Friday, schlepped around town with Stuart, talking wi-fi with Mike Nutley, veteran New Media Age editor (He’s pleased to point out that his tenure spans the magazine’s fattest ever issue ? swollen with boom-era dot.com ads ? and its thinnest ? 32 pages) and Nigel Shardlow, Head of Something Exciting and Mysterious at Orange, alumnus of High Concept, boom-era management consultancy The Fourth Room and over-qualified zombie expert.
The big thing, though, wasn’t the interesting range of public wi-fi options on offer but the sheer quantity of caffeine consumed ? Costa Coffee (BT Openzone, ridiculously expensive), Blacks (no wi-fi here. No. Never. No way), Starbucks (TMobile, stupidly expensive), Caff? Nero (Surf And Sip, much too expensive) and Ben Ugo (half an hour free wi-fi with any purchase ? what nice people). What impact is all this extra coffee having on our economy and our culture? Jittery? Moi?