Some reflections on the French mindset

[pphaneuf]

A few days after arriving here, hunting for wireless access nearby, and not having too much success, I thought it was pretty ridiculous that there was all these neat little cafés, but there was Internet access nowhere to be seen. When I did find some, it was rather poorly, with a WPA password that the Internet café attendant (because I had to go to an actual Internet café, rather than just the corner café) typed into my computer (and I hit "save this password", of course). Or the completely widely open access point that seems to be running not too far from the apartment we're at and seems to work (most of the time). No easy to use "captive access point", or anything like that.

But really, it's pretty simple. They just don't care. Nothing more to it. They go to the café to enjoy a beer or a coffee with their friends, and chat. Taking your laptop there would be quite silly! So there's just no demand for it. There goes sfllaw's ubiquitous wireless access (yes, there is 3G coverage, but it's kind of tricky, and confused the hell out of two of the three cellphone salesperson I talked to up to now).

And peach-scented toilet paper, now, that's just totally retarded. No excuse for it.