One thing I got my first crack at over the weekend was the actual practice of Wi-Fi-in'. (The picture comes from a Free WiFi hotspot list site.)

While I have had WiFi in my home for years now I only recently got a laptop that can truly take advantage of it on the road. I brought it to Nashville with me.

Wi-Fi'-in means opening up the box, booting up, and hoping for an unsecured 802.11 connection you can log into. It's best done in a city, preferably close to a University campus. But don't expect to do this on the campus itself -- most college systems these days are secured, at least by passwords.

It was amazing to me how lost and alone I felt when I couldn't find a free spot around me. My hotel advertised the service, but during the day the radio waves couldn't reach my room. (This is a fact of life with radio -- the bands are all more crowded during the day.) As I noted the campus where I was hanging on Friday had their access password-protected, and I'm not into breaking-and-surfing (yet).

But all was not lost. I was about to learn a powerful lesson.

I was surprised, eating a late lunch at a Panera Bread (which advertises its place as a Wi-Fi-'in place, and does indeed have good bread) at just how concentrated the service is becoming. There were a half-dozen networks within reach of the store I was in, and some were (like Panera's own) free and open.

Which puts a new spin on the recent piece I did on WiFi being a real estate business. A paid hotspot operator sitting next to a free hotspot does no business, and if that free guy's antenna is within range of the paid hotspot there's little that can be done. Legally. For now.

One other point I learned from my fellow bloggers. Those who live in the country and, thus, use cellular as their only phone access (because the phone companies want to charge full price to run wires these days) were far more likely to have cellular broadband cards with them, and were downright smug in using them, especially when sitting with us Wi-Fi-'in folks out of reach of a Wi-Fi antenna. That's how I learned Giacomo won the Kentucky Derby, when a Colonel opened his cellular connection at a bar outside the invisible border.

I still wonder what might be done later, especially as Bell networks like Verizon get going with the paid technology and look to close out competitors, as they've done elsewhere.

For now, I'm a pretty happy camper. And I can't wait to do some Wi-Max'in, perhaps in a year or two.