Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Thursday, March 25th, 2010
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Live in New York? Pop over here and register for your free Wi-Fi! If you have a RoadRunner cable account, you can connect to free WiFi in “several” locations around New York including Bryant and Madison Square Parks and some parks in Queens. If you’re thinking to yourself “Hey, a few parks in Manhattan, some DMZ out in the boonies, and some spots in Port Washington (probably where the uncles of Time Warner executives live) do not make overarching WiFi access for the masses,” then you’re probably right. But when’s the last time Time Warner Cable did anything nice for you? Maybe you could be appreciative? Time Warner Cable Wi-Fi Zones Now Available To New York City Area Road Runner High-Speed Online Customers Time Warner Cable and Cablevision’s Optimum WiFi Partner to Provide Free Seamless Wireless Internet Connectivity to High-Speed Internet Customers of Both Companies New York, NY (Vocus/PRWEB ) March 25, 2010 — Time Warner Cable’s NYC Region today introduced Time Warner Cable Wi-Fi service, giving its one million local Road Runner residential customers unlimited access to a fast and free wireless Internet connection at several locations in the NYC area. Through a partnership with Cablevision, Time Warner Cable customers will also have access to thousands of free Optimum WiFi locations throughout Cablevision’s service area. Time Warner Cable Wi-Fi is now available at several Wi-Fi zones in Manhattan and Queens, including several parks and some Long Island Railroad platforms and their respective parking lots in the company’s service area. High-Speed Internet customers of both Time Warner Cable and Cablevision will be able to access free, unlimited Wi-Fi services in each other’s New York City metro service areas, allowing for a fast Internet connection at designated Wi-Fi zones. Time Warner Cable Road Runner customers will have access to Cablevision’s Optimum WiFi network, and Cablevision’s Optimum Online customers will have access to Time Warner Cable Wi-Fi zones when they travel out of their service area. Time Warner Cable’s New York City service area includes Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island, western Brooklyn, Mt. Vernon, parts of the Hudson Valley region, and Bergen and Hudson Counties in New Jersey. Cablevision’s coverage area includes Long Island, parts of New Jersey and Connecticut, Westchester, Rockland, Northern Hudson Valley, the Bronx, and Brooklyn. “Our sophisticated network is a combination of wireless and wireline services, bringing a wide spectrum of products and services to our customers. This free new Wi-Fi option adds another dimension for Road Runner customers, bringing even more convenience,” stated Howard Szarfarc, Executive Vice President of the company’s New York City Region. “Road Runner customers can experience a fast, simple and easy connection from their laptops or portable Wi-Fi-enabled devices in Time Warner Cable Wi-Fi zones, meeting their growing need for mobility.” According to Kevin Curran, Cablevision’s Senior Vice President of Wireless Development, “Optimum WiFi has become a valuable and popular enhancement for our high-speed Internet customers, who appreciate the ability to take their Internet connection ‘to go’ when they are out of the home or office. We are very pleased to help mark the launch of Time Warner Cable Wi-Fi by linking our networks and expanding our customers’ access to fast and free wireless Internet, especially as demand for mobile data continues to increase.” Time Warner Cable Wi-Fi zones include: Eight commuter rail platforms on the Long Island Railroad Port Washington line: Woodside, Flushing Main Street, Murray Hill, Broadway, Auburndale, Bayside, Douglaston, Little Neck; Manhattan: Bryant Park, Madison Square Park and 79th Street Boat Basin; Four parks in Queens: Bowne Park and Kissena Park in Flushing, Baisley Pond Park and Railroad Park in Jamaica. Road Runner customers will also have access to thousands of Cablevision’s Optimum WiFi zones. For a complete listing of Time Warner Cable Wi-Fi zones, visit TimeWarnerCableWiFi.com. A user-friendly Q+A is available on the site too. For a complete listing of Optimum WiFi locations, visit Optimumwifi.com.
Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Wednesday, March 24th, 2010
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Pretty much spot-on, this . There’s an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal that argues that Americans should badger Congress and the president, asking them to hold off on doling out stimulus dollars to electronic medical record systems that don’t have appropriate privacy safeguards in place. As it stands, electronic medial records aren’t exactly sealed—insurance companies can peek at them, as can pharmaceutical companies. So, let’s instead focus on creating an electronic medical record system that’s as foolproof as possible. Slight issue: when is your data, medical or otherwise, ever truly secure? Before I get into this, let the record show that I’m pretty much in full agreement with the op-ed, which was written by a psychiatrist. Thirty-five years on the job gives her a pretty strong leg to stand on. The main argument is that today’s electronic medial records, as set by the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act , are as porous as something porous . High-minded, yes. Not every Joe can see what medicine you’re taking, but in some cases your employer can, or your insurance company can. “What? Johnson’s on Prozac? Keep an eye on him, Mack.” “Will do, boss.” Granted, that’s a Doomsday scenario, but it’s certainly something that can happen given the nature of electronic medical records. So that’s that part of the equation, that electronic medial records as we have them today aren’t fully respectful of the privacy that every patient expects. Here’s the thing, and again I say that I agree with the op-ed: your data is never safe, anywhere. Electronic medical records falling in the hands of, well, anyone other than you and your doctor, is simply par for the course. How many times do we hear of big box merchants losing credit card records? How many times do we hear stories of dumb kids putting comprising photos of themselves on Facebook , then their schools or employers find out? For that matter, how many Facebook accounts have been hacked in recent months? (Ever get a Facebook message from a “friend” saying that he’s stranded in London and needs $2,000 as soon as possible?) How many e-mail and bank accounts are phished every day, creating a complete nightmare for the victim? It’s sorta the nature of electronic data as a thing , that makes it easier for it to fall into the wrong hands. It’s pretty much impossible for The Man to get a hold of your medical records when they’re physically in a safe at your doctor’s office. Unless the insurance company, or your icky boss, Metal Gear Solid s his way into the office, you can pretty much assume that no one untoward is going to see said records. That’s not the case when these records are a mere few keystrokes away from anyone on the planet. Of course, the benefits of electronic medical records are manifest: your primary care physician can zip them on over to the specialist you’re going to see later today in no time at all. Storage costs go way down: how much does it cost to store reams of paper versus a couple of files on a hard drive? I should probbly mention that I haven’t been to a doctor in years, so they might be using robots and dark matter to look at patients these days for all I know. So yeah, it’s tricky. Electronic medical records, by their very nature, as far more easily accessible than paper-based ones. We need to ensure that the proper safeguards are in place before embracing them full steam ahead, while keeping in mind all of the advantages of an electronic system.
Posted by 010081
Tech
Wednesday, March 24th, 2010
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Pretty much spot-on, this . There’s an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal that argues that Americans should badger Congress and the president, asking them to hold off on doling out stimulus dollars to electronic medical record systems that don’t have appropriate privacy safeguards in place. As it stands, electronic medial records aren’t exactly sealed—insurance companies can peek at them, as can pharmaceutical companies. So, let’s instead focus on creating an electronic medical record system that’s as foolproof as possible. Slight issue: when is your data, medical or otherwise, ever truly secure? Before I get into this, let the record show that I’m pretty much in full agreement with the op-ed, which was written by a psychiatrist. Thirty-five years on the job gives her a pretty strong leg to stand on. The main argument is that today’s electronic medial records, as set by the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act , are as porous as something porous . High-minded, yes. Not every Joe can see what medicine you’re taking, but in some cases your employer can, or your insurance company can. “What? Johnson’s on Prozac? Keep an eye on him, Mack.” “Will do, boss.” Granted, that’s a Doomsday scenario, but it’s certainly something that can happen given the nature of electronic medical records. So that’s that part of the equation, that electronic medial records as we have them today aren’t fully respectful of the privacy that every patient expects. Here’s the thing, and again I say that I agree with the op-ed: your data is never safe, anywhere. Electronic medical records falling in the hands of, well, anyone other than you and your doctor, is simply par for the course. How many times do we hear of big box merchants losing credit card records? How many times do we hear stories of dumb kids putting comprising photos of themselves on Facebook , then their schools or employers find out? For that matter, how many Facebook accounts have been hacked in recent months? (Ever get a Facebook message from a “friend” saying that he’s stranded in London and needs $2,000 as soon as possible?) How many e-mail and bank accounts are phished every day, creating a complete nightmare for the victim? It’s sorta the nature of electronic data as a thing , that makes it easier for it to fall into the wrong hands. It’s pretty much impossible for The Man to get a hold of your medical records when they’re physically in a safe at your doctor’s office. Unless the insurance company, or your icky boss, Metal Gear Solid s his way into the office, you can pretty much assume that no one untoward is going to see said records. That’s not the case when these records are a mere few keystrokes away from anyone on the planet. Of course, the benefits of electronic medical records are manifest: your primary care physician can zip them on over to the specialist you’re going to see later today in no time at all. Storage costs go way down: how much does it cost to store reams of paper versus a couple of files on a hard drive? I should probbly mention that I haven’t been to a doctor in years, so they might be using robots and dark matter to look at patients these days for all I know. So yeah, it’s tricky. Electronic medical records, by their very nature, as far more easily accessible than paper-based ones. We need to ensure that the proper safeguards are in place before embracing them full steam ahead, while keeping in mind all of the advantages of an electronic system.
Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Wednesday, March 24th, 2010
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You know all those drones you kids use to rain grim death upon your unfortunate friends in Modern Warfare 2 ? Well, according to an American University law professor’s Congressional testimony, they may be illegal under international law. Of course, they could be totally fine, too, it’s just that nobody really knows for sure. That’s probably not what the U.S. military wants to hear, given how much it has spent, and will spend, on drones. The deal is that the U.S. government has never actually justified, on a legal basis, its use of drones. It has never written a memo, went in front of a Congressional committee, tweeted a quick thought—nothing. The question becomes, OK, at some point you’re going to have to explain the legality of these things, so what’s the hold up? Or, in the words of the professor, one Kenneth Anderson: [Lawyers] have not settled on what the rationales are, and I believe that at some point that ill serves an administration which is embracing this. Now, maybe the answer is: This is really terrible and illegal and anybody that does it should go off to the Hague. But if that’s the case, then we should not be having the president saying that this is the greatest thing since whatever. That seems like a bad idea. Hmm, you’d think the government would have cleared that up before deploying all of those drones… It gets better! It’s cool and all when the U.S. military has a monopoly on drone technology, but what happens when a proper rival gets a hold of them? Do we, as Americans, want to straddle this line of legality ad infinitum, then find out that Rival Country now has ‘em, too? We occasionally write about drones because they’re quite neat: the amount of engineering and research and development that goes into drones is well worth any tech fan’s attention, if only for a moment. Maybe by the time Modern Warfare 13: Still Fighting comes out, the legal status of drones would have been cleared up.
Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010
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Gigabyte’s USB 3.0-capable motherboards have gone platinum, as they say in the record biz. Gigabyte announced that it has shipped 1 million USB 3.0 motherboards, giving them 1/3 of the overall USB 3.0 market share worldwide. Henry Kao, Senior Vice President, Motherboard Business Unit, Gigabyte, told MaximumPC, “Reaching the 1 million USB 3.0 products mark is a testament to Gigabyte’s strategy of innovating for the high-end product category, and then driving those innovations down through our product line quicker than our competitors in order to boost sales volumes.” This is a landmark number to be reached, and a signifier of Gigabyte’s rising stock with aficionados. Besides, who would be caught dead using USB 2.0?
Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Monday, March 15th, 2010
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Apparently there was some sort of media summit in Abu Dhabi recently, and a big topic of discussion was copyright infringement. (I think we need to reserve the word “piracy” for actual, sea-faring piracy, not kids grabbing the random Sublime song off LimeWire.) Rupert Murdoch called on governments to stop copyright infringers, asking them to punish them as they would shoplifters. I guess Murdoch doesn’t understand the different between theft and copyright infringement. And Ari Emmanuel , Rahm Emmanuel ’s brother (and the inspiration for the Entourage character Ari ), has been lobbying President Obama to implement some sort of three-strikes policy, like they have in France . France! A couple things: one, I’m pretty sure President Obama is a little busy trying to get some sort of healthcare law passed; the concerns of Hollywood bigshots aren’t exactly on his radar right now. Two, we’re beginning to enter the next election cycle, so Congress is going to be on its tippy toes trying not to offend anybody or do much of anything . It’s sorta like laying low come 3pm Friday, so your boss doesn’t saddle you with a last-minute assignment that’ll keep you at the office one longer that you need to be. Congress is busy doing nothing, in other words. As for Murdoch: whatever, dude. I think my government has more important things to do than track down high schoolers who download an episode of 24. At least I hope it does!
Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Friday, March 12th, 2010
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Hello John Biggs – I would like to be the CrunchGear intern. At 28 years of age I’d probably be the oldest, creepiest intern that CrunchGear has ever hired. That being said, I don’t look a day past 26. I should also tell you that I’m taller than most people so I would be good at seeing over smaller, scrawnier geeks at trade shows. Although since I’m so old, I’d probably get tired at around noon. Those words began the e-mail I sent on May 31st, 2007, in response to a post titled Desperately Seeking CrunchGear Intern . I ended the e-mail by saying, “Thanks for your time and I’ll be floored if I hear back from you…” And I was floored. I was truly floored. Up until that point, gadget blogs were a read-only affair for me. I was on the outside looking in, thinking how insanely wonderful it’d be to write about gadgets for a living. My dream job–absolutely, 100% my dream job. Little did I know it’d turn into a nightmare. Just kidding. It has been, continues to be, and will always be a dream job for me. I can honestly tell you that there hasn’t been a single day I’ve woken up and wished I didn’t have to go to work. I hope that’s come through in my 4,036 posts here. In that spirit, I want to make it clear that I’m not leaving for any reason other than having perpetual, ever-present, non-STD-related ants in my pants. I made it almost three years at CrunchGear, which is longer than I’ve made it anywhere else. I truly loved my time here. Those of you who have been reading CrunchGear for a while may recall that one of my favorite games in the whole wide world is SimCity 3000. I look at my work here as a city I’ve been building for a while. It’s big, it’s sprawling, and I’ve used up every tile of space. It’s beautiful and I love it, but it’s time to start working on a new city. My CrunchGear city isn’t perfect by any means, but I’ll hopefully use what I’ve learned here to build another great city. I’ll be joining fellow CrunchGear alumnus Peter Ha over at Techland , where I’ve been doing weekly video reviews for a while. He made me an offer I couldn’t refuse, the timing seemed right, and I can promise you that what I’ll be doing over there won’t be all that different from what I’ve been doing here. There will be more videos, more weird “what is this doing on a gadget blog?” types of posts, and more bright blue instead of bright orange. I can’t thank the readers here or my fellow writers enough. Words couldn’t possibly express how grateful I am to be doing what I’m doing but, as a writer, I should probably try. To the readers: I love you guys. You’ve made me a much better writer. You’ve taught me the importance of thorough research, the importance of trying to keep straight-up news posts non-biased, and the importance of keeping my videos short and entertaining. I’m sure there are a few of you who may be happy to see me go but I hope there are more of you who have felt like you’ve gotten your money’s worth from me. Readers are absolutely the lifeblood of any good site and I tried to keep that idea at the forefront of my mind during my time here. To the writers: You guys are hands down the best crew I’ve ever worked with. It takes a special kind of crazy to work here—long hours, frozen budgets, stolen coverage, miles upon miles of trade shows, exploding live blogs, worn out keyboards, and wondering if what you do for a living really makes an actual difference in the grand scheme of things. I can tell you that what you do does, indeed, matter because I still remember what it was like to be a reader. And a big, big, big thanks to John for turning me from a reader into a writer. I’m going to miss this place terribly, but I’m excited for what’s next. Thanks for the memories, everyone. I’ll leave you, if you don’t mind, with some of my firsts and favorites: Firsts! First post ever: WiiWare: New Indie Wii Shop Channel Games in 2008 First scuffle I got into with a reader, who it turns out owned the site I was bad-mouthing: Old Crap-Ass Phones That Cost Way Too Much First big-boy interview: Interview With Acer President Gianfranco Lanci First post that made me truly skeptical of PR and marketing: Who Else Got Burned By An ‘End Of Summer’ Promise? First on-camera video review: Samsung Juke review First live podcast: Live CrunchGear podcast today at 1:00 PM, Eastern Favorites! Recommendation Rescinded: Comcast’s TiVo interface How come nobody told me about the Dallas airport? Review: Keychain Breathalyzer + Flashlight All About Linux 2008: Great Moments in Linux History Line for Boston Apple Store stretches four city blocks Video Review: Flip Mino digital camcorder Two Boston-area magicians involved in bar brawl, each sustains massive loss of hit points Sweater Friends Real Bigfoot carcass to be shown this Friday…or not Review: Penguin Home Soda Maker CrunchFail: Doug and Greg crash and burn at Rock Band challenge Blogger frustrated with iMovie, sees man on Segway Review: Health Energy Potion Video Review: Snuggie Blanket Smittens: World’s dumbest mittens Video Review: Batter Blaster pancakes in a can Simpsons ‘Comic Book Guy’ apparently selling lawn darts now MIT’s EurekaFest showcases high school students’ problem-solving prototypes Review: WristOffice mobile device holder An open letter to the creator of the pretzel dog Breath-based glucose sensor developed (and why it may never make it to market) Ah, good times. Thanks again for the memories, CrunchGear. Don’t be a stranger.
Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Monday, March 8th, 2010
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What is it with the last three letters of the alphabet? Why aren’t the letters STU more popular? We have the Sony Z-series and now what amounts to the LG X-series. Anyway, this wee laptop is only 17.5mm thick and weighs 2 pounds, which makes it considerably smaller than the Z-series. Standard specs: a 2GHz processor, 11.6-inch screen, and a 1.3-megapixel webcame. X-citing! No US availability right now. It is, as so many things are, Asia-only. SEOUL, Mar. 7, 2010 –LG Electronics (LG), a global leader and technology innovator in mobile communications, today announced the launch of the LG X300, the ultra-thin premium mobile PC. Its sleek and stylish look wowed the visitors at CES 2010 in Las Vegas. “Given how demanding and discerning consumers are nowadays, we were delighted to receive such acclaim from the public and media at the CES for our new mobile PC,” said Dr. Skott Ahn, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “It’s a vindication of LG’s efforts to maintain the very highest standards in design without any sacrifices in high-tech or functionality, and ensure our consumers’ experiences with LG PCs just keep getting better.” The LG X300, LG’s new flagship mobile computing device for 2010, tips the scales at a mere 970g and is only 17.5mm thick for the ultimate in portability. What’s more, the LG X300 boasts an array of enticing design features. The sleek but wide 11.6-inch LCD screen maximizes the viewing area by eschewing a bezel. Also, its unique reflective keyboard and borderless touchpad add further elegance to this premium mobile PC. To offer the complete package for the most style-conscious users, the LG X300 comes in two colors, shiny white and light brown. Fitted with a 2.0 GHz Intel Menlow platform with up to 2GB memory and 128GB SSD, the LG X300 runs Windows 7 Home Premium OS and ships with a spare 2-cell battery to provide up to seven hours of use. Thanks to its fan-less, silent operation, the portable PC is also extremely quiet to run, while the LG Smart Pack – LG’s smartest software suite for PC users – ensures the LG X300 is easy to use, even for novices. The LG X300 packs multimedia features including a 1.3-megapixel webcam with a You-Cam viewer, and SRS TruSurround HD sound. And thanks to an embedded 3G modem chipset, users can easily get online via GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, or HSDPA networks. The LG X300 will be available in Asia starting in March, followed by the Middle East and South America. Prices will vary country-to-country and will be announced separately in each market.
Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Saturday, March 6th, 2010
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Located at the MIT-owned One Broadway Street building in Kendall Square, Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC) houses more than 175 companies in over 100,000 square feet of office space and prices everything per person, so smaller companies can add more space as they grow. There are no long-term leases, either–it’s all month to month. I had a chance to take a tour with Cambridge Innovation Center CEO Tim Rowe. The CIC website says that pricing varies and “a good rule of thumb is that the price range is between $790 and $1000 per month per person.” I soon found out that there are more affordable options available, and that there are plenty of nice extras included in the price. There’s a Google-like abundance of free food, coffee, and tea, and CIC even retains one of Google’s massage therapists (massages aren’t free, but CIC doesn’t mark up the prices ). Internet access is also free, backed by an “enterprise-class Wi-Fi solution” (dual-band, 802.11n) from Ruckus Wireless . “The kitchens are for everybody,” said Rowe. “Everything’s included, it’s free. There’s Dove bars in the freezer, the produce is all organic, there’s sparkling water, espresso, whatever. You’re gonna work, you should be comfortable, you should be happy. You should just chill and enjoy yourself. The hope is that if you’re enjoying yourself you’ll be more productive.” True to the startup spirit, there are showering rooms. So bike to work, shower, pull an all-nighter, shower, and repeat. There’s also a nursing room for mothers with newborns. “We have people on eight floors and we just had a groundbreaking the other day with the governor and the president of MIT for another 57,000 square feet of space, so there’s going to be a lot more startups here,” said Rowe. “We’ve got shower rooms, a massage therapy room, we’re putting in a ping pong room in the new space. Basically just like you would have in your own office, except you don’t actually need the ping pong room all the time if you’re one startup and you don’t really want to pay for that space, so if you could share that cost with a lot of other people that’s better. That’s the model here.” “We have spaces for little companies. These are basically one-person companies,” said Rowe, motioning to a bank of smaller offices. “So you get one desk, locked file cabinet, and a phone. This is a lot cheaper, like $500 a month, and when you get bigger you might move into a bigger office at around $750 per desk per month.” I asked Rowe if they take anyone or if there’s some sort of vetting process. He replied, “We take essentially anyone. If there was an integrity issue or something like that, then that would be a problem but we don’t have a ‘we have to like your startup’ kind of thing.” “We also have this little section called Flex Space,” Rowe continued, “It’s $375 a month and you have a phone here and a mailing address here, but you can only work here one day a week. So it’s for someone who might be in a lab at MIT and they’re starting a business while they’re at the university. You can’t legally have your company in a lab at MIT. It has to have its own outside address, and if you’re not careful with that then MIT can assert that it owns everything that your company has. You definitely want to have someplace where you can say, ‘Oh, I actually have an office here. That’s where I made that.” So that’s what the Flex Space is for.” Some tiny company called Linden Lab has a huge office here. They’re working on something called Second Life. I don’t think it’ll take off, but that’s just me. Ha! Rowe explained, “One of the things they do in this office is, literally, the weather—the rippling of the waves, the clouds in the sky, stuff like that. It’s very high tech. And they’re usually having a ball in there.” Other current and former companies include Ambient Devices, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, New Atlantic Ventures, Carbonite, Conduit Labs, Hubspot, GreatPoint Energy, and plenty more. CIC-affiliated companies have raised over a billion dollars in the past ten years. Plenty of venture capital companies rent office space in the CIC, so startups are always in pretty close proximity to the types of people they’re trying to woo. “We have venture funds here,” said Rowe. “This is the conference room for New Atlantic Ventures—full disclosure, I have a part time venture partner with this fund. You can check them out on The Funded , it’s the number one ranked venture fund in the country.” “How much funding has gone into the companies here?” I asked. “We’ve tracked about $1.1 billion worth of venture funds going into the companies here so far,” replied Rowe. “And how much of that funding comes from venture funds working in this building?” I asked. “It’s surprisingly small,” answered Rowe. “I would say, like, five percent of that. The venture funds that are based here invest everywhere, not just here. And lots of venture funds elsewhere invest here. That’s the way we like it. If you’re a startup, you want to go to anybody for funding. And if you’re a VC, you’re going to invest in whatever the things are that you particularly like, not just things that happen to be down the hall.” “There are multiple competing VCs here. In fact, we have office hours here for various VC funds. Over the next 12 weeks we’re going to have 12 different funds—one each week—doing their office hours here. So it’s what you’d expect. It’s a very open platform. Anybody can talk to anybody. We’re opening the office hours to the public during the window of time when those are happening, which is Thursdays 2PM to 5PM. We’re not making it really public, we’re not advertising it or anything, but we’re tweeting it so people who are in the venture community and want to run into other entrepreneurs know that this is where it’s happening.” For those who aren’t quite to the we-need-an-office stage yet but are tired of working from home and coffee shops, CIC just opened the Cambridge Coworking Center . For $250 per month, you have access to just about everything the CIC has to offer except a private desk, landline, and physical mailbox. Said Rowe, “This is C3, the Cambridge Coworking Center. It’s part of us. It’s a different model. As you can see here, you have your little cubby. It’s $250 a month, so it’s half the price of what you saw upstairs. It’s kind of like a library/reading room feel. There’s no phone on the desks, so you’re going to use your cell phone which most of us do anyway. There’s no mailing address. It’s not about pretending to be here when you’re not, this is actually ‘I want to go somewhere to work,’ and by stripping some of those pieces out it makes it cheaper for us, and we’re able to offer it for a price that’s unbelievably low compared to what people would normally expect.” “I would say that the reason people come here is mostly for community,” continued Rowe. “If you’re working out of your house, it’s an isolating experience. Starbucks is an interesting alternative, but it’s a different group of people every time—what they call a third place. It’s not home, it’s not work, it’s a place which is intentionally to be around random people. But the second place—the work place—what it’s distinguished by is a consistent group of other people. So you get there in the morning you’re like, ‘Hey, how are you doing? How are the kids? I heard you went skiing last weekend,’ that kind of stuff. You don’t get that at Starbucks because it’s not a consistent group of people. “And it’s very loud,” I said. “It’s loud and you feel like you’re taking up a table and you’re not really supposed to be working there all the time. You’re supposed to be working here and it comes with the free coffee. If you do the math on what it costs you to work consistently out of cafes over the course of a month, it’s probably about the same cost as it is here.” Cambridge Innovation Center [cictr.com]