Talking on the phone

One of the joys of being on the phone and having only one phone line, is that unless there is a broadband capability being used within the household it is simply not possible to go on to the net as well. So if you have a husband and wife combination in which the wife is a serious phone conversationalist and the husband is a serious computer user then the stage is set for a confrontation OR the acquisition of broadband.

For those among us who remember the days of yore when having a computer was a big thing and actually being able to get on line was considered to be extraordinarily geeky when there were no modems only acoustic couplers when speeds of 300 baud were considered to be the most that was achievable being able to send messages virtually in real time is already spectacular. Being able to actually download a one hour movie with full stereo sound and music to a hard drive was not even something that could be contemplated.

Yet here we are in 2006 waiting for the first terabyte drives with memory in a machine already exceeding any rational expectations and disk speeds being something that was not even in the minds of people who used to dream up science fiction. Next we are coming into the era of the nanobots which in less than twenty years will be able to undertake surgery on a micro scale from inside the body without the patient ever having to go into an operating theatre or being opened up. The possibility of having microscopic watchdogs inside our bodies taking care of our cancers, our hardened arteries and preventing strokes is not longer fantasy or science fiction, but something that is merely not available just yet as the technology catches up with what is being realistically required.