Virtualisation blog 'of interest to Interpol'

VMware man William Lam detained in France en route to VMworld Europe

UPDATE VMware employee William Lam appears to have been denied entry to Europe.

Lam touched down in Paris en route to VMworld Europe in Barcelona, but soon after landing Tweeted the following.

*sigh* Apparently Interpol has an interest in virtuallyGhetto, not the good kind :( There's chance I might not make #VMworld

— William Lam (@lamw) October 11, 2015

virtuallyGhetto is Lam's blog, where he chronicles things like ESXi on the Mac Pro and VMware's production cluster of Mac Minis, among other articles that mostly concern VMware's enterprise software.

So why's he been pulled up by Interpol? Lam's not sure. His Tweets suggest his passport was unable to be validated, which suggests he has made it onto a blacklist. Very few virtuallyGhetto posts touch on security and when they do so it's hardly NSA-grade material.

OK, just got off phone with US Embassy. Nothing they can't do, it's matter between country/airport & US can't interfere or influence

— William Lam (@lamw) October 11, 2015

Lam's maintained his sense of humour during his ordeal, backing up our very own Trevor Pott's assessment of him as “A fantastic guy, and one of the smartest people on the planet.”

Lam was to present at VMworld Europe. As the Tweet below shows, that session looks like it will need to be rescheduled.

FYI - There's a room/country change for Content Library Deep Dive. Paris Airport, Interpol Office #tryingtostaypostive

— William Lam (@lamw) October 11, 2015

The #FreeWilliamLam hashtag suggests VMware is trying to sort things out in order to get its man out of chokey and off to Barcelona so he can present the half-dozen sessions he's signed up to deliver. ®

UPDATE: Lam's tweeted that he's on his way home, although not under the circumstances he'd anticipated.

Just got my stuff back. Past 24hrs has just been absolute nightmare. Thanks to everyone help, got message last night. About to board home

— William Lam (@lamw) October 12, 2015

Looking at bright side of things: Got personal escort, skipped customs, front of line for security & 1st person to board plane. #whattrip

— William Lam (@lamw) October 12, 2015