i realize the point the author is trying to make in microbrew and there’s a big part of me that agrees with it:
“If you, an average caffeine consumer, see your peers enjoying “an even better in-store experience” and “shopping online while enjoying their beverage,” as the press release predicts, won’t you want get on board, too? Won’t you want to feel the rush of a million blinking gadgetry advertisements, the miniscule text scrolling across your pager telling you that you got that house, the smart snap of the Enter key being hit? To get all those non-geeks thinking that it’s fun to get online when they’re not at work, that it’s okay to incorporate the Internet into every aspect of their lives, Microsoft has to demonstrate its wares in a safe, non-threatening, non-technical environment. What better place to begin, then, than amid the tasteful lighting and woody hues of a Starbucks, conveniently located on every single corner of every single American city?”
on the other hand there’s still something warm and narcotic thinking about walking into starbucks and ordering a large cup of coffee and getting connected to a fat pipe.
of course, in my fantasy the pipe is freer than what you’ll find at starbucks and the coffee is more like what you might find at peet’s.