Free wireless?

So, after all the hype from Google about the free wireless internet access that they are going to provide to the citizens of Mountain View, I'm here, sitting in the Mountain View Caltrain station and... nothing. My Yahoo! laptop is equiped with state-of-the-art wireless network communication devices and although it picks up a number of wireless networks in the area, they are all secured, i.e. ordinary plebs cannot use them without an access key.

So much for the first step towards the world of ubiquitous computing! Or is it? How many of you have a laptop that connects to the internet? - all I imagine. How about a phone that can access the web? - quite a few. Next, what about surfing the net through your TV? - maybe not all but I bet everyone could imagine it. Now wouldn't it be nice if your laptop spoke to your TV and your phone and PDA were automatically kept in sync with each other? What if you had one address book that you kept regardless of device that was always in sync? Bliss! Welcome to the world of persistent or ubiquitous computing where all your devices are connected to each other in a seemless way in a giant, global network that isn't controlled by anyone.

Interesting? It could be the future...