On Sun 11 Jan 2009 06:39:47p, George Shirley told us...

> Wayne Boatwright wrote:
>> On Sun 11 Jan 2009 04:18:00p, Dave Smith told us...
>>
>>> Dan Abel wrote:
>>>>>> Dialup at 26.4, included in the monthly phone bill.
>>>>> Spring for a 56K modem and you won't look back. Combined with
>>>>> tabbed browsing, the only time you won't know you're on broadband is
>>>>> when you're downloading something and how often is that?
>>>> I don't know if you can even buy anything slower than 56K any more.
>>> I haven't seen any slower than 56K for years. It was interesting to
>>> watch the evolution. My first modem was 600 baud.... $250. Then I went
>>> to 1200, 2400, and then to 56.... $250 each time. Later on you could
>>> get a 56K (Fax modem) for $30.
>>>
>>>
>>>> until a few years ago, every new computer came with a 56K modem built
>>>> in. Now, with so many people having high speed connections, phone
>>>> modems are going the way of floppy drives and the dodo bird. New PCs
>>>> don't have them anymore, except as an option.
>>> My system is 4 years old and it came without a floppy drive. What good
>>> are they anyway? Neither the drives or the disks last more than a few
>>> years. Now you can get memory sticks that can hold more data than some
>>> people's hard drives, and they are cheap.
>>
>> My first modem was only 300 baud, built in to my Kaypro computer.
>> Hell, I could type faster. <g> I soon bought a 2400 baud external and
>> paid several hundred for it. This was pre-PC days. After buying my
>> first PC, I went through all the speed evolution. Had good 56K for a
>> while before going with DSL, now cable.
>>
> Yup, had a 300 baud modem on my Osborne One, bought in 1982,later
> upgraded to 1200, then moved to an XT pc with 36K, then up to 56K. Every
> since that ISP folded I have been on DSL. I do miss that old Osborne
> though, handy to tote around, looked like a portable sewing machine.
> Used 5.25 inch floppies, two of them, 90K each. I could swap floppies on
> the fly and get a good bit of work done. So much easier with today's
> computers.
>

I've pretty much been that route, too, George. Now my current laptop is
2.6Ghz, with 2GB RAM, and 200GB hard drive.

--
Wayne Boatwright
(correct the spelling of "geemail" to reply)
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