Please allow four weeks for delivery

A fellow runner friend of mine has occasional leg cramps. The other day I happened to see a story about leg cramps in the newspaper that I passed on to him. At the end of the story it said "Crampers can benefit from the leg cramp report. To obtain a copy, write to Dr. Donohu No. 20, Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475. Enclose a self-addressed, stamped (57 cents), No. 10 envelope and a check or money order for $3. Please allow four weeks for delivery."

Four weeks? Isn't this the 21rst century? I went to my Google search box at the top of my browser and entered "leg cramps". There were 33,700 matches -- the first ten looked quite useful. I copied and pasted the page of links to my friend via email. The email was $3.57 cheaper and the search took .19 seconds!

In my book I suggest we are maybe 3-5% of the way into what the Internet has to offer. Some days I think that estimate is high. There are many great resources and services available via the Internet but when you see examples like the above you realize how far we have to go. Someone sent me an email the other day with a link to the Roots merchandise web site for U.S. Olympic Team Gear. The web page has three steps clearly labeld...

1. Print order form
2. Choose your Roots U.S. Olympic Team Gear
3. Call to order at 1-800-208-0521

Click #3 and the page says "After completing your Order Form, you are now ready to call Roots Direct Toll Free 1-800-208-0521, or fax your completed order form to 1-877-998-6669 to place your order to anywhere in the United States."

Click here to call? Call a U.S.-only 800 #. Doesn't the Net make us global?

We have a long way to go!

Snowshoes and outer space

It was a cold and windy day this past November in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania where I spent the day. I couldn't resist a motorcycle ride though -- the Widder heated electric gloves and vest kept most of me warm. Just two months later and it was back at the Lake but this time with snowshoes.

Then it was back in front of the fireplace to finish reading Lou Dobbs' new book, Space : The Next Business Frontier. I suspect many of us think of space as being mostly about government related programs like NASA or possibly the global positioning system (GPS), or perhaps directTV. Lou makes the point in his book that space is about a lot more than that. The focus of his book is that space is more and more about "space business". In addition to a lot of interesting information about space shuttles and satellite launches, he talks about the hundreds of corporate players -- including "some of the world's largest organizations" -- which are already generating billions of dollars in revenue. He convinced me that space is headed toward becoming a new business revolution.

Meanwhile, Vint Cerf at WorldCom has been talkking about new possibilities to expand the potential of the Internet into outer space. Recently he began working with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on a new project to develop an interplanetary communications system based on a special set of protocols that would carry transmissions between planets. See Vint's Interplanetary Internet page for a paper he wrote about this and some excellent links.