26 April: WeeFee
Being the cheap bastard (as well as a supporter of independent business folk), I made a list of only those free wi-fi (wireless; pronounced "weefee" here in France) hotspots that I found in the neighboring area via Jiwire. But it turns out that these "free" spots are not as free as I've come to expect from independent coffee houses in Seattle.

The hotspots listed as free on Jiwire all seem to be run by HotCafe. When you turn on your laptop's wi-fi connection at one of these establishments and try loading a Web page, you're greeted by their welcome page, which beckons you to get a card with a security pass from the bar or waiter. This seemed like a quaint way to keep things secure, but it's also a bit of a gimmick: you're limited to 15 to 30 minutes (depending on the establishment) of free connectivity. After that, you're out of luck, unless you decide to purchase the SmartPass option, which provides connectivity at 0.15 euros per minute.

There is one completely free wi-fi hotspot: McDonalds. Mrs. F and I haven't felt desperate enough to try this out, but I hope to at some point before we leave just so I can check out the user experience.

Oh, by the way, whenever Mrs. Facade and I whip out our dueling laptops, we're typically the only people at the cafe to do so. It seems most on-the-go Internet connectivity is done via storefronts that have full desktop PCs (which can be used for about 3 to 5 euros per hour). And there are cafes that are signed up to other corporate plans, but we haven't been to any of them yet to see if the wireless laptop usage is any more prevalent. Perhaps if we were in a more business-oriented part of the city (but I would have expected just as many wi-fi connected laptops in this university-oriented district).