In what is a sure sign that the economy is in a downfall, Starbucks is closing 600 of its more than 7,000 corporate-owned stores in the United States. As reported by Northwest Cable News, many of the stores scheduled for closure were opened close to other Starbucks stores.

I guess that leaves a few less Conference Room S locations in which to use WiFi. Unfortunately, we don't yet know which stores are on the chopping block. However, stores that opened within the past few years seem to be at higher risk for closure.

Speaking of WiFi at Starbucks, I went to one of three actual Starbucks stores in Gig Harbor today-the other three are inside grocery stores-and saw both T-Mobile and AT&T WiFi SSID. I tried using both portals-the AT&T one is only for AT&T customers, T-Mobile customers and others use the T-Mobile SSID. The service seemed to work ok, though I've heard complaints about some converted AT&T locations in the past.