Tribe.net. Local Connections Joseph http://boingboing.tribe.net/thread/7e10902b-5d80-4d3b-9c11-b9badf3070af#a596a05e-2ffa-42b6-baa7-887300806578 2007-03-30T14:44:28Z 2007-03-30T14:44:28Z

Reminds me off when I was in High School. Everyone used to meet up in the parking lot of 7-11 (pre cell phones) to storm around town causing havoc. The rule of thumb was that we could loiter in the parking lot for 15 minutes after a purchase. Eventually the owners caught on and just started bribing the police with free slushies. With the cops around, kids didn't loiter. Kids have been subjected to this kind of shit for years, in the form of "No Skateboarding" or "Park Closes at Dusk". When we all grew up and started to become involved in business, we realized the value of things like this and the impact that loitering can have on both employees and other customers. Our inner children however, remember the long nights of driving around town with no where to call home. The bottom line in both cases (bored kids and Mr. Doctorow) is simply that, money does indeed, talk. If you're not spending it, you're not welcome. Really, why should you be? Paying for coffee (and here's an amazing revelation), gets you a cup of coffee. It doesn't guarantee you free broadband or a place to nurse it for hours. So yeah, go somewhere else. Hell, the increased business they'll get will probably offset the fact that everyone stays twice as long.

Joseph 2007-03-30T14:44:28Z the Other™ http://boingboing.tribe.net/thread/7e10902b-5d80-4d3b-9c11-b9badf3070af#3bf4a663-daa8-4ed9-92ea-f0b9ca07f82e 2007-03-22T14:57:20Z 2007-03-22T14:57:20Z

when I have a bully-pulpit from which I castigate bully-pulpiteers

the Other™ 2007-03-22T14:57:20Z Bwana http://boingboing.tribe.net/thread/7e10902b-5d80-4d3b-9c11-b9badf3070af#0b842840-d101-45d0-b85e-6a2f2c5d5b71 2007-03-22T03:21:40Z 2007-03-22T03:21:40Z

When do I get to hold YOUR feet to the fire? Let me go get my "bleeding edge" technology of flint and tinder, and I'll have something impressive in a day or so, fire-wise. Or not...

Bwana 2007-03-22T03:21:40Z the Other™ http://boingboing.tribe.net/thread/7e10902b-5d80-4d3b-9c11-b9badf3070af#c41ee572-d79d-41c4-854a-4a71a4da74f5 2007-03-20T03:08:07Z 2007-03-20T03:08:07Z

I think Adam Villani (a distant acquaintance who once Won Ben Stein's Money) hit the nail on the head, here: http://blogbilongadam.blogspot.com/2007/03/cory-doctorow-twit-again.html "Cory's way of living his life is the progressive way of the future, and those who don't do as he does are behind the times. Obviously the naked-sleeping issue is extremely minor, but this just struck me as typical of how he elevates his own preferences into obvious choices we would all be dupes not to agree with. I don't think he recognizes that the different preferences of other people are valid." Maybe he does and maybe he doesn't. It's his (as a co-owner) blog, and he's free to not acknowledge any opinion that he wants. Or doesn't want. Or whatever. But then, there is the responsibility of the bully pulpit. Do we hold BB's feet to the fire and demand accountability? Doess BB ever hold anybody else's feet to the fire and demand accountability becuase they are in a position to dictate moods and opinions and the generation of memes? hrm....

the Other™ 2007-03-20T03:08:07Z Bwana http://boingboing.tribe.net/thread/7e10902b-5d80-4d3b-9c11-b9badf3070af#fde21b36-47e0-43c2-9786-d3cdbddc5ff3 2007-03-20T00:45:45Z 2007-03-20T00:45:45Z

Honestly, I can see both sides of this argument. At the simplest, there is a limited amount of information in any newspaper that a person will actually read, but the internet is ENDLESS. How many times have you sat down to find out "just one thing" and then webcrawled for hours instead? I think it's a lot more distracting than a newspaper. And as for relying on common human decency or peer pressure to have someone who is done with their meal to actually, eventually, willingly give up their seat to a patron who is waiting to give additional money to the establishment? It's borderline offensive in the USA. People will just sit there out of spite sometimes, realizing that they've got something that someone else wants. In Japan I see people get up and leave when there are people waiting to use the tables, but I don't see the perception of public pressure like that in the USA. Lastly, Cory's free to complain about whatever he wants, and he tends to post without counterbalancing his own opinion. I assume it's to increase reaction to the articles, rather than because he's incapable of seeing another side. It's clear enough that (a) the restaurant needs patron turnover to stay in business and (b) he acknowledges that laptop peeps are "squatters" and (c) Cory is free to not dine there if he chooses and (c) really, it's Austin, TX... ...and (d) there are PLENTY of places that have "No Studying" hours blocked out - coffeeshops in Santa Cruz spring to mind here - and that seems wholly reasonable to me. Personally it's less offensive than the "NO PHOTOS" policies at restaurants, which strikes me as just antisocial.

Bwana 2007-03-20T00:45:45Z the Other™ http://boingboing.tribe.net/thread/7e10902b-5d80-4d3b-9c11-b9badf3070af#78c44651-d2b5-4911-a48b-0acc0a8bdfda 2007-03-13T16:13:18Z 2007-03-13T16:13:18Z

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/03/13/for_dining_only_anti.html those hateful, hateful restaurateurs (imagine, using the selling of food as a business model!) in Austin don't like laptoppers. wrotes Mr. Doctorow: Just snapped this "FOR DINING ONLY" sign at an Austin restaurant -- it includes a laptop in a circle with a line through it. I get the point -- laptop users squat on tables, reducing the turnover. But I can sit and read a newspaper or a book at a table for hours, too -- why not have a "NO READING -- FOR DINING ONLY" sign? And how about those great, social meals where you chat with your friends for hours? "NO READING, LAPTOPS OR TALKING: FOR DINING ONLY!" ---- Do you know why? Maybe because nobody else is as much of an asshole. Is this profiling? Yes.

the Other™ 2007-03-13T16:13:18Z