The paragraph that began "The probability of knowing what an acoustically coupled modem looks like is inversely proportional..." did read (to me) as condescendi

The paragraph that began "The probability of knowing what an acoustically coupled modem looks like is inversely proportional..." did read (to me) as condescending - but I think we should be generous and assume the author did not intended it to be. It set the tone that you read in your head, but the rest of the article is fine (and really interesting!) if you can ignore that first paragraph and read it in a neutral tone.