Blog:: Craig Pringle

Hello Craig,

Congrats on the notebook, you deserved it! Please post a good review once you've played around with it. Would appreciate it if you could support my blog below:
http://vistaferrari.blogspot.com/

Thanks and have a Happy New Year!

Bit disappointed in this to be honest...

No offense Craig, but seems to me that Joel has a point when it comes to blogs like this one. I Have read your stuff on and off for a while now and while I do find it very informative and a good source of tablet and mobility goss I also notice you do tend to litter your posts with comments about free trips here and there, free kit you have had "donated" etc. And whether you keep stuff or not is often not clear.

Much of the tech you talk about and review already reads like you have been lead there by a 3rd party and taking such high value gifts does nothing for the credibility of your site. The Acer Laptop is not even anything that special, its not a tablet so it wont even really appeal to your demographic, in fact from what I have read it is almost counter to your entire ethos! Sure it has Vista on it, but your site appears very much dedicated to the tablet aspects of Vista.

I might be totally wrong but your blog sometimes reads like so many others dedicated to the cause of maintaining MVP status and garnering junkets and toys from the vendors. If this is the case then fair play, I suggest you make that clear. Otherwise I think your position on accepting such "generous" freebies is morally wrong and a poisoned chalice for tech blogs.

As a simple example, the companies most IT pro's work for (mine does and I know yours does) have strict policies of not accepting junkets and freebies from vendors to prevent an "overt" bias being shown in product selection and tender processes. My opinion is that tech. blogs and other publications should follow the same rules otherwise they aren't worth the paper (or electrons) they are printed on. You will end up turning yourself into a low information content web based infomercial, rather than a trusted adviser.

And that is Joel's point. Its an easy beat for people wanting to influence the output of blogs and tech publications if all they have to do is woo them with "beads and blankets" and it brings down the credibility of the whole medium.

While there is no harm in using resources provided for free by whatever party, when you are in a position of power or influence (and you may argue you are not) there is a duty of ethics and responsibility when accepting "gifts" in the course of wielding your "influence" (just ask Juan Samaranch!). Whether you like it or not, putting up a public blog that attracts hits comes with some influence and therefore responsibility.

Journalist or no, you put a stuff in the public domain for a reason. And that reason is probably why you got offered the laptop in the first place. But you must decide how you conduct yourself in that public domain and be prepared to be judged by your actions. I commend you for stating your position, but I think you are wrong. You should review the laptop and give it away... Otherwise you set a bad precedent.

I think you should take the MS employee's advice and give the Laptop away on your blog once you have reviewed it. To be honest that is a much better way to serve MS and further their Vista marketing campaign.

I hope you take this criticism in the constructive manner it was intended!

Hope you had a good Xmas and New Year!

James

The whole acer Ferrari gifts from Microsoft are totally bogus, even the Microsoft fanboy sites are getting them

<a href="http://microsoftisawesome.blogspot.com/2007/01/acer-ferrari-5000-first-impressions.html"> Microsoftisawesome.com
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