This has been on my mind for a while now, which you'll know if you hang around me.
The lack of Wi-Fi Hotspots in Galway is a complete disgrace. As a proud owner of an Apple iPod with internet browsing capabilities, my natural instinct is to use it whenever I want to check my emails, update my blog, check to see if Seán has left me any more irrelevant, poorly grammatized comments on Bebo etc. But to no avail. Wi-Fi in Galway City is as scarce as potatoes were in 1850; it's not of any value to me.
At the moment my prime hotspot is the benches outside Mothercare in Eyre Square Centre, which is usually infested with "'oul wans" anyway, leaving me to stand outside the 3G Store (which is where the Wi-Fi signal originates from) to peruse my doings.
So, you'd think that there would be free Wi-Fi in Eyre Square, right? The hottest, most social, most open-plan area in Galway City? Forget about it. There's four SSIDs called "Free Galway Wi-Fi" 1, 2, 3 and 4 around the Eyre Square area, but each of them fails the connection test every time: they're useless, and they've never been maintained.
Then there's Eircom. The now private bastards that make us pay for a high-speed 802.11b signal from their own ADSL phonebooth lines. It's an absolute joke. I emailed our former esteemed mayor, Niall Ó Brolcháin, with my thoughts, including a recommendation to install high-speed networks on to bus and rail services in and out of the city, to which he replied that he'd "pass on my ideas". Pass on my ideas to who, Niall, a brick wall? Would it sway you if I spray-painted it green?
New York City. You can't walk too far in NYC without bumping into a hundred different hotspots, run either by the thousands of offices that color the streets or the New York City Council itself. That city is truly electric.
Galway already has a firmly established 3G network, so what's the problem with Wi-Fi? If anything, Wi-Fi is more primitive in a technological sense, yet is utilized by so many more people.
Why is it that I can't sit in Eyre Square, sipping a Starbucks caramel frappuccino and browsing the web on my iPod?
...and don't blame the weather.
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Now playing: R.E.M. - Man-Sized Wreath
via FoxyTunes
At the moment my prime hotspot is the benches outside Mothercare in Eyre Square Centre, which is usually infested with "'oul wans" anyway, leaving me to stand outside the 3G Store (which is where the Wi-Fi signal originates from) to peruse my doings.
So, you'd think that there would be free Wi-Fi in Eyre Square, right? The hottest, most social, most open-plan area in Galway City? Forget about it. There's four SSIDs called "Free Galway Wi-Fi" 1, 2, 3 and 4 around the Eyre Square area, but each of them fails the connection test every time: they're useless, and they've never been maintained.
Then there's Eircom. The now private bastards that make us pay for a high-speed 802.11b signal from their own ADSL phonebooth lines. It's an absolute joke. I emailed our former esteemed mayor, Niall Ó Brolcháin, with my thoughts, including a recommendation to install high-speed networks on to bus and rail services in and out of the city, to which he replied that he'd "pass on my ideas". Pass on my ideas to who, Niall, a brick wall? Would it sway you if I spray-painted it green?
New York City. You can't walk too far in NYC without bumping into a hundred different hotspots, run either by the thousands of offices that color the streets or the New York City Council itself. That city is truly electric.
Galway already has a firmly established 3G network, so what's the problem with Wi-Fi? If anything, Wi-Fi is more primitive in a technological sense, yet is utilized by so many more people.
Why is it that I can't sit in Eyre Square, sipping a Starbucks caramel frappuccino and browsing the web on my iPod?
...and don't blame the weather.
----------------
Now playing: R.E.M. - Man-Sized Wreath
via FoxyTunes
2 comments:
My name is Jason Parmele, and I support this post.
I thought you were worried about all the radiation coursing through your body?
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