I will not become a Luddite, I will not become a Luddite, I will not . . . [From my "Techsploration" blog]

As has been mentioned elsewhere, I've been busy helping Rob developing his multimedia products, so I've been a tad busy lately. Yesterday (Tuesday) & today, for instance, I've been inserting screen captures (from one of his DVDs we're producing) into the companion ebook.

None of which has anything to do with the title of this post, it's just an explanation about the lack of posts to this blog.

What the title is about is Monday.

On Monday I had to take our Honda Accord in for service, so I called the dealer and made an appointment with them to bring it in.

Then I checked online at the Wi-Fi-FreeSpot Directory to see if there was a free wi-fi hotspot nearby. I was pleased to see that there was free wi-fi at the mall nearby (Burnsville Center).

I took the laptop as well as the Accord to the appointment, and asked the service department for a shuttle ride over to the mall.

When I got there, I hoisted out the laptop, turned it on, scanned for nearby networks, and there it was! A free, open connection, courtesy of Caribou Coffee. So I dragged my laptop to the food court, almost exactly under Caribou's kiosk, and tried to connect.

And tried to connect.

And tried to connect.

And tried to connect.

And tried to connect . . .

And called Caribou's help line, spending nine minutes and sixteen seconds on the phone with them (according to my cellphone's call log) and then waited for a call back.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Then I called the dealer and got a ride back to spend the remaining time in their waiting area.

However, not all was lost.

The waiting area at the dealer had the latest copy (December 2006) of Popular Science, with a good deal of really cool stuff in it that I'll write about once I buy a copy and can report on it.

Oh, yeah, and guess who called just as I was getting back to the dealer?

That's right—customer support at Caribou.