Back in April I upgraded my Dell Inspiron E1705 (which is also known as a 9400) from MSWindowsXP to Ubuntu Feisty Fawn (7.04). It was not the easiest installation I've done, but with the help of linux on laptops directory and in particular this guide I was able to get it done. With the recent release of Ubuntu's Gutsy Gibbon I was excited to upgrade.

Feisty Fawn to Gutsy Gibbon (7.10) Upgrade

I was expecting the worst, but got the best. I first made two backups of everything, just in case, and then followed the steps listed on the Ubuntu upgrade guide and it was a piece of cake. The only questions that seemed weird were about my Apache configuration file since I modified that. Otherwise, it worked flawlessly and was easy to understand.

I'm currently working out of the Caribou Coffee at Colfax and 225. Don't ask why I'm in this part of town. But I am. They allow 1 hour of wifi access and enforce it by making you register an account based on an email which they then offer to send special coffee related news. I can't wait to get emails full of important coffee news...

Your account is limited to 1 hour. Fine. My 1 hour comes and goes and there are several interesting people still here:

1. the girl studying her school work who had already finished her drink before I arrived. still taking up space.
2. the annoying business meeting that is way too loud (especially about business - it should be confidential guys, get some class or your clients will sue your ass!) continues to run from before I got here until my hour is up.
3. the middle aged woman reading her book is still reading her book.
4. the same 4 tables that were emtpy when I sat down have remained empty the whole time

Now I understand some coffee shop wifi glomming etiquette. I got myself a piece of delicious lemon poppy bread ($1.87) and I tipped a dollar. If the place were full I would leave. But this is ridiculous to kill my wifi when they don't kick out all the other people who are abusing the comfortable space/light/Air Conditioning/etc.

Getting infinite hours of free wifi from Caribou

Given all that, I don't feel bad sharing this tip: use a new email address. Most hosts allow a [email protected] where the "wildcard" can be any text. That mail will still go to the [email protected] email address. I know for a fact that gmail and dreamhost use this system. So...use that system all day long for your free caribou wifi (as long as there's space for you and you tipped nicely). And don't feel ashamed, either!

Digital Nomad category