[EuroPython] Computers off during sessions.

[Harald Massa]

Marc,
> Fair enough. How about we ask the attendees as the opening event ?
either that or at the beginning of a talk. 

At least I will do that. Sth. along the lines:

"I as a speaker am OK with people using Laptops, maybe to google me up or to
browse porn during my talk. But to get the most for everyone out of this
presentation... Could all of you who are annoyed by clicking keyboards
within this talk please rise their hands?
[rough counting]
And now all who really enjoy to use their laptops with this talk
[rough counting]
<proclaim democratic decision>

Thank you very much! And, by the way: with staying you are entering a
contract saying that you have to pay my drinks if your mobile phone or
laptop speakers make any sound. I drink whiskey."

> That's no excuse (you'll always find people doing worse,
> but that doesn't really solve your problem :-)
Correct.

> The "nobody really wants to have them" is a misinterpretation:
> The main reason we are having these problems is because speakers
> want to show off things on their personal tool box, instead of
> using notebooks provided by the track chairmen.

I assume that people get enough utility out of using their own toolbox to be
willing to suffer the pain of sucking beamers. I understand it: Armin Rigos
"PyGame" based presentation was an outstanding idea; Jeff Raskin using a CAD
programm to scroll through slides was another nice suggestion. 

Being forced to use Powerpoint or OpenOfficePresentations to fit into some
rules has really no sexappeal to me. I have to suffer that restrictions in
business-situation, where people expect to get Powerpoint or Excel or
whatever Microsoft made them believe will save their soules.

Switching to that will only move the problem from hardware to software; will
the installed Version of XXX be compatible to XXX? And: it is after all a
Python conference, within other things about programming. And so we should
expect some real life demonstrations. I really would not like to go through
the pain of installing a three-animal-application just to demo it on any
trackchairs laptop ...

I guess backup-beamers which get warmed up by the speaker before are a
quiete easier solution.

Harald