This is Alpha, the first-born, when he was 2YO.
This is Beta, the second-born, when he was about 2YO.
This is Gamma, the third-born, when he was about 18MO.
Depends on the Definition of Free
Apr
22
2008
Staying at a touristy/vacationy-type place, I was in search of a good wireless internet connection. I was not expecting anything, but a strong Wi-Fi signal appeared – a pleasant surprise. And it was unencrypted! So I connected to it and fired up my browser of choice (Opera), and saw a welcome screen for the pay-per-use internet service. Foiled again! The reason I am writing about it is that the name of the service is Connect Freely. I thought the name choice was rather ironic. They mean free as in hassle-free, not cost-free. I would rather have a little bit of hassle with no cost.
“but you shall freely open your hand to him, and shall generously lend him sufficient for his need {in} whatever he lacks.”
– Deuteronomy 15:8
This little article thingy was written by Some Guy sometime around 11:39 am and has been carefully placed in the Marketing category.
April 22nd, 2008 at 9:42 pm
I’m actually a little bit surprised now when places insist on charging for internet. It was normal five years ago, but wireless is becoming pretty standard, and there are enough places offering it for free that the places that still charge are starting to stick out. If I’m choosing a business — be it a hotel or a coffeeshop — there are many times I will factor in their wireless offering; if I see a Starbucks and a Beaner’s (or Biggby’s, I think it’s called now) next to each other, as in downtown Ann Arbor, I will actually go to Beaner’s because they offer free wireless. Even if I’m not going to use the wireless, I want to support Beaner’s because they’ve made what I believe to be the right choice when it comes to wireless.
April 23rd, 2008 at 12:34 am
I should note that some places go halfway with internet. I took my laptop into a Caribou Coffee in Ann Arbor and checked on the internet connection (which I thought wasn’t free, but I couldn’t remember), and it turned out that it was free … sort of. I could have the internet for free, but only for a certain amount of time per day — I think it was something like 20 or 30 minutes. For a coffeeshop, that’s actually not bad; that’s really how much I’d use it during a typical visit to a coffeeshop. But still, given a choice, I’ll usually support the establishments that offer free wireless without such restrictions.
One other important point: if you’re going to use an establishment’s free wireless, support the business. Don’t just go in and use the internet; buy something while you’re there.