Sometimes you just gotta bust some heads. Windows workstation maker Intergraph has been banned from Macworld Expo for trying to lure the pure of heart to the Dark Side™. Intergraph, you may recall, specializes in making Windows machines that integrate as well as possible into all-Mac graphic design environments-- meaning they've been building a solid business over the past few years by taking advantage of the public uncertainty over Apple's future. (Is it a business principle that vultures rarely starve? Because it probably should be.) For the last two Expos, they didn't even try to get booth space on the show floor, possibly fearing the wrath of dyed-in-the-wool Mac fanatics, but opted instead to push their gear by having company representatives on street corners outside the Expo lure showgoers to a nearby hotel room to sample their wares-- a tactic that had all the subtlety and panache of a drug deal going down.

But this year, Intergraph decided to attend the show itself, and rented out the booth right next to Apple's. They were told prior to the show that they were allowed only to demonstrate how Mac systems could access an Intergraph NT server, which would be in keeping with the Mac theme of the Expo. Instead, Intergraph attempted to show an all-Windows scenario, and IDG Expo Management kicked them out. According to Macworld Expo's president and CEO Colin Crawford, "Apple didn't want it, I didn't want it... they were warned and now they have been banned. It is not our fault." (Does anyone else detect Steve Jobs' influence on this whole situation?) According to Computer Reseller News, Intergraph will be financially compensated for being forced out, which IDG hopes will avoid a lawsuit.

This sort of expulsion isn't exclusive to the Mac side of the convention fence, however. Way back in December of 1997, we recall that Palladium was booted out of COMDEX for daring to parody Emperor Bill Gates and the kingdom of Microsoft. Palladium had hired a Bill Gates impersonator to walk around the show floor and hand out pins and cards promoting their "Microshaft Winblows 98" software-- and the penalty for such a blasphemous action was banishment from the realm. Some people just can't take a joke...