MiFi my eye! Why when I was your age…

“Someday, we’ll tell our grandchildren how we had to drive around town looking for a coffee shop when we needed to get online, and they’ll laugh their heads off.” ~ David Pogue

Like others of his generation, Pogue marvels at the idea of a portable wireless broadband connection although he knows that the gol-durned kids of the future will take such wonders totally for granted.

As is only fair, I guess, for the way we laughed at our parents’ fascination with the paper shredder.

Pogue bemoans the pre-MiFi state of affairs:

Getting online isn’t impossible, but today’s options are deeply flawed. Most of them involve sitting rooted in one spot — in the coffee shop or library, for example. (Sadly, the days when cities were blanketed by free Wi-Fi signals leaking from people’s apartments are over; they all require passwords these days.)

And explains, rather nicely, how MiFi operates and what your best options are.

I’m going to get one. If I have to sell my Victrola to do it.