I sincerely hope...

...this isn't starting a trend.

Stopped in at Crown Center tonight and about the time I was finishing my sandwich and soda from d'Bronx, I happened to see the Paul Blart impersonator on duty at the time stroll over to another laptop user in the atrium and engage him in some rather animated conversation. After Blart walked away I decided to shut down and take a stretch break before picking up a malted at Sheridan's and firing back up. On the way to the restroom I detoured past the table where the object of Blart's interest was sitting, and asked him what that was all about. Seems as if the management here has taken to discouraging folks from "hanging out" in the atrium for some reason, according to him.

Granted, that's just one side of the story, and in the interest of journalistic integrity, I'm going to have to regretfully report that had this gentleman been sitting in one of our public libraries doing the same thing, it's possible he'd have been asked to leave there as well, particularly if the branch were crowded, owing to, shall we say, not being in compliance with the library's policy dealing with "personal hygiene." Whether the poor guy was homeless or not, I can't say for sure. Given the times and the fact that laptops are rather cheap these days, it's not inconceivable someone without a roof over his or her head could be schlepping one around with his or her backpack and bedroll.

At any rate, I'm not going to criticize Blart or the management, except for this: If you don't want to end up being held in the same well-deserved disregard the Cordish Company has brought upon itself with its shenanigans downtown, you ought to perhaps print up some more of those little cardboard triangle thingies you used to have on the tables down here that clearly spell out what you do and don't expect from your customers with regard to how long they can stay and how they should behave. Better yet, perhaps you could initiate a clickthrough page showing your policy that users will see when they first connect. You have the right to discourage "parkers" who don't buy much of anything, as well as others who legitimately detract from the experience of other patrons, but don't run the risk of throwing out the baby with the bath water. Don't repeat Cordish's mistake. Specify up front what's acceptable and what isn't, and put it in writing.

And are you people EVER going to fix your stinking DHCP so that it STAYS fixed?

The Great Firewall of Australia, revisited

Another article from the Associated Press concerning the push Down Under toward what looks more and more like the start of a retrogression by what had grown into one of the most advanced societies outside the Western Hemisphere back to the mentatlity and sensibilities of the 1950s.

And what's worse, it appears that the technical skills of the filter vendor(s) must harken from that period. If you're going to filter using the blacklist method, you have to keep the blacklist up to date, people. This is just going to do so much to make Australia a desirable destination for business and tourism. I can just see all those bottom-line-conscious executives and vacationers who perhaps skipped traveling for several years to afford a once-in-a-lifetime trip-adults all, remember- queueing up to fly off to a magical place where the government will once again treat them like children.

I was going to link to the copy of the purported blacklist mentioned in the story as being on Wikileaks, but they're (ahem, ahem) having what I suppose could be called a "senior moment" with their servers right now. Seems they're overloaded...but not enough that they can't dun you for donations. Well, maybe-when I get the first installment of the fee I'm collecting from that Nigerian prince for helping him access his inheritance...

As if there wasn't already reason enough...

...why America's auto industry is in such bad shape, now you can be the first kid on your block with a rolling cellular-fed hotspot, courtesy of GM's Cadillac division. Glenn Fleishman over at Wi-Fi Networking News has all the gory details.

Never mind that it'll only support WEP encryption-which has essentially been nothing more than a no-trespassing sign for the past half-decade-and will cost out the wazoo, as cellular data all too often still does. If this catches on you've got to wonder how long it'll be before the first bans on surfing while driving are enacted-and how many innocents will be maimed or worse between now and then.

Besides, I'd bet anyone who regularly carries passengers who really need something like this has already rigged up a cellular-to-Wi-Fi router and AC inverter to provide it using the service they're already paying for. At least that's what I'd do.

"Let us break their bonds asunder, and cast away their yokes from us." (Psalm 2: 3)

Mid-Continent Public Library, Claycomo Branch
309 NE U. S. 69, Claycomo

802.11g
SSID: MCPLIBRARY.FREE.WIFI

At last, at long last, it appears that Mid-Continent has unequivocably joined the free world. Oh, the Wayport/AT&T SSIDs are still here for those of you nostalgic for them, but hook into the library's once you're up and running and you can just boot and scoot (thanks for that, Macenstein-it's one of the better lines you've come up with here)-free and open (and apparently either unfiltered or not so heavily as to be subject to overblocking).

I managed to find a table next to the wall with a pair of convenient power outlets in the back (go to your left as you come in and go all the way back into the corner), but I think I'd plan on going cordless for an extended stay just to be safe.

And heaven only knows if all of Mid-Continent's other locations have converted yet-unless any of you do.

I just hope Cass County and KCK-now the only unwired library systems in the metro with closed networks-will take the hint.

Not that I'd have sat there and eaten the whole 20-piece bucket, mind you...

An open letter to the nice folks, whoever and wherever they are, currently responsible for upholding the legacy of Colonel Harlan Sanders at KFC:

Dear Folks: Dropped in at one of your nearby locations to pick up a weekend's worth and while I was waiting for it I just thought I'd pull out my finder and see how good a job you were doing in protecting those vulnerable credit card numbers. You know-hidden SSID, WPA instead of WEP and all that. Well...imagine my surprise upon coming across a wide-open 802.11g access point with a SSID that let's just say would be quite familiar to both of us.

Now, what would you say should have been the proper response of the restaurant's manager upon being informed of my find and asked whether it's intended for customer use? Should it have been:

1.) "Why yes, we've just implemented that. In fact, here's a little brochure explaining how to log on and detailing our terms of service. Sorry we haven't gotten around to putting up the window stickers to let everyone know about it yet."

Or, perhaps:

2.) "Thanks for pointing that out. We'll shut that down and get hold of our IT department as soon as we can to properly secure that. Again, thanks for looking out for us and our customers."

I think we'd all agree that the one response I should NOT have heard is:

3.) "Duh..."

I know I'm probably going to get into trouble for this...

...but so be it.

As you've no doubt noticed, it's been quite a while since either Mac or I have reviewed a new location. Well, I guess that's to be expected, given that Wi-Fi has matured now and the big-boom days of circa 2002-05, when everyone rushed to unwire every place anyone might conceivably sit with a booted laptop for more than a minute or two are long past. New sites just don't pop up as often as they did when I started all this.

But that doesn't, in my view, mean that new and growing businesses that might benefit from offering wireless Internet to their customers should hesitate from taking the plunge. And given also that Wi-Fi's newness has worn off, meaning that new locations don't get the media attention they once did, there's always a chance that some establishment here or there has unwired and we just didn't hear about it.

So, on the outside chance of coming across such a location and to satisfy my personal curiosity, I decided to cruise through the jazz district-also referred to as the 18th and Vine historic district in some circles-this afternoon, looking for likely candidates for hotspots, which I'd then survey on foot, trusty finder in hand.

I really shouldn't have bothered. There was what appeared to be one open access point provided for customer use by a restaurant at the vaunted intersection above, but walking past and peering into the windows didn't really tell me anything. And now here's where I'm likely going to start trouble.

Dear Mr./Mrs./Mr. & Mrs./Ms. Restarurateur(s): Did it ever occur to you that someone walking past your establishment during the hours it's closed just might be a bit curious as to your cuisine? Ever take a walk past your competitors' establishments on the Plaza, in Westport, or down at Power and Light? If so, did you by any chance notice that practically all of them post their menus on their windows just so that someone walking by like me can satisfy his or her curiosity, and maybe-just maybe-make a mental note to return a bit later with a healthy appetite and with credit card in hand?

And if that Wi-Fi router is indeed intentionally left open for your patrons, it might be a courtesy to say so. (And if it's not, drop what you're doing, go dig the router's instructions out and learn how to change and stop broadcasting that SSID and set up WPA, then go and do it-RIGHT NOW!!!)

Now for the trouble part. No, I will not give anyone a pass out of consideration of where this is located. Good business practices on one side of town are good business practices everywhere else. Inexperience? An explanation, but not an excuse. Besides, feedback like this is how experience is gained.

And a bit more experience and expertise is what this development sorely needs, and soon. The rather imaginative facades of long-gone businesses just don't have the decorative impact they were intended to when they have to compete with the high vacancy rate in the renovated structures. And I know that given the emphasis on jazz and nightlife, one would expect bars to predominate. However, here's a memo to the developers: You have enough liquor licenses down there already. How about some family and youth oriented establishments such as a non-alchohol serving restaurant or two, a bookstore or perhaps a coffeehouse or ice cream parlor? You know, the kind of place that would attract someone other than nightcrawlers, and encourage them to stay awhile? Free Wi-Fi could help with that, too.

Or you could keep rolling the sidewalks up at 3 a. m. instead of leaving them for the day shift.

I feel your pain

On a day set aside to honor the memory of one who sought to remove barriers by calling upon all of his countrymen to truly live up to their ideals, and on the day before another who walked the path he helped make takes the oath of office as president...well, leave it up to me to come here and write about a subject apparently having nothing whatever to do with any of the above.

Anyway, I've just had to replace my router for the first time since unwiring my humble abode more than six years ago, and the experience has given me some insight into what some of the hotspot operators we've taken to task here over the years may have encountered. The radio conking out on my venerable old 802.11b access point led me to go out and pick up a name-brand "draft-N" model (just as an aside, the 802.11n standard-already five years late-is supposedly to be finalized by the end of this year, leading one to ask where we've heard that before) on sale for $40, or about one-third what I paid for its predecessor back in '02. Given more than half a decade, you'd think there'd have been some progress by the manufacturers to make configuration of one of these things easier for an end user, wouldn't you?

Well, think again.

After maybe a half-dozen attempts to simply change the router's default IP address (which I had to do because it was the same as my DSL modem, which, suffice it to say, wasn't going to work), change the SSID and enable WPA, I gave up and went to bed. The next morning, after fortifying myself with a good breakfast, I trudged once more unto the breach, and decided just for the sake of it to try what the quick-setup sheet suggested as a prerequisite for using the built-in setup "wizards"-power everything off, hook it all up and then power back on in sequence. Wonder of wonders, it worked. It's been up for a couple of days now without a hiccup, so I guess I can uncross my fingers. It just would have been nice for the manufacturer to specify that powering off and connecting everything was necessary for manual setup as well, that's all.

Which brings me to those other hotspots. I can only imagine what some businessperson-especially these days-must think when he or she runs into problems like these. It's got to make them wonder if offering Wi-Fi is still worth it. And bear in mind that what I've related above involves consumer-grade equipment. I shudder to think what anyone running a big location with an enterprise-class router might be faced with. No doubt some of the no-longer-hot spots we've run into were the result of experiences like this.

Get a clue, manufacturers. The easier you make your gear to set up and use, the more people will be inclined to set up and use it. And it might serve to remember that in order to do that, they'll have to buy it first. Money and resources invested in making your documentation clear and concise-and meaningful to people who make their living in fields other than IT-should be seen as an investment in both your future and ours.

In keeping with the theme of today and tomorrow, it's all about removing barriers and encouraging others to walk the path.