You never realize how fast broadband is until you have to go back to 56k modem.
So very slow.
It’s a friggin’ shame that my Mom is out of range of DSL. Not by much, either. She might be getting a cable modem… but not anytime soon. Not like I’m down here that often. At least I have a laptop now so I can use all my applications and bookmarks, etc etc.
I made the drive down last night in the shortest amount of time ever. The fact that I didn’t hit traffic either in Gilroy or in LA, plus the fact that I was one of the few cars on the road (mostly trucks in the late evening on a weekday, made it possible for me to make it from Sunnyvale to Yorba Linda in 5 hours, 45 minutes, with a 15 minute stop for dinner. Also, because it was late enough, I just went straight down the 5 to the 91, instead of around the 210-57 like I normally do to avoid downtown traffic. That probably saved me at least 15 minutes, maybe 30.
We saw the neatest thing at Home Depot today. They have self-checkout, which must be in some sort of trial there (the Home Depot in Yorba Linda at Savi Ranch, if anyone’s curious). You scan the items yourself, you pay by inserting money or swiping a card, you bag it yourself, and you get a printed receipt. There’s a guy watching all four stations, and he has a display to see which items each person is scanning, to keep them honest. We ended up going through twice, because we forgot something. It was so darn quick.
Of course, eventually everything will have RFID tags in them, so we can just walk out of stores without having to even scan…