Gather around, little boys and girls, and let me tell you the story of an astoundingly useful, but troubled website. wifimaps.com is a lovely resource for warchalkers everywhere, fuelled by the generous contributions of wardrivers and access point hosts throughout… everywhere.

I take that back. They appear to have no data for Kyoto or Tokyo, in lovely Japan, but I’ll forgive them that because they’re the only resource that’s been able to locate hotspots in Seal Beach, CA for my next trip to visit the twins. With any luck I’ll find an analogous resource before my trip to Japan this winter. Otherwise my Dell’s wifi card is going to get one heck of a workout in a couple months, as I wander around Gion searching for an open node.

But back to the story at hand. These kind folks put together an amazing database of wireless access points from wherever folks have chosen to submit the pertinent MAC Address, address, and/or GPS information. This enables people on the road to quickly determine the location of a place they can get online with a wireless devices such as a laptop or palmtop computer. Such access points include people’s homes, offices, and chic coffee shops all over the place that have (either intentionally or by neglect) created a free access-point. Alas, the usage and database outgrew the software and hardware that ran it. For months, we were without wifimaps.com loving. There was much tearing of clothes, gnashing of teeth, and the women lamented.

Last week they made their triumphant return. Rising up from the ashes, wifimaps.com stands proudly before the masses, doling out valuable information at absolutely no charge. I understand that my employer is interested in contributing colocation and bandwidth services to this project, which may go some ways towards keeping wifimaps.com available for years to come, much to the joy of WiFi mooches everywhere! Don’t you love happy endings?