“Think the iPhone is pricey? The cool cell phone of 1988 cost $4382 in today's dollars. A 150MB hard drive? $8755. Take a trip with us down memory lane, and you'll never whine about the price of a gadget again.”

And they’re right. This huge expose on PCWorld is jam packed with informatin comparing 1998 specs and pricing to those of today, for PC systems, hard drives, printers, Internet access, modems, cell phones, TVs, video players, ultra portable audio players, cameras and game consoles.

I think my favorite is the $6.00 to $47.50 per hour ($11 to $83 adjusted for inflation) for dial-up Internet that connected you to 400 databases, covering news, shopping, finance and the like; 140 discussion groups and e-mail.