Thursday, September 9th "The temperatures and my connection speed go up; WiFi arrives in Sevilla?"

We returned to Sevilla in late August with less than hot temperatures, at least by Sevilla's standards. We enjoyed several days of cool temperatures, hovering in the upper 20's and lower 30's (celsius) and it was actually quite nice to walk around during siesta. The temperatures are on the rise again and I'm not the only one who is longing for fall and even the rain. So we've returned to our summer schedule of spending as much of midday indoors as possible and heading out after 9pm. Soon, so very soon, this will all be over and we will be longing for spring in no time.

Speaking of numbers rising I received a call today from Telefonica confirming the rumors I had heard earlier. The connection speed of everyone's ADSL will rise from 256K to 512K starting the end of September. The even better news is that there will be no rise in cost of service. That's a good thing considering I'm being charged 39€ per month for my 256K connection which really only putters along at 190K. I know it's light years better than a modem but as I work online the 190K just doesn't cut it. I'm also excited to try out the NCAA tournament games in March now that the speed should mean watching games with less frame-freezing action. For watching the games - if all continues to go well with money - I may just fork over a bit and get connected to Sky satellite for the coveted NASN, or North American Sports Network. That's a long way off, though, and I am getting off topic I guess.

Back on topic was the arrival of Wi-fi in Sevilla somewhere other than workplaces and homes. While I'm not not thrilled with the place, Starbuck's offered Wi-fi for a brief amount of time. However, according to Eric over at Discoversevilla.com they had problems and have since removed the system. No word on whether it will be coming back. So the coffee marketed and brought to you by "a heartless multi-national corporation" (quoting The Simpson's) also happens to be the first to offer a service that's long overdue and then take it away.