A second look...and a second think.

Remember my mentioning here back in August a report from the New York Post that certain unwired cafes in the Big Apple were pulling up the welcome mat when it came to so-called "freelancers" coming in and using the place as a workspace without contributing much to its bottom line?

Well, the world has kept turning, and now it seems that some of those folks have found new venues for their endeavors-venues in which, the Post now says, coffee isn't the strongest item on the menu.

That and certain other aspects of this later story have caused me to reconsider somewhat my suggestion from last summer that those cafe owners were perhaps being a bit hasty.  After all, I've got to acknowledge that in my own experience, I've known people for whom the term "freelancer" could politely be described as a euphemism for "unemployed."  

Whether and to what extent that holds true for the NYC area right now, I can only speculate.  However, I'd bet any business owner there-be he or she the operator of either a cafe or a bar-would have a better handle on that than I would.  Maybe-just maybe-they weren't the ones who jumped the gun.

Breathe easy, get on the bus and be thankful you don't live in a certain New Jersey community.

First, let me assure everyone that I have survived The Great OS X/iOS SSL Scare of 2014 unscathed.  Indeed, the nice folks at Macworld have clearly and competently explained what the fuss was all about and why although it was absolutely serious, it was nowhere near as dire as the mainstream (i.e. non-tech) media made it out to be.  In fact, if, like me, you don't use an iPad at all, you were only affected if you run Mavericks-which I not only don't but can't, my venerable MacBook Pro being of too early a vintage. 

Well, I paid so much for it hoping for such longevity, so who's complaining?

Moving on...Although it's not really free and open access, the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority is lighting up its MAX buses as well as some on other routes, according to the Kansas City Star. 

I'm not even sure I remember the last time I rode the ATA; if my car's not running and I can't walk or bike there for free, I'm more likely to pop for either a one-way cab ride to a rental counter or patronize one of the we'll-pick-you-up companies, so wedded am I to the automobile culture.  Anyway, I'm intrigued, and I'm sure ath64 probably is as well, so if any of you try out Bus-Fi anytime soon, let us know how you find it.

Finally, there's this tidbit from NorthJersey.com that-to me at least-resembles the kind of story one might have expected to come across maybe a decade ago, but not in 2014.  I mean, is there really any good reason for a public library not to offer wireless Internet access to its patrons today? 

Yes there is, maintains at least one of the library officials interviewed.  Quoting from the story:  "Wireless internet usage in public libraries is typically not filtered, so technically, patrons can access any sites on their personal devices, including pornographic or offensive material, on their wireless devices and laptops."

That "fact" was all the justification that the board president of that one library system needed.  Never mind that in reality there's no reason they couldn't filter it if they really felt the need.  It's a "safety issue," you see.  Yeah, sure it is.  With only six desktop computers, a 30-minute time limit and a filtering system that "can't even get on the Victoria's Secret website," it's clear that someone here has more issues than they're letting on to, despite allegations of having "had substantial problems with people trying to look at inappropriate material."

Right, ma'am.  On a system that locked down, I'll bet you have.

I just hope the patrons of that library system come across that story and find out just what their board president really thinks of them.  In a truly free society, government that does not trust the people it governs is bad government, all excuses and rationalizations for that mistrust notwithstanding.

Remember when we used to review hotspots here?

McDonald's
1421 Prospect, Kansas City

802.11g
SSID:  attwifi or Wayport_Access


Well, it has been a while-hasn't it?-since one of us ventured out to a previously unvisited location to file a report.  And it's too bad that our urban core initiative of a couple of years ago sort of fizzled out.  Still just not that many hotspots where they're needed most.  Anyway, this was a location I'd been hoping to hit ever since Mickey D's joined the free world, given that it's (I think) the last restaurant they have in the, ahem, "traditional" inner city (east of Troost, west of I-435, south of Truman Road and north of 63rd-and if I've missed one or if one has opened recently that I didn't hear about, don't hesitate to let me know).

But enough of that.  I suppose my stubborn insistence on lugging a laptop rather than schlepping a smartphone or-horrors!-toting a tablet is catching up with me.  There is only a single pair of power outlets available in this whole place; it's right up against the west-facing front windows adjacent to the second table from the left as you come in-which means, of course, come in early in the day for the best screen readability if you'll need power.  However, that and the fact that it kind of looks like the Big Breakfast has shrunk a bit portion-wise since I last ordered one shouldn't deter you from making a visit-with less to eat, you'll be in and out faster and battery life might not be an issue. 

On the other hand, if you're lucky enough to score one of those outlets, maybe you should take advantage of their ongoing $1-for-any-size coffee promotion. 

Harlem Renaissance, 21st Century Edition

NYC Mayor's Office:  Harlem to become biggest Wi-Fi hotzone in USA.

Interesting, to say the least.  And it's not like the need isn't there, either.  I just hope it doesn't prove to be a crime magnet given that it's only going to be accessible outdoors.  People too scared to come out and use it won't benefit from it.  

You know, it might have been better to have made an effort to recruit either new or existing business owners to unwire and provide some safe indoor 24-hour venues-or at least locations open later than the public library branches which probably are taking the brunt of bridging the digital divide currently-in the covered neighborhoods, and perhaps this should be looked at anyway as a spur to economic development.  

In any event, here's hoping it works out in the end.  

I really didn't want my first post in such a long while to be such a downer...

...especially not at holiday time, but I came across this from out in California while researching another late-breaking report of someone else being investigated for accessing and/or possessing you-know-what and I thought I'd pass it on.  The "someone else" is an aide to a rather well-known elected official; I'll leave it to you to look that story up if you're interested since there's no indication as of yet that Wi-Fi is involved.

As for the incident in which Wi-Fi is involved, here we go again with the blanket pronouncement that the bad stuff definitely got onto the laptop over what the detective makes a point of stating was an open connection.  Care to back that up with some forensics, Detective?  After all, you did find more garbage when you searched the suspect's home; might it be at all possible that he had some of it on the laptop already before he arrived at the restaurant? 

Actually we should count our blessings that this piece of low-hanging fruit was brazen enough to do what he stands accused of doing in public-thus easily bringing his predation upon kids to what is hoped will be a permanent end. 

And though, to paraphrase Dickens, it may not be in keeping with the situation above, season's greetings to all regardless.

Remembrance and reflection: November 22, 1963

When your age is still in single digits, your priorities are different. 

My first priority, on that leaden, drizzly late autumn Friday would, under normal circumstances, have been to rush home after school and pick up the remaining copies of the coming week's edition of TV Guide I still had left to deliver to customers on my route (they hired kids to do that at four cents a copy back then; the new ones came out on Wednesday but some folks preferred you to bring theirs by a day or two later) and get them out, hopeful of avoiding that really scary black dog up the block that I was sure would devour me if I ever gave him half a chance.  Then back home, dinner, perhaps a late-night television movie if anything good was on, but off to bed right afterward so as not to miss the highlight of the week-"Fireball XL-5" on Channel 4 the next morning. 

Normal circumstances ended, however, about two hours earlier as we sat in the school auditorium watching the sixth-graders putting on a play-which I couldn't identify or describe for you now to save my life-when our principal strode onto the stage, stopped the performance and announced something I couldn't make out at first (microphones and amplification were reserved for very special occasions and this wasn't considered to be one).  Amid the resulting gasps from those sitting closer to the stage who had understood what he had said, I leaned over and asked a classmate who had heard the principal as well, and who filled me in: 

"President Kennedy's been shot!"

We were directed back to our classrooms; our teacher had already managed to procure a radio, tuned to the old Mutual Broadcasting Network, by the time I returned.  We simply sat in stunned silence as the story unfolded:  the governor of Texas had also been wounded and was in serious condition…the president's condition was unknown…he had been shot in the head…the gun was a .30-30 rifle…a Secret Service man had also been killed (these last two items, of course, would later turn out to be false)...a Dallas police officer had been shot to death (this one was sadly true)…

Then the time rolled around for those of us who had begun studying instrumental music earlier that year to make our way to the gymnasium, where that class was held.  No practicing scales that day, though-a radio was set up there as well.  The official announcement that Kennedy had died was just being repeated as I reached the door.  Some of the older students began weighing in on what that would mean; if things went as they did with our school "elections" the loser-Nixon-would now be president.

I am almost ashamed, even today, to admit that this made perfect sense to me at that moment.  I had only a vague concept of who the president was and what he did; in those days you really didn't get into studying government and the Constitution before junior high.  Pretty much all I remembered of the election by then was the schoolyard ditty we repeated over and over-come on, how many of you recited it, too?  "Kennedy, Kennedy, he's our man!  Nixon go to the garbage can!"  Lyndon Johnson?  Who was he?

Once I got home I turned on the TV and decided to wait for the evening newspaper to arrive-does anyone else recall getting both the Kansas City Times in the morning and the Star in the afternoon on weekdays?-before finishing my TV Guide route.  "PRESIDENT IS SLAIN FROM AMBUSH" screamed the black banner headline, over a story printed completely in italics-something I don't remember the Star or Times ever doing again.  If memory serves, I didn't start out with my TV Guides until after dark, having watched Air Force One's arrival back in Washington and President Johnson's first, halting words to the nation, along with the steady stream of details from Dallas on Lee Harvey Oswald.

No "Fireball XL-5" that Saturday, of course, as the networks continued with their nonstop coverage after having done so throughout the night-something almost unprecedented at a time when most television stations around the country (and all three of them in Kansas City) regularly signed off for at least a few hours nightly.

We were in church on Sunday when Oswald was shot, so I didn't see that live.  The endless replays of the moment, however, were no less gruesome.

School was canceled on Monday so we could watch the funeral and burial.  One of my most enduring memories, alongside those of the somber cadence of the muffled drums as the cortege made its way to Arlington and the strains of what I later learned was the Navy Hymn-which still takes me back to that weekend whenever I hear it-was my mother hoping out loud that the lowering of the casket would not be shown, as that might be too much for her.  (It wasn't, at least not on NBC.)

I understand now that I really was too young then to get it.  Grasping the loss to the nation would come only with an understanding of how the government worked and the president's role in it.  Being able to relate to bereavement, however, would take much longer, as I would not experience a death in my family until after I had grown to adulthood.

So what to make of it all now?  I will not waste time addressing any of the conspiracy theories; there is nothing new to say for or against any of them and thus no one's mind will be changed.  Better, I think, to reflect on the world of half a century ago and how Kennedy perhaps helped start us on the path to where we are today.

On the day he died, a pre-recorded television message from him was supposed to be relayed to Japan-the nation his daughter, ironically, just became our ambassador to-via satellite.  Live satellite television is something we take for granted now, but the first live commercial broadcast from overseas was, I think, still a couple of years in the future.  It was Kennedy's push for technological advancement-in particular the race to the moon-that spurred the revolution in electronics that among other things, eventually transformed the black-and-white console television sets with their vacuum and cathode-ray tubes upon which we watched that caisson and heard those drums, into today's big-screen solid-state Internet-smart full color TVs that are really more computer than receiver.  It also ultimately led to the establishment of ARPANET, which evolved into the medium through which you now read these words, along with the myriad means by which that medium can now be accessed. 

In short, we should celebrate the life of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, as his family has long urged, rather than to continue commemorating and mourning his death.  Perhaps among the books and documentaries bound to be produced as the centennial of his birth on May 29, 2017 approaches will be several examining my premise above.  At least I hope so.

When your age is more than halfway to triple digits, your priorities are different.

A swing and a miss...

Had to go back out to Independence Center tonight to make an exchange, and just to be more than fair I did what I've never done before for any other failed hotspot since starting this blog.  After two unsuccessful attempts I gave it one last go.  Sad to say that for the third and final time it was a no-go.  After all, George Brett never got more than three strikes.  Of course, his claim to fame was that he only needed all of them every now and then.

Too bad there are so many businesses these days that don't take the examples set by genuine achievers like Brett to heart.  Oh sure, they pay lip service to buzzwords like "performance" and "excellence"-but the proof of the pudding is what happens when the rubber meets the road-or the pitch comes over the plate.

Sorry, Simon Malls.  You're out.