You know how hard it is, in front of two hundred people, to turn down a raffle? Sadly, I didn't have the strength of character to actually do it and I almost regret it. I don't regret a lot in life, not worth the energy or the effort, but this was one of those cases.

It started at the prizes of the Iowa Code Camp on Saturday. It was an absolute blast, I learned a few things, didn't embarrass myself, and generally got to know some people in the area. And learned a bit about aviation at programming seminars.

Until the prizes came up. I got selected for the 8 GB Microsoft Zune player, all the pretty pictures, MP3, and FM tuner. Far and away better than my 1 GB Sansa. But, it is Microsoft. Well, not Microsoft, but one of those Microsoft products that doesn't play well with Linux. And it won't play with the Macintosh OS X, so I couldn't even donate it Fluffy.

I feel bad about it, mainly because I'm sitting on a hundred dollar MP3 player that could have gone to someone who used it instead of me who will either give it away or sell it on eBay.

Part of the hesitation came from just maybe it would work on Linux, but after twenty minutes of Google searches a day later, nope. Not at all. No if, ands, or buts.

I hate locked down hardware. I really, really seriously hate it. My Sansa, while small and puny, at least plays well with my operating system of choice and doesn't require the One True Program to use it. I don't use iPods for the same reason, so I can't honestly say this is a anti-Microsoft thing. It is an anti-limiting thing.

It is easy to say "yeah, I would do" something when you aren't under stress. It is easy to say you'll do the right thing when a fireball is coming at you (when I was 12 or so), a car, or standing in front of 200 hundred people about to do something... strange.