And so it came to pass that Andrew joins the world of blogging. I’ll spare you the long explanations of why. Maybe we will get into that another day. Lets face it. You probably don’t care. In fact, it is entirely probable that nobody will ever read this. Nevertheless, I will be contributing something, at least, to the general irrelevancy of the Net. Woo-Hoo!
Earlier tonight, I attended a Logitech “road show” event organised by Pinnacle Micro in Port Elizabeth. It was one of those tragic spectacles run by intelligent people who simply did not prepare themselves properly. The talk was a simple discussion of what Logitech products would be available in the next few months and it would have been commendable for its merciful brevity had it not been for the really bad promotional movie at the end and the fact that the presenter, Les, kept shining the blinding red light of his goddamn Logitech® Cordless Presenter™ in my eyes. This is the presentation tool made in hell and I would suggest that any users of the device apply thick black tape to the frikkin light before using it in front of an audience! What made tonight even worse is that the batteries were flat so he still needed to walk over to the notebook and press the keys. Clearly, he was just carrying the thing to irritate me.
In the good old days, computer companies gave you free stuff when you went to their events. You could kit out your entire wardrobe with the ill-fitting computer besloganed stuff they handed out and then accessorise too! In fact, the only items of clothing I have not received from computer companies in the last 10 years are underpants and shoes. Tonight, we got 3 brochures. I can’t wear brochures. (Well, I could but you would not want that.) When looking for product info (as in “give me the cheapest mouse you have with that please”), I am far more likely to hit the Web in anycase. I have no idea what they were thinking!
There was a lucky draw, though. I never won anything but thats OK because, even if I had, they never had the actual prizes with them. All the winners posed for photographs cheerfully with the equivalent item from the display table before these were ripped from their clutches by Pinnacle Micro staff promising to order their prize as soon as possible.
The slickness of the evening was further enhanced by the fact that the food was mostly inedible. The mini sausage rolls were good but the samoosas were green inside and various other food items had bits of cucumber hidden within them. Also, if you are serving camembert and biscuits which will be standing a while, it is a good plan to provide knives or other spatula like devices for the separation of the globs of cheese which otherwise congeal together into an Cuthulu-esque blob.
In short, computer industry events can be cool but stay home if Logitech comes to your town unless the invitation expressly promises that you will receive quality free stuff.
