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Thursday, July 25, 2002 |
"Ground Control to Major Tom..."
I'm starting my day out as I often do, drinking coffee and reading email on a wireless connection. At the base of State St. you can get a wireless connection at Espresso Royale from Cafe Connection ($11/month), at both the Memorial Library and the Wisconsin Union via Wireless WiscWorld (must be part of UW), and at the University Bookstore (as of now, free).Guess where newcomers think they can find wireless? Starbucks. There is no wireless available (currently) in the State St. Starbucks.
I was working last night at Espresso Royale and chatted with a guy using his Apple Titanium. Even though we were sitting in a cafe with wireless connections, he didn't know how to get started, and the brochure (jammed in among the napkins and spoons on the condiment table) didn't help either. This is just sad.
UW does put up signs in the areas with official wireless networks, but the signs don't list the URL you need to authenticate, and if you can't authenticate, you can't search the web site for help. I found this out the hard way when I was on a new machine that lacked all my old bookmarks.
