I was walking in Kansas City when the heat became so unbearable that I almost passed out. The real feel temperature was 106 degrees and it made me wonder what people did 100 years ago before air conditioners. Believe it or not, there actually was a big business back then in harvesting and delivering ice. Ice from New England made its way all the way to the Caribbean providing cooling relief to everyone. Entrepreneur Frederic Tudor actually shipped 200 tons of ice to Calcutta, India and even with half of the cargo melting, it was still cheaper than trying to make ice locally. Now the “market transition” of the ice maker and modern refrigeration changed all that and harvesting and shipping ice went the way of the analog modem. Things change and they change even faster in tech with fortunes made and fortunes lost.

— RBC analyst networking analyst Mark Sue in his email newsletter, Sue’s Clues from August 3, 2011