Michael -
I bought my son a whole slew of Learning Company Software -
Treasure MathStorm, Treasure Galaxy, Gizmos & gadgets, Treasure Cove, Treasure Mountain to name a few.
They are very entertaining for kids 5 - 10 years old, and make a legitimate attempt to "educate" kids on specific subjects.
The Windows versions run $33 - $39 each at my local discount house.
Regarding High Speed Access to the Internet - My guess is that carrier pigeons may come back in vogue!
ISDN is somewhat available, at least in the San Francisco Bay area. But it appears to have costs that are too high (monthly Pac Bell Fees plus installation), very few ISPs support it, and it is only a factor of 2 - 5 faster than 28.8K modems.
High speed cable? - Sheesh! TCI (my cable provider) has trouble delivering reliable cable service and they have been at it for 25 years. They were supposed to start cable-modem evaluation months ago. I don't think this interests them. Cable companies like to merge with other cable companies, Baby Bells, Video Rental companies, and Movie producers. Merger and Acquisitions - that's what they are about. I don't believe they care one iota about internet service.
There are a few companies that are trying to deploy some sort of xDSL (x = asynchronous, high speed, broad band) digital subscriber line technology. Westell, Broadband Technology, Amital (spelling?). Intel has cut a deal with Broad Band Technology for some type of xDSL modem and they may have some trials in the early part of 1997.
Incidentally, Broad Band and DiviCom (now being purchased by CUBE) recently demonstrated some MPEG-2 transmission in conjunction with an ATM supplier (Fore?) at a recent convention. I may have the parties mixed up, but the technology demonstration was impressive and aimed at squirting multimedia (whatever that is) over ATM/Internet installations.
Paul |
