Last night around 11-12 o’clock I was sitting on my couch with my laptop in my lap surfing the net. In particular I was at the DirectTV website. I’d gotten my account number by calling them and logged in and told it I wanted to change my programming. On the TV in front of me was Showtime. There is a change package page where you click check boxes for the packages you want. I turned off Showtime and turned on HBO. Then I clicked the “Accept these changes button”.

A second after my click, before the next web page loaded, Showtime blinked off.

Pretty amazing if you think about what happen in that click. A signal went from my laptop, via Airport to the internet, to the DirectTV web server, which told another computer somewhere to change my programming. Then a signal was bounced off a satellite in orbit and back down to my TV. All in under a second.