Life online (was AIM)

[foxmoth at qnet.com]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., dfrankiswork at n... wrote:

> Seriously, what is it like for you all out there?  I
> I get the impression everyone in America has their 
top-of-the-range  computer (with tousands of pixels each way for 
easy cut-and-paste for  snipping, combining, and spell checking) 
sitting in the corner  permanently online with a high bandwidth 
fibroptic connection, so  they can pop over and read the latest 
emails, IMs etc between baby feeds/client meetings/lectures, 
reply in a couple of ticks, and go on.<<

Not true at all...I do know a few people like that who run 
businesses from their homes. Still, the majority of American 
homes do not have such connections, nor are they available 
everywhere. In my little corner of rural California we can't get DSL 
because we're too far from the switching stations. There are  
urban immigrant neighborhoods where most people don't even 
have telephones; they can't afford them because they run up  
huge long distance bills calling their homelands.
For every top of the line computer sitting on an American desk 
there are probably at least ten obsolete ones gathering dust in 
the closet.

Pippin