The rollout of wireless is going faster than I would have thought possible. Prices have kept dropping – a Linksys wireless access point/router costs only $79 now. And I’m finding them in the oddest places – a small hotel in Mendocino, a quiet community in San Carlos. Today I opened up the Centrino notebook in a condo on Kauai and discovered that there’s an open access point somewhere within range of my dining room table, giving me free access to someone’s DSL line or cable broadband. Raising two questions: (1) Who would buy a wireless router for a vacation condo? And (2) Why is broadband access available in a remote corner of Kauai and not in many parts of Sonoma County?

If you’re trying to reach me while I’m out of town – well, for better or for worse, I can get e-mail.

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