- David L Norris
- Indianapolis, Indiana, United States
Semi-topical babble about Radio, Computers, Linux, Life, the Universe, and Everything.
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2005-02-27
Ignorant Media Providers
I'm really irritated with streaming video sites like ifilm.com and even the local wthr.com website. I run Linux. I don't run Windows. Their websites berate me and insult my intelligence because of this. One can only speculate why they would do such a thing when the technology exists to make their website and streaming video work effortlessly.
My advice to WTHR.com and iFilm.com: Fire whoever is running your websites. Or at least smack them upside the head with a cluebat.
WTHR.com throws up a red warning message telling me that my operating system and/or browser are not supported. At that very moment the video window opens and the video they say I can't watch starts playing in all of its craptacular Windows Media Video garbled glory. Then it further demands that I install Internet Explorer 6. Tell me, why shouldn't I just go to CNN instead? CNN opted to not insult me. Instead they support Real Player which runs natively on Linux and supports Mozilla Firefox. And further CNN doesn't just assume that my browser won't work. They don't even try to stop me from making a seemingly stupid choice like selecting Windows Media Video format.
iFilm.com tells me that I need to install Real ONE player and totally locks me out of their website. Why in the world would I want to install an old, buggy Real ONE player? I have Real Player 10 Gold for Linux installed. If I tell Firefox to pretend that it is Internet Explorer 6 on Windows then iFilm lets me watch the videos fine using none other than Real Player 10 Gold for Linux. I will suffer without iFilm, thank you. Why? I don't want them to get the impression that the entire world runs IE. Maybe one day they'll look at the number of Firefox or Linux users who simply leave their website at the "Go away we don't want your money" popup.
After telling Firefox on Linux to pretend to be Internet Explorer 6 on Windows I was presented with a perfectly working video interface with quite high quality video. The buttons are a bit cramped because they make some bad assumptions but it is still perfectly usable. (Note: you can't see the actual video in the screen capture due to Real Player's overlay):
My advice to WTHR.com and iFilm.com: Fire whoever is running your websites. Or at least smack them upside the head with a cluebat.
WTHR.com throws up a red warning message telling me that my operating system and/or browser are not supported. At that very moment the video window opens and the video they say I can't watch starts playing in all of its craptacular Windows Media Video garbled glory. Then it further demands that I install Internet Explorer 6. Tell me, why shouldn't I just go to CNN instead? CNN opted to not insult me. Instead they support Real Player which runs natively on Linux and supports Mozilla Firefox. And further CNN doesn't just assume that my browser won't work. They don't even try to stop me from making a seemingly stupid choice like selecting Windows Media Video format.
iFilm.com tells me that I need to install Real ONE player and totally locks me out of their website. Why in the world would I want to install an old, buggy Real ONE player? I have Real Player 10 Gold for Linux installed. If I tell Firefox to pretend that it is Internet Explorer 6 on Windows then iFilm lets me watch the videos fine using none other than Real Player 10 Gold for Linux. I will suffer without iFilm, thank you. Why? I don't want them to get the impression that the entire world runs IE. Maybe one day they'll look at the number of Firefox or Linux users who simply leave their website at the "Go away we don't want your money" popup.
After telling Firefox on Linux to pretend to be Internet Explorer 6 on Windows I was presented with a perfectly working video interface with quite high quality video. The buttons are a bit cramped because they make some bad assumptions but it is still perfectly usable. (Note: you can't see the actual video in the screen capture due to Real Player's overlay):
Labels: linux