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Despite the best efforts of San Francisco's professional complainers, the dream of free Wi-Fi for the city, dashed by EarthLink's exit from the market, lives on. Startup Meraki, responsible for the "Free the Net" Wi-Fi hotspots popping up across the city, plans to blanket San Francisco in wireless signal by midyear. This is no good Samaritan act. It's trying to prove that free, possibly ad-supported Wi-Fi is plausible, possible and popular. Then it's going to take advantage of developing countries by selling them cheap Wi-Fi routers. It's sort of like One Laptop Per Child, but with a business plan.