Coffee shops with free wireless internet access are plagued by losers who buy one cup and then stay for hours at a choice table leaching off the free service. These shops should serve coffee in cups that change from white to bright red as they cool down. All other patrons would immediately recognize the losers among the clientele, shaming them into either buying another cup of coffee or moving on.-- riromero, Jul 02 2003 Google's top hit for "thermochromatic" http://is6.pacific....tic_coffee_mugs.htm [my face your, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 06 2004] oh dear. http://www.news.com...3%255E13780,00.html [po, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 06 2004] snarfy,background please. http://www.herbiemannmusic.com/home.html [po, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 06 2004] You're really into this punishment thing, aren't you? Perhaps you should see a psychiatrist.-- DrCurry, Jul 02 2003 new category: Food, packaging, punishment.-- po, Jul 03 2003 if you're truly concerned about people leeching free internet access, I'd suggest this improvement:
As a customer buys their coffee, they are given an access code. This code will last as long as the average, reasonable, cup of coffee - lets say 25mins.
The customer who wishes to surf longer must go buy another coffee.-- jonthegeologist, Jul 03 2003 When I installed my wireless router, I got broadband internet access immediately. Only much much later did I discover my router was defective and I'd been benefitting from a neighbour's network.
If your coffee shop is beset with leeches you could:
(1) Send someone round to collect empty/cold coffee cups. Anyone using a PC could be asked is they'd like another coffee.
(2) The router could check how long a user's been logged on for. If the time is excessive, that person would be logged off and a new password needed to login again.-- FloridaManatee, Jul 03 2003 She was lookin' kinda dumb With all those fingers and thumbs In the shape of an L On everyone's forehead...-- Tiger Lily, Jul 03 2003 This is a fine idea. It would be very satisfying to see that cup blanch to white as the hot coffee fills it up. Perhaps the reverse procedure could be used for a beer mug, to identify beer nurses at a bar.-- bungston, Jul 03 2003 There are already heat-sensitive colour-change mugs available, so what's the invention? Use of these mugs in certain circumstances?-- my face your, Jul 03 2003 Add wireless capability to the coffee cups to permit them being be polled for their temperature/time since last fill (temperature/level history) and remotely control the color? Maybe open a drain hole in the bottom of the coffee cup for additional humiliation.
If you dislike "losers who buy one cup and then stay for hours...", you'd really hate me. I can't stand coffee so when I "go to coffee" with friends, I don't generally buy anything unless I'm in the mood for some sort of dried out pastry.-- half, Jul 03 2003 Surely, part of a good coffee establishment has to be the atmosphere. The comfy chairs or pleasant street area that make you want to stay (and return). I've never used a wireless network in a coffee shop, but any place that starts giving me stern looks because I want to read another chapter of my book, but don't want any more caffeine in my bloodstream is unlikely to get my return custom. I think I'd probably feel the same about any coffee shop that no longer wants me around just because I'm not actually handing over cash at that moment.
I can understand the economics of limiting the free extras that the shop has provided to entice in its customers, but attempting to humiliate those that are relying more on the generosity of the shop than others doesn't seem like the best way of going about it.-- st3f, Jul 03 2003 Does anyone remember the days when instead of shaming you when you ran out of coffee someone would come by and fill it? I guess that was back in the days before they improved coffee so much that they can justify selling it for $2 a cup.-- Worldgineer, Jul 03 2003 I don't see any problem with the approach that my local free-Internet cafe took: you could use the net as long as you bought something, and there's a 15-minute limit on use. They would still let you hang out longer, even on a single cup of coffee, as long as there was no one else in line. Why not? They paid for their access by the month, not by the user.
Of course, they went out of business last month...-- hob, Jul 03 2003 I'm doing this right now. 1 cup of tea + refills and I'm in the middle of my second hour on the laptop. I also pay the coffee shop $20 for a month of being able to sit here and use their internet service. Otherwise they charge by the hour. Also, I have no qualms about hanging out in a coffee shop for hours when there are empty tables. That's what the places are for.-- feedmewithyourkids, Jul 03 2003 Y'know bandwidth hogs aren't anywhere near as bad as PC hogs that won't budge for hours till they've typed their essay.-- FloridaManatee, Jul 04 2003 Easy for you to say. Allow me to shed some light on this issue as a low-income, high-use internet addict with a parallel but unrelated example (see if you can "get" the moral of the story before reaching the end).
Example 1: In the better local daily newspaper (which is the full-size paper) to which I'm a subscriber/frequent cover-to-cover reader, even though it is often also a biased, shallow rag, there was an article on insurance rates.
The sub-headline/box-blurb gave an extreme example of a $77 accident repair and $**,*** award for damages (emotional/medical bs). The quoted source from the insurance industry claimed that it was the consumer not the industry who was to blame for this.
Then, this industry shill stated that "most" people wouldn't mind paying an extra $200 a year if they "knew" that the industry would crack down on payment of non-claims. He went on to say that the people who were the problem were "not our kind of people" , they were the type who made less than $18,000 a year & drove ... (nothing that bad what ever it was, just a late model something or other).
First of all, the insurance industry is responsible for paying claims not the consumer. The same industry ******* quoted probably cheats on his taxes &/or expense account &/or wife. Yet he is so highminded as to lay blame squarely where it belongs. On the middle or "lower"/working class (working class is not the same as middle class). Many people obviously consider theft/dishonesty to be in the color-blinded eye of the beholder. White Collar crime is to be ignored or admired. Blue Collar crime (even when its not crime but just, ironicly, the higher standards applied to people with the least) should be viciously attacked.
When I was working (I'm unemployed right now) I made a couple thousand dollars more a year than the amount listed but my job was stressful, dead-end and the management seriously lacked ethics. Yet, I would hardly find paying the insurance industry an extra $200 a year to do something that IS THEIR JOB not only onerous but offensive.
So, where would someone with less income, and more family responsibilities find that. On the other hand if you have a job that allows you to make 3 times what I (not the ones with the lower incomes) make and perhaps have your employer take responsibility for your housing costs, give you a car allowance, pay for professional expenses to keep up with your industry (if I find that important then I, with the much lower income, am expected to take RESPONSIBILITY for it myself, out of my yearly income -- as it should be), etc, etc, etc. of course it would be much less "taxing". Certainly much less so then standing up to an industry filled with your "cross-industry equals" and demand they do their jobs. The jobs that they are already paid for. Often over-paid/over-benefited and under-skilled/under-principled for.
Example 2 - Same newspaper, "different story" (sort of). Title - How to succeed: Don't steal the Post-its Subtitle - Tips for interns (and their bosses ) on surviving summer.
It was a article/piece of fluff (offensive fluff) that came from The Dallas Morning News (apparently the Edmonton Journal can't generate their own non-news). It offered such useful info (for interns) as Don't flirt. Arrive on time and never, ever be late. Blah, blah, blah. A bunch of well-worn obviousness. More useful info (for bosses) were nuggets of wisdom like Repeat after me: "The intern is not my slave" and Don't even LOOK at the intern in that way ... Pick somebody else to flirt with. More blah, blah, blah.
Especially rich was the advice on not asking about their wardrobes & not asking them to eat with you (both because of embarrassment factors). But the best was the parts about "As you consider docking the intern's pay for leaving 3.65 minutes early one day ... 'visiting sick grandma' let us not forget that $400 dinner with your hubby that somehow ended up "expensed" ..." and "don't install a flashing light and sirens that activate the second an instant-message "emoticon" pops up on his screen."
The saddest part of all of this information wasn't that the author was being trite and cutesy but that she considered this worthy of mentioning. Why not an article on worrying about your ethics (or non ethics) for the people who would concern themselves with the triffles like the minor sins of underlings while their rivers of greed are self-justified AND socially acceptable.
So, what is "the moral" re: the major concern about i-cafe access oinkiness. Pretty simple really. If there was more community access then it would be a non-issue. But then that would take some community spirit and stewardship.-- thecat, Jul 04 2003 yes, thecat - to continue our conversation: when an anno measures more than 5 inches - I assume its crap and don't bother reading unless the author is:
no, all my favourites are quite concise.
yep<Mitchum>-- po, Jul 04 2003 I assumed it was one of those codes where you read just the first letter of each line. It made about as much sense as these things usually do when read that way.-- snarfyguy, Jul 04 2003 thec. so full of shit
FUCK IT barry white is dead. buggar.-- The Kat, Jul 04 2003 oh no! oh bless!-- po, Jul 04 2003 :(
big non-ironic *sniff*
Herbie Mann, too.
*sigh*-- snarfyguy, Jul 04 2003 //see if you can "get" the moral of the story before reaching the end.//
Sorry [thecat]. Didn't even bother reading after the end of that sentence. Scrolled straight to the next familiar baker's annotation to get a reading for what I skipped.
[Po]'s, annotation made me laugh. I knew then I had followed my intuition accurately.-- Tiger Lily, Jul 04 2003 [po] All your favorites are concise. You're so cute when your full of shit. They are mostly concise and often at the expense of fairness, nuance, etc.
And, of course, what you were about to say when you stopped yourself to say the above **** was I'll read & respect a long item from someone I consider a friend (ie: thinks like me, is hypocritical and hypercritical, kisses ass to move to the front and stay there instead of earning it) posts it.
[Tiger Lily] Similar to po (I guess that is why you consider her a friend), so you'll glance at something superficially, then feel free to comment harshly on the say so of a friend. Sounds like what cliques of pathetic bullies do.
Class acts, both of you.-- thecat, Jul 11 2003 <g> Hey, thanks cat. <taps on a crimson cup> And *here's* to you. </g>
So, Ally, since you're a stray, you should go now and get fixed.-- Tiger Lily, Jul 12 2003 random, halfbakery