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Here’s what the victim had to say about the incident at a wi-fi enabled cafe in San Francisco:

“I looked up, and I saw this guy leaning into me as if he was asking a question,” he said. “I leaned forward, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone fiddling with the computer cord. I tried to stand up, and as I stepped back, he stabbed me in the chest.”

So far this type of violence hasn’t happened in other major Bay Area cities like San Jose, Palo Alto and Berkeley. I still feel pretty safe in my corner of suburbia. I may have to get a hold of this, this and this however, if I ever plan to use my iBook in San Francisco.

Related: San Francisco chooses Google and Earthlink to provide the city free wireless internet access. San Francisco already has the most free wi-fi hotspots in the world according to MetroFreeFi’s database.

via boingboing

MetroFreeFi, an online database of free wi-fi hotspots in the U.S. and the creators of wiPod, will expand world-wide in the next few weeks. When it started a year and a half ago, it covered only the Bay Area. Its name back then was BayAreaFreeFi.com. It then included the entire state of California, then it went nationwide, hence the name change.

I personally added to their list most of the free hotspots in the Tri-City area (Fremont, Union City and Newark), and a couple in the South Bay. Yeah, that was the time no one could stand in the way of my warchalking path! Hehe.

The latest hotspot I contributed is the Fremont Main Library. This is a long-time coming. Although they’ve had internet stations for a while now, wireless internet only came into effect at the beginning of the year. One only needs a library card to get on the network.

The Fremont library is the near-perfect place to do work and study. It’s huge. It’s quiet. It’s got plenty of tables and study rooms. Oh yeah, and tons of, um, reading material. The downside: no food and drink allowed. Oh well, at least I won’t be racked with guilt anymore and spend at cafes in order to use their free internet.

Last January, I posted an entry from a parked bus. Internet access came from a hotspot outside the bus. Well, according to this, buses in our area will soon get wi-fi access from within. The East Bay transit agency wants “professionals, those with laptops, traveling through the Bay to have better use of their time, rather than looking at traffic.” Pretty cool, eh? One other thing they should provide, however, is a good supply of Dramamine in each of the buses’ first-aid kits.

I’m in a tent… at camp*… in the Santa Cruz mountains… typing this post… just so I can say I’ve done so.

*yup, same one as last year’s, but I didn’t bring my laptop then. The wi-fi signal’s quite weak. We’re several yards from the base station. And I’m typing this really quietly so as not to wake up our other tented neighbors. Hopefully though, the crickets and my son’s snores drown out the sound of the keyboard keys being tapped. Ok, g’night…

I’m posting this from an Amtrak bus parked in front of the train station just for the heck of it. Or as they would say in ‘pinas, “‘La lang.”

Update: oh, just to clarify, online access was made available from an unsecured hotspot outside the bus.