Isn't it awful how the 24-hour news cycle has cheapened that phrase? I mean, when was the last time you tuned into one of the cable news channels and didn't see a screaming banner proclaiming such?
But enough grumbling-it's Friday and here I am again in the Crown Center atrium, and I'm happy to report that not only did I not have to resort to fending for myself when it came to grabbing an IP address from the router (in fact I haven't had to do that again since telling you how in this January post), but it seems CC is catching on to this public-relations thing. Boot up and hunt for the SSID down here now, and your eyes are no longer assaulted by the arcane "aircore.ccf" but the more benign and inviting "Crown Center food court." Hey, it's a start.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled whatever.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Been there and done that, Sam
Interesting guest editorial in today's Kansas City Star authored by Sam Hossain, a student at Avila University. He thinks KC ought to go all out-literally-by unwiring the city's parks.
Hmmm. Now just where have we heard something like that before? Oh, that's right-here and here. And here too, come to think of it.
In short, open-air hotspots aren't a new idea. And sadly, they haven't proven to be a very successful one either, at least locally. I'm just not aware of any place around town that if lit up would work as well as say, the much-publicized Bryant Park hotspot adjacent to the New York City Public Library. Frankly, I'd be too leery of sitting with a laptop out in too many of our local parks even in broad daylight-and even if the screen were readable under such conditions. That's too bad.
What I'd like to see as an alternative, as I suggested last winter when I reported on the previous summer's restaurant parking lot robbery-slaying, is an indoor location with Wi-Fi that would be available to the public either early and late, or better yet, around the clock. In other cities large college libraries sometimes fill the bill, but as Macenstein noted in the post below, the largest one around here isn't currently motivated to do so. Perhaps instead of unwiring the parks, the community could come together to pay for extending the hours at the Plaza Library-say to maybe 7 to midnight Monday through Friday, and 9 to 9 on Saturday. Let's go with college hours on Sunday-how about 1 to 9?
Or let's really dream-that someone with a large ego and deep pockets bites on Macenstein's suggestion big time and funds UMKC's turning the Miller Nichols Library into a 24/7 operation like growing numbers of other university libraries are becoming-and just to sweeten the pot, opening up the hotspot there to everyone.
Hey, you never know.
Hmmm. Now just where have we heard something like that before? Oh, that's right-here and here. And here too, come to think of it.
In short, open-air hotspots aren't a new idea. And sadly, they haven't proven to be a very successful one either, at least locally. I'm just not aware of any place around town that if lit up would work as well as say, the much-publicized Bryant Park hotspot adjacent to the New York City Public Library. Frankly, I'd be too leery of sitting with a laptop out in too many of our local parks even in broad daylight-and even if the screen were readable under such conditions. That's too bad.
What I'd like to see as an alternative, as I suggested last winter when I reported on the previous summer's restaurant parking lot robbery-slaying, is an indoor location with Wi-Fi that would be available to the public either early and late, or better yet, around the clock. In other cities large college libraries sometimes fill the bill, but as Macenstein noted in the post below, the largest one around here isn't currently motivated to do so. Perhaps instead of unwiring the parks, the community could come together to pay for extending the hours at the Plaza Library-say to maybe 7 to midnight Monday through Friday, and 9 to 9 on Saturday. Let's go with college hours on Sunday-how about 1 to 9?
Or let's really dream-that someone with a large ego and deep pockets bites on Macenstein's suggestion big time and funds UMKC's turning the Miller Nichols Library into a 24/7 operation like growing numbers of other university libraries are becoming-and just to sweeten the pot, opening up the hotspot there to everyone.
Hey, you never know.
Monday, June 06, 2011
Forgive me, for I have sinned...
Just had a birthday go by-none of your business which one-and decided to treat myself to something I'd long coveted: truly mobile Internet access, to wit, by tethering my cell phone to my Mac. I know what you're thinking-"What are you, the champion of free and open Wi-Fi, doing throwing yourself headfirst into the clutches of the most egregious form of play-for-pay?" Well, for one thing, I'm probably one of only two or three people still alive who actually does carry a cell phone only for emergencies, which is another way of saying I'm using prepaid at the cheapest pay-as-you-go rate. Those unused credits pile up eventually, and later this year I'd have run into my provider's account limit when I tried to add money to roll over my balance unless I began burning it off by spending some of it on something. And there just happens to be one place in particular that I frequent on occasion where something like bring-your-own Internet access comes in rather handy. More on that later.
Anyway, playing around with trying to read news on that hopelessly tiny screen and enter URLs using a telephone keypad has given me a new appreciation for ath64's observation in October's fifth-anniversary post that cellular-only access does indeed reduce its users to second-class netizens, so to speak. You've just got to have more going for you than that if you're going to do serious work. So...after a little tinkering and tweaking, I'm able to pull up your favorite search engine and mine on a 15 inch screen with a full-size keyboard attached, no matter where I happen to be.
Even if I happen to be in the Miller Nichols Library on the UMKC campus, where the wireless network is closed to outsiders. Now I can't really quibble with that-UMKC, after all, owes more to tuition-paying students than it does to anyone else. It simply would be nice, though, if-perhaps through the largesse of a carefully-solicited donor, maybe-they could see fit to open the Wi-Fi in this one location on campus up to everyone-as the Ethernet ports the wireless access replaced once were. Once again, I realize this isn't a public library we're talking about, but it's not like they're totally unwilling to serve the public.
Seven years is probably long enough to wait for nice, however, so I sauntered over to the neighborhood of 51st and Rockhill last night, laptop and phone in tow, not just to see how my new birthday present would perform where I bought it to use, but to take a gander at the place for the first time since its recent big makeover.
The long retractable power cords dangling from the ceiling are cool. Some of the power-challenged hotspots around town ought to consider them at the next remodel. Not so cool, however, is what they've done with the microfilm newspaper archive-a prime attraction for yours truly because of its more convenient location and hours of access. Before, you pulled the roll with the paper you wanted on it right out of the cabinet and carried it a few steps to a reader, then went to work. Now, you first pay a visit to the library's online catalog-which if you're not a student or a faculty or staff member means you either find a dedicated catalog computer or make use of bring-your-own access to get there-and request that the library's new robot retrieve the roll or rolls you need from closed stacks. Whether said robot actually does retrieve the requested material apparently depends on its mood. Bad enough when you're pursuing research for personal purposes when the local public libraries with newspaper morgues are closed. It would have been much worse had I been a student with a paper due in the morning. Good that there was still human intervention available-in the form of a helpful, competent staffer who got the materials in time for me to go through at least some of it.
Moral of the story: Just because something's newer and more sophisticated, it isn't necessarily better. After all, Rube Goldberg made a career of pointing that out. On second thought, I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that no one currently enrolled at UMKC has ever heard of him. I must be getting old.
Anyway, playing around with trying to read news on that hopelessly tiny screen and enter URLs using a telephone keypad has given me a new appreciation for ath64's observation in October's fifth-anniversary post that cellular-only access does indeed reduce its users to second-class netizens, so to speak. You've just got to have more going for you than that if you're going to do serious work. So...after a little tinkering and tweaking, I'm able to pull up your favorite search engine and mine on a 15 inch screen with a full-size keyboard attached, no matter where I happen to be.
Even if I happen to be in the Miller Nichols Library on the UMKC campus, where the wireless network is closed to outsiders. Now I can't really quibble with that-UMKC, after all, owes more to tuition-paying students than it does to anyone else. It simply would be nice, though, if-perhaps through the largesse of a carefully-solicited donor, maybe-they could see fit to open the Wi-Fi in this one location on campus up to everyone-as the Ethernet ports the wireless access replaced once were. Once again, I realize this isn't a public library we're talking about, but it's not like they're totally unwilling to serve the public.
Seven years is probably long enough to wait for nice, however, so I sauntered over to the neighborhood of 51st and Rockhill last night, laptop and phone in tow, not just to see how my new birthday present would perform where I bought it to use, but to take a gander at the place for the first time since its recent big makeover.
The long retractable power cords dangling from the ceiling are cool. Some of the power-challenged hotspots around town ought to consider them at the next remodel. Not so cool, however, is what they've done with the microfilm newspaper archive-a prime attraction for yours truly because of its more convenient location and hours of access. Before, you pulled the roll with the paper you wanted on it right out of the cabinet and carried it a few steps to a reader, then went to work. Now, you first pay a visit to the library's online catalog-which if you're not a student or a faculty or staff member means you either find a dedicated catalog computer or make use of bring-your-own access to get there-and request that the library's new robot retrieve the roll or rolls you need from closed stacks. Whether said robot actually does retrieve the requested material apparently depends on its mood. Bad enough when you're pursuing research for personal purposes when the local public libraries with newspaper morgues are closed. It would have been much worse had I been a student with a paper due in the morning. Good that there was still human intervention available-in the form of a helpful, competent staffer who got the materials in time for me to go through at least some of it.
Moral of the story: Just because something's newer and more sophisticated, it isn't necessarily better. After all, Rube Goldberg made a career of pointing that out. On second thought, I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that no one currently enrolled at UMKC has ever heard of him. I must be getting old.
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