While the FCC was gazing at the navel of Google Voice last Thursday and last Friday, Wesley “Mr Google Voice” Chan was busy snapping the great and the good at Etre’s Gala Night in Paris.
We only noticed that Wesley was doing this because we were in a hall of mirrors and saw what we thought was a flash of light. When we focused, we realized we’d just seen Wesley run so fast with a digital SLR and snart snapping, snapping, snapping. He walked back to his seat. Then, when Alex Vieux gave yet another gong to yet another deserving cause, we saw Wesley running, running, running again. Wes did this over 10 times. We dunno why he could not just have waited in the wings rather than run, run, run, all over again.
To the press office at Etre, to file copy about the conference. Our entrance was barred by some PR apparachick called Hinkley, who told us we couldn’t come in – we were already in – because Jean Philippe Courtois, president of Microsoft France was in there talking to something or other. But, we expostulated, “we’re press”.
Later, Jean Philippe Cointreau and apparachick Hinksey moved downstairs and talked in a conspiratorial way. We thought we needed a breath of fresh air and went outside the hotel. There was a very posh car with a very handsome chauffeur out there. We thought: “Ah, this is more like the Microsoft we knew of yore.” Corblimey came outside the hotel by himself, turned left and went on foot wherever it was he was listing.
A very senior executive at a very big business to business (B2B) firm in Silicon Valley vouchsafed to us Friday that he was very cross at Microsoft’s performance.
C’est la vie. Also, why has Eurostar still not got continuous wi-fi?
