So you mainly work for yourself, or work out-of-office on a laptop, quite often not from home because staying at home means you keep knicking off to tune your car or do the washing - you've got some serious work todo.

Welcome to the world of the web-developer, mainly - structural and database developers. Your nights are long and the bullshit is high, but the trade-off is that you can do your business anywhere at anytime, it's all about how you manage it.

Im the first to admit, I really should listen to my own advice - but here's a few things i reckon help when you've gotta get out of the house and get some work done.

• The days of advertising campaigns saying you can sit on a beach with your laptop are bullshit, this has never ever happened and never will.
• Head for a cafe with couches but ones that arent too deep, you'll end up with a terrible back.
• These days most cafe's offer free net access via wi-fi because it's just too hard to manage everyone with their WEP key etc, WEP networks for cafe's end up a big support issue, so they usually just open the network to full and trim down the power of the antenna so it stays local
• Dont get sucked into buying lots of coffee and other items, but remember to be polite and buy the odd drink to keep your costs covered, most of the price you pay per-hour to use a desktop is just covering the cost of that machine, keep your recipts for drinks etc, maybe you can claim them as taxable items?
• Use your own laptop, public machines arent a breeding ground for all sorts of nasty viruses just waiting to glean your information
• Head for cafe's that offer a relaxing atmosphere without heaps of distractions (avoid overly noisey music that changes alot, pole dancers etc)
• keep a -close- eye on your goods, even if you dart off to the toilet for a second (this is also related to not drinking too many late's as it makes you pee a lot and hence more time away from your stuff) - unless you're prepared to pack it all up into your backpack and unpack it every hour, dont rely on the barstaff to keep an eye on ya stuff, they will probably knick it too if you're not careful!
• Build a repore with the barstaff, they are now your "work buddies" and will cater to your needs.

Good places to nerd in melbourne CBD

The workshop bar

The workshop crnr elizabeth and a'becket st Melbourne near Jaycar, Originally a motorbike workshop is an excellent place to nerd at, big table out the top/front is usually packed with like minded laptop nerds but also couches, coffee etc etc.

Can get busy at night times so best avoided on the usual beer-guzzling times, no comment on the coffee here as i hadnt had one yet from here but refere to my previous post about coffee.
Currently playing radiohead - Planet telex
WiFi type - open access no wep, seems to be about 512kb symmetrical free just buy a drink

E55 - 55 Elizabeth st

e55 bar down on elizabeth st, think the same dude who runs workshop runs this one, in a basement, usually uni students, has a row of public machines and wifi
wifi type - unsure

Black Cat brunswick st

WiFi type - open access no wep, free just buy a drink, tho doesnt seem to work with my wifi card so im not sure, pretty busy on the evenings but chilled enough during the day to get some nerding done.