The rights of Geeks

[Adam Smith]

Fight the power! ;)

Adam Smith
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Alastair D'Silva" <deece at newmillennium.net.au>
To: <linux at lists.samba.org>; <wireless at lists.samba.org>
Sent: Saturday, May 17, 2003 3:40 AM
Subject: The rights of Geeks


> Firstly, my apologies in advance to those of you who do not thing this
> relevant.
> 
> I just had an ugly experience, and am making moves to correct it. Below
> is a copy of what has been posted to Slashdot (with the HTML stripped).
> 
> Vote with your feet people!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Have you (as an adult) ever been disciminated against because of your
> tendancy towards geekdom? Well, I have, and am not happy about it. What
> can we do? We'll have to let these businesses know that this behaviour
> will not be tolerated! We are geeks, hear us roar!
> 
> I just got home from the local cinema (Hoyts Woden in Canberra,
> Australia) after watching Matrix Reloaded, at least, that was the plan.
> After waiting in line for 2 hours, the manager approached me and said
> that my laptop was not permitted in the cinema, and that I would have to
> leave it in the car or leave in their possession, neither of which
> seemed like a reasonable choice as I had work stored on the laptop that
> was not committed to CVS yet. After some discussion, I stated that I'll
> leave my laptop in their care, provided that they provide me with a
> signed receipt stating that they accept full responsibility for it
> whilst in their care. Well, they gave me a receipt, but blatantly
> refused to take any responsibility for the machine. About this point,
> the hired muscle steps in and starts ranting on about how secure it
> would be (totally missing the point that I wanted someone responsible
> for my work if the machine is lost).
> 
> Now, I was faced with two options - relent and potentially lose my work
> with no recourse, or ask for a refund. I chose the latter, which is
> where the problems started. I sat down on a couch and started coding,
> when the hired muscle came over and stated that I had to move to the
> foyer - fair enough, except that the manager had removed all the couches
> before asking him to move me!
> 
> At this point, I was getting a bit frustrated, and told them that there
> was another laptop and 2 cameras inside anyway (since my friends had
> them, and in fact Hoyts staff had seen the cameras being used while we
> were waiting). The manager stated that he didn't care, and that he had
> done his job. The hired muscle had stated that there was no way a laptop
> could have got past him, and I offered to show it to him when my friends
> came out. He agreed, thus implying that there was no problem with me
> sitting in the foyer until the movie finished. However, a few minutes
> afterwards the manager spoke to the security guard again who then asked
> me to leave the cinema. When asked why, he replied it was because the
> staff had to leave and the cashboxes would be unattended (how do they
> protect them from those watching the movies then?).
> 
> Well, I couldn't be bothered arguing, so I left, but could not shake the
> feeling that I was treated unfairly. The only way I can see to educate
> these businesses is with our feet, so I call on my fellow geeks to voice
> their frustrations and expose these businesses to the community at
> large. For those who wish to let this cinema know their opinion, email
> me (badhoyts at d-silva.org) and I'll print out and hand deliver the
> responses (after removing your email address of course).
> 
> If there is enough response, I'll dedicate some time to setting up a
> website where we geeks can voice our criticisms and commendations to
> businesses.
> 
> -- 
> Alastair D'Silva           mob: 0413 485 733
> Networking Consultant      fax: 0413 181 661
> New Millennium Networking  web: http://www.newmillennium.net.au
> 
>