By Alison Lobron, Globe Correspondent | July 9, 2006
> Some wireless users sneak in their own food with their laptops.
> Others buy one cup of coffee at 9 a.m. and surf the Net until closing
> time. And the truly audacious sit for hours without making any
> pretense of a purchase.
> In and around Boston, cafe owners who installed wireless signals to
> draw customers say they also are drawing Internet users who tie up
> seats for hours, buy little or nothing, and make coffee shops feel
> like the office as they tap away at their laptops. Now some owners are
> fighting back by charging for wireless access, shutting off their
> signal at peak business hours, or telling loitering laptoppers to
> shell out or ship out.
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Of course, this is what they should have been doing all along with the Rowling and Salinger wannabes who hog the NY Times, take extra chairs to keep their precious crap off the floor, and sit at the choice tables for hours nursing an empty latte while reading Noam Chomsky. I really don't care if you're surfing for p*rn, doing your French Lit homework or writing the Great American Novel; drink your coffee, then get the hell out.
--Gene