Our work here is done.

When I sat down in the atrium of Crown Center nine years ago this very evening to start this blog, I could never see myself coming back here for the purpose of ending it.  But here I am, and it's obvious that time and change-technological, social, perhaps even political to some extent-have made its mission unnecessary.

There were a good half-dozen local bloggers who listed and reviewed Wi-Fi hotspots when I started; they're all gone now.  Even national listings are apparently falling into disuse; the Missouri and Kansas listings on wififreespot.com haven't been updated in years.  Is that evidence, however, of failure on anyone's part?  Why, of course not.  It means that free Wi-Fi has become essentially ubiquitous; you don't have to come here or go to a listing site to find it.

And the way we use Wi-Fi has changed as well.  Here at Crown Center tonight I've seen only one other laptop as opposed to maybe a half-dozen smartphones.  Who needs reviews advising of the availability and number of power outlets and how easy a laptop screen can be read if neither will be an issue?

Certainly, though, there are some things I would like to have seen that are yet to materialize.  The digital divide, while steadily shrinking, is still too wide.  Rural broadband availability is still far too scarce despite all the talk and hand-wringing.

Both of these problems can simply be laid to a failure of our national will.  President Eisenhower came to office fresh from his experience as supreme Allied commander in Europe convinced we needed to build a national network of superhighways not just for public use but as a military asset as well.  His successor rose to the challenge of Sputnik and the orbiting of Yuri Gagarin by the Soviets by declaring we should put a man on the moon before 1970.  Everyone reading these words who has a drivers license uses the Interstate Highway System perhaps every day.  Everyone reading these words who is old enough to remember where he or she was on July 20, 1969-and everyone else reading them who's cracked open a history book since then-knows the result of government and industry working together to meet Kennedy's mandate.  Where, now, is our national will when it is again needed?

I won't end on an unhappy note, however.  When it comes to America and her ability to face and solve problems, I'm still the hopeless optimist.  It may take time, but we'll get over both the digital divide and the rural broadband drought the same way Hannibal got his elephants over the Alps-we'll find a way or make one.

As for the blog, I'll leave it here for as long as it pleases Blogspot to host it.  The e-mail addresses of the contributors are real, though not regularly checked for messages (perhaps once a week if that often), but they'll stay active for the time being should anyone have any concerns.  Since I really don't anticipate there being any more posts, I'm going to disable commenting.

And with that, thank you and goodbye.

Mike Royko was funny beyond words.

For what will be this blog's penultimate post, I'm going to give in to a long-suppressed urge and share with everyone here what has to be my favorite Mike Royko column.  Seems like the right opportunity just never came about.

If you're too young to remember Royko-understandable given that he passed away in 1997-he was a Pulitzer Prize-winning Chicago newspaper columnist who worked for both the Sun-Times and the Tribune, as well as enjoying a sizable national audience in syndication.  This column, from 1995, was his take on all the hype and hubbub accompanying the rollout of-what else?-Windows 95.

Some background:  The "Slats" Royko refers to is Slats Grobnik, a character he created to carry on imaginary conversations with in print-a common writing device that has fallen out of favor since Royko's time, sadly.  Everyone reading Royko knew  Slats didn't really exist; do today's editors and publishers really have that low of an opinion of their readers' intelligence?

As for the Windows 95 launch, yes, it really was that big of a deal.  Stores stayed open late and people lined up outside awaiting the stroke of midnight.  Remember that Internet access was just starting to become ubiquitous in mid '95, and even if you could get online at home it was probably only via dialup.  Downloading anything the size of an operating system would quite literally have taken days.  Buying software was a brick-and-mortar proposition then and for quite a while afterward.

Anyway, I've always liked Royko's take on the whole thing.  It comes back to mind every time the feeding frenzy is repeated, albeit on a much smaller scale, whenever a new iPhone comes out.  Too bad Royko didn't live to see any of those.  Wonder what he'd think?

Oh, yes-the link to the column.  Here it is.

Enjoy.

It's spreading! It's SPREADING!!! (But...)

Looks like the borrow-a-mobile-hotspot-from-the-library idea is catching on.  The New York and Chicago public libraries are starting up lending programs, according to USA TODAY and the New York Post. 

One reservation, though.  It appears Gotham and the Windy City want to limit their programs, at least initially, on the basis of their assessment of their patrons' need for such assistance.  They and other library systems looking at jumping into this just might want to rethink that.  Even though a private foundation is bankrolling this at present, bear in mind that not only is that money available largely through the foundation's tax-exempt status, but the libraries themselves are tax-exempt entities-which is another way of saying it would behoove them to avoid ending up on the fighting side of anyone who could potentially threaten either that tax-exempt status or the public (read taxpayer) funding on which they depend.  

Can you imagine a librarian telling you that you can't check out a book because you don't need it?  Well, perhaps you could imagine being told that someone else needs it more right at the moment for a legitimate reason-a student with a special project due, for instance-and being asked if he or she can have it now provided you get next crack at it.  Maybe the libraries should put their heads together with that foundation and come up with a similar policy for checking out the Internet.  Merely saying no to anyone not meeting a certain arbitrary standard likely won't go over well in Congress, especially these days.

And while we're on the subject of taxpayer funding...here's something interesting I came across on a Washington Post blog concerning the new federal e-rate funding for library Wi-Fi.  Methinks that not only do the complaining libraries have a point, but that the FCC needs to pull back a bit or they may find themselves in a similar situation to the one that threatens above-only they'll be explaining to Congress why so much taxpayer money is going to build so many networks that are getting so little use, while others already at capacity can't get funds to expand. 

So, you're a refugee from the wrong side of the digital divide...

...sitting in an unwired public library with your laptop or tablet, and it's getting close to closing time.  What are you going to do?

Well, if that public library is in Forest Park, Illinois and you're a cardholder, fear not, according to the Forest Park Review. 

Just check the Internet out and take it home with you.

I'll have to admit to some mild skepticism when I first came across this story, so I sauntered over to the library's website-and do you know what?  It's true.

No mention either in the story or on the website as to whether that 21-day checkout will include some kind of bandwidth limitation, and it'll be interesting to see if the question of whether the connection should be filtered comes up (they're lending the devices to patrons as young as 12).

All in all, an intriguing effort to say the least.  Hope it plays out well so more libraries pick up on it.

Two hours...and then what?

 
Kansas City Star:  Union Station Wi-Fi gets fiber backhaul, "courtesy" of Time Warner Cable.

Pardon me while I don't dance and shout at this news.  Read down a little further in the story and you'll see why:  If TWC's grubby hand is already in your pocket, you're welcome to all you can use.  Otherwise, it's two hours and then "see ya"-unless, of course, you've got room in that pocket for a nice grubby hand.

Gee, I'm sure that would have gone over nicely with everyone doing business down there had they been asked beforehand, which they probably weren't.  I mean, imagine being told something like "Unless your customers are already being divested of a nice chunk of their disposable income by Time Warner, we only see the need to give you two hours' worth of assistance in attracting and keeping them in hopes that you'll snag some of their disposable income."  Who'd have signed on with that?

Maybe someone ought to have asked Starbucks, McDonalds, Barnes and Noble, the Mid-Continent Public Library and a host of other entities that used to "partner" with AT&T in a similar rob-Peter-to-pay-Paul fashion how well that worked out for them. 

Some folks just don't-or won't-learn from experience-either their own or someone else's. 

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.