Near Future?

Okay-maybe I missed it, but when is the story supposed to be set? I'm guessing the near future to the time the book was written, what with the "tele-puter" consoles with the Interlace entertainment cartridges and stuff. Interestingly, the phones seem very pedestrian; part of the tele-puter console, but with no video (Skype-ish) capabilities. He seems to have very accurately predicted video streaming a la Netflix, though. For me, it's interesting to contrast this view of the near future with Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash. Of course, Snow Crash was about future technology, where this story includes it (as a means to an end, I presume).

We haven't discussed reading limits-I've just kept going since some of the chapters are short, and they're not numbered. I'm currently at James Incadenza's exhaustive (and exhausting) filmography footnote.

Looking forward to finding out Hal's deal with internal-but no external, dialogue.