While I agree with you in general, I protest your reference to the interview with the co-founder of Greenpeace. Nowhere in his article did I find the words "idiot", "fringe", "democrat", "party", "morons", "kooky", "wack" or "jobs". Perhaps you meant to reference another article?

Every coffee shop and airport I go to has free Wi-Fi. (And a lot of bars too.) But it's in infrastructure mode and named after the establishment. I think the explanation is economic; that it's an incentive for you to come in and buy their stuff.

You are either a really fast walker or that train is really slow. Maybe if you read while you're walking, it'll take an hour.

SMS was just a stopgap service before they started Internet-enabling phones. Now that most new phones support e-mail, why bother texting? E-mail is cheaper and can use the same interface.