X-no-Archive:yes
Funny. I've respected USR for a while, and first heard rumors that the sell
off would be to another company (IIRC, one of two in Asia). That would have
been hard for me to take. It's just too much of a slap in the face. So I'm
glad that USR will be USR once again, and expect to see more great products
from them.

I have a USR at home. I use it to dial in to this office (although I
suspected that the anointed are allowed Internet-based or VPN connectivity,
and KNOW that our Canadian parent accesses one of our systems this way). It
also came in handy when we were on vacation and took the PC with us for web
access to tourist info. Otherwise, I use my cable modem for Internet access.
Dial up sort of hurts just a little now, although for most pages, the
difference is actually small.

But here at work, we are sending EDI via AT&T Global Network. If we want to
go over the Internet, it requires some work with one company's FTP-TLS
product. Otherwise, it's dial-up, or possibly some kind of
mainframe-to-mainframe copy over a leased line (I think). And we're lucky,
because since this data is personal lines (auto) insurance, we produce our
feed in batch, and send and receive once each per day, per group. Most
businesses want to send transactions as (or shortly after) they happen, so
dial up several times per day. Still, not everyone wants to be connected all
the time.

I wonder if or when dial-up will be dead, the way card decks are. OTOH, we
still have impact printing, nine track tape, and fiche...

Greg Stigers
http://www.cgiusa.com

-----Original Message-----
From: COLE,GLENN (Non-HP-SantaClara,ex2) [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, June 07, 2000 7:42 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Datacomm (was: COBOL and justifying)

Speaking of which...

I read this morning that 3Com plans to spin off its modem business --
you know, from when they acquired U.S. Robotics -- into a new company
named, uh, U.S. Robotics.

When I read that, I felt sadness for the group.  It can't be a good
feeling working for a "new" modem company, when the trend is clearly
towards "broadband in every (metropolitan) home."

--Glenn