In what world does the "archetypal nontechnical user" have two computers connected by Ethernet?
Ignoring the difference between Ethernet and 802.llb/g/n, this was commonplace even when the article was written. Dad has a printer hooked up to his desktop. Aunt Tillie borrows Mom's laptop to look up a recipe on foodnetwork.com. Voila, two computers connected over a local network, and Aunt Tillie wants to print out her recipe on Dad's printer.
Ignoring the difference between Ethernet and 802.llb/g/n, this was commonplace even when the article was written. Dad has a printer hooked up to his desktop. Aunt Tillie borrows Mom's laptop to look up a recipe on foodnetwork.com. Voila, two computers connected over a local network, and Aunt Tillie wants to print out her recipe on Dad's printer.