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Fwd: My never-ending love and respect for M$ continues......



  
       Just thought everyone might find this interesting.  What people
  might want to do about the 'IE Only' websites is try to connect and
  then email the company telling them exactly why they'll never get any
  of your business until they wake up.  Although I realize it's a waste
  of time for the M$ sites but I'm sure the owners of places like the
  Tesco Internet Shopping page would just love to hear why you'll never
  spend a dime with them.
  
  
  ==================BEGIN FORWARDED MESSAGE==================
  
  >    TBTF for 12/8/97: Prometheus suspected of arson
  >
  >    T a s t y   B i t s   f r o m   t h e   T e c h n o l o g y   F r o n t
  >
  >    Timely news of the bellwethers in computer and communications
  >    technology that will affect electronic commerce -- since 1994
  >
  >    Your Host: Keith Dawson
  >
  >    This issue: < http://www.tbtf.com/archive/12-8-97.html >
  >    ________________________________________________________________________
  >    ________________
  >
  >...Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 4.01
  >
  >  It fixes bugs, it provides accessibility, it munches disk
  >
  >    The 4.01 upgrade [9] reportedly fixes all of the IE 4.0 security
  >    bugs, and in addition returns to IE some of the features for people
  >    with disabilities that had been present in 3.0 but didn't make it
  >    back into 4.0 [10]. News.com reports [11] that many users are un-
  >    happy with the size of the download, which comes in three flavors:
  >    13, 16, or 25 MB. Once installed these packages eat disk to the
  >    tune of 56, 72, and 98 MB. Another unhappy constituency is the
  >    Windows NT 4.0 Server population [12] -- these users are required
  >    to download Internet Explorer 4.01 before they are able to access
  >    upgraded Option Pack components. Coming as it did in the week of
  >    Microsoft's date with a judge on antitrust charges [15], this cross-
  >    product requirement placed on NT 4.0 users had to be a bit embaras-
  >    sing for the company. Asked about this unfortunate confluence, vice
  >    president Steve Ballmer said: "We just don't need any more drumbeat-
  >    ing where people are wondering whether we are these Machiavellian
  >    uber thinkers who can plan out this weirdness." Try to remain calm,
  >    Steve.
  >
  >    [9]  http://www.microsoft.com/ie/ie40/download/
  >    [10] http://www.tbtf.com/archive/10-20-97.html#s02
  >    [11] http://www.news.com/News/Item/Textonly/0,25,16932,00.html?pfv
  >    [12] http://www.news.com/News/Item/Textonly/0,25,17058,00.html?pfv
  >    ________________
  >
  >...Microsoft invites Java developers, then cancels
  >
  >  Didn't they know in November about Internet World?
  >
  >    Late last month Microsoft invited 100 key "Java influentials" to
  >    come to Redmond, all expenses paid, to hear the company's spin on
  >    the future of Java technology. (Microsoft had convened a similar
  >    gathering a year ago.) The confab was scheduled for 12/5 and 12/6.
  >    Two days before its opening Microsoft abruptly canceled the arrange-
  >    ments [13], [14]. The company claimed that too many invitees were
  >    complaining of schedule conflicts with the Internet World show
  >    opening the following week in New York. The president of the Java
  >    Lobby, Rick Ross, said, "I wonder whether this is a signal that
  >    Microsoft themselves are in some disarray about their handling of
  >    Java. It certainly doesn't look very organized." One invitee won-
  >    dered whether the coincidental timing of a hearing in federal court
  >    [15] might have been a factor in the cancellation.
  >
  >    [13] http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?97123.ecancel.htm
  >    [14] http://www.zdnet.com/intweek/daily/971204f.html
  >    [15] http://www8.zdnet.com/pcweek/news/1201/05edoj.html
  >    ________________
  >
  >...Followup: the TBTF Exclusionary Sites Hall of Shame
  >
  >  Yes, the Star Trek site is as unfriendly as reported. Here are two
  >  others that don't welcome Netscape
  >
  >    TBTF for 11/24/97 [25] reported a Star Trek site [26] carried on the
  >    Microsoft Network that welcomes only visitors running IE on Windows.
  >    A number of people wrote with elaborations and results from other
  >    platforms, and I posted an emendation softening the claims in the
  >    original article. Now that all the facts are in I'm convinced that
  >    the site behaves as badly as first described.
  >
  >    Here are some other MSIE-only sites that readers wrote in about.
  >
  >    The Microsoft Gaming Zone [27] tells you this when you visit using
  >    Navigator.
  >
  >      > We're sorry. For technincal reasons, the Zone doesn't yet
  >      > support Navigator 3.0 or higher.  We're working to add this
  >      > support and we apologize for the inconvenience. If you think
  >      > this message was sent to you in error, please report it to
  >      > the Zone as a bug.In the meantime, we invite you to download
  >      > Microsoft Internet Explorer for free.
  >
  >    The English supermarket chain Tesco offers an Internet Shopping page
  >    [28] that says this to a Netscape browser.
  >
  >      > The Tesco Internet Superstore uses the latest Internet
  >      > Technologies. We Have detected that the browser you are
  >      > using does not support either ActiveX controls or VBScript.
  >      > Both of these technologies are required to use the Internet
  >      > Superstore.
  >
  >    [25] http://www.tbtf.com/archive/11-24-97.html#s11
  >    [26] http://startrek.msn.com/
  >    [27] http://www.zone.com/
  >    [28] http://www.tesco.co.uk/superstore/tis.asp
  >    ________________
  >
    
  ________________________________________________________________________
  
  >
  >S o u r c e s
  >
  >> For a complete list of TBTF's (mostly email) sources, see
  >    < http://www.tbtf.com/sources.html >.
  >    ________________________________________________________________________
  >
  >    TBTF home and archive at < http://www.tbtf.com/ >. To subscribe
  >    send the message "subscribe" to tbtf-request@world.std.com. TBTF
  >    is Copyright 1994-1997 by Keith Dawson, < dawson@world.std.com >.
  >    Commercial use prohibited. For non-commercial purposes please
  >    forward, post, and link as you see fit.
  >    _______________________________________________
  >    Keith Dawson               dawson@world.std.com
  >    Layer of ash separates morning and evening milk.
  >
  >--
  "Operating Systems manufactured by Microsoft are by far the most
  popular,
  with about millions of copies in use worldwide. OS/2 fans, on the other
  hand, may note that cockroaches are far more numerous than humans, and
  that
  numbers alone do not denote a higher life form."  modified from: New
  York
  Times, November 26, 1991
  
  
  ===================END FORWARDED MESSAGE===================
  
  
   ...Enjoy,
  
   ...Norm