At Library With WiFi in Michigan

by | Aug 7, 2008 | Life notes, Local Tech Notes

I’m spending a week in Michigan near Detroit on family stuff. Lots of things going on. Barack Obama and John McCain both made appearances nearby, the PGA is making traffic on some roads difficult, and the mayor of Detroit just got hauled off to jail for skipping bail…twice.

Unfortunately, where we’re staying has no Internet access. Nothing. Not even a dial up modem. To get online I have to go out on the front porch and try to hop on a neighbor’s open wireless network (my Mac hunts and hunts and finds ‘linksys’). Depending on the cloud cover, the wind, a car going by I can stay on for 10 seconds, sometimes 10 minutes. At night the light from the laptop attracts hordes of bugs and I go to bed scratching.

But just a few miles away, the local library has wifi access throughout their facility. Not only that, they have these great tables set up with lamps in the middle that have outlets for you power cord. They want you come in and be comfortable and use their facility. It’s a wonderful library with large reading and study areas and even a café.

I am so glad the Eureka branch of the Humboldt County Library finally got wireless capabilities so people in a situation similar to mine can get Internet access. If I hadn’t found this place I would have had to spend an inordinate amount of time and money at Starbucks.

Humboldt County Library Gets Wireless

by | Jun 9, 2008 | Local Tech Notes

According to Sean McLaughlin, head of Access Humboldt, the long awaited wireless network at the main branch of the Humboldt County Library will finally be unveiled on Wednedsday, June 11 at 1:00 PM. I’m not sure what has taken so long to get to this unveiling. But I suspect it had much more to do with politics and bureaucracy than any technological issue. Initial funding shouldn’t have been a problem, either as last year’s Oysters & Ale was a benefit for the project and I understand raised around $20,000 was for the project.

Congratulations to Debi Farber-Bush, Kitty Yancheff and Barbara Groom, organizers of Oysters & Ale for seeing your good work getting the intended results!