I sent a fax today, something I rarely do. Whenever I send one and see the confirmation sheet, I'm always slightly disappointed that the status is OK. While I understand that this means the fax has been sent successfully (its opposite being "Failed", I believe), it's hardly emphatic is it?
I remember being confused when first sending faxes back in the '80s, not knowing whether OK was a mark of success. If I asked a teacher at school how I did in a test and (s)he responded OK, I imagine I'd be a little deflated. Surely a more inspired name–value pair would be Sent?/You betcha!
As an aside, my late uncle was adamant that one day, everyone would have a fax machine in their house. He was very wrong on this front, although inspiring in so many ways. His buy-in to instant electronic communication from home has proven accurate, as evidenced by this very post. I always looked up to him, and have a particularly fondly memory of walking down the moor with him to a glorious, deep orange sunrise ludicrously early one morning having dropped his son off at Manchester Airport to go skiing. (Manchester Airport is famed for skiing, you know.) I have no idea what we talked about as we killed time waiting for the rest of the house to wake, but I remember feeling enormously proud to be treated to his company.
(As another aside, I've just updated Wikipedia's attribute–value article to use the en dash instead of the hyphen. Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to change its title. Humph.)
