5 ms·

If Internet access and a power outlet are what you need, pretty much any café or restaurant in any developed or developing country can take care of your needs t

by UVB-76 14y ago

If Internet access and a power outlet are what you need, pretty much any café or restaurant in any developed or developing country can take care of your needs these days.

new299 14y ago
This is not true. In Japan Starbucks is one of the few coffee shops chains that offer free wifi, and they only started doing that recently. Reasonable coffee is relatively thin on the ground in Japan as well, Starbucks is really the only chain you can go to and know you'll get a decent coffee. As far as I can tell they are the only coffee shops that are completely non-smoking too, which might be important to some people.
- keithpeter 14y ago
  Good points. In the UK, all cafes are non-smoking by law and many have wifi. I appreciate the US based nomad's desire for comfort (I once had to airmail Marmite and Typhoo tea to a friend working in Odessa) but would suggest trying some of the independents in the larger UK cities. Leaf in Liverpool and Yorks Bakery Cafe in Birmingham spring to mind.
  - new299 14y ago
    yep, there are more decent coffee shops in the UK, even so decent independents can be hard to find. There was an interesting blog post about Yelp a while back. He talked about how Starbucks and Yelp were trying to solve the same problem in different ways. Yelp's solution was to help you find something like your favourite coffee shops when away from home. Starbucks to build the same thing everywhere. :) I'm not sure I buy it, but it's an interesting way of thinking about it.
- seanmcdirmid 14y ago
  Starbucks has more competition across the straight in China, but not much. They are the only chain that opens "early" at 7AM, which is important if surface traffic gets bad at 7:30. Wifi is going downhill because of the Chinese government, but they seem to be backing away from the ridiculous "use your phone to login to wifi" access points. Now if only they would give us real Chai Tea Lattes, life would be perfect.
SunboX 14y ago
UVB-76, You never where in Germany, right? ;) caffes offer no wifi, if they do, it's expensive. And 3G only works well in bigger cities. That's bad :(
_delirium 14y ago
Availability varies quite a bit between countries. Take two adjacent European countries, Denmark and Germany. In Denmark, free wifi is ubiquitous, often without even a login needed. Coffee shops, restaurants, bars, libraries, trains, even city buses provide it. But in neighboring Germany, wifi is usually pay if available at all (and not cheap pay!), and the few places with free wifi will typically require you to get a code from the cashier when you purchase something.
- hatu 14y ago
  You have to ask for the code from the cashier? My god
  - supercoder 14y ago
    The Starbucks I've been to require a code for wifi.
- gojomo 14y ago
  I wish some ethnographer of technology would study this. What predisposes a region/culture towards open or closed wifi? Still, the answers might be simple. I recently stayed as an AirBnB guest in Berlin, and my host recounted receiving notice of a €1000 fine, due to some p2p TV episode downloading one of his previous guests may have done using his internet connection. He may have options to avoid responsibility, but the local presumptions seem against him... and just a few anecdotes like that could explain why now, in another part of Berlin, my laptop sees 20+ SSIDs, all locked down.
  - _delirium 14y ago
    The laws on liability do definitely differ. The situation is murky in many countries, but it's not in Germany, where operators of open wifi networks are clearly considered responsible for illegal activity that takes place on them: http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number8.10/wifi-case-germany-copyright-infringement http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number8.10/wifi-case-germany-co... In Denmark I believe there's no bright-line rule either way, but there is no automatic liability. In practice there haven't been high-profile rulings going against open network operators (at least, not yet) to scare people off. In Finland there is clear non-liability: http://boingboing.net/2012/05/14/finnish-court-open-wifi-owner.html http://boingboing.net/2012/05/14/finnish-court-open-wifi-own...

by UVB-76 14y ago

If Internet access and a power outlet are what you need, pretty much any café or restaurant in any developed or developing country can take care of your needs these days.

new299 14y ago

This is not true. In Japan Starbucks is one of the few coffee shops chains that offer free wifi, and they only started doing that recently. Reasonable coffee is relatively thin on the ground in Japan as well, Starbucks is really the only chain you can go to and know you'll get a decent coffee. As far as I can tell they are the only coffee shops that are completely non-smoking too, which might be important to some people.

keithpeter 14y ago
Good points. In the UK, all cafes are non-smoking by law and many have wifi. I appreciate the US based nomad's desire for comfort (I once had to airmail Marmite and Typhoo tea to a friend working in Odessa) but would suggest trying some of the independents in the larger UK cities. Leaf in Liverpool and Yorks Bakery Cafe in Birmingham spring to mind.
- new299 14y ago
  yep, there are more decent coffee shops in the UK, even so decent independents can be hard to find. There was an interesting blog post about Yelp a while back. He talked about how Starbucks and Yelp were trying to solve the same problem in different ways. Yelp's solution was to help you find something like your favourite coffee shops when away from home. Starbucks to build the same thing everywhere. :) I'm not sure I buy it, but it's an interesting way of thinking about it.
seanmcdirmid 14y ago
Starbucks has more competition across the straight in China, but not much. They are the only chain that opens "early" at 7AM, which is important if surface traffic gets bad at 7:30. Wifi is going downhill because of the Chinese government, but they seem to be backing away from the ridiculous "use your phone to login to wifi" access points. Now if only they would give us real Chai Tea Lattes, life would be perfect.

SunboX 14y ago

UVB-76, You never where in Germany, right? ;) caffes offer no wifi, if they do, it's expensive. And 3G only works well in bigger cities. That's bad :(

_delirium 14y ago

Availability varies quite a bit between countries. Take two adjacent European countries, Denmark and Germany. In Denmark, free wifi is ubiquitous, often without even a login needed. Coffee shops, restaurants, bars, libraries, trains, even city buses provide it. But in neighboring Germany, wifi is usually pay if available at all (and not cheap pay!), and the few places with free wifi will typically require you to get a code from the cashier when you purchase something.

hatu 14y ago
You have to ask for the code from the cashier? My god
- supercoder 14y ago
  The Starbucks I've been to require a code for wifi.
gojomo 14y ago
I wish some ethnographer of technology would study this. What predisposes a region/culture towards open or closed wifi? Still, the answers might be simple. I recently stayed as an AirBnB guest in Berlin, and my host recounted receiving notice of a €1000 fine, due to some p2p TV episode downloading one of his previous guests may have done using his internet connection. He may have options to avoid responsibility, but the local presumptions seem against him... and just a few anecdotes like that could explain why now, in another part of Berlin, my laptop sees 20+ SSIDs, all locked down.
- _delirium 14y ago
  The laws on liability do definitely differ. The situation is murky in many countries, but it's not in Germany, where operators of open wifi networks are clearly considered responsible for illegal activity that takes place on them: http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number8.10/wifi-case-germany-copyright-infringement http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number8.10/wifi-case-germany-co... In Denmark I believe there's no bright-line rule either way, but there is no automatic liability. In practice there haven't been high-profile rulings going against open network operators (at least, not yet) to scare people off. In Finland there is clear non-liability: http://boingboing.net/2012/05/14/finnish-court-open-wifi-owner.html http://boingboing.net/2012/05/14/finnish-court-open-wifi-own...