thousands of people working
on those fixes and there are tens of thousands trying
to un-work those fixes.

Most comments here are for home users.
However, businesses rely on email.
There is no viable or cost effective alternative.
If the company I work for had to do everything via phone
like in the old days, the cost of every material object
that you buy would go up. Probably 10-15%, at least.

 

[Allen Drake]

Of course not. I didn't mean to suggest that you said that.




Yes, but if it dwindles sufficiently, it will die. Just as Usenet is
dying.




There are fewer and fewer and fewer all the time. A couple of years
ago, I knew lots of people who didn't have an e-mail address. Today, I
don't know anyone.

And for the few that don't have it, spend the money now spent on post
offices, salaries, etc. by giving them inexpensive devices that can
get e-mail.

I send and receive more email at work than at home. Email will never
die. The way I see it is it's just becoming more refined. All the
kiddies are where they belong. Playing nice on Buttbook and doing what
everyone else is doing because they need a crowd to tell them they are
having fun.

 

[Allen Drake]

I meant email usage in general, not just your personal use of it.


First, dying does not mean dead. At your age, email will likely
outlast you and therefore you have nothing to worry about.


Seriously? Have you forgotten the past 100 years? Two things to keep
in mind are that when one technology fades away, it usually gets
replaced by another technology that's better in some ways, and second,
in the worst case you might have to have someone check your mailbox
now and then to bring you your mail.


Millions of people would say the exact same thing about postal mail
that you just said about email.

email is reaching maturity while Snail mail is dying. You can
configure one and can't get rid of the other and you don't have to
lick an email.

 

[Allen Drake]

Per Metspitzer:

"Paper-Free by '83"

Like the US was going to be metric by the year 1980. The only thing
that went that way are the soft drinks. You can't teach an American
cow to give liters.

 

[Bob I]

Like the US was going to be metric by the year 1980. The only thing
that went that way are the soft drinks. You can't teach an American
cow to give liters.

Yes, it's cats that give liters! ;-)

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Like the US was going to be metric by the year 1980. The only thing
that went that way are the soft drinks. You can't teach an American
cow to give liters.

Also alcoholic beverages, and I understand that American cars use metric
nuts & bolts, and have for years.

I bet an American cow, at least a college-educated one, can give liters.