The world’s last internet cafes
restofworld.org
restofworld.org
Generally the internet is filtered, and the screens are visible to passers-by, so this isn't a way to access verboten material - it's just for getting stuff done.
It's by choice. Those who do wish to access frowned-upon-things generally find a way to do so without too much trouble.
This seems like a feature for Haredim. Otherwise, being seen entering one would make people assume you were up to hanky-panky.
Passers-by would know instantly if a fellow was viewing a porn video, but taxes and banking consist of a bunch of small, irrelevant numbers. If passers-by are polite, then none of them will be lingering long enough to get in one another's business. Just shoo them away.
Do they not have any electronic devices at all? Why is internet not OK but some other stuff is?
But there's no issue with flip-phones, modern cars (including EV[1]), e-scooters, kitchen gadgets, and so on.
I should also point out that there's a continuum - in most communities internet access at home is acceptable as long as it's filtered. Smartphones are looked upon as worse than home internet access, mainly because they're easier to manage without.
[1] Teslas are a particular problem, because they have a web browser and nobody has found a way to disable it yet.
Not because they don't have computers and internet at home, but because they don't have overpowered gaming computers at home, and to socialize.
Although I did like the picture in this article with old guys in Hong Kong playing mah-jong in gaming chairs - more of that please? Do we need computers to play games with each other in a comfortable room with refreshments? Could somebody turn the lights on?
I used to frequent one of these in Boston. The target market was primarily Asian students attending American universities, who didn't have powerful gaming PCs or who left theirs at home. I went there to try out some of the more popular games like Overwatch and League of Legends, because I didn't want to gum up my PC with whatever spyware/copy-protection malware the gaming companies saw fit to install.
It was super amazing, more than a typical arcade experience, because you got encased in this cabinet with all the controls your body could handle, to run a gigantic MechWarrior with/against all your closest friends.
We went in a fairly large group. I don't recall the capacity of the game or the LAN, but obviously limited by number of rather expensive pods. It was exciting, but also really confusing to me: I didn't know the controls, the environment, or the object, and so I just sort of flailed and listened to my friends yelling and shouting, until time expired.
It cost an arm and a leg to play, and I lost right away. But for about 30 seconds, it was amazing!
Gaming cafés are great, exactly for the reasons you mention. Moreover, everything is preinstalled so you don't waste time setting things up or downloading gigabytes of patches. And they usually have food and drink options, events and tournaments, etc. Hopefully they will continue to expand in the US.
The larger-scaled "LAN gaming centers" look pretty cool as well. MMOs and large-scale games are really fun to play when everyone is in the same room. Consoles are a nice addition too; 8-12 player LAN Mario Kart (for example) takes a lot of hardware and time to set up on your own, but it is a lot of fun to play.
I spent way too much time and money in Internet cafes in my 20s. I remember there was a coin operated kiosk in the admins office of staff housing in Lake Louise (a ski resort). I probably spent half my wages feeding in coins to mostly browse Slashdot. I also have fond memories of one internet cafe in Queenstown, NZ. All the PCs were running Debian and you could just open up the terminal and trivially reset the timer by echoing a new start time into some file. No one ever seemed to notice that I only paid for 30 minutes and sat there for hours on end!
Libraries often hold classes to teach basics to the elderly. They often have a tech support desk for all computer questions. They not only have public, timed terminals, but they also have great WiFi and anyone can bring in a notebook or phone instead. Mine has a few charging stations with lots of cables.
My sister moved to a new house somewhere around 2018 and didn't bother with a new PC or a laptop, because she found what she does everything from the phone. Nephew still has a proper desktop PC because he is playing games.
My mother, who were adamant on getting the nephew's old PC when he upgraded the last time, doesn't have it booted up in, I think, years.
Occasionally I personally meet people who doesn't have a proper PC (be it a desktop or laptop) at home at all.
People who were born in 2005 are adults now and could have the whole Internet and computer experience through the phones/tablets only.
I know, I wonder how they manage to be productive though. For consuming content it's done but trying to do anything productive on a phone is a chore. Even on a tablet with keyboard.
Everything else can be done on the smartphone with the web and apps.
Like write a long email or a story, making a spreadsheet to compare finances etc.
I mean those things can technically be done these days but it's a total PITA and it's much slower than on a real computer.
The number of people who budget or look at finance beyond "does my bank app show I still have money" is frighteningly high.
Of my family including parents, ignoring small children, the number who have a computer is something like 2 out of 6.
Only because you know. For them it's just another day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxbBF1AI8Hg
easy-everything internet for next to nothing Stelios Haji-Ioannou 15June2000
Amsterdam culture and miscellaneous, gastronomy, events, parties, about what happened in Amsterdam in the Kleurnet Television Amsterdam period 1997-2001. Kleurnet was a channel of Luc Sala and the foundation Kleurnet (Farouk, Ooijens) and put its archives on YouTube. Stelios' internet cafe in Amsterdam collapsed after a short time.
https://tweakers.net/nieuws/19393/easyeverything-sluit-amste...
>EasyEverything closes Amsterdam internet cafes
>The website of the Automatiseringgids states that EasyEverything wants to sell various internet cafes in Europe. In addition to the branches in Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels, Munich and Madrid, this also includes the two branches in Amsterdam.
>The company of the Greek Stelios Haji-Ionnaou, who is also the founder of EasyJet and EasyRentaCar, is looking for franchisees who want to take over the internet cafes. The reason for getting rid of the internet cafes is the economic recession. EasyEverything will keep its offices in London, New York and Paris.
>Anonymous: 23081 December 1, 2001 6:55 PM
>EasyEverything closes, a normal result of their policy. Own fault, big bump
>The Antwerp EasyEverything is also closed. In the past, the cyber cafe was opened in Antwerp. One could always surf 4 hours for 50bef (at night even 5 hours with 50bef), the CHEAPEST method in Belgium to surf. snail modem 56k costs 45+bef per hour. So the cybercafe is ALWAYS FULL. One could 24/24 NAPSTER and burn CDs for 50bef. So for 100bef (download 5 hours + burn your CD's) you have an illegal CD. At night many young people come to surf and party, later they start throwing TFT screens, mice and keyboards were also good projectiles.
>Some months later. Complete ban on MP3, NAPSTER and music CD burning. Napster was blocked by firewalls. CD burning costs 200bef excluding disc. Surfing costs 50beef for half an hour. Everyone MUST have an identity card copied and registered. Then the cyber cafe empties. Then bankrupt...
>Economy has NOTHING to do with the business, only their KUT policy, as long as you stay cheap and illegal then it goes very well.
>What do you expect when you INCREASE PRICE 10x and DOWNLOAD RESTRICTIONS.
>}:O running is not possible, if you log off then those computers will do AUTO-RESET, then download a hard disk image from the server.