Slashdot Mirror
Opera Releases "Bork" Edition
David Arnesen writes "Two weeks ago it was revealed that Microsoft's MSN portal targeted Opera users, by purposely providing them with a broken page. As a reply to MSN's treatment of its users, Opera Software today released a very special Bork edition of its Opera 7 for Windows browser. The Bork edition behaves differently on one Web site: MSN. Users accessing the MSN site will see the page transformed into the language of the famous Swedish Chef from the Muppet Show: Bork, Bork, Bork!
Here you can find the press release and download link!"
as that's virtually the content of msn.com already.
I wish far more companies would respond like this, instead of instantly suing each other until one of them dies a bitter death.
Can we have an anti-goatse version? Maybe one that brings up a page saying 'Hello Slashdot newbie, you have been linked to some sick shit by someone, trust us when we say you do NOT want to look.'
It's like putting a moose in the blender -- a recipe for disaster!
I guess that pretty much describes MSN, Windows ME or any other dubious MS product (i.e. more dubious than the rest of their products that I can't be arsed to list here).
Oh, and where did the moose/blender term come from? I'm starting to get a little worried about the mental health of the Opera team.. I just hope they don't do a strategic alliance with Joe Cartoon, you know he likes blenders!
Are you local? There's nothing for you here!
That would be "Brak". Brak loves beans. When Brak eats beans, he sits in his own little cloud. Nobody wants to come visit him, in his little cloud. He doesn't know why. Maybe because he's cuttin' muffins.
Remind me to tell you the monkey story sometime.
Why bother.
I don't know, I guess this strikes me as petty somehow. Does anyone know if the Opera team tried to contact Microsoft to fix the problem? You know, the old "Never ascribe to stupidity that which is adequately explained by incompetence." And of course we all know that Microsoft is *never* incompetent... no sirree, not a bit! (/sarcasm)
I thought the Opera team was from Norway? But the again.
From the artice
/. and I am not an apologist for Microsoft but IIRC the source of the problem was a single incorrect figure in the style sheet. NO possiblity whatsoever of a typo there then.
The MSN site is sending Opera users what appear to be intentionally distorted pages. The Bork edition illustrates how browsers could also distort content, as the Bork edition does. The real point here is that the success of the Web depends on software and Web site developers behaving well and rising above corporate rivalry The Opera acticle is a little less direct with it's acusations. I realise this is
Can any opera users confirm if the style sheets are still messed up ? If they are they I might start subscribing to the conspiracy theory, but really his smacks of a childish attempt to grab attention. I would guess the Netscape, Moz and Phoenix share of the market is of much more concern to MS than Opera
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
Check it out here:
http://poriss.com/bork.gif
This is truly a great story and a great event. I am really looking forward to the others, such as the omniweb "Yup Uh-huh" version that translates MSN to the "Yup yup yup yup yup yup yup, uh-huh uh-huh uh-huh" language from Sesame Street. And the version of Konquerer that translates gnome.org to the language of the Dozers from Fraggle Rock.
These are gonna kick ass!
How are you going to keep them down on the farm once they've seen Karl Hungus?
You can send this letter to Opera Software using their feedback page.
Why bother.
For those of you who want more Swedish Chef, be sure to visit Google's Bork, Bork, Bork search page.
Slashdot's first reaction to VMware
Who here thinks their incentive to do that has been increased by this move?
Cheers,
Ian
How can you trust a browser that intentionally doesn't show you what you asked for? You have no idea if you're getting what you're supposed to be getting when you go to *any* page. This is exceeding unprofessional, and violate everything that a browser is supposed to do. I guess that's the point they were trying to get across.
"Backups are for wimps. Real men upload their data to an FTP site and have everyone else mirror it." -- Linus Torvalds
What are you talking about? There are many browsers which does this. Have you newer used lynx, or some of the browsers made for blind people which talk insted of displaying anything?. Infact there don't exists ANY browser which display the site that the server send, because the server does NOT send any site. It send a html document which is a description of the CONTENT of the page not a description of HOW to render it. Just try to visit msn.com internet explore, and then with a wap phone. This you will get an entire different view of the same information.
www.squirm.net/bork.jpg
"Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
Hey, it's just a special edition, you're not forced to use it and the normal download link will give you a normal version so your not dragged into anything.
Working with MS to correct an attack on the Opera browser is like, euh, like asking MS behave well and rise above corporate rivalry.
Well, thats what Opera asked...
This is exactly what they are trying to prove: any browser manufacturer could do this kind of things and everybody would lose in the end. Here is a quote from the Opera press release:
So they are fully aware of the consequences. They are releasing this as a joke to show how silly this could be and also to raise the awareness of this potential problem.
-Raphaël
For the record, Konqueror already allows this. It hase come in usefull for me often.
In Soviet Russia you dant have to put up with these crappy jokes
They specifically did it for one page for a limited time on a specially named release of the software to show that 1) this is juvenile, and 2) both content providers and browser writers can be juvenile and it could get an arms escalation. With the point being: nobody should do this to begin with.
Yes, it's mildly unprofessional. In my book, that's okay, because professionals today would either 1) sue them or 2) do it back without saying anything and CYA in a long EULA. It's rare that a company tries to make their point with a little bit of wit, probably because it'll be lost on some people.
And then, once they fix it, Microsoft would find some new way to determine it's Opera. This way they call attention to it and MAYBE they'll be able to get a long term fix. Personally, I think it's a good strategy. Not to mention that it's kind of funny.
I think that suing people for trivial matters is also juvenile.
This isn't being advertised as Opera's main browser. It's being advertised as an offshoot, special-purpose, no-other-really-good-use browser. If they had put this into their main browser, then yes, I would agree with you, but this was done as a joke. It's no worse than any parody done on Saturday Night Live. In a month or so, we'll all have had our laugh and have forgotten the entire event.
// file: mice.h
#include "frickin_lasers.h"
Oh, but it is! As the msn.com site does not pass validation, it can be treated any way the browser chooses.
Make even shorter URLs - 8LN.org
http://www.amoebasoft.com/madcamel/bork.gif
Thanks rdesktop!
1) MS has monopoly (practically) on web browsers.
...
2) Opera is a competitor.
3) MS is using it's webiste (a different product) to maintain it's monopoly.
Isn't this almost the definition of illegal monopolistic practices? I think the definition is slightly different, like "Using a monopoly to further your business in another area." They're "Using another area to further a monopoly."
Hmm... Perhaps if IE was distorting the Opera web page, it would be the exact definition.
But then again
1) MSN is not a monopoly on ISP's (or portals?)
2) IE is a monopoly on browsers.
3) Making opera apear broken will make more people use IE.
4) IE's default homepage is MSN.
5) MSN is benefiting from IE's monopoly and unfair business practices against opera.
So perhaps that fits the definition more closely?
(can't help my self...)
6) ???
7) Make money
Actually, it uses W3C's Document Object Model to alter the text on the page. You can check the script from:
http://www.opera.com/js/bork/encheferizer.js
Thanks rdesktop!
Oh man, I love this sorta stuff...
Best use of Swedish Enchefalyzer..EVER.
Hee hee, I love OSS developers.. Like this would ever happen in a publically-held company. Ahhh, no.
Bowie J. Poag
Just downloaded and installed. Very funny.
The Help->About Opera menu is also borked.
-ted
Is a browser that detects HTML errors in the pages it reads. If it finds any, it will display/fix up the pages just like all current browsers do, but it will also add a big banner at the top of the page that says "WE DO NOT KNOW HOW TO WRITE WEB PAGES PROPERLY."
This would be cool, having translation skins, kind of like the look-n-feel skins. Sure, it would be useful say if you wanted to automatically translate whatever language you're viewing into your own language. But then you would have the ability to use fun language skins, like the Bork, or the Miguel Web Filter found at fatchicksinpartyhats.com
"Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
Clicking on the link and reading the press release, it clearly states:
MSN now allows access to users of Opera 7, but is still targeting and sending users of earlier versions a broken page.
Phillip.
Property for sale in Nice, France
Ok, the Funny grandparent post is now Insightful, the Complaining parent post is now Funny, can we have a new surreal moderation option? +5 Fish!
Microsoft Free Fridays
Alison
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." - Albert Einstein
Look what it does to the Britney Spears video from Windowsmedia.com.
Life is the leading cause of death in America.
Another cute, funny, and "non-lawsuit" response was recently made by Google. If you search for a domain name which has been doing a ton of referer log spamming - for example this domain or this one - a random "SPAM" page shows up near the top of the results.
:)
This is definitely intentional on Google's part, as the offending referer spammers have no relation to the SPAM-oriented pages (and certainly are not mentioned or linked there). It's like a digital middle finger to the referer spammers.
Gotta love when the geeks take precedence over the lawyers in the corporate food chain
Microsoft will respond to to this insult by releasing "Microsoft Internet Explorer Yosemite Sam Edition", which will deface the opera corporate website in a witty manner. Except it'll have a bug, and will also deface the KDE webiste. The konqueror team will respond in their next version by replacing every 'c' on the MSN website with a 'k'. Microsoft will take this as an assult from the open source community, and will render the mascots on both the KDE and Mozilla sites with comedy spectacles and moustaches. Lynx users will be served graphics only versions of MSN with lots of frames. Mozilla will respond in kind, by rendering MSN upside down. Applewill by default not be able to provide a browser which does not offend anybody, and will be reluctantly drawn into the frey. It will be the browser wars all over again, but this time more bitter, and somehow, more hilarious. It will escalate out of control, until the entire internet is rendered and defaced in a comical fashion. Internet Obfuscation Protcol (IOP) will become an ECMA standard, but each browser will maintain its own incompatible version. Everyone will go back to using phones and fax machines.
If I seem short sighted, it is because I stand on the shoulders of midgets
For all those who called this "childish" or "unprofessional" or "juvenile" or any such names--firstly, RTFA, and secondly, lighten up, they didn't put this in their main version. It's a special purpose, no-other-good-use offshoot of the main version. You can still download the regular Opera without this "feature." If they did put this in their main version, then I would agree with all of you, but they didn't. This is merely a parody, no worse than any portrayed on Saturday Night Live. In a month or so, we'll all have had our laugh, and forgotten the entire event.
So, if I may so repeat myself, lighten up!
// file: mice.h
#include "frickin_lasers.h"
Opera 7 has very sophisticated rendering functions for small screens. For example Nokia uses Opera on its communicator and it's press releases like this one, which provides the Redmond paranoiacs with the willies.
ich bin der musikant
mit taschenrechner in der hand
kraftwerk
Isn't that a risky step to take? After all (I guess) they have a copyright on the content of msn.com, and Opera is actively defacing their site.
Won't they (i.e. MS) sue?
my
Check out the copyright stuff in 'about Opera'..
"
Zee oothur ooff thees sufftvere-a is Defeed M. Gey. Bork Bork Bork!
Cupyreeght (c) 1991, 2000, 2001 by Loocent Technulugeees. Bork Bork Bork!
Permeessiun tu use-a, cupy, mudeeffy, und deestriboote-a thees sufftvere-a fur uny poorpuse-a veethuoot fee-a is hereby grunted, prufeeded thet thees inture-a nuteece-a is inclooded in ell cupeees ooff uny sufftvere-a vheech is oor incloodes a cupy oor mudeefficeshun ooff thees sufftvere-a und in ell cupeees ooff zee sooppurteeng ducoomenteshun fur sooch sufftvere-a. Bork Bork Bork!
THIS SOFTVERE IS BEING PROFIDED "ES IS", VITHOOoT ENY IXPRESS OoR IMPLIED VERRENTY. IN PERTICOoLER, NEITHER THE EOoTHOR NOR LOoCENT MEKES ENY REPRESENTETION OoR VERRENTY OoF ENY KIND CONCERNING THE MERCHENTEBILITY OoF THIS SOFTVERE OoR ITS FITNESS FOR ENY PERTICOoLER POoRPOSE. Bork Bork Bork!
"
In other news, slashdot users all agree, The Bork edition makes MSN usable.
Opera, the Bork Edition does what MSN editors have failed to do, make MSN a site that people want to visit.
Joe M Soft said, "Wow after the Bork Edition was released, web hits increased over 10000%. I can't believe all of the positive comments I have recieved."
In other news, Microsoft signs the Swedish Chef to be Editor at Large.
Gator/Claria is Spyware.
When I first read this headline, I thought that it meant that using this version of Opera would cause the Senate Judiciary Committee to come to your house and harass you for hours on end, eventually prohibiting you from using your computer! Guess I should watch more Muppets and less CNN.
Here we go again. It's pretty sad that this story has gotten so much attention, because it would seem that it's more a case of Microsoft not caring than it is malevolence on their part. Hey, great publicity for Opera, though.
MSN does not send out an Opera-specific stylesheet. It doesn't! Actually, it sends Opera the generic site.css sheet, which will also be sent to browsers that return nothing but a load of garbage (NOT the Oprah test) for their user-agent strings. Oh, and don't forget corky browsers like Netscape 4.7, which still have a creepy amount of market share. It should be noted that MSN looks perfectly fine in NS 4.7, which leads me to believe that the negative right margin that flakes out in O7 is actually meant to account for one of NS 4.7's numerous, unsightly bugs. Other posters have said that this is to account for a bug in Opera 6's rendering, but I haven't tested this myself. Oh, and this same style appears in the Netscape 6 specific stylesheet with no ill effects. Figure that one out.
Why does the "Oprah" test allow Opera to receive the IE 6 stylesheet? Because the words "MSIE 6" are in there, and the word "Opera" is not. MSN most likely does test for the word "Opera" first, but sends that browser the generic site.css sheet, because the MSN developers, probably having relegated Opera to that bin of browsers they couldn't care less about, figured the generic sheet would be good enough.
Sloppy, yes. Vindictive? C'mon. What's their motive? I would hardly call Opera--a closed-source browser that people actually have to pay for if they don't want to be annoyed--a threat to Microsoft's market share.
Good point. However, the bug was apparently reported to MSN a couple of weeks ago. To their credit, they did fix it. HOWEVER, their fix targets Opera 7; Opera 6 still gets the bad stuff. This may be stupidity rather than malice. We have no idea how the MSN web monkeys create stylesheets for various browsers. It may be that it was easy for them to create a new "Opera" stylesheet, but "oops" their process created a new v7 stylesheet, leaving the v6 stylesheet lying around. It may be trickier for them to go in a modify an existing stylesheet.
- Jasen.
P.S. Unless there was some REALLY good reason for making an Opera specific stylesheet in the first place, I still think websites in general should deliver generic, standards compliant stylesheets and expect the browsers to render such in a consistent manner.
I am proud and privileged to have been a part of this. I got an email from Hakon just a few days ago, asking if they could use my JavaScript encheferizer (ported from someone else's Java version) on "one of their pages". I had no idea what they intended to do with it, but nevertheless said sure! No problem.
I'm rolling on the floor laughing my ass off now! Haha! You're my heroes!
You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. The impossible just takes a little longer.
I don't see any difference. Once you've seen one pink alien cow you've seen them all.
KFG
They've "Borked" the Help About page as well .. kinda funny reading ... :)
I've seen this news reported on several fairly mainstream sites (at least far more mainstream than /.) You see "Opera and Microsoft arguing over CSS sheet" is a lot less interesting to most people than "Opera borks MSN homepage. See the screenshots here!" More people will know of it, and why, this way...
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Somebody signed the message above with my name. I did not write it. My signature is "howcome", not "howcoome".
Håkon Wium Lie
I think this was a good idea. The press coverage this will get will make Microsoft look like incompetent assholes. It's a company making light of a monopoly trying to crush them. I usually don't take sides, since I don't really care who wins (ie, if Pepsi died tomorrow I would start drinking Coke), but it sorta makes me want to cheer for the underdog.
I think it will also get a lot of geeks who were reluctant to use it based on experience with older editions to download it again just to try it (and thus have the opportunity to remove that bad taste in the user's mouth).
Exactly. And with a stunt like this, I would be very surprised if it doesn't find it's way to some of the larger "mainline" media sites.
Also, I have a feeling that Microsoft itself will react pretty quickly. The technical "trick" they played was pretty simple-minded, not unlike the "Swicher" add that was mentioned in another article here. Microsoft caught some major flack for that one, after some Slashdot folks discovered that the anonymous switcher was really an employee of the advertising company that was doing the add. I have a feeling some people got canned for that little stunt. Besides, there probably are some Opera users who reakky do need to get to stuff on MSN, and hopefully, now their pages won't be broken.
In the end, it's another black eye for Microsoft. It won't make much difference in the short run, but who knows what effect this will have in the long term?
(Well, for one, I just downloaded the latest free version of Opera on my Linux box, and may end up paying for the commercial version if I like it better than Galeon. I'm probably not the only one who did this because of this article...)
Your Servant, B. Baggins
I have fucking had it with all this "voice of moderation" karma whoring.
IIRC the source of the problem was a single incorrect figure in the style sheet. NO possiblity whatsoever of a typo there then.
Okay, let me get this straight. You develop a completely seperate css file to work against the user agent string sent by Opera browsers, despite the fact that Opera can easily handle the default stylesheet. So your characterization of a single incorrect figure is incorrect:
My research indicates that you are off by two thousand six hundred twenty six characters. In this completely fucking seperate stylesheet, you copy shared values by hand rather than copy/paste and place -30px (a value which, in the css universe, is insane) rather than 23px for the standard production stylesheet. This is a typo in your universe?Can any opera users confirm if the style sheets are still messed up ?
From TFA:
Moderators, please, stop mistaking skepticism for insight.
there is an IE easter egg that calls Opera engineers weenies?
For the love of $DEITY, loose != not win!!!!!
The Bork edition does not have ad banners! Talk about extra features. :)
Kudos to the Opera team for handling this situation with humour and grace, while still managing to make a valuable message in a manner where it will grab attention. It's nice to see fights addressed with humour and rhetoric rather than lawsuits.
It's just like a fascist dictatorship, without the punctual rail service!
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
Quote:
"The ability to create ways to preprocess pages before they display would be a welcome addition to Mozilla's capabilities."
"TS is based on the idea of a very simple, open API, and the use of various modules which users may install and configure through the preferences panels. These modules would receive the webpage before it is fully parsed, and transform it as they are programmed, passing the transformed webpage either to the next module (they may be chained), or to the rendering/parsing engine. Naturally, users may want to run more than one module at a time, perhaps one that acts as a HTML filter to remove hostile tags (like BLINK and EMBED), and another as a simple lingual translation engine. Similarly, users may wish for modules to be applied to only some webpages, perhaps those in a foreign language or with a hostile PICS rating, and not other. "
http://www.mozilla.org/blue-sky/extension/199805/p reprocess.html
Mozilla team seems reluctant to implement this, do they fear something from sites hosting advertizing ? ... with no more ads, popup, useless side columns or top rows. Oops: unsubscribed user has the ads gone on slashdot! )
I can already imagine my favorite pages customized on the fly by Mozilla with my preferences, or even colaborative preferences.
( cnn, zdnet,
So, they are probably using the language filter "chef" to filter the web-page just before displaying it.
I once heard of a sys-admin that wanted to get revenge on someone else, so he ran all his outgoing mail through one of these filters. Hilarity ensued!
Just to give you an idea, I'll re-run my comment through the "jive" filter, a rather politically incorrect filter which is supposed to simulate black urban-speak. Imagine doing this to MSN!
[here goes]
So, dey are probably usin' de language filta' "chef" t'filta' de web-page plum befo'e displayin' it.
I once heard uh a sys-admin dat wants'ed t'get revenge on someone else, so's he ran all his outgoin' mail drough one uh dese filters. 'Sup, dudelarity ensued. Right On!
Just t'give ya' an idea, I'll re-run mah' comment drough de "JIBE" filter, a rada' politically inco'rect filta' which be supposed t'simulate brother urban-speak. Imagine doin' dis t'MSN. Right On!
f u cn rd ths, u r prbbly a lsy spllr.