09-29-2006, 11:00 PM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 15,171
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NYT: My Life B.W., Before Wi-Fi
"I RECENTLY arrived at a hotel about an hour before a room would be available. So I sat in the lobby and opened my laptop. Just as I expected, a message popped up on my screen. �Do you want to join the wireless network �Free Lobby Wi-Fi?� � I clicked Yes, and off I went to E-mail Land...As I waited for a big file to download, I was suddenly taken aback. �Just as I expected?� I�d actually taken it for granted that I�d get online in three seconds, at no charge, at high speed and with a single mouse click? Why, to any normal person of, say, 1995, that would be considered a freaky, utopian, futuristic miracle. I know because I was one. (A normal person in 1995, not a futuristic miracle.)"
Thus begins a very cute little story (great for Friday OT reading, although a free NYT reg is required) by David Pogue, lead technology columnist for the New York Times, about his experience before the days of pervasive Internet access, back when Internet access in some places meant acoustic couplers and lots of crossed fingers -- such as on his honeymoon in Indonesia. And now that I think about it, those day seem really distant; I'm essentially bathed in Internet access, even when I was sitting in the lobby of a small hotel in Italy a few weeks ago. How time flies... have a great weekend, everyone!
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