I was a regular at Ritual back when they covered the plugs. I recall:
1) Most people there were either blogging, checking email, surfing myspace and craigslist, or doing the newfangled Rails thing. The machines were 90% Macs.
2) The place was cooled by opening the back door and turning on a big floor fan. On hot days, this lowered the temperature from unbearable to merely very hot.
In your hypothetical air conditioned coffee shop where everyone is playing WoW on behemoth laptops, $500/month incurred by laptops is possible. But for Ritual Roasters circa 2004, definitely not.
(btw, I thought it was a fantastic idea when they covered up the plugs)
1) Most people there were either blogging, checking email, surfing myspace and craigslist, or doing the newfangled Rails thing. The machines were 90% Macs.
2) The place was cooled by opening the back door and turning on a big floor fan. On hot days, this lowered the temperature from unbearable to merely very hot.
In your hypothetical air conditioned coffee shop where everyone is playing WoW on behemoth laptops, $500/month incurred by laptops is possible. But for Ritual Roasters circa 2004, definitely not.
(btw, I thought it was a fantastic idea when they covered up the plugs)