On Tue, 2007-07-03 at 18:54 -0500, Rod Haper wrote: > After a couple of days of Googling for info, I happened upon a > work-around for the problem. > > Click on Tools->Extensions to pop up the Extensions window. Then click > on the "Get More Extensions" link at the bottom of the window to bring > up the Firefox Add-ons page. Use the Search function to search for > "User Agent Switcher". > <https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/59>. Download the User > Agent Switcher and restart Firefox to complete the install. Then > right-click on the tool bar at the top and select the "Customize..." > option. Drag-n-drop the User Agent icon onto the tool bar. Left click > the User Agent icon and select the "Netscape 4.8 (Windows Vista)" > option. CNN videos will not play correctly. > > I haven't played with User Agent Switcher enough to know if the problem > is CNN rejecting Firefox, Linux or the combination of the two but > spoofing the server as Netscape 4.8 running on Windows Vista works. It > will be interesting to see what other spoofing combinations work. > > -- > Rod Seems a lot of effort to go through, for what reads to be a bit of poor web programming, non? <soapbox> I'm a strong proponent of "functioning in spite of things", as it were, and yet... As the 'Net is absolutely flooded with rather less than skilled and/or experienced developers, we will always be confronted with "stuff" that doesn't work as it should. So, the more workarounds we have (and share), the merrier we are. However, this shouldn't be allowed to become the accepted norm. When (grabbing a number out of the air) 20% of the surfing public can not access/use a particular service/resource/whatever, it's not correct that the providers of that (whatever) quietly assume "Oh, they'll find a way to deal with it, they always do". Equally wrong, perhaps even more so, is that the 20% stay quiet and actually do "find a way to deal with it", and carry on with their business. Yes, I will aways want to be able to do my thing in spite of an inhibiting environment. No, I do not want this to be expected of me. When (for example) a CNN provides attractive content *only* to those who (for example) purchased a MicroSoft product in the last 6 month, a lot of voices should get loud and some virtual shin-kicking should take place. "Dude, your stuff only plays for an 8 year old browser in a 6 month old beta OS. What's wrong with this picture?" </soapbox> Andy
