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.
Friday, October 25, 2013
Friday, October 18, 2013
Then again, there are those who DON'T learn from experience.
Remember my last sojourn out to Independence Center, the results of which were described in this post from more than a couple of years back? If not, that's understandable. One of my more underwhelming experiences, to understate matters. Well, it just so happens I was out that way again earlier this evening and decided to stop in for a bit to see if things have changed.
Sorry to say, they haven't. OK, they've changed a little bit. The login page loads maybe once every three to five tries, and even if anyone is stupid enough to put his or her real name and e-mail address into it (why do they even ask?), he or she still doesn't go anywhere-even with both cookies and Javascript enabled.
Too bad. They've added a "charging station" with a couple of pairs of power outlets in the seating area just inside the 39th Street entrance on the upper level. It's a shame there's really not much use for them as things stand, except perhaps for smartphone, tablet or mobile hotspot users with a generous data plan.
Come on, people. This isn't something really hard like enrolling people for healthcare. Once again, I refer you to Crown Center. They make do without jumping customers through hoops. Why can't you?
Sorry to say, they haven't. OK, they've changed a little bit. The login page loads maybe once every three to five tries, and even if anyone is stupid enough to put his or her real name and e-mail address into it (why do they even ask?), he or she still doesn't go anywhere-even with both cookies and Javascript enabled.
Too bad. They've added a "charging station" with a couple of pairs of power outlets in the seating area just inside the 39th Street entrance on the upper level. It's a shame there's really not much use for them as things stand, except perhaps for smartphone, tablet or mobile hotspot users with a generous data plan.
Come on, people. This isn't something really hard like enrolling people for healthcare. Once again, I refer you to Crown Center. They make do without jumping customers through hoops. Why can't you?
Thursday, October 03, 2013
Eighth anniversary reflections
I'll have to admit to being a bit melancholy as I contemplate how different things are from how they were when I published this blog's first post this very evening in 2005. I'm sure part of that is simply due to Wi-Fi's having been something new and exciting around town in those days, whether it was free and open or not. Going months without posting, as I'm sure you've noticed I've done lately, was unthinkable then. Well, the world has kept turning, of course, and booting up a laptop or powering on a tablet or smartphone and finding you've got free Internet without wires doesn't provide the joyusly electrifying jolt to the psyche it once did.
And to be honest, my life has changed a bit since that night, too. I just don't get out as often as I did before I got broadband at home; in fact, I now work from home about half the time. Makes it a bit harder to keep up on where the latest local hotspots are popping up and whether or not they're play-for-pay, among other things.
I did drop in again at a local fast-food establishment previously reviewed here this past Monday, though (got to take advantage of the Chiefs' sudden resurgence and grab those buy-one-get-one-free burgers, you know), and what I saw there late in the afternoon could have been either a sign of success or maybe just a little sad, depending on your outlook. There was what I took to be a high-school student in the back hunched over a laptop and, I hope, digging into her homework, but even if she were simply tweeting or Facebooking the day away, so what? She was there and taking advantage of a local business' efforts to bridge the digital divide, and rewarding those efforts with her patronage. There was also, however, an older gentleman sitting up front, whom I passed on my way out. I really didn't pay too much attention to what was on his screen, but the presence of a cable lock securing his computer to the base of the table was somewhat disheartening. I pray that he was moved to this by caution rather than experience.
In addition, I'm sure it probably doesn't help that many of our recent posts have been of the look-at-what-some-criminal-used-Wi-Fi-to-do type, and while I'd like to thank Macenstein for those (and feel free to put up more of them, Mac, if you find them interesting), it's just that those seem to be the kind of stories about Wi-Fi that make the news these days. As an example, here's one from the Associated Press about how and where they caught the black-market drug website operator who's been in the headlines.
In the end, it really doesn't matter. Change is inevitable, and if the changes over the last eight years as well as those still to come mean fewer and less frequent posts, so be it. Thanks once again to you, the reader, and rest assured that we aren't going anywhere, so don't you either.
And to be honest, my life has changed a bit since that night, too. I just don't get out as often as I did before I got broadband at home; in fact, I now work from home about half the time. Makes it a bit harder to keep up on where the latest local hotspots are popping up and whether or not they're play-for-pay, among other things.
I did drop in again at a local fast-food establishment previously reviewed here this past Monday, though (got to take advantage of the Chiefs' sudden resurgence and grab those buy-one-get-one-free burgers, you know), and what I saw there late in the afternoon could have been either a sign of success or maybe just a little sad, depending on your outlook. There was what I took to be a high-school student in the back hunched over a laptop and, I hope, digging into her homework, but even if she were simply tweeting or Facebooking the day away, so what? She was there and taking advantage of a local business' efforts to bridge the digital divide, and rewarding those efforts with her patronage. There was also, however, an older gentleman sitting up front, whom I passed on my way out. I really didn't pay too much attention to what was on his screen, but the presence of a cable lock securing his computer to the base of the table was somewhat disheartening. I pray that he was moved to this by caution rather than experience.
In addition, I'm sure it probably doesn't help that many of our recent posts have been of the look-at-what-some-criminal-used-Wi-Fi-to-do type, and while I'd like to thank Macenstein for those (and feel free to put up more of them, Mac, if you find them interesting), it's just that those seem to be the kind of stories about Wi-Fi that make the news these days. As an example, here's one from the Associated Press about how and where they caught the black-market drug website operator who's been in the headlines.
In the end, it really doesn't matter. Change is inevitable, and if the changes over the last eight years as well as those still to come mean fewer and less frequent posts, so be it. Thanks once again to you, the reader, and rest assured that we aren't going anywhere, so don't you either.
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