Old school computer columnist John C. Dvorak’s The Myth of Broadband looks at the idea that broadband doesn’t matter until most users have it. Right now, they don’t.

On the bright side, a dialup connection is much better now than it was two years ago. I don’t know if it’s hardware, software, or phone lines, but I remember not being able to listen to any useful streaming audio over a modem. Now a decent 56K dialup can sustain high-quality audio.

aov continues to be dialup friendly. Our frontpage varies in size, but is usually between 20K – 30Kb.

Try this:

1. Go to a Pontiac dealership.
2. Find a dealer-man.
3. Say, with a furrowed brow, “I’m looking for a car. It needs to be able to climb a mountain. I’m looking for something with a tent and a fridge. Got anything like that?”
4. Enjoy elated dealer-man as he realizes he may be able to actually sell an Aztek!
5. Take it for a test drive.
6. Return it, stating that it won’t suffice as you need something with a parachute and toaster oven.
7. Giggle and run away.

I’m off to see U2 in Montreal. Back in three days with details.

Update:
excellent conversation, pseudo-review, and setlist

It’s spring clean up time in Charlottetown and that means crap on the streets. It doesn’t bother me so much, but a lot of people are understandably pissed of at how long it’s taking the city to pick up the many piles of leaves, rusty fridges, and other assorted eyesores.

In one situation, a woman’s daughter was getting married and she particularly concerned about the rubbish on her street as she would be entertaining at her house. She called her city councillor, who called the garbage people, who picked up some of it. Still, there was enough stuff let on the street to cramp the style of a good wedding party.

What’s a good city councillor to do? He, his wife, and his youngest son get a truck and clean up the street themselves in time for the wedding. There were no cameras or reporters. He didn’t even tell anyone he did it.

While I am not the son who helped him with the trash, the city Councillor is my father, Bruce Garrity. Sure, he may double-click on web links (all the time!), but this genuinely impressed me.

A great open letter to IslandTel by Peter at Reinvented.net. As a member of a company in exactly the same scenario, I won’t shed any tears for IslandTel if they can’t leverage 100 years of monopoly to provide adequate service at competitive prices.

update: it’s not so much macs, but the people who use them

I want a Titanium PowerBook as much as any self-respecting web designer, but this quote from a News.com story about the opening of the Apple store (QuickTime) in Washington D.C. gave me the creeps:

More than 500 zealous Mac fans lined up as early as 4 a.m. EDT for the chance to be the store’s first customer and to support Apple Computer’s retail experiment. The crowd–which earlier broke into chants of “Apple! Apple! Apple!”–roared when the stored open at 10 a.m. EDT.

These people have clearly not read Brave New World.

Read Everybody must get stoned by Ian O’Doherty at Salon.com. It is short and you will laugh out loud.

I’ve spouted on and on about this year’s 5k competition. There was last year’s embarrassing entry, this year’s long-shot, a surprising win, phony humility, and now, a bitter, bitter twist. Apparently our entry was in the wrong category and we have been bumped from the winners list (see the 5k news page).

As I mentioned before, my goal this year was not to be mocked. I think this is worse. Anyone have any advice on how I should tell my mom?

For the record, I hold no grudges. It was me who put our entry in the wrong category and we had a lot of fun working on our submission. The contest is great, and I was glad to see (and this will sound even more sincere now that I’m a loser) that the judges appear to have picked the winners based on creativity and originality rather than technical wizardry. And the current the5k.org front page is absolutely beautiful.

The lesson learned: Don’t bother. Stay in your basement (look forward to our properly categorized entry next year).