"-=jd=-" wrote in message
3...

Being able to telecommute from home without your connection to a
development server or database timing-out. I actually require it in
order to do what I need to do.

I get cable broadband access for $20/month. Normally, it's $25, but I
have my own cable modem and don't pay the monthly rental fee. Last time
I had dialup, $20/month would have been a competitive rate - I'm not
sure what the average dial-up rate is today.

I would also feel quite safe in guessing that, for the vast majority of
people, dial-up would suffice if you were talking about the minimum
bandwidth needed to perform the task (email, web-surfing, etc). The
problem is "impatience" on the part of he general public (they want that
page to open NOW!) and the desire for a more "content rich" internet
experience from those pushing content as well as those pulling content.
You could most likely define "content rich" as one or more of the
following:
- MP3 Sharing
- Multimedia
- Bigger/Better/Badder Ads
- Porn


Let's not forget poorly designed websites. Some of 'em take half of forever
to load, and reward our patience with -- nearly nothing.


Speaking of which, wasn't Porn attributed to having a large influence on
the success of VHS over Beta?

Porn movies were supposed to have been about half of the video titles sold
in the mid 70s. Those would have been Beta. VHS machines were introduced
around 1980, and quickly got a price advantge on the Beta machines, and had
longer running tapes.


There's some interesting things that *could* be done with a decent
broadband connection (like smooth, undistorted voice and video "phone
calls" to family) except that broadband is never all it's cracked up to
be. It does no good to have a gigabit fiber-to-the-desktop connection if
somewhere between your PC and the other end is a 300 baud phone
coupler...

There's good and bad in most things...

-=jd=-
--
My Current Disposable Email:

(Remove YOUR HAT to reply directly)


Imagine the "Broadband Nirvana" of the future. Millions and millions of
computers, owned by clueless users, pumping out multi-megabyte sized virus
attachments 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. That'll take our minds off BPL
radio interference.

Frank Dresser