Microsoft Ice House: Plan for Friday

[Scott Thompson]

Hi there!

First post to the mailing list, but I've got a decent idea for your Ubuntu
day in Toronto.

Bring the people's attention to the scary parts of the EULA that you have to
agree to when you install Vista. Michael Geist, a Canadian copyright lawyer
recently brought some of the items of serious concern in a blog post here:

http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/1641/135/

Another Analysis:

http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/%7Epgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html

And a Wiki:

http://shearer.org/VistaForLawyers

Here's the EULA itself:

http://download.microsoft.com/documents/useterms/Windows%20Vista_Home%20Basic_English_2cd69850-7680-4987-8b1e-59a3d405c074.pdf

I apologize for not having the time to find proper passages from the pdf,
but I'm currently at work.

Good Luck! Make sure to take pictures.

- Scott

On 2/1/07, Dave Sullivan <dave at dave-sullivan.com> wrote:
>
> On Thursday 01 February 2007 08:41, Maurice Murphy wrote:
> > Borden Rhodes wrote:
> > > I think Friday at 4:00 actually sounds like a great idea, and if all
> > > goes well we can negotiate returning on Saturday which will be super
> > > awesome.  Here's my report from my latest recon mission:
> > >
> > > When I stuck my head in at 2:00 today the place was pretty empty.  The
> > > staff are nice and friendly and they serve free hot chocolate which
> > > has an overwhelming taste of marshmallows.  Once every half hour they
> > > encourage everyone out of the building so they can hold a draw for
> > > free copies of Vista and Office.  After that everyone who wants to go
> > > back in has to wait outside like idiots whilst the cheerful people at
> > > the door hand out new raffle tickets.  It would be sweet if one of us
> > > won the raffle and started making copies next door :P
> > >
> > > As Jane reported, all of the machines work just fine inside the
> > > house.  Apparently the house is designed to not melt as long as the
> > > outside temperature doesn't exceed 15 degrees.
> > >
> > > Vista has a lot of great eye candy that would look great in Beryl.
> > > Some things, like movie wallpapers, don't make any practical sense but
> > > look hot anyway.
> > >
> > > Most of the people in the house were oblivious to fundamentals of
> > > technology or seemed to forget what a computer's designed for.  Some
> > > comments I overheard:
> > > "Can I install Vista on my Macintosh?"
> > > "If I had Vista I'd just play with the 3D flip feature all day!"
> > > "Can I play Windows 95 games on Vista?"
> > > "Coooooooll"
> > > ... so we may want to keep that in mind and arm ourselves for
> > > questions like "why can't I set the background to a movie?"
> > >
> > > I await my marching orders.
> > >
> > > Borden Rhodes
> >
> > A small thought for your plans for Friday in the big TO:  how about a
> > press release to the major and minor media in the Toronto area?  That
> > should get some coverage.  You could also include a Linux penguin in the
> > letterhead without need for fancy equipment, and the coverage would
> > perhaps be even better!  Anyway, if someone has the gift of the gab, go
> > for it!  I'm afraid I don't qualify in that department.
> >
> > Maurice from Nepean
>
> Thanks for your suggestions, Maurice, and thanks for your recon, Borden.
> According to http://www.microsoft.com/canada/wow/icehouse.mspx the Ice
> House
> is open until 7PM. If we all show up around 3:30pm, it gives us 30 minutes
> to
> prepare, and then 3 hours (ideally, if we aren't asked to leave) to do our
> Ubuntu and free software push. And I agree: If things go really well, we
> should try and organize another push for Saturday.
>
> Here's the latest news from David Patrick of linuxcaffe:
> He is going to purchase a battery for his 10-foot inflatable Tux, so Tux
> will
> be ready to go for Friday. He may also have a video shooter to document
> the
> event, and he may have a CTV news crew to cover the story.
>
> I'd like to fire out a press release, but I think its way too late for
> that
> kind of thing. We sent out a press release a week in advance for a
> previous
> event and had no responses at all.. but I suppose we could do it anyway.
>
> I'm going to burn off a bunch of copies of Ubuntu/Kubuntu 6.06 LTS. If
> anyone
> has a spindle of CD-Rs and time they are willing to donate, please, burn
> off
> as many copies as you'd like and bring 'em down.
>
> Also, does anybody have any suggestions for an already existing document
> we
> could use to hand out to people? I think something that describes what
> Ubuntu
> is and why its so awesome, as well as places to get it and get help, would
> be
> incredibly advantageous. We can hand out the literature like hotcakes, but
> only give CDs to people who seem really interested.
>
> I'm donating 20 CD-Rs or so, and am willing to cover the cost of copying
> the
> literature a bunch of times.
>
> Hope to see you all at Yonge & Dundas Square, Toronto on Friday at 4pm!
>
> --
> Dave Sullivan
> dave at dave-sullivan.com
> 647-235-0328
>
> --
> ubuntu-ca mailing list
> ubuntu-ca at lists.ubuntu.com
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-ca
>
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