Oops-how'd I miss THIS?

For more than a month, in fact. Anyway, there's still hope for locally-owned free and open Wi-Fi in the Power and Light District, according to the Kansas City Star's Joyce Smith.

You'll have to scroll down a bit to find the relevant portion of the story, but in a nutshell Lattéland (Smith added the accent over the "e," which is why I didn't find the story right away via a search) and Cordish were at last report trying to hash out a deal for the 12th and Main location where the local chain was originally scheduled to go in-and in which another operator-well, a pair of operators, actually-running a closed network subsequently crashed and burned.

With the Starbucks across the street now free and open, it'll be interesting to see if they really go ahead and take on the 800-pound gorilla, and who's left standing afterward.

The location was still dark as of Friday. Stay tuned.

Let freedom ring!

Starbucks Coffee
4101 Main, Kansas City

802.11g
SSID: attwifi

Believe it, everyone: Just click on the now-standard AT&T terms-of-service acceptance button and you're surfing for free at Starbucks. If you need power at this particular location, you'll have to sit towards the front-which may be a bit problematical late in the day, since those windows you see in this rather snazzily uploaded cell-phone camera picture face west.

And to think I seriously contemplated throwing several grand at a pro-quality digital Nikon to work with all those quarter-century old SLR lenses I've still got stuck away somewhere. Isn't modern technology wonderful?