It's like cruising for sex for geeks.

February 5, 2004 10:12 AM

Catch some waves...for free! Wi-Fi Freespot will help. Via my roommate's co-workers, who keep sending this round e-mail circuits. I don't know why they include me. I hate technology.
posted by WolfDaddy (7 comments total)

This sounds great. I've been waiting for broader wi-fi saturation before getting a card for my laptop. Things are looking good for San Francisco.

I wonder what the implications are for "liability" as regards what goes on through these connections. What if someone sitting in Jammin' Java is serving 10,000 mp3s? If that IP is snagged in an RIAA sweep, who is responsible? One the one hand you could say that nobody is, but because courts tend to not like that answer, I see a test case in the near future that results in a lot of free networks getting secured.

Does anyone know of such a case?
posted by squirrel at 10:29 AM on February 5, 2004

Another, and perhaps more immediate, example would be if someone were to send something threatening to the President over such a connection. Assuming that the e-mail address was appropriately anonymous and untraceable -- created on Hotmail at the same time in the same free-floating wifi haze, let's say -- would the Secret Service so happily just give up?
posted by blueshammer at 10:47 AM on February 5, 2004

In reality, it would be a tad difficult in most places to serve tons of mp3s. Most of these connections are, relatively, not that fast. Anyone who has moved large amounts of binary data over wireless can attest to that.


They are great for checking email, or even doing some research. But the file transfer speeds leave something to be desired.
posted by Localemperor at 11:03 AM on February 5, 2004

I've actually used this, but unfortunately it wasn't nearly as helpful as I hoped (in Columbus OH and Scottsdale AZ). Especially since, on the road, you can't search the site unless you've got Internet access already -- bit of a catch-22, that.
posted by me3dia at 11:52 AM on February 5, 2004

here is a well known case
posted by knutmo at 1:11 PM on February 5, 2004

Great. Every blinking Panera Bread in Illnois except the one in my town apparently has WiFi...
posted by Samizdata at 12:01 AM on February 6, 2004

Especially since, on the road, you can't search the site unless you've got Internet access

Exactly. I've seen these kind of wifi access sites floating around for awhile now, and I think that's been one of the biggest limitations that's kept such a service from being actually useful. That and having to worry about whether or not the access points listed are still there and active etc. If someone were able to provide an 800 number that allows people to search the database over Voice XML or something, then I think it would have a decent chance of becoming a pretty useful service.
posted by lpqboy at 2:53 PM on February 6, 2004