3/14    Can someone reccomend a restaurant or Cafe in the SF financial
        district (say near Montgomery BART) that has free WiFi, decent food
        and reasonable prices?
        \_ it's getting harder and harder to find free/open wifi spots. It makes
           me sad.
           \_ really? I'd thought it was going the other way... (more free
              spots nowadays) - do you mean in SF specifically?
              \_ I'm finding fewer free APs, both from "big, legit" providers
                 (ISPs, telcos) and from misconfigurations; the big ones tend
                 to want to sell wifi service, while people are cluing in
                 to closing up their APs.  However, I see a lot more small
                 "independent" APs, such as from small coffee shops, these
                 days.  This is true of most of the countries I've been to
                 recently.  And running an AP off the third interface off a
                 DMZ interface of a small firewall and allowing free
                 Internet access to anyone (but rate-limiting non-
                 authenticated clients to, say, 10-20% of overall bandwidth)
                 is a nice way to give back.  -John
           \_ free wifi is a form of Socialism; I pay a bit more to let others
              share, in hoping that others will do the same for me when I need
              it in their area. As we all learned in grade school, Socialism
              is BAD and Capitalism is GOOD! GO GWB OUR GREATEST HERO!!!
              \_ I'm pretty sure you're being sarcastic, but I'm going to
                 point this out anyway.  There's nothing socialist about most
                 free wifi.  Everywhere I've been outside of the bay area
                 it's normal for coffee shops and restraunts to have their
                 wifi be free, because it encourages people to hang out there.
                 It's just good business.
                 \_ except when people overstay their welcome and leave less
                    room for incoming customers.
                    \_ Yeah it's like Darfur out there.
                    \_ Yeah, this is actually a big problem in SF.  I don't
                       know where the person who can't find free wifi is
                       looking, because every coffee shop I know of in SF has
                       free wifi.  And they are all filled with these goddamn
                       drones who come in, buy one cup of coffee, and then
                       sit down for a whole day occupying precious table
                       space with themselves and their bloody laptop.
                       The coffeeshop around the corner from my apartment
                       literally has no place to sit during the day, because
                       the entire place has effectively become an office
                       full of laptop-wielding drones.  I say charge for the
                       damn wifi and end this stupid tragedy of the commons.
                       \_ You know what's funny?  I'm guessing that you think
                          government-sponsored free wifi is EVIL SOCIALISM.
                          But if the coffee shops charged huge fees and the
                          professionals who spend all day there wrote those
                          fees of on their taxes as business expenses (which
                          most of them probably could do) you'd think that
                          was just fine, even though it would be a much larger
                          subsidy by the rest of the taxpayers.  Socialism
                          for the rich, capitalism for the poor.
                       \_ You should accidentally spill coffee on someone's
                          laptop. Like once a week.
                       \_ Wow.  Your assessment is very scientific.  As a
                          rational observer, I'm convinced that clearly free
                          wifi will lead to the downfall of western
                          civilization. -dans
        \_ Harvest & Rowe on 2nd between Market and Mission.
           \_ Ooh, that looks good but I should have mentioned I'm looking for
              a place open around dinner. -OP