In one class we had a Microsoft plant. Well, he didn't identify himself as such but I'm not sure why anybody would willingly pay for a conference in order to attend sessions and publicly detract from QuicktTime. He kept interrupting us and bringing up various FUD about QuickTime's viability and was always talking up Windows Media, saying that the next version had much better codecs and blah blah blah. He would never give specific numbers or back his statements up with something concrete. And he showed no regard for the fact that Darwin Streaming Server is open-source and standards-based, while MS's server is proprietary and Windows-specific. We had to be politically correct and polite, but luckily for us the rest of the people in the room didn't have to be, and soon everybody else in the room was arguing with him. It still didn't stop him from interrupting us with criticisms a dozen times.

Also, I spent some of my time between sessions sitting in the hotel bar checking my email via AirPort. One guy came up to me and asked for my advice in setting up a good site UI and streaming server, etc. He directed me to look at his site... and it was a porn site. Not that I would have cared really; I look at my fair share of porn. But it was a crowded hotel lobby/bar and there were several people around... didn't exactly look professional at all. The window resizes itself and there's vaginas as far as the eye can see. And, to put it indirectly, I'm not in the "target market" for porn featuring women. Don't get me wrong, I've taken one for a test drive, but seeing naked women doesn't make my day. I started holding a discussion, calmly closing the window (and the resulting popups) while I was talking so as not to seem rude or condescending. Hey... you try acting professional while publicly displaying naked pictures of your non-preferred gender (if you have one)! Luckily I don't think anybody else saw me looking at porn in the hotel lobby.
11:50:35 AM    comment []