I was at NANOG 20, and I seem to remember that the technical talks were over a good 20-30 minutes before Beer and Gear. If people were leaving the talks early, I'm sure it was not the fault of the vendors. I certainly don't think that people should have been offended by it.
As far as being "sexist", I know more women that wear boxers than men. I don't see this as being a discrimination or sexist action. It was intended as a joke by Cisco, and I thought it was a pretty good joke. I am still amazed how thin skinned people in the US can be, even though I've lived here all my life.
I don't want anyone to think that I didn't enjoy the meeting. I certainly did enjoy it. I even learned a few new things, and got a lot of good validation for things I were already thinking about. Yes, this is the real reason we all go to NANOG, and the reason we read the mailing list.
I feel that the vendors were cheated a little. I saw a lot of attendees in the beer and gear that were talking amongst themselves and ignoring the vendors. At least with a few freebees, the vendors have a chance to attract a few of those people.
I AM a little concerned if this was a decision made by Merit. Last I knew, this was a NANOG meeting, not a Merit meeting. I do not believe that Merit should be making a decision of this nature without the direct input of the NANOG membership. If I missed this in October or November, I apologize.
Merit is ultimately rooted in university and government. The ultimate
bastion of political correctness.
I've always wondered if the academia folks who helped destroy CICnet
with their lack of business sense ever thought about screwing up Merit. I
know some folks who'd be willing to buy MichNet on the same terms that
they stole CICnet out of the gutter.
Eh....No.
That's nasty.
I believe Sisqo said it best.
Merit is ultimately rooted in university and government. The ultimate
bastion of political correctness.
I've always wondered if the academia folks who helped destroy CICnet
with their lack of business sense ever thought about screwing up Merit. I
know some folks who'd be willing to buy MichNet on the same terms that
they stole CICnet out of the gutter.
Merit is governed by a bunch of Michigan universities. But to be honest NANOG doesn't come up for discussion at Merit Board meetings too often. And as far as I know Beer and Gear has never been discussed by the Merit Board. Merit isn't directly tied to or controlled by any governments unless you count the public universities as government or you think that governments control us all at some level.
Sorry, but MichNet isn't for sale. I don't know if that is a sign that Merit is or isn't screwed up, but whatever it is it isn't anything new. We've either been screwed up, or not, or something in between for many years now (34 and counting in fact).
-Jeff