The computer club members spread out in Kate and Nick’s married student bungalow. Although the same size and floor plan as Tamara’s, Kate has dispensed with a dining room, merging the intended dining area with the living room to make one larger living space. Sofas anchor either end with two folding tables down the middle. Oscar and Maggie sit on junk shop easy chairs flanking the Jelly Belly bowl; Krystal and Adam sit along the side on two of Kate’s vintage vinyl and chrome tube chairs.
Kate sets a bowl of ChedACorn beside Krystal before curling up on the window sofa. “I thought Jake was coming.”
Krystal nods, “Me too. He was gonna try and bring along some other photography students.”
Oscar very formally announces, “The Christie Computer Club Is Now In Session. Hear ye hear ye hear…” When they start pelting him with jellybeans and ChedACorn Oscar shuts up.
“Who died and made you president?” asks Maggie.
“No one,” answers Oscar as he picks jellybeans out of his lap and pops them into his mouth. “I assumed possession of the biggest mouth and the largest ego made me a shoo-in.” Lifting a ChedACorn from his shoulder he sends it after the jellybeans.
“Well,” suggests Kate, “Far as I’m concerned if you’ve got an agenda you can have the job. I have no idea how to run a club.” Gesturing toward the snack food array,’ “Parties yes, clubs no. Whose idea was this anyway?”
Kate looks at Maggie who says, “Uh. Yeah, that’d be me.”
“What is on the agenda today, Maggie?” Adam asks.
“That’s the problem,” says Maggie. “I don’t have one. This meeting is to figure out what we want the club to be for.”
Adams says, “Why not evaluate and compare software?”
“That’s a great idea. Give us a focus right off.” Oscar nods. “A ratings website. We could post software and hardware reviews.”
“Not bad,” says Maggie, “Call it Computer Science Department. It should be easy enough to do it for our coursework web pages.”
Krystal says, “It would be fun to have something besides celebrity gossip to tweet about. I could plug the website.”
Kate shakes her head. “Identi.ca is better than Twitter for security issues, especially if you host your own instance.”
Maggie says, “I signed up to Twitter for Stu, but we hardly ever use it; we’re more likely to just text each other.”
Oscar shakes his head. “I can’t believe you lot call yourselves computer geeks.”
“Wait just a minute, there. Oz, microblogging is social network than a geek haven.” says Kate.
“I prefer the term ‘nerd’.” Maggie grins.
“Depends on who you hang out with, doesn’t it now.”
“There are plenty of geeks and nerds on Twitter.”
says Krystal. “You guys just gave it up without giving it a chance.”
“I connect to Twitter through Identi.ca” says Oscar. “All the better to be anonymous.”
Krystal’s eyes widen. “Are you in Anonymous Oz?”
Oscar smiles, “If I told you, I’d have to kill you.”
“Twitter is simply too frivolous.” says Adam. “If I want to connect with programmers I’ll go though IRC.”
Krystal frowns. “What’s that?”
“Internet relay channel. Live chatting without that ‘following’ business, so everyone can see the conversation.
Maggie laughs. “It’s what Sheldon Cooper would use instead of Twitter”.
Krystal asks, “Who?”
Oscar says “To live chat with Moss and Roy no doubt.”
Krystal frowns. “Now what are you guys talking about?”
“Geek sitcoms.”
Krystal shakes her head. “There are Geek sitcoms?”
Maggie says, “Oh yeah. I’ve only seen bits of I.T. Crowd on YouTube but I told my folks I want the boxed set for Christmas. Oz and I have a running argument about which is better, Big Bang Theory or I.T. Crowd. My favorite I.T. Crowd clip is where the cops break down the door and gun down the girl.”
Krystal says, “Uh huh. Sounds real funny. Not.”
“No really, you have to see it. I didn’t explain it very well,” Maggie says. “It’s a take off on those theatre piracy ads.”
Adam says, “I am sick of being lumped in with criminals. All computer people are not pirates. I wish pirates would stop downloading and making me look bad. It is illegal after all.”
Kate says, “But all downloading isn’t illegal, and an awful lot doesn’t even infringe copyright. They’re trying to make it sound as though all downloading is illegal.”
Oscar adds, “You should look at the laws they’re pushing before you judge. The worst of them require no conviction nor evidence. You don’t even have to download anything to get barred from the interwebs. Accusations can evict you, and not just you, but everyone at your address, innocent family, flatmates.”
Adam says, “That doesn’t sound right. Are you certain?”
Kate says, “I thought it was to stop copyright infringement.”
Oscar says, “That’s what they want you to think, Kate. But in this brave new world you’re guilty until proven innocent.”
Adam says, “But they have to do that to stop the pirates.”
“You mean like at our terribly depraved Ubuntu release party with all of those torrents.”
“That’s not what I mean,” says Adam.
Maggie says, “I hadn’t thought of that, Oz. That means when they throttle torrents it means they target Ubuntu parties.”
“Of course that’s wrong, but that’s not what I mean though. What I’m talking about is people who steal music and movies.”
Oscar says, “Lets think about that a minute, Adam, shall we? How are people stealing music exactly?”
“People download it then share it with other people.”
“Have you ever watched a movie on TV Adam?”
“Of course.”
“Was that stealing?”
“No, but we pay for cable.”
Kate reaches for the remote and switches on the TV. “You know what? I pay for cable too.”
Adam says, “Of course you do. I didn’t mean to imply you wouldn’t. I mean …”
It’s the new House episode. Adam trails off as he notes that Kate isn’t really listening, she’s intently watching the Chase wheel out the crash cart and shock the patient until she’s stable.
Oscar says, “Is that why we didn’t recruit anyone new? I didn’t realize it was a House conflict. We’ll never get any new members at this rate. Better pick a new night.”
“Or include House watching as a bonus.” says Krystal.
When the show breaks into a commercial, Kate mutes it, then turns to Adam. “How is watching my cable broadcast different than if we shared a download?”
Adam opens his mouth to answer, then closes it again, frowning. Then, “I will have to think about that, Kate.”
