Starting mid-January 2010, McDonalds will be offering free wireless Internet access at 11,000 of its 14,000 fast-food joints. Whether it will be 'gated' via some kind of time code on your receipt, or really free remains to be seen.

This opens a scarily interesting kettle of filet-o-fish: is this service going to be firewalled? Will usage be monitored? If the service is totally free -- as in, you can just walk in and boot up your netbook -- will McDonalds become the new Starbucks? (OK, this might be pushing it a little, but someone at McDonalds must've had a similar idea.)