NBC is screwing over Linux users.
Some of their websites, including the one for
Saturday Night Live,
offer a link to this
page, where "Select NBC Universal shows are now available for download
on Intel(R) Viiv(TM) technology and Intel(R) Centrino(TM) mobile technology
based-PCs for a limited time in the United States." Nothing is stated about
browser and operating system requirements.
I'm running Firefox on Linux, and when I clicked on the Next button, I got
a cryptic JavaScript error, "mediacontrol is not defined":
If I dismiss it, a graphic load on that page about downloading an ActiveX
control, and then I am redirected to an "error" page full of random Unicode
characters:
Now, as a Linux user I am used to often being shut out of websites or
software because my platform is not supported. I usually just look for an
alternative, or decide, sour-grapes-style, that if they didn't support Linux,
then their content probably wasn't worth it anyway.
But NBC doesn't say what operating systems they support! They probably
assumed that "Intel(R) Centrino(TM) mobile technology based-PCs" only ran
Windows. Well, straight from the horse's mouth (Intel), we have it that
"Linux will run on any Intel chipset-based platform including laptop PCs with
the Intel Core Duo processor, Mobile Intel 945 Express Chipset family and
Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection." (found
here)
and that, more importantly, "Intel Centrino mobile technology supports the
following operating systems...All Linux distributions supporting kernel
version 2.6.8 or later" (found
here).
So NBC... I live in the United States, and I have a Centrino laptop...
where are my videos?
(I've sent an email to the NBC webmaster about this, and if I get a reply,
I'll post it here.)
P.S.: Kudos to Intel. Your Linux support means I can have working power
management, wireless, and good-enough 3D graphics on Linux, and get 8 hours of
battery life. Try that with Vista!
I sent an email to TellMe. They've since removed the egg. :-( Probably
something about copyright issues, I'd bet.
I asked them, by email, if they could at least indulge my curiosity and
explain the significance of the egg. The person who answered my email didn't
know the answer:
We're curious :) We put something in a few months ago for our employees, so
it's probably that. As long as it doesn't negatively affect our recognition
for regular Tellme services that people are trying to get to, we'll probably
keep it in.
I explained that the misrecognition that lead me to it was over an extremely
bad VoIP connection, and that it wasn't a big deal. I also asked if they could
put it back so everyone wouldn't think I was nuts. ;-)
Back when they were just starting out,
Tellme Networks, Inc, the company
responsible for a large portion of the speech recognition-enabled phone
systems in use today, started a service where you could call 1-800-555-TELL
and get news, weather, stock quotes, and other stuff by just speaking.
One night, I was calling 800-555-TELL to try out my new VoIP connection
from Vitelity.net, and it made a
significant recognition mistake.
I had spoken "blackjack", hoping to play their voice-enabled blackjack
game. Instead, the system thought I said "Festivus", and sent me to a
category that none of the menus listed, and that I never knew existed. It
played the following quote from Seinfeld:
Frank: ...I haven't celebrated Festivus in years!
What is your interest?
Kramer: Well, just tell me everything, huh?
Frank: Many Christmases ago, I went to buy a doll
for my son. I reach for the last one they had--but so did another man.
As I rained blows opon him, I realized there had to be another way!
Kramer: What happened to the doll?
Frank: It was destroyed. But out of that, a new
holiday was born. "A Festivus for the rest of us!"
I was delighted to find this easter egg, and ecstatic when Google told
me I was probably the first one to discover it. You can try it yourself:
just call 1-800-555-8355, wait for the "Main Menu" prompt (you can interrupt
the listing of categories) and say "Festivus".
