Computin in da Field

Things are settling down a bit around Chez Geek, and I’m starting to get back into the rhythm of working on my laptop full time. Life things being as they are, it makes sense to really keep an eye on where in the area I can find to telecommute. This is more of a challenge than you might think. Not many businesses are comfortable with you just plopping down in their space and sitting for 4-6 hours straight.
Despite that, though, there are a few places that encourage this, or even invite it. Since today I was hanging around Waltham, MA, I decided to see what I could find in the area.
First step, since it was lunchtime, was the local Wendys. Surprisingly, I’ve had very good luck finding open WiFi access points around Wendy’s restaurants – I guess they just sort of invite the open-no-wep-key types to their locale. Today I found 7 (!) accesspoints in range, and easily connected up to one to keep in touch through lunch and a bit after. Alas, Wendy’s dining room chairs really aren’t that comfortable, so I decided to move on.
I had stopped by the Charles River Public Internet Center once before, but it was unfortunately closed at that time. This time the door was open, but the public area was being worked on, so I couldn’t sit down. These folks seem awfully nice, and I think I’ll explore doing more formal “Come here and work for a day” arrangements with them. The woman at the front desk was nice enough to point out a local coffee shop that had open WiFi, and was within walking distance, so off I went.
I ended up at “Cafe on the Common” (oddly, no website), right in the center of Waltham on Moody street. There was one other laptop-a-holic when I got there, so I settled into a comfy table, got a big bowl of coffee, and settled in to work. The net connection was a little bit twitchy, but I was able to get 2-3 hours of work in, whilst listening to lovely music.
I’m going to keep exploring other good spots around the area. Finding something a little further west would be nice, since I’ll be commuting to Sudbury Valley School for picking up Z when the school year starts – be nice to have someplace within striking distance of that.