"A friendly little coffee shop, with no coffee, and no shop."
 

Yeah, well I'm in a coffee shop, mooching off an 802.11b network somebody a few shops over has been so kind as to leave open.

Beats working at home, esp cuz my A/C is broken -- it's 90degF in my house! My cats have by now melted into furry little puddles...

802.11b is one of the greatest innovations in a long, long time. My home I love wireless networking.

No A/C needed today. It's currently 82 degrees on Independence Mall...bright and sunny, with 27% humidity. :cool:

(Sorry Sludge. ;) )

What the fuck am I at work for? Oh yeah...I forgot...

Actually, today is a <b>BEAUTIFUL</b> day here. Probably 80 out, a light breeze, low humidity. Lemme check Dulles' weather...

81 in Fairfax, 39 percent humdity, 13mph winds gusting to 21mph.

I didn't want to come to work this morning. It must have been 75 when I got in the car at 9AM. It was a perfect day for a hammock.

Man, I wish I was in Aptos. 68 outside. Nice.

<b><a href="http://www.austin360.com/statesman/editions/today/business_1.html">Free wireless at Schlotzsky's</a></b>

Many of you might (probably..?) don't know what Schlotzky's is, but it's been a grand place ever since they set up free internet access for all in most restaurants. ...and they have great sandwiches.

Man, that's a great idea. I'd definitely be more apt to go to a particular restaurant for lunch if I could sit and check email or whatever too. I hope this idea catches on.

Man, you didn't tell the whole story! They're putting up 4-foot antennas so anyone within a 1-mile range has free access! How cool would it be to live within a mile of any Schlotzsky's and have permanent free access??

Says it'll cost 'em $4000 per store plus another $800 a month. Will this really bring in $800 of business each month, or will people simply sit in McDonald's next door and mooch the bandwidth? I thought the days of companies giving away stuff for free were over..

But how long will it *be* free? Too Cheap To Meter by Simpson Garfinkle

This is only in 10 of their Austin, Texas stores.

I knew it was too good to be true. Nothing exciting ever happens in Arkansas.

"Schlotzsky's expects to wire 10 of its Austin restaurants in the next week. Eventually the company hopes to roll out the service at its 650 stores nationally."

Of course, they may realize it's not worth it before they get to the rest of their 640 stores!

In every market they do this they will benefit by positive media attention and viral marketing that couldn't be bought for many times that cost.

Well, they do make a mighty fine sandwich.

Yeah, I'm a big fan of filet-o-fish, but I always scrape off most of the tartar sauce.

Or were you talking about Schlotzsky's?

I meant Schlotzky's, although I do like the McChicken sandwich. :)

Just an FYI, it's Schlotz<b>s</b>ky's. :)

Thank you spelling police. ;)

Wireless Menu
 

I'm looking forward to ordering the wireless Heart of Palm™ Salad online.

Well, the A/C is fixed, blowing cold air again. The house is down to 82F and the cats have begun to re-congeal. Gonna haveta keep going to the coffee shop from time to time, though, cuz I made a friend or two there. :)

Hmm, somehow I can't see hanging out in a Schlotzsky's...

That's Schlotzsssssky's for some of you.

A cute anecdote:

In 1996, my father suffered a series of major heart attacks. (To the surprise of all involved, he survived open-heart surgery and is doing all right today -- I just got back from a week's vacation with him at the beach.) On day five of the ordeal, he was transferred to Bryn Mawr Hospital for the surgery.

I was, as you might expect, a tightly-wound bundle of nerves that day in the waiting room. I read and reread every magazine in the room eight times, wore a track in the rug pacing around, and found that nothing could distract me from the worries at hand... except the tempting-looking sandwich being eaten by a woman sitting across from me.

Finally, I just _had_ to break into her conversation to ask: "WHERE did that come from?" It was Schlotzsky's Deli, up the street. Their BBQ Chicken Pizza was even better.

Sadly, that Schlotzsky's has since closed up, and according to their web site, the remaining locations closest to West Chester are in New York City and Washington, D.C., both just over 100 miles away. That's a long drive for a sandwich.

(Sort of like how I'd have to drive to suburban Baltimore-Washington to find a Hard Times Cafe. The bastards opened a location in Raleigh AFTER I'd left there for good post-college. Finding good chili near Philly is nearly impossible.)

A second Philly anecdote, from the same afternoon: I got the news that my father had survived the surgery and was bubble-wrapped in Intensive Care, and I stumbled out to my car. I flipped on the radio, and caught the tail end of the John DeBella show on WYSP, just as one of their trademark end-of-week songs came on -- a charming little ditty called "F--k Everybody" by Chain of Fools.

All of the tension of the day spontaneously collapsed, as I doubled over laughing. It was a perfectly absurd capper to my day.

I emailed DeBella at his web site, describing the incident and thanking him for the entertainment, and was greeted by a response of "What's your address? We'll send it to you." A few days later, a cassette-single popped up in my mailbox.

And, thus, I have a permanent soft spot on my radio dial for DeBella, whichever station he may land on.

(The song is <a href=http://jdbshow.com/audio.html>out there,</a>though I'm looking for an .asf->anything else converter.)

vsp, DeBella is now on WMGK, I believe. They just had a story on him in the Weekly a few weeks back.

its my experience that its damn near impossible to find good chili anywhere. only place ive ever had good chili is when someone makes it from scratch (and even that is no guarantee). not me tho, my chili sucks.

~james

I have had some goooooood chili, but yes, it's always homemade.

Here's a little trick I learned from a friend's mom.

Take your really tasty chili and add

- Cooler Ranch Doritos (ground)
- Sour cream
- plenty of shredded cheese

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood.

i think my childhood was ruined when i saw my dad adding brown mustard to his chili. secret ingredient my ass. still good tho. one of my old coworkers made this fantastic chili that had a damn near perfect taste. then just about the time youre finishing the first bite, the fire kicks in. it wasnt a meal, it was an experience.

~james

Well, of course homemade chili can be good. Homemade ANYTHING can be good. The trick is to find good chili where you're not the chef. ;)

For a chain, Hard Times Cafe is pretty good, if you happen to visit the Washington 'burbs. I've never been to Cincinnati, so I cannot comment on the likes of Skyline.

One of my favorite chili recipes came from <a href=http://www.waider.ie/misc/recipes.pdf>Garnish With Beak</a>, the talk.bizarre cookbook. Mark-Jason Dominus's "Chiladelphia" uses real peppers instead of salt-heavy chili powder, can be easily modified, and is part of a cookbook that includes a recipe for a RICHH sandwich. How can you go wrong?

That's like McDonald's trying to pass off Thousand Island dressing as its secret sauce. :)

well, yeah, but i think they add relish to it, so that makes it really special or something.

Starbucks is now doing free 'net access as well (though there is a bit of a catch). In looking at the locator, it's already available in many of the Philadelphia shops.

Great stuff. Armed with the appropriate wireless hacking tools, this provides many opportunities to anonymously inject stuff onto the net.