Saturday, May 7, 2005

Another Sale Lost Because of Internet Explorer I was shopping for some printing services, and started on the Staples web site. It redirected me to their partner, "Mark The World." I clicked on the product I was interested in, and was greeted with the message: The web browser you are using is incompatible We are sorry for the inconvenience. Our site currently supports only Internet Explorer version 4.0 and 5.0. This is due to the advanced features used in the real-time designer. We are working to support Netscape in the very near future. If you do not have Internet Explorer, it may be downloaded for free at Microsoft's website here. How incredibly ignorant! My web browser is not incompatible. Mark the World's web site is incompatible with industry standard browsers. What a terrible way to treat a potential customer! Kicking out customers running Safari, FireFox, Camino, Konqueror, Opera or Nautilus because Mark The World choose to go with the least secure web browser is such poor customer service. Blame the customer. Get a clue, MTW. It's about choice. At the least, they should gracefully offer alternative services for those who prefer not to use their recommendation of browsers. I'll take my business elsewhere. 11:42:10 AM    comment []

Capture the Broadcast Flag game -- a win for consumers! CNet reports "The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled Friday that the Federal Communications Commission did not have the authority to prohibit the manufacture of computer and video hardware that doesn't have copy protection technology known as the "broadcast flag." Great news. Now just keep an eye on the legislature to make sure they don't re-implement this infringement on our rights to record for private use, time-shift or space-shift our consumption of the media. Next, seat belts that won't unlock during commercials! 8:24:57 AM    comment []

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