Well done chaps, we've all been installing wireless routers like Billio, usage in London soared by 156% in the second half of 2007 and now London is the Wi-Fi capital of the world. Choc ices all round.

Do you remember what it used to be like in the pre-Wi-Fi days when you wanted to be on the internet and in your garden at the same time? You needed an ethernet cable longer than Dixons would provide. You had to turn to the black market where squat, grey skinned men in long raincoats would peddle you a 10m cable in return for use of your residents' parking vouchers.

If you wanted to take your laptop to a cafe, you had to trail the cable down the street. People tripped over it. We said sorry out of courtesy, but didn't mean it. It wasn't our fault. It is integral to the dignity of mankind that one must be able to read his or her emails in a public place. It is a freelancer's human right that he or she should not have to tidy their own boxroom office and should be able to use a cramped corner of Costa Coffee as a workplace. Back then, using the internet on a train involved hundreds of miles of cable and a 70ft high iron spool. Greasing that spool was the bane of our lives. Bloody spool.

They were dark days, friends, dark days.

Image taken from Jem's flickr photostream.