Software piracy, not as alive as it should be - 12 March 2004

Yesterday afternoon, I went to the IT show at Suntec with Miss New and her best friend, who at first struck me as dour and jealous, but who later warmed to me and seems nice enough.  That being said, my first impressions are usually accurate, so when and if my hoped-for relationship with Miss New goes south (as all my relationships do) it will be interesting to see how the best friend reacts. 

Already I’ve digressed.  I couldn’t give a flying fuck about the IT show, and only went to kill time and hang out with Miss New.  Also, she said she had a copy of Microsoft Frontpage I could borrow – why enrich Mr. Gates even more, I reckon?  The show was about as interesting as a trip to Sim Lim on a Sunday – mobs of people; lots of computers and color screens on display; and all it damn fucking dull, particularly since Miss New and her friend seemed keen to have a discussion with every salesperson in the goddamn place.

I kept my patience, which is an important achievement for me, and we ended up heading over to Pasta Fresca on East Coast for dinner.  The Frontpage disks turned out to be suspiciously lacking in labels and software activation codes, but happily Miss News IT buddy showed up with the latest pirated version of Office 2003 (which I’m using right now, as it turns out) and uploaded it to both Miss New’s machine and the friends machine – all right there in Pasta Fresca gazing out at the ships in the sea, with the palm trees rustling overhead.

I brought the disk home and uploaded, but discovered no Frontpage.  Then, on the Microsoft website I discovered the bastards package Frontpage separately, leaving me with an upgraded Office, which I really didn’t need, and down S$90, as I paid for everyone last night.  I had a lot more than everyone else and bought the IT guy two beers, but still I could get beastly drunk for half that price by bring a lot of beer over here.

Happily, the IT guy gave me the location of a pirated software shop in Clementi.  I have every intention of heading out there today and trying my luck.  Let’s hope that great bastion of Singaporean business life, pirated software, still has some representation.  Pirated software is part of the culture here; the IT guy is an ex cop, and he told me one of his cop buddies visited this software place recently (not in uniform, I suppose) to buy some cheap kit.  Good stuff, and the way it should be. 

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