Sunday, November 25, 2007

Misfired rants

Rant-fuel has been replaced by non-combustible, good old fashioned work....

I was going to rant about organizational arrogance. The highlight was Microsoft, which did not graciously accept that a Nigerian educational organization opted to buy 17,000 PCs with a Linux operating system for the country's elementary schools. Microsoft bribed one of the agencies funding that purchase with a payment of $400,000 (all figures in US dollars) for marketing, payable upon conversion of those PCs to Windows XP.

Each copy of Linux would have cost the Nigerians $10, for a total of $170,000. The Windows licenses would have cost some amount, almost certainly more than that.

It's disgusting. I'm sure there are worse actions, corporate or individual, out there and I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but this really churns my stomach.

Not quite as disgusting or broad, but equally arrogant was the flyer that someone stuck in our mailbox.

Montreal offers stickers with a pictogram that tells the folks who hand out non-mailed flyers and whatnot that you wish not to receive them. They work well - too well at times, because they also ward off free community newspapers (which is why we had so much trouble getting a copy of the issue of the Chronicle with Child Three in it).

They say all publicity is good publicity, but allow me the attempt to buck that trend. Real-estate agents Michel Duguay and Colette Birks of Royal LePage don't respect those stickers and dropped an advertising flyer in our mailbox and probably hundreds others. Don't hire them.

And don't bother attending Knox Crescent Kensington and First Presbyterian Church. No, not because of the silly name, but because they also ignore the "no circulars" stickers. They don't get a pass for being close to God, no more than would a nun who steals cars.

Sorry for the fizzling post. I should have brought the hammer down while still primed.

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