[Am-info] Dutch Railways web site cockup.

[Marcus de Geus]

For some time now, the Dutch Railways (Nederlandse Spoorwegen, NS) have bee=
n offering a very popular web-based service that rail travellers can use to=
 look up train connections. On 31 December 2001, the NS web site was upgrad=
ed to include other forms of public transport and to offer a much higher lo=
cation resolution than hitherto possible.

Sadly, the upgrade resulted in the total or, in some cases, partial loss of=
 functionality for anyone not using Microsoft Internet Explorer version 4.0=
 (or "better").

As the NS webmaster wrote in his/her (its?) reply to my message of protest,=
 "During the design and implementation of the new web site, NS had to opt f=
or a first release limiting access to Internet Explorer, due to the mutual =
functional incompatibility of Netscape-based browsers" (whatever that may b=
e).

Happily, I was not the only one to register my displeasure. In reply to the=
 uproar, NS have now promised to make a new version of the web site availab=
le this month to accommodate users of non-MS browsers. Or, as the NS webmas=
ter put it: "Our next release, which is planned for this month, will suppor=
t several browsers. We will keep you informed". One can only hope that by "=
several" they mean "several different types of".

Regards,

Marcus de Geus
--
marcus@degeus.com
http://www.degeus.com