I’ve never used Cisco routers or dongles; I’ve found that one can get by quite well, usually, with a less prestigious name brand just fine. For example, I run my PC off an Encore dongle and get completely acceptable download speeds, especially now that I’m using Windows Vista and have a stable driver for it.

However, I remember not long ago, when I was living in Wisconsin and only had dial-up at an affordable price, just how annoyed I was at the rush toward broadband. I didn’t want to be left behind, just because I lived in the sticks.

Now, I live in a major metro area and broadband is both readily available and affordable; it greatly enhances the online game experience and it’s hard to imagine going back to dial-up. But sometimes I still wonder if we’re not being a bit unkind leaving folks in low-population areas behind, technologically.

I love my PS3 and my wife and I hope to have an HDTV by the end of this summer. But with the digital switchover less than a year away, I still have concerns about the people being left behind technologically, even though I’m no longer one of them.