Home › Forums › Open Discussion › Rant – where did the Internet cafes go?
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May 26, 2011 at 5:01 pm #599057
m3bodyworksMemberAs a small bsiness owner I like to get out of the office now and again and get coffee and work remotely. Oh but this place has wireless starting at 5. This place starts at noon. I love supporting my local establishments but you can’t have a business meeting at the smaller places!
I know c&p
Hotwire
Cupcake Royal
All have unlimited wireless. Are there any others? Excluding the chains please.
May 26, 2011 at 5:10 pm #725030
JiggersMemberThe truth is that they don’t want you to camp with your laptop for hours upon hours. A lot of people do that.
May 26, 2011 at 5:17 pm #725031
I WonderMemberPay the $20/month and use your own. Safer too.
May 26, 2011 at 5:24 pm #725032
datamuseParticipantAll SPL branches have wireless.
May 26, 2011 at 6:50 pm #725033
bebecatMemberhttp://www.ShantiSalonSpa.com in the Admiral District has wireless! You can get a pedicure, haircut or color and use your laptop at the same time!
May 26, 2011 at 6:59 pm #725034
ZenguyParticipantThe coffee industry seems to disagree about the camping all day thing. Several Starbucks (Olive Way for example) have been redone to resemble an independant coffee house and encourages people to surf, stay, drink coffee and are now serving beer, wine and appetizers in the evening.
May 26, 2011 at 9:24 pm #725035
SueParticipantWhen my husband used to work from home (which means coffee shops :) he used to work from Pioneer on Alki, Uptown in the Junction, Cafe Ladro, Coffee to a Tea and Diva Espresso (in addition to the ones you mentioned). However, this was a while ago, so their policies may have changed about access. And yes, I know some that I mentioned are technically chains, but some people differentiate from the Starbucks-size chains and the smaller chains, so I thought I’d put them out there anyway.
May 26, 2011 at 10:15 pm #725036
austinMemberLibraries have internet.
May 26, 2011 at 10:43 pm #725037
chrismaParticipantLibraries don’t have espresso and pastries, nor pleasant music. Also, librarians and patrons tend to get annoyed if you need to take or make a phone call or two while working. Not so much of an issue in the cafe, although the background noise can be a problem, as can the lack of privacy, depending on what you’re discussing.
Unfortunately, us telecommuters and work-from-homers have something in common with broke students who just might camp out all day in the internet cafe and only spend a few dollars. It’s a business consideration for these venues.
May 26, 2011 at 11:06 pm #725038
stinaParticipantCurrently surfing at Coffee to a Tea. As far as I know, they have no restrictions.
I’ve also used 3.14 in White Center and Bird on a Wire on 35th for meetings where I needed internet access.
May 26, 2011 at 11:12 pm #725039
KevinParticipantVirtual office sharing is a popular option these days. You rent a desk on a daily basis as needed, or in some cases even pay a monthly fee for a reserved desk.
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You could even rent a small office at Active Space (the big red building next to the WS Bridge) for just yourself, or with the intent of sharing with one or two other folks. The suites are wired for internet and phone, and you can bring in your own CD player and coffee machine, so depending on your usage could be more reasonable than hanging out at local coffee shops.
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Also, do a Google search on something like “daily shared office seattle” for lots of other local options.
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May 26, 2011 at 11:29 pm #725040
austinMemberThe downtown library has an espresso and pastry shop. Not as “hip” as sitting at starbucks with your laptop admittedly.
May 26, 2011 at 11:39 pm #725041
chrismaParticipant@austin To quote Dana Carvey impersonating Johnny Carson “I did not know that!”
However, sadly the downtown library is not located on our fair peninsula, and the parking is pretty tough (unless your on foot or bike).
May 27, 2011 at 12:16 am #725042
WSBKeymasterDiva has no restrictions. I was just there a couple days ago when I absolutely had to get out of HQ to finish a long complicated story that was way too overdue and required someplace kind of quiet. You could also try Café Rozella … last time I was there for a while, though, I used my own wi-fi so not sure about the quality of their signal.
May 27, 2011 at 12:54 am #725043
JiggersMemberI frequent Portland a lot now and they have wireless down because Intel is based there. You can almost hook up anywhere in Portland. Even waiting for the Max. Seattle is still behind in the Wi-Fi department like many other things. In Portland, you’re not feeled pressured into buying anything (at least to the half dozen spots I’ve been to) and most places says “Free Internet”. Very user-friendly. I used to sit in the dining room at The Rocksport when I needed to get on my laptop.
May 27, 2011 at 1:28 am #725044
chrismaParticipant@Jiggers: Well, Portland is where young people go to retire, and they have built a certain kind of utopia there.
Portland had planned a city wide municipal wi-fi system, but that never really materialized, and I doubt it will anytime soon with the recession and budget shortfalls.
In keeping with the overall civic minded hippie/anarchist spirit though, Portland residents and business owners seem to have built up their own “organic” network of “public” wi-fi.
May 27, 2011 at 2:16 am #725045
KenParticipantSee what is around you
http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/
Note SPL seems to only have net at the branches while they are open, but it extends well into the parking lot.
Mcdonalds has two flavors I think. AT&T was free when I tried it though they wanted the last 4 of my wireless acct number. This may no longer be required.
Also note a cheap 802.11 b/g usb adapter with a 6 ft cable and a wok frying tool (spyder?)create a surprisingly powerful directional transmitter/receiver.
May 28, 2011 at 2:52 am #725046
m3bodyworksMemberThank you all for the great suggestions. I totally forgot some of these places have wireless.
Michael @ M3
May 28, 2011 at 4:18 am #725047
Admiral935Participantakaik, Freshy’s has wifi at their cafe. I’m looking at de-comcasting my setup – the only holdback issue is the unsecure email over wifi.
May 28, 2011 at 5:41 am #725048
nighthawkParticipantDoes Barnes and Nobles at Westwood have wifi? I see a lot of people working on computers there, but it doesn’t necessarily mean they are online.
May 28, 2011 at 6:49 am #725049
chrismaParticipant@Admiral935: Unless your encrypting your messages before sending from your local machine, your connection to the internet (wi-fi or wired) is really irrelevant to the security of your email. SMTP does not use encryption and there are any number of servers between your message and it’s intended recipient, where your communication can be compromised (say hi to the NSA).
Using an open, public wi-fi may put you at greater risk of having a session sniffed and a login token hijacked, but there are a number of other ways for that to happen that don’t require the wi-fi at all.
I hope you’re using SSL to connect to your email server, and Https for webmail. I wouldn’t do any online banking at the cafe regardless, but does anyone really want to read your email? Script kiddies maybe, just because they can. But, if you really are sending messages that should not be read by strangers you should be using a VPN and/or encryption no matter where you connect (which still probably won’t stop the NSA from reading your email, but that’s another issue).
Some informational links:
May 28, 2011 at 6:51 am #725050
celeste17ParticipantBN at Westwood does have free wi-fi. I have sat out in there parking lot and got a good signal. Uptown doesn’t have free wi-fi during the day (only at night.
May 29, 2011 at 5:08 am #725051
librarianMemberRed Cup Espresso has WiFi.
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