Pret A Manger, the chain of sandwich shops that appears to account for roughly 90 percent of the UK's consumption of mayonnaise, has evidently been studying what works in software. It's gone all open source. Sadly that doesn't mean it has introduced a roast penguin and mayonnaise sandwich, but it has posted the recipes for some of its key products on its web site. Much like the source code for Linux, it's nice to know that the technical details are available, even if you don't feel a pressing need to actually bother looking for yourself. After all, even butter-fingered Sneak is capable of making a cheese-and-pickle sarnie without Pret's patronising PDF of directions.

08 Jun 2004