[Nottingham] [Social] Wed 05/12/2007 Food'n'beers meet

[Martin]

Martin wrote:
> Folks,
> 
> I think we're well overdue for a return to a good foodie favourite:
[---]

And a good foodie session it was too! So much so that some of us were
rather stuck for beers afterwards!

I even sneaked in a little Christmas shopping also :-)

Great to hear that Duncan is looking forward to a new project at his
place of play (ooops, work I mean!).

Looks like I've got a load o' reading stacked up on LVM2, MD, and other
data bits.

And there were various discussions about the unwashed masses being
forever lost, and deliberately kept lost, in a proprietary costly
imperfect world. Further locked in also by the cost and perceived
'value' of what they've already bought and have grown up with.

One recent article of possible interest:

End of the Vista Kill Switch: A Good Start--But Not Enough
http://blogs.pcworld.com/techlog/archives/006015.html

####
... In fact, he doesn't say a thing addressed at Microsoft customers who
must jump through hoops to help the company protect its profits. In a
just world, it would be a very long time before any Microsoft
representative was allowed to discuss WGA in public without issuing
apologies to all the customers it's inconvenienced; I heard from dozens
of them after I wrote my column on the topic.

(Actually, in a just world, Microsoft would be forced to remove the word
"Advantage" from the name of this technology, given that there's nothing
advantageous about it...)

For years, the Microsoft monopoly made it very hard for anyone to opt
out of using Windows. Thanks to the resurgent Mac OS X and
ever-improving Linux--neither of which are burdened with copy
protection--that's no longer true. WGA remains a significant argument
against choosing Windows, and will be one until it gets far more
seamless or simply goes away.
####

My own view is that Windows in its present guise will stay only as long
as it remains being *preinstalled* on new hardware...


Another (non-OS specific) view of the forces steering the market is:

The Most Anti-Tech Organizations in America
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,140081/article.html
####
Their names keep coming up over and over again in courtrooms and
corridors of power across the country--those groups whose interests
always seem to run counter to those of technology companies and consumers...
####



For our next meet this year, Michael has suggested an IRC fest... Michael?


Happy Christmas All,

Cheers,
Martin


-- 
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Martin Lomas
martin at ml1.co.uk
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