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Linux Not Supported For Democratic Convention Video
bucketoftruth writes "If you browse to the Democratic Convention website and attempt to check out any of their upcoming streams, you bump into the following limitation: 'We're sorry, but the Democratic Convention video web site isn't compatible with your operating system and/or browser. Please try again on a computer with the following Compatible operating systems: Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, or a Mac with Tiger (OS 10.4) or Leopard (OS 10.5). Compatible browsers: Internet Explorer (version 6 or later), Firefox (version 2), or, if you are on a Mac, Safari (version 3.1) also works.'"
I'm not going to the website anyway.
Most Linux users are going to write in Ralph Nader anyway right?
It says you have to install Silverlight to see it. Does silverlight for linux exist? If not, I think you've found your answer, captain conspiracy.
Vote McCain/Whoever 2008
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
Hit 'em. Hit 'em hard, boys and girls.
I don't get it. If they say they're compatible with Firefox - as in web browser - why does that browser need to run on a particular operating system? Since invention of flash video we are free from unnecessary plugins and related burden. Just enter address, and let it play.
But I guess politicians never opt for easy solutions.
Plain old sigh.
This might be considered a good thing. The conventions are nothing but a big ad for the parties. It's an outdated, useless vehicle in the age of cable news, Internet, blogs, etc.
Anyone considering watching these things have their minds made up, and are just joining a circle-jerk.
NASA's site is no better for NASA TV In fact, it streams just fine in Linux (assuming codecs, etc), _if_ you can get to the correct URL to stream.
I wonder how the website might respond if you spoof the browser's user agent string. Would it function well enough, or is their notice legitimate?
"In prison you just have to shut your eyes and take it. Here you have to shut your eyes and give it."
And, it was confirmed that the Democrats in control made the decision to go with the Microsoft garbage just to exclude non-mainstream users. They knew what they were doing. They did it on purpose.
Biden his VP choice is against net neutrality
I think Obama has lost his mojo.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
I imagine serving up youtube videos and live streams are somewhat different scenarios.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
I do not want the Democratic party wasting its money on a partisan Operating System war by supporting a fringe OS that has less than 1% share of the desktop.
So you'd rather have them spend their money actively blocking it?
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
Ugh. What could these possibly offer that couldn't be done with, say, Flash?
Don't blame me. I voted for Hitler.
It's because it uses Silverlight not Flash.
It costs less to just design a page for W3C spec. Validate once, and it'll probably work on any browser. Certainly saves time by not having to write code for stupid "Browser not supported" pages.
When I get to the site I am told I need the Silverlight plugin AND 'Move Networks Player'. Oh, and it proposes a Java Applet to install it!? Couldn't they just streaming WMV or something less complicated? Looks like they need someone to go over and give them an explanation on how to do things right.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
I do not want the Democratic party wasting its money on a partisan Operating System war by supporting a fringe OS that has less than 1% share of the desktop.
Odd.
If it is compatible with the firefox 2 browser, then they have already spent the money on supporting a fringe OS. In fact, it would have taken them MORE effort to give error messages based on OS type as well as browser type like they have than to leave well enough alone.
So in effect, they wasted your money on a partisan operating system war by thinking theres even a difference between the two once its browser compatible. Malice or stupidity, it's still a waste of manpower as that stands right now.
Not exactly a platform (heh) breaking issue, but still rather ignorant of them.
Ice Cream has no bones.
I never understand why companies/groups/whoever make these sort of checks in the first place. Why does it matter at all what OS you're using? Isn't displaying the webpage the browser's job? And clearly the browser is installed on your OS correctly or you wouldn't be on the internet at all. Silly.
If I can't view it on Linux, I won't view it*period*.
Ugh. What could these possibly offer that couldn't be done with, say, Flash?
Development paid for by Microsoft?
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Really? If it were the "most technologically-savvy event" wouldn't it at least make an effort to support ALL operating systems, especially the one used mostly by the "technologically-savvy" people. It isn't a difficult feat to use technology which is supported by the three major OSes on the market. This isn't acceptable in this day and age. =/
Seriously, what's a better cross platform option for streaming video embedded in a web page? There's Flash, Silverlight, QuickTime, RealPlayer, and Windows Media Player to choose from. The last three (or four) seem to be in the "old/nasty" and "eww" category. All aren't very Linux friendly. RealPlayer and Flash I guess are officially supported. All choices probably won't work on Linux to a significant degree with random codecs and features not being supported on Linux. Am I missing anything?
...with the Beijing Olympics. They are using Silverlight on the site for the streaming video. Out of curiosity, was the error reported the error given when one tries to use FF on Linux to view the streaming stuff, or does it pop that up when you try to view the stream in FF with Moonlight? The Olympics streaming video on the site refused to work even with a tested Moonlight install with me.
Here's the direct link to CSPAN's feed
http://play.rbn.com/play.asx?url=cspan/cspan/wmlive/cspan1v.asf&proto=mms?mswmext=.asx
If C-SPAN supports Linux (I think they do via Real), they plan to cover the convention quite extensively.
http://cnn-cnnlive-2-primary.wm.llnwd.net/cnn_cnnlive_2_primary?MSWMExt=.asf
Seriously, with the Olympics barely over, haven't you people learned anything yet? nbcolympics.com used Silverlight, too. Linux doesn't work. Unless you have XP or Vista running under VMware. Then, it will work. Just make sure you've got enough RAM on your system -- and if you're going to virtualize, run XP. If you're trying to run Vista that way, you probably ought to just be shot up front so as to put you out of your misery,... ;-)
Rather than everyone speculating WHY they chose to use such an annoying setup and complaining here, let's just all Email them and let them know we are not happy and why. I did (not that I even WANT to watch the video). Doesn't take long.
Here is the Email address: info@demconvention.com
I don't see how this political propaganda is going to help any one. It's not because the guys who were paid to make something didn't do it for Linux people that you have to blame the entire party's values.
We're sorry, but the Democratic Convention video web site isn't compatible with your operating system and/or browser.
Phew. That's a relief.
"For virtual attendees, the Democrat convention site is providing a progressive web experience (high definition Silverlight video , Digital Rights Management), while the Republican convention site is providing a more conservative web experience of..." - excerpt from August 21st Journal
At least in my mind....it comes to life and laughs..."heee HAW! heee HAW!" (or maybe it's more like "HA HA" like Nelson from the Simpsons)
but yea, there are plenty of ways around the "block"
VLC is one to play WMV/ASF streams and it's not limited to on Linux either. I use it on my XP and Vista boxes. It's less bloated.
As for website codes (not limited to this website) that blocks certain useragent codes, you can use Opera which can "fake" the useragent (which tells the server what browser and OS you are running) and if you are using Firefox, you can use an extension called "User Agent Switcher" (I think there's more than one useragent extension) to do the same.
While this is a blunder, if anyone really wants to watch the convention, I'm sure you can simply watch a regular television.
Will C-Span(/2) have convention coverage? That might be more continuous than CNN, and without CNN's silly spin.
If the DNC forbid others from providing video feeds, THEN I'd be upset.
I'm guessing the RNC will have a much bigger lockdown on footage. We'll see.
Anyhow, I still agree that someone organizing the DNC event made a mistake going with something other than Flash, or something even more open, like broadcasting raw MPEG streams or H264 streams. But, gee whiz, it's not a conspiracy to annoy Linux users or promote Silverlight (ugh!).
It costs less to just design a page for W3C spec.
There is no W3C spec for codecs to be used for live streaming video and audio. When W3C tried to specify that browsers SHOULD decode Theora and Vorbis in an object element (HTML 4) or a video element (HTML 5), Nokia female-dogged.
Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
I attended a number of conventions within our state and if it is as screwed up everywhere else as it is here, they could actually lose.
They lost my vote when Obama voted for immunity for Telco's.
I was hoping that they were going to be on the forefront of technology issues. They weren't even close. During the computer/technology meeting they spent 45 + minutes during a 2 hour session talking about Short Wave Radio issues.
Finally some other people took over the meeting and it started getting more towards computer and technology issues. but basically a lot of it was hog wash.
They spent a lot of time talking about caps on downloads. They were upset that they couldn't download more than 10 movies during a month.
I'm sorry but I feel there are more pressing issues, like broadband for rural areas, software usage in schools and government, open internet. Just to name a few. They were all more interested in who got elected, not what they were getting elected for.
Later I had someone come talk to me about my blog. He told me there were some things we just shouldn't talk about. He never mentioned my blog, but I think it was more than a coincidence that he came and talked to me the day after I posted the info.
I met some good concerned people there, but the people in charge were totally off the wall and I felt that it was more of a way to pacify the masses, making them have a feeling that they had an input to the party. I left the convention feeling like they were so screwed up that they could actually lose the next election.
And I bet it is going to be a lot closer than they thought.
It's going to be interesting, a large number of Republicans don't want McCain and a large number of Democrats don't want Obama.
He who said 1,000,000 monkeys on 1,000,000 typewriters would eventually type the great novel, never saw an AOL chat room
Complaining about this on Slashdot does little to change it. Instead, please send your complaints to: info@demconvention.com
Okay, on my Mac it doesn't work in either Firefox or Safari. I have intentionally not installed the Silverlight plugin; but it doesn't tell me I need it! It just says it's not compatible with my browser - and then tells me to use... my current OS and browser.
There's a web developer that's on the ball...
#DeleteChrome
Ugh. What could these possibly offer that couldn't be done with, say, Flash?
I just went to Move Networks' web site, and the FAQ mentioned one thing that FLV doesn't appear to offer: automatic switching to lower or higher rate streams depending on network conditions. (Remind you of RealPl[buffering...]ayer?) Now all we need to do is start politely female-dogging to Move Networks to port its player to Moonlight, the Free implementation of Silverlight.
And do you think maybe money was exchanged to be sure Silverlight was in the spotlight? "Hey buddy, scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" Seems like the DNC would be more concerned that anyone anywhere using anything would have access to the streaming video; kinda like a great big "I'll take care of this, it's what I do!" government would do.
Karma: Bad is the liberal way of saying this guy won't drink the kool aid here on slash dot. I wear my Karma with pride
You should be able to do both with ogg theora. GNU/Linux has done streaming media well for ages. If you don't believe me contemplate the flexibility of MythTV front and back ends.
They are, at least bright enough to use Apache (Red Hat).
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Let's be serious here - nobody's spending money to block anything. The DNC didn't build anything themselves, nor should they - they're a political party, not a software shop. They chose a vendor to build out and operate a video infrastructure for the convention, and that vendor happens to have built on Silverlight (that's where incentives and support from MS likely came in, not directly to the DNC). Why the vendor did that, I have no idea.
I'm a pretty big believer that these things should be built on open technologies, not the least of the reasons being that it's GOOD for political parties to have their content built upon and reused (that's much of what fuels political blogs). As such I'm a little miffed that they chose a vendor that didn't support open technologies, but my guess is that someone's list of questions didn't extend past "can you run it on a Mac" (thereby showing that they're not part of the old Windows-only generation, they're part of the new Mac generation). Given the size of the Linux market, I think the use of content question is much bigger than the runs-on-a-particular-OS question.
At least, not mine, despite their page stating that they support "Mac with Tiger (OS 10.4) or Leopard (OS 10.5)." and "Firefox (version 2), or, if you are on a Mac, Safari (version 3.1) also works." I have a Mac running Tiger, Safari 3.1, and Firefox 2, and I got the "We're sorry" message with both.
Aren't Mac users a big chunk of the core Democratic Party base? ;-)
Sheesh, we even had a story about McCain's tech platform (once he finally formulated one).
It specifically says that he believes in protecting children from porn and the RIAA's War on Sharing, but NOT 'prescriptive' legislation like Net Neutrality.
So what? You're gonna vote for the candidate whose website supports Linux? Pfft, how silly. I'll only choose my candidate based on their web server's OS.
In 2008 vote for the candidate whose server runs FreeBSD!!
You just got troll'd!
I'd rather see them showing another form of commitment to open governance, by making sure their communications are in open and non-encumbered formats. Not to mention not aiding and abetting a convicted monopolist in continuing and extending their monopoly.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
That would be Microsoft's money.
Why was this called a troll?
Because if sakusha knows that Linux has approximately one percent desktop penetration, then he should also know that the cost of adopting and supporting Silverlight would be higher that other more open methods.
While it might be a disappointment that Linux users are unable to watch the convention through the video feeds provided by the DNC site, and while it might seem like a setback to have to install Silverlight...
Damn, dude, that video player in Silverlight is COOL! I'm no Microsoft fanboi by any stretch of the imagination -- and I only installed Silverlight just now, with reluctance, to see for myself how the video looked for the DNC convention (and chuckled at the Silverlight EULA about the things it would do to handle DRM) -- and I am amazed by how cool the video player and this particular Silverlight application is.
Sure, it's just playing video, but the quality is pretty good, and even looks good at full screen size. But what's really cool is being able to click on a button to switch to an alternative camera view! There is no interruption of audio, and no significant pause to switch the video.
Overall, I'm impressed by the experience.
However, having said this, I do think that the open source community can and should compete with Silverlight and video players. Would the Dirac codec be able to deliver the quality of VC-1 (or whatever is being used here) using the same bandwidth? We need to recreate the same end-user experience without any DRM servers and user profiling. The only way for this to happen is to eliminate corporate interest in the platform itself...
If it were the "most technologically-savvy event" wouldn't it at least make an effort to support ALL operating systems
It does support all operating systems that are capable of the technology. Can Linux do this: "owners of secure content may request that Microsoft revoke the right of Silverlight to copy, display, and/or play secure content."
/.
before
and the Democrat and Republican national conventions have some similar, and some different, philosophies on
handling information access and control.
The need for political parties to protect their content from hackers has been discussed on
"For virtual attendees, the Democrat convention site is providing a progressive web experience (high definition Silverlight video , Digital Rights Management), while the Republican convention site is providing a more conservative web experience of..." - excerpt from August 21st Journal
I thought Microsoft's Silverlight platform would never catch on fast. I guess I was wrong. That site prompted me to download Silverlight.
I declined, naturally. But I know I will not be able to stop its march. What's wrong with Adobe's Flash system? Why didn't they use that instead?
The DNC didn't build anything themselves, nor should they... They chose a vendor....
First, we do agree that they chose this vendor -- so they probably should have gone with a different vendor, right?
Second, whether it's the DNC, some vendor, or Microsoft itself, there was, at some point, someone who made a choice to spend a bit of extra work on "choosing an OS"... which implies that money was spent (somewhere, somehow) to block that OS, instead of letting the site fail (or succeed!) on that OS.
Silverlight does exist for Linux. Perhaps not in a usable form, but it does exist. Because of the user-agent detection here, someone would not only have to get Moonlight working, they'd also have to spoof their user-agent -- which, among other things, tells the DNC that they have no Linux users.
Now, what's the alternative? sakusha was implying that getting Linux support would mean spending extra money, but you've made it very clear -- it would, instead, be about choosing a vendor who's already implemented Linux support (or simply Flash support).
I believe it would be worth it, even if there was some cost. But I don't think there would be.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
They want me to pay for my operating system??
Oh well, I think I have windows installed in a PC in one of my seven houses....
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
.. hang on ... I don't get to vote.
Much to my father's disappointment I've never taken up my US passport/citizenship.
Leapin' Lizards!
Who in their right mind CARES? You pick a well-supported standard format: Um... let's see, MPEG, XVID, VIDX, AVI container, MPEG container, MP3 sound, AC3 sound, whatever... and put the video up.
What? They didn't do that? They picked a new format for some reason; one that requires a platform refresh, and unholy amount of effort. Didn't even use (gasp) FLASH video?
Why on Earth would anyone do that?
The only 'splaining here is why a Political Party that will (most likely) be running the most powerful country on the planet is actually allowed to get a rim-job from a private company. Not that *I* could care -- but that is pushing the classic boundary commonly known a facist. Along with the rim-jobs the US gov' received from terrestrial radio, And etc.
Oh -- I here you saying "But the Dems didn't get a rim-job from Microsoft! They did it by themselves!" In which case, I think it's worse -- they SHOULD have held out for lots of plums before forcing that move.
Me? I don't care; enjoy yourselves!
Vote Democrat! Vote Microsoft! Vote Republican! Vote Microsoft! Just be sure to Vote!
Just another "Cubible(sic) Joe" 2 17 3061
You know, I'm not a big fan of the Democrats, but you guys need to chill out. Not every single thing the party does is a political statement of some kind and people need to stop getting so heads up into politics that they would think this is the case. What's next, there's some statement about Charmin because they used that kind of toilet paper?
It used be that the DNC was probably a really good time (this conservative notes that liberals are always fun to party with) but the interests of political correctness has completely turned into a horrible sounding green statement with terrible food and multiple warnings about drinking too much.
Seriously, just because a drunk delegate takes a gas guzzling cab to get back to the hotel doesn't mean that they aren't in favor of raising CAFE standards.
This is my sig.
Just as well, since it will be a boring ration of bovine scabala anyway.
in an effort to be totally fair to the Candidate B. Hussein Obama, they are not blocking Linux, they just want DRM so we can't post embarrassing video on youtube or paste a jackass's head on the candidate or chop the speach apart and paste back together into something insanely funny.
Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
not doing too well lately?
Democrats dont want to pay their $699 licensing fee those cock smoking teabaggers!
It don't like Firefox 3 either in any OS either, firefox 2 is so like last month you think they get hip.
Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
It specifically says that he believes in protecting children from porn and the RIAA's War on Sharing, but NOT 'prescriptive' legislation like Net Neutrality.
Well two out of three isn't bad. Children should be protected from all three: porn, the RIAA war on sharing and prescriptive legislation like net neutrality.
Complain Level 3 and Move Networks, not the DNC, they are providing the streaming free for the DNC.
I see no information there. If this were more than a cheerleading rally and they had some concrete information on the models of space, economy, mind, networks, medicine and in general reality, I would need to watch it. What gain could I have in staring at a picture drooling over the amount of non-information. This has always been the Ms approach. It works. People like to sit around and look at pictures and not think. They will pay for the privilege.
to 'bucketoftruth'. Way to go dude! It's only Monday -and the first day of the convention- and you've got /.'s knickers in a knot already. Sweet.
Sig this!
Their convention video is not compatible with my browser. Their platform is not compatible with my ideologies. Their rhetoric is not compatible with reality. Nothing to see here, move along.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
true!
You do realize that most of the standard formats you mentioned aren't really designed for live streaming, right?
$_ = "wftedskaebjgdpjgidbsmnjgcdwatb"; tr/a-z/oh, turtleneck Phrase Jar!/; print
.
Let's get real here.
Firefox gained visibility and market share after being ported to Windows and not before.
I would not be in the least surprised if its Linux origins have been more or less forgotten - if the majority of Windows users were ever conciously aware of them at all.
Margaret Thatcher has dementia at 82 and has had it at least 8 years according to the news report today.
That means she's had it from the age of at least 74. And she is in roughly the same if not better class for nutrition and health care, no? So the possibility can not be ruled out from a "social status" standpoint.
Of course, it is also possible Mr. Obama could choke on a pretzel one day and lose oxygen to his brain for just long enough to cause brain damage. But what are the odds of that ever happening to a president?
http://Communityville.com - A free place for new and old neighborhood webmasters to hang out.
Your employer seems to be running out of money, thanks to foolish spending. $6 Billion sounds like a lot for a company that's about to blow its last $20 billion on stock buy backs, but that's just part of the great ongoing collapse. Got your total fuckwad resume polished up? It will do better than one that puts emphasis on any other M$ skillz when they are gone.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Netcraft confirms it.
I can't believe you guys didn't notice this yet. You're slipping.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
This just is another reason to remind people that Linux is pretty much the best OS out there! It blocked the Socialist National Convention!
Quick question.
What does any of that have to do with what i'm describing?
Visibility or market share have nothing to do with my point here; They made it compatible with Firefox 2.0. Sure there is silverlight in use on the site from what i read of other comments, but there is still moonlight. And even there, theres no reason to block other operating systems from trying to render the remainder.
Granted, a COMPANY might say that improper execution of their web applications could damage their image. This is the DNC however, and anyone who might view their site with non-standard set ups would already be savvy enough to realize the difference between a "broken website" and "ah, they're using ".
Just seems pointless of them to go to so much effort when they could have just as easily left it as it was (or even better, go with the W3C spec and forget the whole issue as an AC replied to one of my earlier posts).
Ice Cream has no bones.
a couple of months ago cnn.com stoped working in linux as well. i think m$ is payin em off. just my 2cents
I would suggest evaluating whether or not the person who told you he is getting dimentia is a valid source of information or not.
My brother's wife's best friend's boss heard that someone read on a website that Obama was a Muslim.
That's about as credible as 'some people are saying McCain has dementia'. You're quite right about sources and credibility.
What can I say, except that's just very typical of the elitist pigs that are the Repu...??? Guess its the democrats that are the elitist pigs.
You are right, this was about money. It costs less to use this solution. Adobe wants your arm and a leg and possible your left nut for licensing for streaming flash. Windows media is essentially free.
If someone has the wherewithal to actually get Moonlight working, I am sure they could figure out the user agent spoofing, its not that hard.
MPEG is NOT designed for streaming?!?!?
So, I guess "TS" doesn't standard for "Transport Stream", and there aren't any PTS (Presentation Time Stamps)... Oh crap, I guess MPEG doesn't come from satellites after all :(
And, I guess the small TS stream packet sizes and inclusion of I-Frames doesn't allow you to just jump on a stream at any time! More sadness :(
Anyway, you must know. I stand corrected.
Just another "Cubible(sic) Joe" 2 17 3061
It's being broadcast live, free over-the-air, on PBS, at least on my local station (WNET). If you don't have a TV (despite having a computer and the option of buying a $50 TV tuner), pauvre vous.
Ironically, the company that built the website, SilverStripe, is a firm supporter of open source software, and the SilverStripe CMS is released as open source.
The Democratic Convention website features in their showcase:
http://silverstripe.com/showcase/
wow, angry much?
Greetings from Windowsland. I must say, this is the first live stream i've ever witnessed that's this high quality and streams so smoothly. So apparently it was worth using silverlight. That's not to say they couldn't have provided an alternate stream that was linux compatible.
Because 99% of all normal, non nerd internet users would rather watch the video within a website rather then choose between a dozen file formats that sometimes stream properly, sometimes confuse the browser "what kind of file is this, good sir?", sometimes dont stream but try to download all 1.2 gigs before loading the client.
Video on the inter-tubes exists because of the embedded video client. Take away the embedding, and we'll be back to square one.
But as long as it satisfies some Linux nerd (who choose their OS knowing full well they would not be able to enjoy various forms of media on the internet), the ends justify the means, right?
Why should I care about this video? LOL....
Everything else is noise......
What you seem to be missing is that a vendor does not "build out and operate" something that is not approved by the client via functional and technical scopes, design standards, etc.
Therefore, the client (DNC) is and was well aware of what was being purchased and/or paid for.
I'm getting the same error on Mac OS X 10.4 in both Firefox and Safari, as well as Safari on Windows Vista. In Firefox on Windows, it asks me to install Silverlight and the Move Networks plugin.
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
You could just go watch CNN's flash video instead. Presumably the other networks each have one as well.
It seems to me that everybody who's complaining about the anti-Linux filter is making the same mistake the web designer made.
A good web designer who wants to support multiple browser-OS combinations (I don't want to use that phrase over and over, so I'm just going to say "browser") doesn't bother with the agent string. Working that way means you have to make all kinds of assumptions about what features the browser does and does not support. Get one of those assumptions wrong, and your claim to support that browser is bogus. Since web designers typically don't have time to test every web page on every browser they want to support, they don't find out these mistakes until users complain about them.
(When I encounter a web site that makes this mistake, I spoof a browser it does support. Easy to do in Firefox, even if you don't have the User Agent String add-on. Half the time, the web site works fine. Did anybody think to try that with the convention web site?)
The right way to do it is, first, avoid browser-specific idioms. If you can't eliminate them completely, you don't code your application to work one way on one browser and another way on another. Instead you probe for the features the browser supports, and respond accordingly.
But once you've made the fundamental mistake of coding-to-the-browser, it makes perfect sense to say, "we support X, Y, and Z, and nothing else". Once you start thinking in terms of "system requirements" instead of browser features, it an obvious step to phrase your system requirements so that you maximize your user base and minimize your development and support costs. So the the web designers are telling each other, "We have to place some kind of limit on what we support, and the two OSs that account for 95% of all users is a good place to draw it." In that context, bitching about lack of Linux support sounds like just another fringe political agenda. And politicians are pretty darn good at filtering those out!
"Linux/*ix users might be in the minority, but they do tend to be more vocal.... and often it works (to my utter surprise)"
So that's why Linux users are getting laid more.
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/most#Synonyms
"mst, IPA: /most/
Synonyms
* almost all"
ITYM "because it uses Silverlight", period. Flash isn't the only alternative.
In fact, I streamed MPEGs just fine back in the 90's with Xing Streamworks. Totally platform independent, and no special plug-in needed -- any player that could open an MPEG stream (and that's most) would do fine.
So why Flash? Or Silverlight, for that matter?
What? They didn't do that? They picked a new format for some reason; one that requires a platform refresh,
Haven't you been paying attention? Obama is all about CHANGE! So of course they went with a new format that requires a lot of changes on the user's part!
"It don't like Firefox 3 either in any OS either"
Then truly, he is a man of the people.
"We're sorry, but the Democratic Convention video web site isn't compatible with your operating system and/or browser"
No big deal, they arent going to support a small portion of the market, get over it.
Ever see the southpark episode were gerald was a dolphin and complained about the stadium not haveing dolphin friendly bathrooms? You Linux guys are all dolphins.
Sheesh, we even had a story about McCain's tech platform (once he finally formulated one).
It specifically says that he believes in protecting children from porn and the RIAA's War on Sharing, but NOT 'prescriptive' legislation like Net Neutrality.
OK. Same as Biden then. At least we don't have a choice.
Yeah, they're a political party, not a software shop. BUT, as a political party, shouldn't they be better at choosing vendors, and holding the vendor to some basic metric of whether they delivered? Stipulating that the website be "as accessible as that youtube thingy" is all they had to ask for, really. If the Party can't do that, should we trust them to choose vendors on important projects?
Screw Linux, we have bigger problems. I just tried the same site on my Amiga 500 running Ibrowse, it wouldn't even display enough of the page to tell me to use Windows or a Mac. That's a real problem. I don't care if I'm using an Etch-A-Sketch, the Internet should be open for everyone. I'm only 1 of 6+ billion people, but MY needs trump everyone else. If something isn't working for me, it's a problem for everybody.
Nah, vote for Ralph Wiggum!.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
I sent the DNC a complaint email--contents below:
===
We're sorry, but this e-mail message isn't compatible with your
operating system and/or mouse pad. Please try again on a
computer with the following:
Compatible operating systems:
QNX, Irix, BSD, Linux, Multix, or an Amiga running ShapeShifter running
A/UX or any Intel Mac running SheepShaver running A/UX.
Compatible email clients:
elm, pine, balsa, alpine, or mutt
-rd
There's a huge TCO advantage in the Move Networks delivery technology, as it can take advantage of ISP web caches so that multiple viewers on the same network can watch the same file chunk, cutting ISP's in-stream bandwidth requirements hugely, as well as outgoing bandwidth needed. For content like this which has a huge simultanous audience, that means scaling up is much, much cheaper.
http://www.movenetworks.com/why-move/frequently-asked-questions
Move Networks also offers pretty seamless rate adaption, so you don't get buffering messages as available bandwidth changes.
I'm not aware of anything else like this availble in FOSS or generic MPEG-4. Most MPEG-4 software players and live encoders don't even support RTSP stream switching.
My video compression blog
Riiight..
Microsoft is subsidizing Silverlight installs to build market share. It seems that you CAN compete with Free.
When did misinformation like this start to get modded up as insightful?
Firefox has always been available for Windows, don't know where the idea that it was "ported" to Windows came from.
Here, check out the Phoenix 0.1 release notes.
... but rather technologically proprietary, eh?
Way to go, DNC, once again looking and sounding like carbon copies of your Republican foes. Can anyone discern a tangible difference any more? Excessive ambition and self-interest lead to pretty much the same results and consequences, regardless which Party's groupthink they claim to worship.
It's like hiring an Amish guy to design the next generation fuel cell sports car racer.
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
Now, what's the alternative?
Everyone using Linux refresh the refusal page over and over until they understand that there are Linux users waiting to hear their message?
In any event, I bet the video doesn't come out of the camera already in silverlight format, and I'll bet the tools to cram it in to that format aren't free.
There are, however, many tools (some free) to capture video into a number of free and open formats including the patent free ogg/theora.
I'm voting Republican. :)
Is there any reason, any reason whatsoever that you have made your web site and videos inaccessible from anything other than a machine running Microsoft Windows? I had to go over to my neighbours house just to write this. It's ridiculous. When I made a donation to the ACLU earlier, they had no such requirement. I also heard Sen Biden is against network neutrality. Perhaps it's time to pop over to johnmccain.com. I do notice his videos are available in flash which works everywhere. Careful democratic party- you are showing a bit of plumbers crack and revealing your true allegiances. Fix this, fix it now.
You can get the DNC live feed via streaming Flash at http://foxnews.com./
You know, it's funny... You BoycottNovellers are always blowing the whistle on astroturfers - but it turns out that you guys ARE the astroturfers.
What makes this whole thing even funnier is that you made personal attacks against the person you replied to, which, as you BoycottNovellers love to point out, indicates that you are a FUDDer who realizes that he or she is losing an argument.
But maybe that rule only applies to non-BoycottNovellers, because you guys seem to think you're morally superior to everyone else.
Let's get real here.
Firefox gained visibility and market share after being ported to Windows and not before.
Uhh, if I'm not mistaken, Firefox has always been available for Windows, since its inception (as "Phoenix"). Netscape Navigator (its predecessor) has always supported Windows as well (although of course it was Windows 3.1 with a third-party TCP/IP stack back in 1994).
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
We're sorry, but the Democratic process in America does not support freedom of choice. Please try again with a candidate that conforms to the ideals we dictate. If you don't like this numbing your brain with your drug of choice and crying into your pillow at night may also work.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
nbcolympics.com used Silverlight, too. Linux doesn't work.
Hmm, I would have interpreted this as "Their IT planning meetings don't work".
I agree completely! The options are mutually exclusive, when you think about it. The concept of a 'Download this video' button on a website with streaming video is utterly ridiculous -- nay, utterly impossible. That would require some kind if 'hyper' linking technology, a ludicrous fantasy in a world with browser-embedded video players such as ours. They don't care what the cost is, those damn those Linux nerds will ruin the Internet for all of us normal folk!
...so we can't post embarrassing video on youtube or paste a jackass's head on the candidate or chop the speach apart and paste back together into something insanely funny.
Pffft...like DRM and/or not being able to view it in Linux is going to stop *that*! :)
[b.belong('us') for b in bases if b.owner() == 'you']
Well it's not running BSD but is probably running redhat at level 3 communications.
http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report?url=http://www.demconvention.com
And do a view-source of www.demconvention.com homepage; it is powered by the SilverStripe open source CMS.
http://www.silverstripe.com
Maybe you didn't get the memo, but:
- Did he "need" a vacation, or did he, with two young children, after a long primary campaign, want to take some time off and visit his family over the summer, like "regular Americans" do? Granted, he went to elitist, foreign, Hawaii, but still.
- Do you think he honestly believes there are 57 states, or was that just a slip of the tongue? Do you believe McCain really knows the difference between Sunni and Shia, or that he gives a crap, since he wants to bomb them all anyway?
- Just because Obama didn't do the townhalls doesn't mean that he was "afraid to". Why elevate your opponent?
- Rezko's wife sold that undeveloped lot before Rezko was convicted. The "felon" isn't there.
"I'm no Microsoft fanboy or anything, but I've been pretty impressed with Silverlight."
There's this bullshite meme here on dotslash that supposes Microsoft does nothing right. But while they've had their legendary failures(who hasn't? Hello, Apple Newton), we don't give them enough credit for what they do right. For all it's instability, Windows 95 was a lot of fun, and 98 was a pretty good game platform. Windows 2000 was a very good OS with what has become an almost cult following. Face it, once the first service pack arrived, Windows XP was pretty fast, pretty stable, and pretty useful. Their servers since 2000 have been very popular with the enterprise, and those people just love Sharepoint, all for good reasons. They're great products. Office got it's foot in the door because of the OS monopoly, but it eventually beat out Wordperfect because it became better than Wordperfect.
They made good games even before they bought Bungie, and just about everyone can agree that their hardware is top notch. It ought not to be a Karma sin here to give them credit when they actually earn it.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
Can you specify why you believe that this person works for Microsoft? In fact, can you expand on why you think Microsoft has anything to do with this, at all?
Is this really news? That's true of lots of sites.
What is their technical contact address so more of us can complain?
Pacifica / KPFA Broadcasting live!!! http://election411.org/ Live Democratic National Convention coverage, along with interviews with Mark Cohen, Bobby Seale, John Nichols, Cindy Sheehan, Craig Holeman, Melissa Lacewell, Cory Cook and delegates from Broward County Florida and New Mexico. Anybody here talking about the "freedom cages" for the protester outside the convention?
> Firefox gained visibility and market share after being ported to Windows and not before.
You have that backwards. Netscape/Mozilla/Firefox is a Windows app. Most of the developers check in patches from Windows development machines, features are planned based on a Windows target, etc. Linux/Unix/Mac are the ports.
It is fairly obvious for us old timers. Back in the Netscape days the ports would sometimes trail the Windows releases, never the other way around. We lived in fear that Netscape would either be paid off to abandon the Linux port or decide they weren't worth the developer time; which would have pretty much ended our favorite upstart OS in the cradle since it was the only usable browser.
And more on topic, who gives a crap if the DNC sold out? Of course they did! Bet the Republicans run Silverlight too, and for the same reason. Campaign contributions. They are politicans, remember? Oh, I'm sorry. You Democrats were Hoping for Change. Ha! Welcome to the real world.
But it isn't like there aren't plenty of news organizations you can't get video from. Although MSNBC is probably right out....
Democrat delenda est
With all of this hoopla over the Demopublican conventions the Media is completely abrogating its responsibility. During the Primaries we got daily delegate counts, why aren't we seeing daily States on Ballot counts for Barr and Nader?, they're both going to be on the ballot in about 45 States, if Barr and the Libertarian Party win every court case they have, he will be on in 50 States. McKinney and Baldwin will be on the ballot in over 30 states each. Why isn't that newsworthy?
I am running Linux, but I won't be bothered about missing the Democratic or Republican convention at all. I think I'll finally watch Borat instead (Bob Barr has a cameo).
minds, get scrambled like eggs, abused and erased. Hard Hearted Alice is who you want to see.
If it is compatible with the firefox 2 browser, then they have already spent the money on supporting a fringe OS.
Firefox is not an operating system, it's a web browser.
It's not working for me. I don't get an error message. All I get is a bunch of links to videos. When I click on the links, all I get is some videos of things and people talking about how great Democrats are in the background.
OS:
Ubuntu 8.04 "Hardy Heron"
Browser:
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008072820 Firefox/3.0.1
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
In other words, given his experience being tortured in Vietnam, he's very familiar with what it feels like trying to get Linux installed and running on your computer.
Olympics all over again...
Cthulhu wasn't born in this country. Besides, he's already governor of California.
Somehow the fact that their web site requires Silverlight isn't terribly surprising when you see the members of the DNCC Technology Advisory Council...
Reference: http://mediacircus2.blogspot.com/2008/08/new-wired-tac-on-dncc.html
One of the things that always makes politicians look untrustworthy is saying one thing, and doing another.
If you look at Obama's technology platform, he is quite clear about what an "open internet" means. See http://www.barackobama.com/issues/technology/#open-internet. A small extract from this statement follows
"Making government data available online in universally accessible formats to allow citizens to make use of that data to comment, derive value, and take action in their own communities."
To me, using a technology such as Silverlight is NOT a "universally available format". It assumes one is using a specific type of operating system and/or browser combination, and the particular technologies required are neither freely available, nor universal.
I don't doubt that Obama means what he says in his policy statement, but SOMEONE has to follow through with making sure this actually happens. I am not a US citizen, but if I was, I would probably vote for him because he is more likely (I think) to follow through on the sorts of statements contained in his technology statement than a certain other contender for the job. But you have to mean what you say, and you have to make sure it happens.
I have this special standalone box utility that allows me to watch it without any plugins whatsoever. I don't even need a browser!! It wasn't very expensive either, I found an old one at a garage sale for like 20 bucks. I don't even need a ethernet connection or anything; just plug it in the wall and it downloads live streaming video right out of the air somehow! It doesn't have Microsoft Word or anything installed like that and I cant use it to browse slashdot but thats ok because that stuff's a waste of time anyway; with this thing I just get the vids, nothing else! well, and some ads. A lot of ads. But anyway you should see if they have one at your local gadget shop; this thing is pretty cool!!
Perhaps it's about time that someone start enforcing web standards.
:)
I'm not exactly endorsing the idea that a Community Policing takedown policy should be put into effect, but perhaps sending contact emails to the site admin, informing them they're in violation?
What's the point of having standards, if you're not going to follow them (and you're not Republican)?
Biden as Veep means he is out of the Senate and he can't sponsor more idiot legislation.
> your total fuckwad resume
Ah, I always wondered who posts this AC
jewel on every other twitter thread, but I guess the speculation's over.
It's not particularly difficult to make video cross-platform compatible. Unless you outsource your web development to the lowest bidder and indirectly to incompetent developers. Why aren't they held to the section 508 rules for accessibility?
Three words on that site that look profoundly oxymoronic in juxtaposition. How does one develop a policy for innovation? Would we want it to be cohesive, or does that sound as sticky and deadening to others as it does to me? And he plans to "... protect American intellectual property..." as well. This sounds remarkably and tiresomely familiar. In fact I'm sure that similar words have been bruted during the last several elections. The last big "policy" move netted us the DMCA. To be fair it says his "vision" is cohesive, and given the dreadful familiarity of it, it has been sticking around for a while.
I'm using Firefox 3.0 and Windows Vista. After installing the Move Networks Fx3 plugin and Silverlight, the streaming video is working fine for me.
Fwiw, my Linux workstation is for *work*, not for watching videos/movies. This Vista system is a media center HTPC and is ideal for watching videos. The DNC stream looks *great* on my TV :).
Linux Not Supported For Democratic Convention Video? That does it! I'm voting Republican!
Is this the message I'm supposed to take away from this article? Seriously?
Large print giveth, and the small print taketh away
Silverstripe http://www.silverstripe.com/ built the demcon site. You could do worse than try asking them. They're a pretty decent bunch of guys. Disclaimer: I don't work for Silverstripe, but my friend does.
....by email, phone or fax:
"I'm sorry, but my vote is not compatible with your party or candidate. Please try again with the following platform and/or policies..."
"Slow down, Cowboy! It has been 3 years, 7 months and 26 days since you last successfully posted a comment."
In addition to Silverlight, DemConvention.com uses Redhat: searchdns.netcraft.com/?position=limited&host=www.demconvention.com
And it runs on SilverStripe open source CMS/framework, which requires PHP, MySQL, Apache.... (Just do a view-source of the homepage, or check out silverstripe.com/powering-4-days-of-political-history-dnc-2008/)
Source of demconvention.com has: <meta name="generator" http-equiv="generator" content="SilverStripe 2.0 - http://www.silverstripe.com/" />
I think picking somebody to do a job is important.. the President does need to appoint people to positions once they get elected.. I would have to declare this a bad pick based on the results shown here.
when the site also supports OSX and Firefox.
It's too easy to marginalize so take this as a lesson. "Supports" is where you get buggered on this one.
JUST like nbcolympics.com, it works on some OSX, but not an intel mac from a couple of years ago. And exactly how many users are *actually* going to go download firefox just for the occasion? My wife just closed safari and never went back.
You are really screwed if you are on PowerPC and Linux. Nothing works. Not even wine.
So, "compatible" is needlessly complicated and as recent news indicates aggressively minimizes their audience to the point that mostly static content drew the same audience numbers. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/25/sports/olympics/25online.html?ref=technology
Microsoft bought video delivery privileges to force silverlight downloads. Some people call that a conspiracy. For me, that's just business. But there's still *something* wrong with that.
http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
McCain immediately goes and makes his site compatible with Linux and ALL Linux-based browsers, including Lynx. Heh heh heh... Who's his running mate gonna be? Isn't it about time he picked one? I think he should pick Hillary.
McCain/Palin '08. Now THAT's hope and change!
Windows Media servers, however, are just regular ol' Windows servers -- couple hundred dollars per box
You know that's complete B.S. They don't set up "a couple" of boxes and therefore pay super-premium-prices because of the license limits.
with no user limits,
you'd be wrong there too.... Unless of course you violate the license restrictions like most licensees..
and they do quite well with heavy loads.
Linux scales better. Corporate won't pay the 5-figure Microsoft licenses to stay ahead of capacity planning.
http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
yeah but obama could totally kick bidens ass
IranAir Flight 655 never forget!
How much do you have to pay to get your almost unknown technology used on a site watched by almost the entire USA and a good deal of the rest of the world?
I went to check out your Videos at your http://www.demconvention.com/ website and got the following error message.
"We're sorry, but the Democratic Convention video web site isnÃ(TM)t compatible with your operating system and/or browser. Please try again on a computer with the following: Compatible operating systems:
Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, or a Mac with Tiger (OS 10.4) or Leopard (OS 10.5).
Compatible browsers:
Internet Explorer (version 6 or later), Firefox (version 2), or, if you are on a Mac, Safari (version 3.1) also works."
You don't support my operating system Linux, I won't support your party. I suppose you don't give a flying hoot. Well, that's too bad.
I'm not even going to say "Good luck". We Americans voted for you to clean up after Bush and you haven't even come close. You're a joke.
....sign of things to come?
This Message was undeliverable due to the following reason:
Your message was not delivered because the destination computer refused
to accept it (the error message is reproduced below). This type of error
is usually due to a mis-configured account or mail delivery system on the
destination computer; however, it could be caused by your message since
some mail systems refuse messages with invalid header information, or if
they are too large.
Your message was rejected by mail.demconvention.com for the following reason:
5.7.1 Message rejected as spam by Content Filtering.
The following recipients did not receive this message:
Please reply to
if you feel this message to be in error.
Reporting-MTA: dns; xxxxx.xxxx..xxx
Arrival-Date: Tue, 26 Aug 2008 11:07:40 +0200
Received-From-MTA: dns; [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]
Final-Recipient: RFC822;
Action: failed
Status: 5.1.1
Remote-MTA: dns; mail.demconvention.com (67.132.2.16)
Diagnostic-Code: smtp; 550 5.7.1 Message rejected as spam by Content Filtering.
From: xxxxx xxxxx
Date: 26 August 2008 11:07:39 GMT+02:00
To: info@demconvention.com
Cc: news-tips@nytimes.com, letters@washpost.com
Subject: How much did Microsoft pay you?
Hi,
at http://www.demconvention.com/dncc-video/ clicking on the link asks me to install Microsoft's Silverlight plug-in in order to view the videos streamed there. Given that around 90% of the world's computers already have Adobe's Flash plug-in installed which is the basis behind sites such as youtube, etc (and, yes it does do HD video and streaming), and about 0.1% of the world's computers have Microsoft's Silverlight technology installed and that Flash works on all browsers on Windows, Mac and Linux (and most mobile phones), one really has to ask oneself what incentive Microsoft gave you to get you to use their technology, and how one can square that incentive with the claim that the Democratic Party is a party with a platform aiming to avoid the stain of lobbying and corruption?
One also has to ask oneself how and why a supposed convention interested in reaching out to as many people as it can is using technological means that almost guarantee a smaller audience than using existing ones.
I've already written to a number of newspapers, including the NYT and the WashingtonPost, alerting them to this.
I would truly love to hear what you have to say about it.
Regards
xxxx
xxxx
xxx
In defense of Nokia, that decision went strongly against the company's stated policy of open standards and was carried out by an MS staffer that managed to get into and represent Nokia in the meetings.
That's Nokia. I'm not sure what Apple's problem was. If I had to guess, I'd guess NDAs or contractual obligations from MS directly in exchange for hanging onto MS Office for the Mac just a bit longer.
Should say: "If you browse to the Democratic Convention website and are running Linux and attempt to check out any of their upcoming streams, you bump into the following limitation..."
That's why :
http://silverlight.net/
So the Democratic Convention will not be supported by Linux users. After all it's them who needs support more than Linux users do... They can get by fine without seeing the politico's strut their stuff, there are other parties to vote for after all... and in the end it won't make a difference anyway... Republicrats or Demolicans...
--frank[at]unternet.org
That's really undemocratic.
How else could an article about an unsupported platform by one party turn into a bashing of a candidate of another party. The ability of the human mind to abstract information is astounding!
Assuming the DNC didn't build it themselves (I agree with you on that point), I wouldn't be surprised if they did dictate that the vendor had to build using Silverlight, because Microsoft is a direct sponsor (source: http://www.demconvention.com/dncc-names-microsoft-official-software-and-hd-web-content-provider-for-2008-democratic-national-convention/) - I wouldn't be at all surprised if one of the conditions of Microsoft coming on board was using Silverlight.
Be nice. He did say "most".
Shit! His middle name is Hussein? Looks like I'm not voting for him no matter what policy positions he holds.
John McCain's middle name is Sidney. That makes me think he's a sissy. And he's John Sidney McCain, III. Does he think he's royalty or something?
My middle name is Alan. What does that say about me?
"It specifically says that he believes in protecting children from porn and the RIAA's War on Sharing" ...I thought McCain was committed to protecting children from the RIAA. Now *that* would have been a position worthy of support.
the "Linux not supported" error message is delivered by a Linux server.
From netcraft:
Linux Apache/2.0.52 Red Hat
Tech Public Policy stuff
last election i was able to watch stuff on the DNC on my linux box no problem. What's the difference now. Isn't the DNC trying to get us all in this. not just leaving out a "fringe 1%"
some people are a "glass half empty" some are "glass half full" i'm a "there is something in the glass be happy" person
I use PCLinuxOS and viewed all of the video on the Democratic Convention web site without a problem.
I was at a Democratic-NPL campaign strategy meeting in North Dakota in 2004, where they were trotting out a new voter database system.
The representative was pinging off the lists of format converters: Excel, CSV, and so on, and it was at this point that I raised my hand and asked him if OpenOffice was an option. His reply:
"We don't do open-source, we're Democrats."
It shocked me, and didn't make sense to anyone else in the room who knew anything about computers (which in politics is still woefully small).
To me, this was another example of how Big Content pervades the elite of the Democratic Party. It's still the RIAA/Microsoft types that have the money, make the donations, show up at the mixers, and they end up being the people hired to code Democratic Party websites.
(It's never too late to join the Renaissance)
Ever try to get Flash to work on 64-bit Linux? It isn't pretty. Yes- you can get the 32-bit version to work "most" of the time, and if you are lucky you can open a few sites with Flash before it locks up, but it is NOT the free universal solution it is touted to be.
Then again- at least it IS available for all platforms, unlike Silverlight. I haven't tried Mono yet as a Silverlight alternative, and just avoid Web sites that use it. If they want to sell-out to Microsoft by excluding Linux users- I will find another company/service to use.
How come that "democratic" organisation blocks access for fully democratic operating system such as linux ? If I were to vote for them I would think twice...
If you can't draw the analogy that you posted its Microsoft wants to elect the Democrats and are supporting them in whatever way they can. So vote republican its not microsoft.
Yeah, because a candidate who not only doesn't believe in Network Neutrality, but works with telcos to write laws actively subverting it (McCain) is better than a candidate that supports net neutrality but happens to have a VP that doesn't. Send me some of whatever you're smoking because it must be great.
"When the president does it, that means it's not illegal." - Richard M. Nixon
It has to do with the technology. One of my good friends went to work for one of the larger video providing service that has contracts with some large international networks like Sky TV and Harpo entertainment and such. They've been using Flash for years, but even they are now starting to look at Silverlight. Silverlight apparently gives them more functionality, and would streamline some of their operations.
I think it comes from the fact that whereas video was a secondary thought for Flash, silverlight was built with it as a primary feature. So they leapfrogged. Flash may similar leapfrog now that video is pretty much the only way it's used anymore.
We already know the Democrats are just as much the party of corporations and big business as the Republicans are. Whether it be granting immunity to the telcos or their website design. Corporate is as corporate does.
To me, this means that the Democratic Convention has uploaded a Windows program and a Mac OS X program to a file server on the internet, but effectively does not have an internet homepage.
Boooo
http://www.movenetworks.com/news-releases/move-networks-to-enter-into-strategic-relationship-with-microsoft as movenetworks is behind the distribution of the videos, the reasons for silverlight are more than abvious...
Seriously though, you think this was a decision made by Barack Obama to block linux users. It runs on a linux servers, its the jack-asses at whatever IT company the Democratic Convention contracted for that particular site.
If you do a quick User Agent Switch to IE on Vista or something that it accepts you'll see it asks you to download either Silverlight or some other plug-in called Move. It's not like they blocked Linux users from seeing a flash file. Still their idiots, most people involved in the actual convention probably either use a Mac or whatever came on their laptop (windows), so they really have no idea.
That said, I don't think either party really is out to make sure the internet is open and getting rid of silly copyright and patent laws.
-it's Obama who thinks there are 57 or 58 states
Osama is right. There are 57 states.
He's running for Caliph-in-Chief.
Do the math.
http://www.google.com/products?q=%22windows+2003%22+enterprise+edition&btnG=Search+Products&show=dd
And since there will be a farm, you will need many additional CALs to be compliant, additional terminal server licenses for your staff, the compliance and license budget keeps growing.
Now, for your MS SQL. hmmm look at that. Five figures for *each* machine. http://www.google.com/products?q=%22microsoft+sql%22+enterprise+edition&btnG=Search+Products&show=dd Microsoft is cheap too.
Look, I know there are lots of people that can run their non-clustered whatever on Microsoft stuff and get a sense of satisfaction from it. Great.
But when the 16+ cores isn't enough for next year's loads and downtime is counted in hundreds of dollars per second, Microsoft's performance makes it very hard to justify the price.
http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
So you have to run a conservative OS like Windows or MacOS to witness a liberal event? Liberal *nix family OSes need not apply? Shame.
That's funny, McCain's videos are playing on my system, using swfdec. Here's a better question: Why are these people not providing alternative streaming links?
Palm trees and 8
Should have read, "are not playing on my system."
Palm trees and 8
it's Obama who needs a week-long vacation
Huckabee, the last serious challenger in the Republican primary, dropped out on March 4th. And that's after McCain already had the nomination clinched for some time. Whereas Obama had to deal with Hillary and her backers throwing the kitchen sink at him for another 3 months...and when she dropped out, he had to jump straight into the general election. You're complaining that Obama took a week vacation after working non-stop for the better part of the year? McCain had three months off before he had to worry about direct competition again. And given the fact that Bush will have spent 3 of his 8 years as president on vacation, Republicans are firing a howitzer in a glass house on this one.
it's Obama who thinks there are 57 or 58 states
Ah, the rhetorical standards that are only brought out for Democratic candidates and *only* apply to Democratic candidates. Yes, Obama misspoke when he was exhausted and started talking about 50 states when he mean to talk about the 47 primaries he'd been in - so he said 57 states. Contrast that to McCain, who has falsely and repeatedly stated that Shiite Iran is training Sunni Al Queda, and continued to make the same gaffe after being corrected multiple times. Once could be a slip of a tired tongue. Twice is a serious gaffe for the man who's campaign is based around his supposed knowledge and experience. Three or more times and he's either lying (a la the Administration and "ties between Saddan and Al Queda") or he's senile.
it's Obama who is afraid to debate McCain at 10 town-hall style meetings, after saying he would debate him anywhere and anytime.
No, he didn't. Obama did say he wanted five presidential debates and more vice presidential debates, but McCain refused. Who's afraid now?
After his initial weaselly response on the Russian-Georgian conflict
Ah, first Obama is presumptuous (uppity) for...giving a speech in a foreign country, and then he's "weaselly" because he doesn't try and take charge of diplomacy like McCain (you want to talk about being presumptuous!) or threaten war with Russia. It's like Obama's planned visit to the troops, when McCain had an attack ad ready no matter what choice Obama made.
was the only IL state senator to speak out on the statehouse floor against a measure that would prohibit "finishing an abortion" in the case of a botched abortion where the child was actually born alive
What a surprise, you're being completely disingenuous. Obama didn't vote against the measure because of your "finishing an abortion" canard, he voted against it because it defined a fetus as a person - a backdoor attempt to ban abortion.
and still thinks the question of when life begins is above his pay grade
Of course, if you bothered to look at his whole response, he did answer the question. But it's no surprise that idiot wingnuts pretend that the "pay grade" comment was his only response - which was an obvious reference to God.
Tho I'm sure Obama knows where his house is, too. Right next door to a convicted felon.
A pathetic Obama smear wouldn't be complete without a reference to Resko. Resko wasn't a felon when Obama bought property from him, for which Obama paid full price. And if Republicans really want to play the Associations Game, wingnuts are again firing a howitzer in a glass house. McCain is friends with Gordon Liddy, another convicted felon who advised people to shoot federal agents in the head because they might be wearing body armor. Then there's the ties between Republicans (not necessarily McCain) and lobbyists like Abramoff. And Republicans, who just can't get enough evangelical cock, nevertheless also suck up to Sun Moon's money, nevermind that he claims to be Jesus, Moses and Mohamed all wrapped up into one.
Good lord.
Good lord you concern trolls are full of shit. You couldn't make an honest argument to save your souls.
From the page linked above "John McCain will expand the number of H-1B visas to allow our companies to keep top-notch talent - often trained in our graduate schools - in the United States. The Department of Labor should be allowed to set visa levels appropriate for market conditions. Hiring skilled foreign workers to fill critical shortages benefits not only innovative companies, but also our economy. For every foreign worker hired, corporations generally hire five to ten additional American workers. "
Not true.
http://osflash.org/red5
Uh, no. You have to buy Server 2003, then the WMV streaming server is 'free'. That is in terms of cost, of course; if you're not too worried about facts, you're probably even less concerned by restrictive licensing.
Give people tools that guarantee their right to work with independent efficiency. - Ivan Illich
It says you're a politically correct fucktard. Wow, that seems pretty accurate in your case!
Most people I talk to think, Linux is not ready for the desktop yet. It is. Since many years. My completely tech-unaware wife uses Linux since almost a decade and she is doing fine. I maintain her machine, she uses it. My daughter is growing up with Linux on our machines and Windows on her grandmothers' machine. The difference? No flash installed on the Linux box.
If I tell this to companies who don't support Linux, they usually get nervous as they realize they missed something important.
cb
Good evening to everyone across America.
(Pause for Applause)
We will win this election and by this time next year, the same people who run your public schooling system will be in charge of your healthcare!!!
(Pause for Dumbfounded Stares)
But before we endeavor into that glorious wind of change and miraculous hope that only I can bring, I must first spread with high voice and deep passion my begging of forgiveness.
(Pause and Get Help for the Woman Who Faux Fainted in Aisle 13 Row 12)
I must seek with unimpuned courage, forgiveness. For I have, with out knowing and with out foresight, spurnned a penguin.
(Pause for Obscenties Being Screamed)
That's right. My website, our website, which embodies all our hopes and dreams that this wind of change is real, is not net neutral. It is left sided. As left sided as our party. It has stabbed a delicate and endangered penguin. And now that penguin is upset. Therefore, I have asked Nancy Pelosi to call the Capital to the hill, that hill of great hope, to have all democrats unite and ask forgiveness from the penguin.
(Run Away From the Guys Approaching with the White Straight Jacket.)
This is why Linux is not making it as an operating system. The average user doesn't want to be incompatible. Sorry...It had to be said...you know it's true.
OK. Same as Biden then. At least we don't have a choice.
I've been screaming this sentiment for a while now... I stopped... nobody listens...
If we elect McCain however, we may have the gift of more great gaffes sch as, "I've just signed legislation that will outlaw Windows forever! We begin bombing in five minutes!"
I don't care how good Silverlight is, if there's a multiplatform alternative that's reasonable, you should use it.
Microsoft may or may not create good software in some instances. The problem is that only Microsoft has the nerve (and the Monopoly clout) to produce a new Internet streaming protocol and not make it available on all the major platforms. And Linux is one of the majors these days - with all the linux cellphones, netbooks, etc. Hell, desktop Linux use may be getting close to Macintosh levels.
If Microsoft wants to make their websites proprietary, let them. If they want to compete with Flash, do it - but be aware that doing it requires that they do it on at least all the platforms Flash supports.
That said, nobody intending to reach a large audience should use protocols that are not as universally available as possible. It defeats the purpose. Microsoft can get away with limited platform support only because NBC, the DNC, etc are willing to use their stuff without Linux support.
That said, the DNC probably farmed this out and has no idea of the issues involved.
Posted from my Android phone. Oh, I can change this? There, that's better...
That's the trouble, then: Will Biden as VP be worse than McCain as POTUS?
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
they just want DRM so we can't post embarrassing video on youtube
If true, that's interesting, because it's pretty much the opposite of what his platform says -- doesn't sound like a "transparent democracy" to me.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
From the demconvention.com website:
I guess someone forgot to tell this technologically-savvy group that something other than Windoze exists.
Not even Mac OS X is supported by the video gallery - unless you download and install that hideous travesty Silverlight. Oh well, I'm not a citizen of the USA so I'm not voting anyway.
You don't need a CAL for web server access or streaming media access.
My video compression blog
A bit ironic. But MSNBC is using a flash player. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/22886841#22886841 Not sure if it works on Linux, though.
Maybe this is related.
DNC appoints RIAA shill to run Public Affairs for convention
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/04/12/dnc-appoints-riaa-sh.html
fucking freetards.
.
This assumes that the distribution of alternative content costs significantly less - or at least no more - than Silverlight, while still reaching the same audience.
The DNC should be ashamed. They are locking OUT voters from their content.
I'm a Mac PowerPC user. I'm rather upset I donated money to the campaign. This is Microsoft and money talking which infuriates me. I won't vote for McCain, but I'm becoming very apathetic. Besides. Living in Illinois, Obama will win the state anyhow.
I'm very worried that technology policies such as this would continue should Obama be elected.
By the way. I already sent the following to the DNC and the Obama website:
Dear Democratic National Committee,
How dare you choose to use a proprietary, Microsoft-supplied technology for your convention video. I use a mac, but am not fortunate enough to have a newer Intel-Based processor machine. As a result... I cannot watch your video. There are other solutions that could have been used that would have been cross-platform running on a wider array of devices having the ability to reach a wider audience. I'm sure Adobe would have been happy to help you out, but I guess Microsoft was offering up the big bucks. You're shooting yourselves in the foot thinking about money and not accessibility.
I'm sorry to see that you have Microsoft in your back pocket. I'm now VERY sorry that I contributed money to the campaign. If Obama wins, I hope this isn't the type of attitude that is given towards technology under his administration. Disappointed that I thought you were the good guys. I have no plans to vote Republican, but I'm very apathetic to vote at all now. Good luck in the campaign. Start THINKING!
It's disappointing that making media on web sites cross-platform compatible seems a low priority. Especially disappointing coming from the democrats. Sometimes there's a financial incentive not to do so, for example media agreements with TV or cable networks. It just goes to show how committed the democrats are to equality and freedom. It's not a crucial issue anyway because the convention has got wall-to-wall TV coverage. Besides, who wants to hear what they've got to say? There's only so much tele-prompter delivered, sound byte filled, focus group targeted speeches, that I can listen to in a day.
i am on linuxos 2007 (great distro) and firefox 3. i turned on agent switcher and got by their "requirement" message which then told me to download silverlight and a media player.
so much for the democrats and nbc.
Not a coward, just an old lady with Linux because that's what my son put on my computer. I went to www.democrats.org, clicked on the speech of Biden accepting nomination. That took me to a page that allowed me to find speeches and more "here". Clicked on the "here" and watched a bunch of speech videos using linux.
Level 3 did the video technology for the convention.
Still, the DNC is responsible for what they hire done.
And excluding the small percentage of Linux users from online coverage seems small-minded.
Oh good, the internet was a bad idea anyway. Let's go back to SNA, and registering every end-user device with the OS on the server. Then we can expand HSPD-12 ID cards to every citizen, and we've got totalitarian lockdown!
I, for one, welcome our new republican overlords...
... in just 4 days.
I wonder how much of that was due to this slashdotting? Seemed to hold up fine...go LAMP!
http://www.silverstripe.com/demconvention-3-2-million-visits-in-4-days/