I’m curious. I keep choosing not to install IE7, and not to be asked about it again, but Windows Update goes away, then, in that referendum-esque way, asks me the same question over and over again, presumably until it wears me down and gets the answer it wants. Thus far, the record on one of my machines is that I’ve had to say no six times.

Can anyone beat that?

It’s been brought to my attention that I might - whisper it - be a bit of a train bore. Which is a pity, as I was about to regail you with the tale of trying to watch Brokeback Mountain on a laptop in the middle of Virgin standard class. But, not wishing to be dull, I’ll save that one now.

Instead, how about hotels? Granted, I’ve been down this road before, but it’s absolutely staggering how few hotels are offering good, reliable wireless access. I’ve spent the last few months doing a travel tour of some of London’s, er, finest, and have now concluded, after some early optimism, that I’m either being fleeced, or wi-fi is being put in hotels by people who don’t know how to work it. There’s an exception or two, of course.

The worse case? A very friendly, reasonable little place, that actively advertised wireless Internet access on their website. ‘Great’, though I, reaching for the plastic and taking the plunge. Sadly, nobody had bothered to check if it worked anywhere other than the ground floor, and their workable idea of good wireless access involved me sitting in the dining room with a laptop.

As it stands, I’m left in the corner of Starbucks far more often than I’d like - particularly with their sickly Christmas drinks (the toffee nut latte is not recommended) - helping to fund T-Mobile with a wireless service that takes me to Google Germany whenever I hit Home. Great. Never watched Brokeback Mountain there, though…