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Just a Little Suspicious (2/7/99)
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Is it just us, or does this sound vaguely familiar to you, too? According to a CNET article, certain sections of Microsoft's website were apparently off-limits to surfers trying to connect using Netscape Navigator or Communicator. Netscape surfers trying to sign up for Microsoft's "Year 2000 Resource Center" CD were getting nasty HTTP errors. The problem has apparently since been fixed; when we last tried it ourselves, it functioned fine in Navigator 4.06-- although the page title for the Y2K CD sign-up form inexplicably read "Career Search." (There's that classic Microsoft attention to detail...)
This Netscape lockout may well be completely accidental and lacking any and all malicious intent, but we still find it "noteworthy." For one thing, if it is just a bug in Microsoft's web site, that would imply that they aren't testing their site for use with Netscape browsers-- which would be odd, given that Microsoft claims that Netscape's browser market share isn't all that far off from Internet Explorer's. Granted, we've long suspected that Microsoft's product testing must be a little on the, shall we say, "lax" side, but ignoring half of your expected audience seems excessive, even for a company from whom people expect bug-ridden software.
Incidentally, MacInTouch describes a reader's similar sort of experience when trying to access other areas of Microsoft's site with a Netscape browser; he was locked out because his browser "did not accept cookies," which was false. That reminds us of a semi-related phenomenon that popped up a couple of years ago, where people found that Internet Explorer simply refused to download Netscape Navigator. Maybe we're just overdosing on conspiracy paranoia following the first part of "Total Disclosure" on The X-Files, but hey, there are just a few too many "coincidences" here for us to swallow.
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SceneLink (1325)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 2/7/99 episode: February 7, 1999: Apple's lawsuit against Exponential inches inexorably closer to resolution. Meanwhile, the best software chefs in Cupertino have finished putting the final touches on their latest operating system delight, and Microsoft's web site seems to have had some problems with Netscape browsers...
Other scenes from that episode: 1323: Oh, THAT Lawsuit (2/7/99) Sometimes it seem like there are so many lawsuits floating around in the high-tech world, we honestly wonder how anyone actually gets any work done. And yet, somehow it all comes together: Sun keeps cranking out Java, Intel manages to keep those big ol' chips rolling off the assembly lines, and Microsoft churns out software package after software package... 1324: Seeing The Finish Line (2/7/99) Speaking of products from Apple that we might otherwise have seen by now (hey, we sort of were!), what about Rhapsody? Apple's next-generation (and NeXT-generation) operating system has seen so many strategy changes it's well-nigh unrecognizable now; if we could go back in time and tell a Mac developer in, say, May of 1997 about Apple's current Mac OS X plans, he'd never believe it, though we bet he'd love the idea...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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