As mentioned, I blogged the past several days while on vacation in Connecticut using the free wi-fi at Panera Bread
a fast growing national bakery/coffee/light food chain. Unlike
Starbucks and
Barnes and Noble who charge for wi-fi, Panera Bread offers it for free
at many of their stores,
and thus will be serious competition to any Starbucks it is near for
those of us who value wi-fi with our coffee! The atmosphere is
friendly, and the coffee and food excellent. (Update: I just discovered
they have 4 stores in LA, search for their Wifi locations here.)
On the way back, I used the free wi-fi at Hartford/Springfield airport
(Bradley Field) Having free wi-fi at an airport is certainly nice, however it
kept dropping out then re-connecting, which makes it problematic for
anything except web surfing and checking email. Bradley also loses points
for having loud and deeply annoying high pitched shrieks on the
people-mover carts in the terminals. There has to be a better way to
alert people a cart is coming than by continual high-pitched whines
that the entire terminal hears.
LAX still gets the Polizeros award for most Orwellian (and unceasing) warning announcements in the transportation pickup areas.
PS. To those in LA, don’t even think of trying to pickup passengers in a bus loading zone. It’s a near-instant $65 ticket.