I continue to be amazed at the consequences of Moore’s Law.

I went into Fry’s yesterday looking for a video card, and I saw on display a five-port auto-sensing switch for $29.95. Not just a dumb hub, but a dual-speed, full-duplex, non-bandwidth-sharing, packet-collision-avoiding switch.

But wait! There’s more. That was the regular price. That day, and that day only, it could actually be purchased for $19.95.

Still not a good enough deal?

What if I told you that packaged with it was a 10/100 auto-sensing PCI network interface card, all at the low, low price of $19.95?

I couldn’t resist, even though I already have a couple spare NICs. I figure you can never have enough NICs. I took it home, and plugged it into the ethernet outlet in the spare bedroom. It started to pass pings with merry abandon, and now I have another node on the network.

I fully expect, the next time I open a box of jumbo Cracker Jacks, to find a bubble-packed Cisco 2600 router…