Lenovo's ThinkServer embargo farrago

Seen the news about Lenovo's entry into the global server market with its ThinkServer range? Well, we did, first thing this morning, on another website. We immediately called up Lenovo's UK PR for details - or at least tried to. They were all at the launch event.

I eventually got hold of one of Lenovo's poor UK PR bods. Can we confirm the details in this morning's stories, I asked. No, he said - the story's embargoed til 3pm. But it's out there already, I said, and clearly out there as the result of another news outlet being given the release ahead of time and under embargo, then breaking the embargo. Can I speak to a Lenovo exec who's there just to confirm the details, I asked. Not until after 3, he said.

What made this particularly bizarre was the fact that the ThinkServer range was already up on Lenovo's Netherlands website. Then, late morning, we found the announcement had just moments before been released on a press release newswire. So Lenovo had decided to break its own embargo. But they still wouldn't send us the release.

Embargoes are silly. Their timing is usually arbitrary, they are often (as in this case) dreadfully co-ordinated across different countries (this is the web, folks! get with it) and, well, they get broken. At which point, the ones who stuck to the agreement are the ones who get shafted.

I can understand embargoes in certain circumstances - where high-level corporate shenanigans might be involved, for example - but they are, for the most part, a waste of time and a breeding ground for resentment. Argh.