18 April 2013

Mobile Office Reviews: James Court McDonalds

| Barcham
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Hey look! A Red Eye bottle! 10 points!

It’s Mobile Office Review time!

We need a theme song.

In our never ending quest to earn ‘scene-points’ by finding the coolest hippest places to hang out and be seen with our laptops, Johnboy and I went to James Court McDonalds today to show the world just how hip we are.

I feel a little bit ill.

I even made sure to stay at the pub for a few extra drinks last night just to enhance my enjoyment of eating greasy Maccas food today, but I don’t think it helped.

We rocked up to start out work day and found a place chain our bikes up under cover, this made us happy.

Our happiness did not last.

Food:

It’s McDonalds… You already know this. Burgers, fries, and chicken nuggets. Reviewing McDonalds food seems a little pointless; you already know what’s what there. I will say this, the burgers may not be as good as those from Brodburger, but they are at least reasonably priced.

I’m sorry I couldn’t resist.

Productivity:

Mixed. It was quiet. The traffic throughout the morning was largely people who came in, ate their food, and left without making a noise. At lunch the place filled up and things got loud. There was a great big TV screen playing daytime TV which can be quite distracting, but thankfully they had the volume turned down.

The music cycled between great and dreadful, but at least it was quiet and easy to tune out.

Coffee:

Over to Johnboy:

I desperately wanted to hate the coffee from the McCafe, but while it’s not cheap it’s very soundly executed.

Watch out for the 90c they charge for a shot of syrup though, is that the best profit margin in the world of business?

Comfort:

The seats were nice and the booths were spacious and pleasant. The tables however were quite high, not enough to make it difficult to eat, just enough that our arms were at an odd angle to type and work at.

Maybe you’re really tall. You’d probably like the table height then, but us average sized people were a bit uncomfortable. Short people should bring a cushion.

Technology:

Power! Sweet magical electricity. Most of the tables had access to power points and it was blissful. More places need to be like this.

McDonalds does have free WiFi, but unfortunately it’s awful. Seriously awful. It cut in and out regularly, and when it was working it worked slowly. We quickly switched to using our mobile internet.

Oddly both of our mobile connections seemed much worse than normal. We both had a reasonable signal according to the little bars on our devices, but things kept slowing down to a crawl. I believe we’re both on the Vodaphone network so it’s hard to tell if it’s Vodaphone’s fault, or whether there’s some interference at James Court. Either way, we were much slower online than usual, which isn’t very good.

Service:

Fine. Once again I think we’ve all experienced the bored but polite teenagers of a McDonalds before.

Other People:

An amazing cross section of humanity can be found at James Court McDonalds. From Public Servants on their lunch-break, to families keeping the kids happy, to homeless guys just wanting to be off the street. Every single person who walks in the door is different and magnificent.

People watchers rejoice. There was one guy who gave Johnboy the evil eye for like an hour. It was great.

Conclusion:

No, just no. Not a great place to work, nor just be in general.

Being able to plug in your laptop at a table is a wonderful thing, but sadly that’s all that is really going for James Court’s McDonalds. The WiFi was terrible, the place smelt like a dirty frier, and after having breakfast and lunch at McDonalds today I feel kinda like oil is dripping from my fingers onto this keyboard.

Ewww.

Alrighty, where to next gang?


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devils_advocate2:09 pm 19 Apr 13

poetix said :

poetix said :

Barcham said :

FioBla said :

johnboy said :

FioBla said :

Civic or National Library?

Nice ideas, but we do have to be able to talk.

The concept of silence in libraries is long past.

People bring kids in there now for story telling etc.

ACT Libraries, not National Library.

I like the sound of that.

The area downstairs in the National Library (Lower Ground 1) where all the staff eat has chairs and you can talk all you like. Just near the map room.

Though I don’t know how they’d feel about two people there for hours and hours, as opposed to a quick meeting.

Pfft. It doesn’t matter how they’d feel. They’d never say anything to said two people.
Probably they’d have a staff meeting about it, get some legal advice, form a committee to look into the issue, realise they have no strict legal entitlements, one of the committee members would go off on stress leave, and it would never be spoken of again.

neanderthalsis11:59 am 19 Apr 13

You could try the Hideout in Barton.

FioBla said :

james270 said :

There seems to be quite the flurry of these mobile office reviews. I hope Barcham hasn’t done something that has resulted in you been evicted from the eagle’s nest.

It’s probably easier for johnboy to meet women outside the office.

If that is the case then I hope he sets his sights a little higher than your average JC Maccas patron:)

I think the mobile office reviews will continue until we find someplace just right.

Then we’ll live there.

At least they don’t put that dreadful aoli stuff on their burgers 🙂

james270 said :

There seems to be quite the flurry of these mobile office reviews. I hope Barcham hasn’t done something that has resulted in you been evicted from the eagle’s nest.

It’s probably easier for johnboy to meet women outside the office.

meh, the internet is a playground.

wildturkeycanoe said :

otherwise the phone keeps trying to get onto their silly non-working system.

just jump onto the settings, find the wireless network and click “forget”

goggles13 said :

there is no Vodaphone, it is Vodafone.

I thought it was Vodafail or Woedafone, or is that just because I talk to too many of their customers?

There seems to be quite the flurry of these mobile office reviews. I hope Barcham hasn’t done something that has resulted in you been evicted from the eagle’s nest.

wildturkeycanoe5:48 am 19 Apr 13

Maccas Wi-fi is the worst thing ever. Every time I am in McDonalds waiting for my order and I try to get onto the internet on my phone, it automatically tries to connect to their wi-fi [I have my connection enabled all the time for my home network]. This is not so much of a problem except it goes to their website, goes through a myriad of login procedures and then doesn’t work anyway. So now, if I want to check my emails or look at the weather whilst waiting for my burger, I have to disable my wireless and connect via the phone network. then I have to reconnect it when leaving, otherwise the phone keeps trying to get onto their silly non-working system. I am not with Vodafail either but one of our country’s main carriers, not that it matters anyway. Have others run into this problem?
Also, the Belconnen mall Maccas is worse because there is no mobile internet or phone service in the food court either – what gives Telstra???? [Oops – did I say that out loud?]

I believe Hostage Bar at Dickson has wifi, and they even advertise some nice-sounding $10 lunches so you could kill two reviews with one stone.

poetix said :

Barcham said :

FioBla said :

johnboy said :

FioBla said :

Civic or National Library?

Nice ideas, but we do have to be able to talk.

The concept of silence in libraries is long past.

People bring kids in there now for story telling etc.

ACT Libraries, not National Library.

I like the sound of that.

The area downstairs in the National Library (Lower Ground 1) where all the staff eat has chairs and you can talk all you like. Just near the map room.

And you can use the wifi in Bookplate Cafe, work & talk there, or sit in the comfy chairs in the foyer and talk all you like. The coffee in Bookplate is cheap sh*te though!

” reasonably priced”? Last Mac I had, one bite and I binned it. Wasn’t hungry anymore, so guess it worked. Diet food?

In the spirit of reconciliation I would recommend either The Landing Place or The Terrace at The Memorial.

🙂

poetix said :

Barcham said :

FioBla said :

johnboy said :

FioBla said :

Civic or National Library?

Nice ideas, but we do have to be able to talk.

The concept of silence in libraries is long past.

People bring kids in there now for story telling etc.

ACT Libraries, not National Library.

I like the sound of that.

The area downstairs in the National Library (Lower Ground 1) where all the staff eat has chairs and you can talk all you like. Just near the map room.

Though I don’t know how they’d feel about two people there for hours and hours, as opposed to a quick meeting.

gooterz said :

Barcham said :

PM said :

They’re McNuggets!

TRUE! Dang it!

Thumbs are fingers, not all fingers are thumbs.
iPods are mp3 players not all mp3 players are ipads.
iPads are tablets/slate. (Thankfully) Not all tablets are iPads.

Mc Nuggets are Nuggets.

Thanks for the tip.

Barcham said :

FioBla said :

johnboy said :

FioBla said :

Civic or National Library?

Nice ideas, but we do have to be able to talk.

The concept of silence in libraries is long past.

People bring kids in there now for story telling etc.

ACT Libraries, not National Library.

I like the sound of that.

The area downstairs in the National Library (Lower Ground 1) where all the staff eat has chairs and you can talk all you like. Just near the map room.

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd5:25 pm 18 Apr 13

Haha gross. Should have got a pizza from up the road at debacle and eaten that instead.

Vodafone, get it right!

It’s actually not a bad place to sit down. There are meeting rooms you can book if you feel so inclined. Otherwise it’s generally pretty quiet (with the exception of drinking nights)

Barcham said :

PM said :

They’re McNuggets!

TRUE! Dang it!

Thumbs are fingers, not all fingers are thumbs.
iPods are mp3 players not all mp3 players are ipads.
iPads are tablets/slate. (Thankfully) Not all tablets are iPads.

Mc Nuggets are Nuggets.

Gungahlin Library in one of the meeting rooms. You are able to just waltz in and use them unless there is a prior booking. Bookings are cheap and sometimes free.

UC is another good place for mobile office places if you (or someone in your group) is a student there.

That’s all I can think of

PM said :

They’re McNuggets!

TRUE! Dang it!

They’re McNuggets!

FioBla said :

johnboy said :

FioBla said :

Civic or National Library?

Nice ideas, but we do have to be able to talk.

The concept of silence in libraries is long past.

People bring kids in there now for story telling etc.

ACT Libraries, not National Library.

I like the sound of that.

johnboy said :

FioBla said :

Civic or National Library?

Nice ideas, but we do have to be able to talk.

The concept of silence in libraries is long past.

People bring kids in there now for story telling etc.

ACT Libraries, not National Library.

vodafone, grrrrr… but what do you do, locked into a contract? anyway, grrrrr. [that feels better]

if you’re looking for good places to work, try the cafe at the hight court..?

FioBla said :

Civic or National Library?

Nice ideas, but we do have to be able to talk.

Civic or National Library?

I think the problem with your mobile internet is the fact that you are on a phantom carrier. there is no Vodaphone, it is Vodafone.

I suggest you do your mobile office review in the food court of Woden where all the rugrats are hanging out during their holidays.

It should be noted we’re actually looking for good places to get work done.

Not trying to find the worst places to work and managing somehow.

Where to next? Well, Lonsdale Street Roasters might be a logical progression. 39 steps?

Or Sweet Bones to make up for all that boombalada tucker.

It should be noted that no matter how bad the mobile internet got it was still better than maccas house wifi.

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