And while I was out this way...

Panera Bread
15108 West 119th Street, Olathe

802.11g
SSID:  PANERA

First, the bad news.  The Javascript clickthrough page I complained about at the Legends location is apparently a systemwide "feature" now.  That and a user agreement that takes longer to read than eating your dinner are downers.  (Just as an aside, if that agreement actually reflects the attitude of Panera's corporate management and isn't just bought-and-paid-for legal boilerplate, they really need to think about whether they truly even want to continue offering Internet access-before, not after, they're faced with having to try and enforce it.)  On the up side, power outlets abound along the walls and the tinted windows might help with screen readability in full daylight (it's just now 7 p. m.).

And just to see what would happen...I fired up Java and jumped onto bipolarworld.net's site to try the chatrooms and guess what?  Here's another network administered by people who don't think that keeping port 7000 open is dangerous.  Gee, you'd have thought from that user agreement that someone from the KCMO Library's IT department would be moonlighting for them.

You forgot about Olathe, Mac.

Never mind, however.  I appreciated the opportunity to revisit a location I haven't used since I believe this blog's first week or so.  I'm in the main Olathe Public Library at 201 East Park downtown and I'm happy to report that if the patron KCMO so shamefully shunted aside spends any time out this way and would like to drop in with his or her laptop, port 7000 is ready and waiting on this connection.  Let's see-that makes 2 for 3 among the public library systems that still have open networks.  If keeping 7000 open were truly so dangerous as KCMO's IT director thinks it is, that wouldn't have been likely, would it?

I've got two quibbles with this location, however.  The first is that owing to the makeover they've given it since I was last here, the only laptop-friendly seating is at an eight-position carrel table towards the back.  Well, at least they thought to provide a pair of power strips so maybe I protest too much.  Quibble No. 2 is, I'm afraid, a bad one:  This is the slowest connection other than Johnson County's that I've run into in a public library in years.  Signal strength is OK so it's got to be on their side of the router.  Let's just hope I'm here at a bad time of day (5 p. m.) and this isn't indicative of the network's regular performance.  

Well, I made it...

...out to the Cedar Roe library, and you'll all be pleased to hear that JCL's Wi-Fi is still just as bad as it was a couple of years back-in other words, just as useless as it's ever been. You can't read Usenet, you can't securely access your e-mail-and you can't chat at bipolarworld.net, because just like KCMO, they're also blocking port 7000.

Of course, given this network's infamy, I'd expect that out here. Perhaps KCMO is aiming to cut its Wi-Fi usage down to JCL's levels (I'm the only laptop user here at just after 7 p. m.). Well, they've made a good start.

And now for what I REALLY wanted to talk about this evening...

...which, of course, is the issue of the hour, namely whether the KCMO library's IT department is being prudent and cautious or suffering from an advanced case of pointy-haired bossism, as evidenced by its rationale for blocking port 7000 on the Wi-Fi for patron-owned computers when they don't do so for the connection their own computers use.

My vote is for the latter, given that I'm posting this using the Wi-Fi in the Riverside branch of the Mid-Continent Public Library, and I'm happy to report that the chats on www.bipolarworld.net work just fine up here. Since Riverside was hardly a den of cyber-iniquity the last I heard, I'm of the opinion that KCMO is full of it. If they're truly concerned that leaving 7000 open will make them susceptible to spreading denial-of-service attacks, why isn't Mid-Continent-and more to the point, why isn't it happening now on MCPL's network? For that matter, why isn't it happening on the thousands of free and open networks across the country? I think we'd have heard about it if it were, don't you?

I had planned to run the same test at NKC, but since they've apparently gone members-only, we'll have to settle for you-know-where...Johnson County. Don't know if I'll make one of their locations from up here tonight, but when I do make one, you'll find out right here.

Does anyone have any idea...

...when and why the North Kansas City Public Library closed its network? Nothing on their website about their having done it.

Well, too bad. I doubt many users will bother with jumping through those hoops to keep using it. Didn't see any earlier this afternoon, at least.

Anyone with any info, fill us in.

From dumber to Dilbert

The other shoe has dropped in the saga of the KCMO Public Library and the patron who wants to access an IRC chatroom over the public wireless connection but can't because port 7000 on that connection is blocked.

I wonder if the responder actually bothered reading back his reply to himself before posting it. I mean, esentially he seems to be saying, "It's the patron's fault he or she can't do what he or she is trying to do even though the reason he or she can't do it is indeed due to something we're doing."

Furthermore, the fact that they are not blocking port 7000 on the connections for their computers makes the responder's rationalization for blocking it only on the connection for patron-owned equipment ludicrous. Since when have they been responsible for my computer?

If I'm stupid enough to want to get on a motorcycle without a helmet, you can reasonably argue that I should be prohibited from doing that since the rest of society may ultimately have to help foot the bill for the consequences. If that same stupidity, however, keeps me from protecting my own computer against malware (or-sorry, but I am going to go there-from buying one less susceptible to malware to start with) and as a result my laptop melts down and runs all over the floor, the library's only insistence should be that I bring a mop with me to clean up the mess.

You know, this is really sad. KCMO up until now had been doing the best job with public library Wi-Fi. This kind of cluelessness is what we had come to expect from Johnson County and their woeful effort before we gave up on it.

One hopes that this really is just the result an ego-fueled Dilbert moment, and that cooler heads and common sense will prevail before it goes any further.

Four more years! Four more years!

My goodness, is it the fourth anniversary of this blog's founding already? Where does the time go?

Here's hoping it's been as useful to you as it's been fun for us.