The bus, too: people commute on buses, so why not have access? (Lots of buses, of course, already have access, and again, there are exceptions: no reason to put wi-fi on the 174.)

But the street? Why, so people can drive while composing emails? Didn't we just ban cellphone use while driving? What exactly is the point of wi-fi in the street?

And don't even get me started on bars. It's bad enough when you see morons who read books in bars. The last thing this city needs is more goobers who don't know what a bar is for. (Not to mention the risks associated with drinking and surfing.) Although it would be ridiculous beyond belief, it seems that if bars want to have internet access, they can pay for it privately. Why should the city pay for bar patrons' web access?

The real winner is going to be wi-max (clearwire). As the size of the equipment goes down, every device will have it available just like every laptop has built-in wi-fi now. And wi-max has a much better range.

Don't believe the lies. They want your money, and they're not afraid to lie cheat and steal to get it.

My treo gets the net everywhere so I don't boot the computer up on the bus to often.

http://seattlewireless.net/

When I see people reading books in bars, I think, "Hmm. They must have mistaken this place for a cafe or public library."

The short answer to your question is that people who read books in bars are morons, and I hate it when there are morons sharing space with me.

http://minneapolis.metblogs.com/archives/2007/08/35w_bridge_muni.phtml

So what about people who stop in to a bar to have a quiet drink, sans book? Are they morons too?

Where are you using it? Right on the sidewalk of University Way?

SeattleWireless? Sorry, I tried to get into it years ago but:

1) They never wanted to become an official non-profit, which would get them taken more seriously. Nobody is gonna grant roof access to a random bunch of nerds.
2) Always interested in the "how" not the "why".
3) Had the attitude that if built, internet access was a side-effect and not the whole reason for building it in the first place. Internet *is* the reason for a community wireless network.
4) Never had a proper mission statement, I see this has changed though which is a very good thing.

but most important...

5) It is very, very, very, very hard to create a mesh style network using tcp/ip over 802.11b/g. Very hard. Impossible, I'd say. Because of this, I came to the conclusion that the goals of SeattleWireless were unworkable from a pure engineering standpoint.

There are billions of places that are better suited for reading than bars. That is why people who bring books into bars are morons.

As for having a quiet drink -- no, those people have it exactly right. That is what bars are for. They're places to drink, not research libraries.

Since when does fun have anything to do with optimized productivity?

...maybe if you're Ayn Rand...

I say someone needs to make a cafe that serves booze, that way everyone is happy.