Tuesday, April 23, 1996
A Post From the Future
by DiscountCF

This "post" is directed to all of the ossified fossils of the Analog Wall Street world, the types who believe everything that is "posted" in the Wall Street Journal and Barron's and who snort with knowing superiority as they sit in their private clubs and reads their Fortune Magazines that tells all about this thing called "AOL" and mutter incoherently to no one in particular about a bunch of Fools. Unfortunately, since you are not digital by the time you read this post, it will be too late, the world will already have passed you by, but at least you can dream of what might have been. Woulda, coulda, shoulda.

Welcome to the future, my friend! A future where ADSL is remembered as one of the most important developments of this century. Imagine the old world of 1996 without instantaneous movies, music, photographs, books, business meetings, conferences. Think how ADSL affected education, entertainment, travel, and all forms of business. Think of how ADSL affected the value of physical real estate as demand shifted to virtual offices and classrooms. We all know now that ADSL changed the world as we know it. Think about the fact that in 1996, not really too long ago, Amati Communications Corporation held the Discrete Multi-Tone (DMT) ANSI and ETSI standard for ADSL and that Dr. James F. Gibbons, Dean of the School of Engineering at Stanford University was the Chairman of the Amati Board and that Dr. John Cioffi, founder and Chief Technical Officer of Amati was a Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford.

Why didn't you see it? It was right in front of your eyes. Could it really have been true that the entire company had a market cap of less than $250 million? Oh what might have been. But if by chance you are not reading this post in the future and it is still 1996, this is what you might do. First thing tomorrow morning ask your secretary to send a runner over to the nearest bookstore to purchase a copy of Being Digital by Nicholas Negroponte and instead of reading Barron's this weekend, read Being Digital. Then first thing Monday morning ask the "nerd" with the pony-tail who fixes your computers to show you how to access the World Wide Web, go to Infoseek, search for ADSL and read. It is that simple and it may just change your life.

Transmitted: 4/23/96