Wi-Fi memories

I’m in the process of setting up a new laptop and I’m doing a “clean install”, rather than use Migration Assistant, manually copying across what I want to keep. While it will be nice to leave behind a lot of cranky cruft that’s built up over at least 14 years of fiddling with the past two laptops, there’s one thing I can’t transfer that I will miss.

If I open System Preferences and, in the Wi-Fi pane, click the “Advanced…” button, I can scroll through a list of “Preferred Networks”. Somehow, a few of these networks are also listed on my new laptop but most of them don’t and never will be.

It’s only a list of Wi-Fi networks. It’s neither critical data nor treasured family memories. And yet so many of these networks’ names are reminders of holidays and workplaces and friends’ homes. Names of zones that lie invisibly across physical spaces where invisible memories were created.

The names alone are evocative, reminding me of the people I shared those events, spaces, times and internet with. Maybe not names like the industrially-generated ZyXELB419D6 and PLUSNET-9HPTRK but the others are like flipping back through diaries or photo albums.

And so, while I think of it, and before I wipe clean this old laptop, here are the memories of the places it holds:

roveriswiv
Wigwam WiFi
Libraries Wi-Fi Service
Barbican Free Wifi
Tate
Connect Ventures
Matt’s iPhone
John-Lewis-WiFi-by-BTOpenzone
SHED
Coffee@
CitAHome
Nomad
Hotel Clemens Guests
Edinbane Inn WiFi
Salvation Jane
SFO-WiFi
Georgie’s World
clw-ap
507BJHb
World of Magic and Wonder
RedEyedFly
BERG
Makerversity_5G
Ritual Roasters
Halcyon
reboot
RIG
Bookpeople
Cabinn Public WiFi
Hide&Seek
Disco Baby Sexy Baby Hot!!!
MakieLab Public
RIG Fast
MoreHomeSlice
Citizens Advice Guest
dConstruct
GFnS
CentrePompidou
eastcoast-wifi
Mv_maproom_2G
WholeFoodsMarket
The Ginger Man
JosCoffee
Mv_Maproom_5G
Cafe sia free
noisebridge
Gueros
CornerBakeryWiFi
SXSW09
cafecoho1
Ambrose Guest
Manolo Cafe
AirBears
Maxfield
Halcyon Cafe
Mason&Taylor
Dome Auditorium
wifi Centre Pompidou access libre
Fix Coffee
Berg
DoTank
ETech
TheDiner
ScotRail free wifi
Shorefield-Guest
The_Temple_Bar_Inn
ShoreditchWorksHoxton
~unionsquarewifi~
holcroftextreme
SanJose
British Museum Wifi
Shednet
TimHelenAndRossWifi
BERG Guest
Seren-Guest
Ramada Limited San Jose
dogtown
RIG Not as Fast
Futurefest Tech
ALISON_HOUSE
bergcloud
eduroam
Copenhagen Airports
SXSW2010
Philz Coffee
Amys Soco
Glen Rowan Cafe
Trace Computers
BRIG Guest
Berg 5GHz
sjcfreewifi
Premier Inn
Ritual Roasters
Interstellar Overdrive
ALICE-WLAN89
crema_coffee