Excerpt from WWWiz issue #3 By Don Hamilton.

Cable Internet connections are HOT! If you use one you'll have withdrawals that will make drug users' attempts to quit seem easy. How about 2 megabytes a second up- and down- loading? How about clicking through pictures on the Hubble Telescope site so fast that your 32 megabytes of memory are eaten and your hard drive used as virtual memory?

Your entire machine can lock up trying to keep up with the data stream.  It's a shock.   [that happens to me at 33k -bl]

The local cable companies are installing cable modems and net works as fast as they can. In Southern California there are already 40,000 Cable Modems.

   [Actually I believe it is a digital signal so the term "Modem" does not actually apply. Modem stands for Modulator Demodulator having to do with the translation of digital to analog. It's a Cable Encoder]

Soon it will be to the point where site designers will design for Cable Modems. [so I guess we're all behind, and all those web sites are ready for the future -bl]

Remember too that Cable Modems eliminate the need for a phone line. Cable modems are on all the time. A permanent, transparent connection to the net. You can get a DSS (satellite dish) ISP but it is much slower AND requires a phone line be in use too.

Cable connections also allow you to see how fast a site really is. If a site is supported by an ISDN line and you're the only one hooked up, and you're using a 28.8 Modem, the site will be as fast as any other. If you surf on it at 2 megabytes this site will seem very slow.

As cable modems become more popular, cable companies will have to break up areas ("exchanges") to restore maximum service. Unless of course they correctly predicted the consumer need when they installed the initial network design. Another option is to increase the bandwidth used by the data; one TV channel of data (about 6 Mhz) serves thousands of people.

(  WebTV (http://www.webtv.com/ns) will bring this kind of speed to the average user. The speed is high enough to download a TV show and then play it later. WebTV will have a gigabyte drive on it. ) [Why he says this, or where he got it, is beyond me. I think he was up in Seattle... Update: I have now seen some specs on a $300 webTV that has over a gig HD on it and 56k modem -bl]

Your monthly cable bill will include internet connection and ISP. Cable users will utilize video cameras and sound on their computers to conference. Resulting in an effective unlimited video-audio calling area for $30-$40 a month.

Cable users will become used to doing things that others have not considered doing as yet. The two-tier system, between the rich and the poor, that Al Gore has worried about, only this will be between the technologically rich and the less fortunate. Change will come to they who are most willing to accept it.

Don't forget the other option: some companies sell an FM-broadcast method of downloading from the internet. And generally these companies have high quality connections to the web and news services. But once again you must use a phone line to upload or simply request a document.

[ I hope everyone does get a cable modem. I wonder how far we are from a net that supports a hundred million active 200k or better connections at once. ]

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