Word: modems
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...fell in love with the Merlin wireless modem the first time I saw a picture of one in an ad. It is so adorable. The modem is built into one of those PCMCIA cards that fit into a credit-card-size slot on a laptop computer; a teeny, 2-in. antenna--so cute!--pops up to send and receive data at 19.2 kbps. That's a fairly pedestrian speed, but if it meant I could do e-mail and even browse the Web while riding the Long Island Rail Road, I'd happily put up with it. Imagine...
Novatel, whose Minstrel line of wireless modems is popular with Palm users, has just begun shipping the Merlin, which works on most PC laptops, to retail stores. The company says that at $279, it is the cheapest wireless modem around (I haven't found a cheaper one--others tend to cost $400 and up). Another plus: the Merlin draws roughly one tenth the power of a typical laptop modem. That's good news for road warriors and anyone else trying to conserve their laptop's battery...
...wireless connectivity to the Net is still in its infancy. Even with its problems, I can see how this modem might be perfect for certain users. I loved the feeling of simply turning on my laptop, shoving in the modem and being online without having to wait for a dial tone. (The Merlin is "hot swappable," which means you don't have to reboot your machine to use it.) If I were always on the road, traveling among big cities, it would be terrific never again to have to reconfigure my laptop's dial-up connections. It's also swell...
...even the best PC software on the market today and just about as textured as television. And while certainly designed for games, Sega's new consoles are capable of electronic wizardry that should turn even game-playing agnostics into believers. Dreamcast, for instance, comes equipped with a 56K modem and ports for all kinds of peripherals, including a keyboard. That means there's no need to flick on that cumbersome PC to surf the Web or send quick e-mails. And at $199, it's a deal...
Eventually the farmers caught up with Zaitz's vision, helped along by new technology. In just the few years since Zaitz bought his first modem, analysts estimate that close to 35% of the nation's 3 million farmers have gone online. COW has evolved into Farms.com one of the first e-business sites to support real-time farm auctions. Farmers who visit the site can buy and sell entire lots of cattle via digital video feeds and still images. They can also get chemicals, grain and feed commodities online. On average, says Zaitz, Farms.com has more than 40,000 unique...