Yes I’ve definitely let this blog slide, but I just came across something that is truly revolutionary for the cafe commuter. It’s a hand held, 2 AAA battery powered, directional, wireless network detector with an lcd displaying network SSID (name), strength and whether or not it is open or not: Canary Wireless Digital Hotspotter

This is the second version of this product. It provides more information about hotspots and has a backlight for the lcd display. I’m glad I didn’t know about the earlier version since I probably would have bought it but now I’ll get to start out with the new and improved gadget.

Now I’m not advocating using any network you find, though on the other hand I don’t believe it is actually illegal, and not necessarily immoral either, I’ll leave it up to the reader to make up their own mind. What I’m excited about is that this sure as hell beats searching for internet cafes on line. Now you can just walk down the street or ride your bike and bother locking up until you find some place with an open network. I might just mount it to my handlebars and/or devise a water resistant case for it!

There are tons of reviews already. The one that turned me on to it was published on my birthday, my lucky day! Wi-Fi Net News

What’s so great about the Shure E3c earphones? Well they sound great for one. A lot better than those buds that came with your iPod. How much better? 10 times? I don’t know but definitely way better, near audiophile quality. Before purchasing them I read a number of reviews comparing them to earphones from Shure and other manufacturers and many of them claimed that this model sounds better than many others costing more, including even higher end models from Shure. I haven’t had the opportunity to do any side by comparisons myself so I can’t vouch for those conclusions. I can say they just sound really nice however.

The other reason I like them so much is that they are very effective at blocking out ambient noise. If you try to use your iPod on a New York City subway with the stock earbuds you’ll need to turn them up to an ear splitting volume level just to hear even a little detail in your music. With these babies you can really get into your tunes without blowing out your eardrums. This also makes them perfect for listening to your own music while you’re out working at a cafe. There are a number of headphones available these days with active noise cancellation circuitry but who needs that when you can use simple earphones that physically block out other sounds.

How does it block noise so effectively? Well this part may be a deal breaker for some people. The thing is you have to stick them inside your ear canals, just like you would with any kind of earplugs. At first it may feel pretty weird and uncomfortable. It’s definitely a feeling of penetration which some people may find icky to say the least. But when you get used them there’s no going back! If you’re already used to earplugs then there shouldn’t be any problem. If not you’ll need to get to know the alignment of your ear canals. They are not perpendicular to the side of your head as you would normally assume.

So here’s what might be the best part, and what I’m so thankful for. They come with a 2 year warranty which normally covers defects and anything you could blame on the manufacturer. In practice however the coverage extends way beyond that. I accidentally stepped on the left earphone crushing the housing and making it unusable. Nobody’s fault but my own. I sent it back to Shure anyway hoping they wouldn’t charge me too much to replace the housing since the driver inside it was still working. Just over a week later I got a package in the mail with a brand new set of E3c’s at absolutely no charge! I’ve found reviews elsewhere on the web where people have had similar experiences. I guess this is what you get when you deal with a very customer service oriented company. And so thanks again to Shure for fixing my dumb mistake for free. I wish more manufacturers were as nice…

Today was the first day I was able to do some real work in the park, Brooklyn’s Prospect Park that is, and I must say it was pretty nice: watching people with their kids and dogs, hearing the breeze in the branches, feeling the sunshine on my shoulder, feeling like John Denver (well not exactly).

The 2 biggest drawbacks were the upload speed, which I’ll complain about (nicely) and the glare on the glossy screen of my MacBook. Coincidentally I received a 3M privacy filter that I had ordered from Amazon.com today and was pretty disappointed to find that the dimensions did not fit my screen at all even though it is supposed to be for 13.3″ laptops. I just found another one from ViewGuard that’s even more expensive but seems to be made specifically for 13.3″ wide screens and glare reduction.

As another coincidence the Lifehacker blog today has a post about an anti-glare hood for using laptops outside. I’m not sure if I would want to use that thing, it looks kind of weird, but if it works and eliminates 100% of glare then what the heck!

I should mention that while the glare was pretty annoying it did not make it impossible to use the laptop. I was there for only 2 hours, any longer would have been unbearable. The problem wasn’t so much from over head sunlight but from reflections of objects facing the screen, mostly me. The fact that I was wearing all black with long sleeves made the situation a lot better than it would have been otherwise though I couldn’t really angle the screen in a way that would only reflect my upper body and none of the sky behind me. These observations lead me to believe that something to cut the reflectivity of the screen like a glare filter would be more useful to me than a hood to shade it from over head light.

Other must-haves while working outside in the park are the already mentioned external battery from Batterygeek.net and the Kennsinton cable lock. There are no outlets in the park, and this is Brooklyn after all… I don’t want anybody to be tempted to snatch my Mac while I’m using it out in the open!

I have recently found 2 products that have helped me to significantly extend the time I am able to work with my laptop away from any AC power outlet.

The first is an external battery from BatteryGeek.net. When choosing an external battery you need to find one that is compatible with your laptop, with suitable voltage and adapters. Luckily the nice people at BatteryGeek will evaluate your power needs and give you a free ‘battery audit’ listing which of their models will work for your particular situation. If you want to power other portable devices with the battery that’s not a problem either.

The next thing to consider is the number of Watt Hours. Basically more is better. Their top of the line models boast 140 WH, while the one I purchase is rated at 130 WH. Considering that the internal battery in MacBook is only rated at 50 WH this should extend my work time considerably! I got the BG 19-24-130 since it was on sale for $170. They tell me it has been discontinued and when the stock runs out you’ll have to choose among the more expensive models.

The other product is an application for the MacBook called CoolBook which allows you to under-clock the Intel Core Duo processor which not only extends your battery life, it also lets the machine run a bit cooler. Basically this let’s me run my 2.0 GHz processor at only 1.0 GHz with a correspondingly lower voltage. Before installing CoolBook my typical internal battery life was 3 hours, but now I can usually get around 4! And at only $10 this is great little piece of shareware. Of course you need to be aware that under-clocking your CPU will cause heavier applications to run slowly, so I wouldn’t use this if you’re going to be editing audio or video.

There must be some way for PC laptop users to under-clock as well. I think it might depend on the BIOS. If you have any ideas feel free to post them in the comments.

Of course this stuff about under-clocking may sound extremely technical and the settings aren’t necessarily that intuitive, but I can assure you it’s worth the effort to extend your battery, keep your laptop cooler and let your fan(s) run more quietly, though if technical stuff scares you it’s probably best to just leave it alone then. The external battery will extend your work time a lot longer, though for a lot more money. For me the best solution is to use both. I haven’t looked for an AC outlet at a cafe for a few months now!

I finally came across the whole coworking concept thanks to this Business Week article. There is even a coworking wiki that describes the concept as “start with a shared office and add cafe culture”. This sounds great though I think I’d prefer to start with cafe culture and make it a bit more like a shared office as suggested by Factory City.

The closest coworking venue to where I live requires a monthly commitment and security deposit. I like to be more spontaneous than that, though I’ve read that there are venues in other cities that offer space for $10 a day. Of course if I did commit to a coworking venue then maybe I could afford to move to a more trendy neighborhood and just rent a bedroom in a shared apartment since I wouldn’t need as much space without having a home office and there would be no question about what percentage of my home I’m using as an office when it come to income tax deductions. On the other hand I might miss the bike ride from my hood to the trendy neighborhood where the cool internet cafes are. I’ve got to get some exercise somehow…

From WorldatWork’s Telework Trendlines for 2006:

Public park wifi seems like a great trend for cafe commuters. I can’t wait to try the new free outdoor wifi in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park once the weather warms up!

Here are a few articles about laptops getting stolen out of cafes in San Francisco, sometimes while the owner is still using it!

Laptop thieves descend upon wireless cafes

Getting over laptop loss

Life is worth more than laptop

I don’t know if this is due to an extra high frequency of public laptop use in the Bay Area or what. Here in New York the common thieves have been known to be among the most cunning and opportunistic in the nation but we don’t seem to have quite as much of a problem. I’ve left my laptop unattended many times at Brooklyn cafes while going to the restroom. It just doesn’t feel like much of a risk though after reading these articles I’m going to start using my Kensington cable lock religiously just in case. Of course I’d never use my laptop in Manhattan without the lock, it’s a mad house over there!

I found a great article from last year in Ars Technica about working in cafes. The last paragraph summarizes things nicely:

Personal experience suggests that most laptop users who work at coffee shops don’t do so because they are too cheap to rent an office. No, people whose work involves the solitary punching of laptop keys enjoy being around other people, and coffee shops and cafes provide a comfortable and inexpensive environment where one can feel less isolated while working. Looked at in this way, the “WiFi wars” are less over Internet access and more about the type of jobs that we do—jobs that require little human interaction but do require the constant tether of a network connection.

Ars Technica article

I found this post at Web Worker Daily that sparked a very interesting discussion about whether or not it’s appropriate to do your work at an internet cafe.

There are quite a range of opinions with the opposite ends of the spectrum represented on the one hand by this comment:

How hopeless! You go to the cafes to relax and chat. Not effing work and tap away on your damn laptop.

and on the other hand by this:

Disagreeing with most comments on this — cafes like this are a “third space” for many of us. Not work, not home, but public yet available for working/surfing. One is “alone together”, which is often a very productive position indeed.
Many people feel more able to work with the background noise that comes from being in a public place, yet none of the folks around you are cow-orkers who will interrupt. Plus there is coffee. Bliss.

That’s my idea of bliss also, if you throw in a full kitchen with table service!

…due to pending legal action by the RIAA?

If the judge rules that we’re each legally responsible for all of the traffic that comes through our ISP account, open, unprotected Wi-Fi hotspots would become a serious legal liability, the hundreds of thousands (millions?) of people who depend on their neighbors for Wi-Fi will be out of luck, while altruistic (or ignorant) folks who leave their wireless networks open could find themselves embroiled in an RIAA lawsuits even if they’ve never shared a single song in their lives.

Wired.com blog post