I don’t know about any of you, but more than network cards, I cut my networking teeth on 3Com gear. Routers, switches, hubs and more, in fact, I still have a 10baseT FMSII hub around here somewhere. I know, I know, stop laughing, it’s a keepsake more than anything. I start this pedantic rant down memory lane because it appears that HP (Hewlett-Packard) is going to snap up 3Com in a deal worth almost $3 billion. Wow, that’s a lot of coins in the couch cushions! I hope they don’t destroy 3Com like they did Compaq after Compaq destroyed DEC (Digital Equipment Corp). I am still a fan of 3Com gear, especially when they kept U.S. Robotics (who made the best modem in the world as far as I can tell) mostly whole after the two merged. I thought this was an interesting tidbit, so I wanted to share it with everyone.