Where is the Wi-Fi?

Is hoping on an open wireless connection like siphoning gas out of a parked car?

What is going on in town that everyone is using the password protection on their wi-fi connection? It used to be, like two weeks ago, that everywhere you went, you fabulously encountered the Internet. Open Internet connections were ubiquitous.

And now, computer owners have decided that someone “borrowing” your connection is equivalent to your siphoning gas out of their car. This is enormously inconvenient and troublesome to those many many many of us who enjoyed this free wi-fi throughout the city.

There are two issues here -- one is, did I damage any of the people whose connections I rode? Two – if private citizens won’t share, when will the city step in and make wireless the city?

One can organize, or join an organization – nyc wireless.
http://www.nycwireless.net/articles

The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation has plans to install wi-fi in parks throughout New York over the next 3 years.

Already service exists in Bryant Park, Union Square, Stuyvesant Cove, Tompkins Square Park, and many areas in the Financial District and Battery Park including: World Financial Center, City Hall Park, Wall Street Park, Vietnam Veterans Plaza, Stone Street, Battery Park, Bowling Green, and at 60 Wall Street.

You can check this map for the location nearest you, or get lucky and stumble upon one.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/16/nyregion/16wifi.html?ex=1305432000&en=ecca166f048f3a8f&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Or you can head to Starbucks.

I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of iphone , which will end the search all together.

Cheers,

Navigating New York between November and the New Year

As if 8 million people living in a city weren’t enough, at the holiday season it feels like 8 million tourists clogging our thoroughfares as well. For every busy person, there is a dawdler.

And as if we didn’t have enough to do, and enough things to spend money on, now we have less time to work, more presents to purchase and the inconvenience of shopping for them all with these other 8 million New Yorkers and the 8 million visiting tourists.

So how do we manage and maintain a happy self? This is goal of these short days – the month between November 22 and December 22 when the daylight dwindles and the to do list escalates. If I had it all figured out, it wouldn’t be the fodder of my pondering. Here are the tactics I am exploring.

1. Exercise more. More endorphins and more calorie burning come in handy.
2. Walk. Street level traffic is just aggravating. Stay below ground and outside of the holiday attractions – 42nd – 59th streets, 6th avenue – Park.
3. Buy one great gift – not lots of smaller items. This is new for me. This will save me time – I’m hoping it also makes for great gift giving.
4. Wrap as you go – or have the gifts wrapped and shipped so you don’t have to wait or lug.
5. Give to someone who needs food on the table, not another cashmere scarf. Cutting back on the cashmere socks can enable both.
6. Commit random acts of kindness.
7. Tip generously.
8. Enjoy the one advantage of global warming – lovely winter weather.
9. Relax in the throngs of people – look at this beautiful city they are enthralled with.
10. Sing. It’s fun.