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Coffee shops are taking Wi-Fi off the menu
- dotcoma 16y agodrink more fuckin' coffee instead of masturbating with twitter
- ScottWhigham 16y agolol - I loved this comment but I'm clearly in the minority.
- jpeterson 16y agoReddit is that way --->
- Raphael 16y agoI wasn't aware of any particular spatial orientation for websites.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- drivebyacct2 16y agoOh come on, that comment wouldn't even fly on reddit. :/
- drivebyacct2 16y agoWoooo! My comment got killed! Because this sarcastic, snarky comment is surely better than one that remarks that even the parent comment was too stupid and inane to be popular on reddit. Thanks for the downvotes; really quite warranted here. Yipee! Now this one's been buried! If I'm lucky, I'll get my account killed for having a couple of comments that are in the minority opinion. Fortunately I know which direction reddit is! Ha
- dotcoma 16y agoLess of a Nazi culture of suppressing views against the mainstream over there?
- derefr 16y agoI don't think it matters much—everyone who cares about mobile net access now has a 3G connection somewhere on their person, either directly in their browsing device or tethered to it.
- NathanKP 16y agoHowever, removing the power plugs will matter slightly. Running on batteries my Macbook can only get about four hours of browsing time at 50% screen brightness. Taking away the power plugs will keep people from camping out in the coffee shops all day long.
- aaronbrethorst 16y agoSo charge the freeloaders $30 or $40 a month for unfettered wifi access. Everyone wins. I don't get it... Seriously, I can't imagine it would be a ton of work to set up a RADIUS-type server that would limit a given MAC address to an hour of access per day (I'm sure some products like Meraki's already have this or something similar). If the user wants to squeeze more time out of the wifi, they have to pony up. I'm totally one of the people described in this article, except that I'm doing it in Seattle. If the cafe I went to every day wanted to charge me for taking up a seat for hours at a time, I'd happily pay them a monthly fee. It's cheaper than getting an office or joining a coworking space, after all.
- megablast 16y agoYou are correct. Why aren't coffee shop owners programming their own servers and setting up firewalls, can't be that different to making a coffee, or serving a cake? Sure, your idea might work, but the cafe owners aren't aware of that, or don't want to outlay more money. Much easier to go back to the old way of doing things. Hey, maybe this could be a business for someone, go around offering your service to help these guys out.
- dangoldin 16y agoI see a startup in the making. Providing the simple hardware/software for anyone who wants to set up wifi access.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- jakarta 16y agoI actually prefer to work in libraries. Sometimes coffee shops are just too loud and the facilities at libraries are better. For example, the NY SIBL has Aeron chairs and free wifi! Plus there is a starbucks next door for you to buy coffee from. What's not to love about that?
- NathanKP 16y agoI also find libraries to have some of the best internet bandwidth, although a few have had an arbitrarily low bandwidth limit. I also like the quiet atmosphere, perfect for working on code.
- tengkahwee 16y agoThis reminds me, I stay in Singapore and there's this policy in all libraries (we only have state libraries) that you have to read something when in the library to sit at a table. I've been chased out for doing work there for that reason.
- elai 16y agoSo if you have an open book beside your laptop that you don't look at that much or even are working on math homework you'll be chased out?
- imajes 16y agowhere is that?
- jakarta 16y ago34th & Madison Ave http://maps.google.com/maps?um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=new+york+sibl&fb=1&gl=us&hq=sibl&hnear=New+York,+NY&cid=0,0,9090110806305455606&ei=qGpfTKHIMIG88ga--Ny0DQ&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=image&resnum=2&ved=0CCIQnwIwAQ http://maps.google.com/maps?um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=new+york...
- fmora 16y agoIf they added coffee shops in libraries and made it a more social place I would be so there. I go to coffee shops or Barnes & Noble for the atmosphere. People humming around me, having their conversations, laughing with their friends, really helps me to concentrate on my work. Right now libraries are just plain depressing. They should probably stake out a section just for people to sit down to read their books along with their coffee and another section for those that want/need 100% quiet. Right now you would have to put a gun on my head for me to even come close to one. No offense to you or anybody who likes libraries but in my mind going to a library is equal to being old and decrepit and devoid of any passion. It kind of makes me glad that libraries are dying.
- LarrySDonald 16y agoI can see where free wifi could be a drain on resources. If someone wants to rent an air conditioned/heated cubicle space with a 300w power and open wifi for $2/5 hours.. go for it. I can't quite see the economics in that, but I'm sure prices vary. If people use it like an average human (read the boards/news, check email, surf a bit while having your morning coffee) it's great. When some are turning it into a much more pricey proposition a lot of customers won't want to pay $7-$10 for the coffee you have to charge when they weren't going to sit there all day anyway. Libraries rock for this, which is also incidentally what they are for - free info, silence and breathing room to those who can't set it up themselves.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- fmora 16y agoI do this from time to time, i.e. camp out at a barnes & noble bookstore for more than 6 hours. Once I was even there around 9 hours. Don't really care for wifi but I do need the power plugs. However, if they were to remove that then I would probably just carry a portable power supply in my back pack or extra set of computer batteries. Two would suffice for me. My problem would be though if they actually kicked me out. At least I do have a backup, Borders is right next to Barnes & Nobles. Although Borders is not doing so great financially so it may not be a backup for long. I wonder if it will have a negative effect in the long run if they become hostile to people that just love to hang out there. Who knows, it may just be a necessary evil.
- ben1040 16y agoA coffee shop I use gives you an hour of internet access with any purchase. They have a router with an attached thermal printer. The clerk hits a button, and prints a receipt with a password that lets you on for exactly one hour from then. I see no problem at all with this. At the very worst, you're paying a couple bucks for internet access and getting a free cup of coffee or muffin out of it. If you're going to spend four hours there, I don't think it's asking too much for you to make a purchase every hour or so.
- mikeyur 16y agoI feel guilty if I don't buy something at least once an hour. I've had lunch with the President of a fair-sized coffee franchise in Canada and his stores give you a 1hr code with your purchase, but after that you can just go up and ask for codes each time they expire. He said 80-90% of people feel guilty and fork up another $3-5 for a drink/snack when they ask for a new WiFi code. Other interesting tidbit: coffee sales are down a lot compared with tea (which also has higher margins). So if you run a coffee shop, a good way to distinguish yourself is to carry a wide variety of teas.
- hakl 16y agoI've noticed that you can get tea that's not horrible a lot of places now. I wonder if that's cause or effect (or both).
- c1sc0 16y agoTea is hot right now, no pun intended. A few months ago I did a bit of market research for doing a tea-based startup. If anyone wants to do it, there's money to be made by simply blogging about exotic niche tea products, especially because most people drink absolutely garbage tea: there's room for education here.
- nostromo 16y ago3G iPad to the rescue! I actually have been using the iPad in coffee shops to catch up on email or read a technical PDF and have found that it's a much better feel than taking up a whole table with a big keyboard and looking for an outlet. Of course for programming and the like I still need to be home with a real machine.
- MartinCron 16y agoA subject near and dear to my heart. I'm in Seattle, the coffee capital of the country. I've created a very comprehensive photo collection of paper cups from indie coffee shops ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/martincron/sets/721576066520024 http://www.flickr.com/photos/martincron/sets/721576066520024 ) and recently, I've found that I just can't bring myself to work from coffee shops anymore. I tried for a few months to spend one day every week working away from my office, just to shake things up and to get some uninterrupted programming time. I just don't like the feeling of being some kind of freeloader. I never felt right working through the entire day at one shop, so I would hit up one shop in the morning, have lunch, and then go to another. After a while, ordering beverages felt like a chore. Another americano? Bleh. Mint tea? Meh, I guess so. The other part is that there's value to the whole "third place" concept; where home is place #1, work is place #2, and community is place #3. If you work from a coffee shop, it makes it harder to actually relax and enjoy the coffee shop later. Also, it's harder to actually relax and enjoy the coffee shop when it's filled with people on their laptops all day. There are a handful of places I don't bother going to because it's so difficult to find a place to sit (Greelake Zoka, for example). What I really want to do is find a good co-working space to be my "second place". I signed up at one last month, but they kind of fell apart. Any Seattle area HN folks have experience with local co-working spaces?
- aaronbrethorst 16y agoI work at 15th Ave Coffee and Tea during the day (it's the original Crypto-Starbucks in Capitol Hill) and Liberty during the evening. Actually, I'm sitting at Liberty right now while I wait for Xcode to deploy an iPhone app to my phone. You should check out Liberty: couches, free wifi, sushi and great cocktails. You'll suffer diminishing returns on work, but it's still worth it :) Back to your question, have you tried Office Nomads? A good friend of mine has a 'resident' membership there and loves it to death. I'm considering trying it out this week.
- MartinCron 16y agoI'm going to be trying Office Nomads, probably next month. I like the idea of setting up as a resident, but I'm having trouble justifying the expense.
- jacobbijani 16y agoAnd all the places that never bothered installing routers in the first place rejoice as they look progressive.
- elai 16y agoAirports that limit wifi access are really annoying (like the one in kuala lumpur at KLIA for 2 hours), especially when you have a long lay over.
- johnwatson11218 16y agoIt seems like starbucks just reversed this. I used to have to use a registered starbucks cards and was supposed to only get 1 hour a day ( it never cut me off though). However recently I noticed that all the starbucks in my area have gone to free wifi. Just accept the terms and conditions and you're set.
- aaronbrethorst 16y agothis was big news a few weeks back: starbucks went free wifi nationwide.
- matwood 16y agoYeah, they just made that change a month or two ago. I'm going to guess that they figured out they were losing business to either smaller chains or mom and pop stores who were offering free internet.
- vl 16y agoYep, I stopped going to Starbucks because coffee shop block away has free WiFi.
- matwood 16y agoI know the owner of the local coffee shop I go to. His internet is locked, but he gives out the code to any customer who asks. I've talked to him before about giving away internet and he didn't seem to think it was a big deal. As long as he has people in his store he's happy because they will eventually buy something. He also has book readings on the weekends and recently started staying open later hoping to catch kids who need to study now that school is cranking back up. Last time I talked to him he said the night time thing was doing better than he expected. He is a bit more expensive than the chains, but his coffee also doesn't taste like crap :)