Coffee Shops taking out WiFi

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This comes as no big surprise to us WiFi users when we visit our regular coffee shops.  LA times reports that many coffee shops are taking free Wi-Fi off the menu to stimulate their sales.  

Sadly where I'm at there is a major lack in coffee shops that aren't Starbucks.  The good ones I knew of were in the SF bay area where they served good coffee and really good food in many cases.  

Speaking of Starbucks, since they've opened up free WiFi for everyone I've noticed a considerable decrease in the amount of bandwidth available to us regulars that used to enjoy decent T1 speeds.  So... I no longer go there and rely on their bandwidth - I actually use AT&T's 3G network a lot lately.

I see where the coffee shops are coming from, but those are definitely the ones that are losing my type of business.  

We'll see how this all plays out in the end.  It may be that some enterprising individual will have to create a nice chain of cybercafes that serve good finger foods.

12 hour blackout in Los Angeles area - cause? Trees.

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Yes you read that right.  Our power grid was brought down by trees.  The trees came in contact with the power lines and somehow shorted the system.  I knew this was coming when a few days ago I posted about how power outages are going to occur more frequently and to protect your equipment!

Well, my equipment was protected - it wasn't until the beeping started from my UPS systems that I realized there was an outage.  I would have kept some of my systems running the entire duration of the blackout (phone and internet service) except for the fact that I can't stand the annoying beep!

Next goal is to find a UPS system that's affordable with a beep that can be disabled with a switch or software configured.

 

As temperatures rise, power outages occur more frequently - protect your electronic equipment

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We just had a short blackout a few minutes ago that lasted maybe 5 minutes.  Earlier around 2 AM, we had another one.

Work wise on my computers and my VOIP systems, I wasn't phased.  Phone calls still came through on my Ooma.  I was still on my network tapping away.  It wasn't till my lights went out that I realized it was a complete blackout in the building.

Things could have been a lot worse though.

I could have lost all the work on the training video I'm working on all morning.

Get yourself a good UPS if you don't have one already.  Here are a few good ones: