Scrapps & all: I received my Jan. issue of Windows Magazine. Winmag.com does not yet have this issue on the web. (An advantage they are giving the subscribers to the mailed edition; wonder why? ;-)) Anyway, the cover story is titled and sub-titled:
"RIP INTO THE WEB. Today's new high-speed modems, ISDN and comm technologies break the bottleneck that keeps you from tapping into Internet and intranet information. Get the lowdown on new ISDN terminal adapters and routers, find out what's coming down the pike in wireless data communications and get a sampling of ISDN rates around the country".
This cover story is focused on helping people switch to ISDN, complete with a vocabulary sidebar titled "Get Fluent in ISDN". 56Kbps modems are not mentioned even once in this entire story. In fact, a sidebar titled "POTS Gets Panned" explains in detail just why "analog/digital conversion process limits transmission rates to about 35Kbps, a restriction known as Shannon's law".
Since 56Kbps modems are not out yet, of course Win Mag can't review them. However, usually reviews come with some kind of preview of what new things are coming down the pike. Win Mag's complete "non-coverage" of 56Kbps as a "coming thing" seems kind of strange to me. Not only that, but they seem to think it's a given that everyone is going to be buying and paying monthly for an ISDN line. It seems that those who will dare to flout Shannon's Law on POTS lines are going to be viewed as renegades.
Anyone have a "take" on this?
On the plus side, there is a large picture of a "U.S. Robotics Courier I-modem with ISDN/V.34" on the front cover of the magazine.
Dwight |
