If the company my wife works for wasn't paying for it, I wouldn't pay to
have broadband via cable modem. Time Warner requires that you have
television service to obtain broadband service. There isn't anything on
cable television that I cannot do without. Broadband is nice to have,
but again, I can do without it if I have to pay the bill.

WEBSITE QUESTIONS for the group, if you please:
**************************************************
1. Does anyone know what the average speed modem is being used by the 70% of
people still using dial-up?

Connection speed depends upon line quality. Even in the biggest of
cities, there are portions which have old (some might say ancient)
equipment which has not be upgraded since the last century. :-)
The number of requests for server access on dialup also affects speed,
just as on your cable modem.

2. I hear people say that Java is "evil" all the time -- yet it seems that
every cool effect on a webpage requires Java. What is bad about Java
scripting? How about "Flashmedia"?

I like Java, it doesn't matter what platform you are using.
There are a number of sites that use MicroSquish software that will not
run on my Mac because I do not have MS Internet Explorer installed. They
even try to install the software!

3. I have pared our opening page back to practically nothing, yet it STILL
seems to be taking too long to open. I added a new "hit" counter
yesterday -- could that be slowing it down so much? (It's
www.AlexisParkInn.com if you want to take a gander at it.) How long is it
taking to open on your computer?

N/A (I have a cable modem)

4. I tried to look at the page from Mary's computer (which has the screen
resolution set to "Mr. Magoo" settings) -- and it locked up her computer. I
re-booted and checked on the Microsoft website, which showed that she had,
like, ten "critical updates" to Win XP that she had not installed -- so I
installed them for her.
Now the page runs normally, but I'm worried about having a website that
might actually freeze someone's computer. Can anyone see anything on the
page that could have caused that? Or was it just a glitch in Mary's PC?

N/A

An ON-LINE BOOKING question for the group, if you please:
**************************************************
I am about to sign a contract with a company that will provide us with
real-time, on-line reservation and GDS support for hotels. This will
completely change the way we do business, and will add a significant cost to
our operation.

How many of you guys actually make real-time, on-line hotel reservations?

I never use online booking. I always call the hotel directly and make my
arrangements or use a travel agent. I/they can negotiate a better price
directly than with an online booking agency.

My gut feel has always been that we would eventually have to jump on this
band-wagon, because more and more people are booking on-line. However, this
newly released figure, showing such low high-speed internet usage, really
makes me wonder if people are actually using on-line bookings much, or if
this is a tiny minority using it only occasionally.

Most people are too lazy or ignorant about how to shop/search for travel
information and accommodations. A basic Google search is easy, but they
are clueless as to how to do a serious search to really identify what
exactly they are looking for.