The changing face of the cable guy

Hah! Great! One time the internet was down and they wanted us to wait for a technician for a week! I was screaming on the phone with those people forever: not having internet for a week is totally not acceptable,e specially since I work from home, and I was shocked that they don't have a faster way of servicing problems.

My brother had a similar experience when he moved into one Hanson Place. The building was covered by Verizon FIOS but they couldnt get the service started for more than a week.Ultimately they had to call in Time Warner to get their connections going. ( I think that area of Brooklyn has both Verizon and Time Warner unlike Manhattan which is almost exclusively covered by Time Warner).

I have been hearing a lot about Time Warner lately - and none of it is good. I would love to have Verizon FIOS! But I wonder how they would install a personal FIOS line to everyone who wants one?

@NeverSleeps I think it depends on whether your building is wired for FIOS or not you can check the availability of their service on their website.

I have Time Warner. I can't believe they can't service customer problems the same day. What kind of business are they running? People can't afford to go without internet for a whole week these days!

@Uraniumfish We have suspended our Time Warner account and I bit worried as to how I will get Internet access when I am in NYC on holiday. I really dont want to be sitting in a Starbucks. I dont know if I can activate my account for a month or is it easier to just invest in a mobile internet device though they are still expensive in the US.

@uptowngirl I think I read in the NY Times that the city won't be wired for FIOS until 2012.... There are few places in the city where you can get it at the moment. The Brooklyn neighborhoods that have FIOS are the ones where people have actual yards, where the city looks more like a suburb (Bergen Beach, Canarsie, Flatlands, Georgetown, Gravesend, Homecrest, Madison, Manhattan Terrace, Marine Park, Midwood, Mill Basin, Mill Island, Paerdegat Basin). And FIOS is only available "in parts" of these neighborhoods... sad, really. What kind of a business are THEY running!!!

Hm...there are tons of wifi cafes, @uptowngirl, if you can find them. Openwifinyc.com has a really good selection of locations to browse!

I'm always shocked to see any cafe that DOESN'T have wifi. Like, how dare they? It's getting more and more rare these days to pop into a coffee shop and not be able to plug into the internet for free.

This place actually bans laptops. Didn't know you could DO THAT:

Cafe Grumpy
224 W. 20th St
http://www.cafegrumpy.com/

And yet they have an online shop...

@Uraniumfish Huh? Then why are they listed as having free wifi....? I am cat-sitting in Greenpoint a block away from that place, and I was totally going to take my laptop there tomorrow. Hmmmm.

@Uraniumfish Okay, so update on the Cafe Grumpy sitch: I Googled this issue, and they did get a lot of press for banning laptops. But, I went there today to get a delicious single brew, and the places was stocked with laptops and their users. I guess the ban didn't hold up as well as they would have liked. Or...something. Who knows. But: it's safe to bring your computer and to create your own office space there, Google be damned.

@ajadedidealist I put in my zip code on Openwifi and it threw up a list of Starbucks joints in my area :) I guess I would rather have broadband at my disposal. I have also checked the prices of Virgin mobile and it seems that the price of the dongle and broadband scheme have come down a bit. Yay!

I got addicted to dongles in Copenhagen. They're fast, cheap, and efficient - and work all over the place! I'd definitely get one if I didn't already have internet where I am.

@ajadedidealist Its really surprising how they havent become commonplace in NY, even if you sit in a cafe and use its wifi don't you have to order some coffee and eats? don't the costs add up? if you have a dongle current price $79 and $40 for the unlimited monthly pay as you go plan on Virgin , you can happily and securely work from anyway even a park..

@NeverSleeps Well thanks for scoping out the place. They did get a ton of publicity about banning laptops, which seemed like such a bad, bad business idea...

@Uraniumfish I went there a lot while I was in Greenpoint - and the owner was there all the time. I couldn't stop thinking about how she looked down upon making a coffee shop into a work place, and felt kind of guilty sitting there with my laptop. Oh well. That whole laptop ban must've seriously backfired on them, especially in a neighborhood where the only reason people sit at coffee shops is to have an office away from home. Just found out there's a Cafe Grumpy in my neighborhood, too...

It's true that no one really sort of sits down for a coffee in NYC. What other reason would there be to have a coffee shop if not to provide low-rent office space?

I spent most of my afternoon yesterday in a coffee shop, working on my laptop. First time I've done that in more than a year! Seriously, coffee shops provide a real public service.