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Free Wi-Fi For the Residents of Venice, Italy
pmontra writes "The City of Venice, Italy, started to offer free Wi-Fi to residents (Google translation from the Italian source) on July 3 2009. Tourists and other visitors will pay 5 Euros a day for the service starting from September. The hot spots are connected to a ten thousand kilometer (6,250 mile) fiber optic LAN the City started deploying in the '90s. The first day of free Internet access has been celebrated with a digital treasure hunt in the channels of the lagoon city."
Remember to take your cash too. Next, they'll start charging non-residents for drinking water from public fountains. Or, for sitting on park benches.
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Personally, I think it's pretty neat... But I know a few people with electrosensitivity that have problems if they are around an emitted signal like that for any length of time. Driving past Internet cafés or coming by my house for a few minutes is no big deal, but if it were there 24/7, some people may not even be able to live there.
I guess there should be some compromise--yes, people want there to be Internet everywhere, not just designated hot-spots, but there's this other side of the coin too.
Before anybody calls BS, I was skeptical of RF sensitivity too, but I've looked into it and it seems to be real for some folks. Plus, I can hide my wireless router somewhere where you can't see the lights, and my friend can tell me whether it's on or not just from being in the house for a few minutes. It's actually kind of cool, except for the part where he gets a headache after about an hour if I don't turn it off. Weird.
10 FILL MUG WITH COFFEE
20 DRINK COFFEE
30 GOTO 10
He's full of shit (like the canals).
People do work in Venice, but most can't afford to live there. They live on the mainland.
People do live in Venice, generally very rich people.
A friend of mine's family has roots in Venice generations deep.
They all moved away over the last 25 years as it's tourist trap nature went to critical mass and it became more fashionable with the idle and pretentious rich.
The GP should note the missing 'forth network', sewage pipes...sewage shares the canals with boat traffic.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'