Bloggers Brunch

This morning I had the opportunity of attending a Bloggers Brunch hosted by Frank Arrigo. Frank brought a bunch of other ’softies with him to answer questions and have discussions about topical issues. A lot of discussion circled around the Vista and Live platform and of course the Office suite.

One of the questions that I had circled around issues that I have about the Windows client being tied to a single Active Directory domain. I just think that we have moved beyond the world of a centrally managed hardware and software asset. Users and the devices that they use are much more mobile – between locations, and the networks that they connect to.

Everytime I bring this up with people I get the impression that I am some kind of corner case. The reality is that people with these kind of requirements represent a growing percentage of the userbase.

The thing that sparked off the discussion was when I asked about the password protected folders feature that was pulled.

The other thing that was asked was how to better get the word out about these kinds of events. I must admit that I missed Franks original blog post because I had already gone dark in the lead up to Tech.Ed. Maybe more lead time?

 

Dell laptop batteries are not allowed to be used on planes.

Whilst queuing at the X-ray machine yesterday at Canberra Airport the diligent security staff asked me whether I had a Dell laptop, and when he said yes he asked me to remove the battery so that the contacts could be taped up with some tape.

Curiously the Fujitsu laptop I was also carrying didn’t have to have its battery removed – therefore I assume that the problem is something to do with the case of exploding Dell laptop batteries which has resulted in the recall of a very large number of laptop batteries.

The whole episode left me a little bit frustrated. As the carrier of a Dell laptop I feel like I am a little bit penalised because of the device I chose. Perhaps more alarmingly the security officer said that it was an arrangement that Dell was aware of to quote:

“as per the agreement between Qantas and Dell”

So when did Dell stop advocating for their customers?