(Broad) Band on the Run

I'm having a difficult time adjusting to the idea of Internet access from anywhere. First, I associated using the Internet at one particular computer. Then, over the last couple of years, it's all been about Wifi and my local network. It was like, "Look ma, no wires." Lastly, only for a few weeks I have been getting used to 3G access via my phone. (As well as the applications and Internet browsing on the device itself, my Nexus One can now act as a mini-wifi spot thanks to version 2.2 of Android.)

I felt downright sinful yesterday. I started playing a YouTube music video. I walked right out the door into an elevator and my phone switched to G3 service. I then walked to the other end of Carnarvon Street but didn't miss a beat. I was streaming more than audio. The phone was in my coat and my headphone were on, so the screen was displaying the video to the inside of my pocket.

I'm a fairly conservative guy when it comes to money and energy. It felt a little decadent using all that bandwidth along Carnarvon Street Hey though, that will be the way of the future. I don't know if or when 4G will actually hit any part of Canada, but even the current connection speed in my pocket in the middle of the intersection at 6th Street amazed me. I remember when I first made a personal Internet website. In those days it was best practices to keep all text and graphics on a page to under 50K. Doesn't that seem quaint nowadays considering how much data we throw around less than twenty years later?

Some people dream about a future with an unlimited, low-cost energy supply. To me that might just go along with an unfathomable amount of cheap broadband everywhere.