Working from a home office there are often times when a change of scenery is required, and nothing beats a coffee shop with wireless internet. Here's an updated list of some of my local favorites.

Free Wireless Internet locations:

Bean Traders
Homestead Market on W. Hwy 54
app. 1/4 mile North of I-40 (exit 276) & app. 1/4 mile West of Fayetteville (Durham, NC)

Bean Traders
Meadowmont Village
(next to Harris Teeter) on HWY 54 between I-40 (Exit 273) & Glen Lennox (Chapel Hill, NC)

Panera Bread
213 West Franklin Street
Chapel Hill, NC 27514

Town of Carrboro Wireless
(Now covers Weaver St. Market and Armadillo Grill)

Bear Rock Cafe
201 S Estes Drive
University Mall
Chapel Hill NC 27514

Not so free Wireless Internet locations:

Fedex Kinko's Chapel Hill
114 W Franklin St
Chapel Hill NC 27516
 
Starbucks
103 East Franklin Street
Chapel Hill NC 27516
 
Borders Chapel Hill
1807 Chapel Hill Blvd.
Chapel Hill NC 27514
 
Barnes and Noble
The Streets at Southpoint
8030 Renaissance Parkway, Suite 835
Durham, NC 27713

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Two years ago my wife and I spent New Years Eve in an empty apartment after moving across the continent to begin a new adventure. Last year we celebrated with new friends, met through our new adventure. This year we will again spend time with our new friends, some of which will likely be moving on to new adventures of their own in the months ahead. This is a time to reflect on the year that was, and the year that will be. With that said…

2005 New Year Resolutions

1. Communicate better
2. Exercise more regularly
3. Follow through on ideas
4. Do more public speaking
5. Continue to push myself to learn
6. Meet new people, both socially and professionally
7. Stay in touch more often with old friends
8. Do at least one thing I’ve never done before
9. Enjoy each day, as each is a gift
10. Make it to PDC

I am excited about 2005 and the opportunities that await.

For other resolutions from the bloggers, visit Technorati

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Now, I know there's no way they could have know, but hearing the Dell TV ad promoting their 24/7, always available tech support was a little strange today.

Tech Support ”Dell Service and support. Can I help you?”
Customer “You're there?”
TS “Ah, yes sir. We're here 24/7”
C “24/7, 365?”
TS “365”
C “What about leap year?”
RS “366”
.
.
.
C“Tsunami?“
TS “ We should be here“

I'm not exactly sure, but part of me feels that with the devastating destruction to part of the world that hosts the outsourcing of telephone support services that this ad isn't the best thing at this time One of those things that's funny until it comes true I guess.

My heart goes out to all everybody impacted by the tragedy.

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Somebody please tell me why a company who's basic purpose in life is to sell electronics, would willingly display products in a way that actually makes them seem worse than they are? For the last year or so I've been putting off the purchase of an LCD flat screen and decided to go see what I could find for deals. The local Best Buy had one of the better selections.

The only problem with their display however is that all of the monitors are fed from a single source. A single source that is connected to a couple video amplifiers and fed to each monitor. This causes all of the monitors to display the same 1024 x 768 image, which looks equally terribly on each and is pretty useless to compare anything other than brightness. Accordign to one staff member, the feed wasn't really even 1024 x 768 as somewhere along the way it was first coverted to S-Video before being split. The staff response to any requests to see a monitor on an alternate resolution (Such as the 1280 x 1024 that many of them are designed to run at) or seperate system was a simple “sorry” before walking away.

What ever happened to showing off what a product could do? I remember the year I spent working for Sony, we would find the best possible source to display the higher end products so that there was a visible difference. There's somethign to be said for those small dealers that take the time to show you the products and help answer your questions, not just push boxes.

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Triangle Bloggers Conference 2005

Using Blogs to Build Community

A gathering of North Carolina bloggers to discuss websites, community building, podcasting and more. A follow-up to the highly successful Piedmont Bloggers Conference in August 2004.

Saturday, February 12, 2005
9 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
(room to be announced)
FREE

More Information.... 

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T'was the night before the night before Christmas and all through the web, every creature was blogging, not just Scoble?

No, I'm not sure what that is supposed to mean either, but that's how I decided to start this long over due post. It has been a busy few weeks that has involved many miles of travel for both work and pleasure. During this time a lot has happened with projects and technology that I really should write about, but for now I simply want to wish everybody a very
Merry Christmas!

Coming next week:

-RTP Blog Conference
-A demo of better local blog aggregation
-Printing with .Net
-Developer events in North Carolina for the new year

And some project goals for 2005!

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