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VChief
April 20th, 2008, 09:03 AM
Anybody notice the new Dilbert.com site? The animation part says it's only for Windows or Mac. I wonder why they did that. I used User Agent Switcher to IE7/Vista and it loaded then. But, it made me wonder why they would do this. CNN did the same thing with their videos on cnn.com. It's obviously not a "real" requirement. Your browser just has to report you as Windows/Mac. Anyone have any idea why these sites would do this?

Frak
April 20th, 2008, 09:07 AM
Seems to work fine for me in Firefox 3 Beta 5.

Though its mostly the issue of "If you don't know its danger, don't stray into it"
If a browser reports as another OS with a different browser, it may be a bot, etc. Most of it is nonsensical though.

Kevbert
April 20th, 2008, 10:04 AM
The animation doesn't work in Firefox. All in colour though. Have you seen this ?
http://entertainment.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/04/19/1842208&from=rss

fatality_uk
April 20th, 2008, 10:07 AM
You know what, call me a silver-foil hat brigade if you wish, but this is another example of a recent trend I have seen popping up on the web!!!

Content for Microsoft ONLY!!!

buried
April 20th, 2008, 10:27 AM
M$ is trying to win in web world... damn M$

sanderella
April 20th, 2008, 12:53 PM
Well, I won't be patronising Dilbert any more.

TheWizzard
April 20th, 2008, 12:58 PM
don't complain, but act!

Here is what you can do
1 go to http://www.dilbert.com/contact_us/
2 complain against their practice

:::
April 20th, 2008, 02:29 PM
Besides the fact that I'm not in Dilbert animations at all ... the new Dilbert site sucks! The new site tries to be all web2.0 and forgets about the comic-part. They don't even seem to have a history page any longer, where I can see all strips in chronological order. Or did I just miss that because the new site is a total mess? And: every strip in a flash applet - wtf? Oh, and I preferred the black&white comics over the colored ones.

On the positive side: That's one webcomic less I have to read every day - so I'll have a bit of extra spare time every day!

VChief
April 20th, 2008, 02:47 PM
Good thing is, if you still want to read Dilbert...the non-flash regular, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" page -->http://www.unitedmedia.com/comics/dilbert/archive/

Zeotronic
April 20th, 2008, 02:56 PM
don't complain, but act!

Here is what you can do
1 go to http://www.dilbert.com/contact_us/
2 complain against their practice
I'm sorry...

don't complain, but act!

2 complain against their practice
I'm such an ***.

Its good to see people explicitly supporting Mac... and it may only disturb me because I, like all of you, am a Linux user... but it seems to me that there is no reason not to support Linux also... I mean, we have roughly the same... what is it called? 'market share'? As Mac don't we?

Brunellus
April 20th, 2008, 04:11 PM
I'm sorry...


I'm such an ***.

Its good to see people explicitly supporting Mac... and it may only disturb me because I, like all of you, am a Linux user... but it seems to me that there is no reason not to support Linux also... I mean, we have roughly the same... what is it called? 'market share'? As Mac don't we?
It's a point of principle. Previously, information was out there and available to all users, independent of their platform. Now information is platform-dependent. This is a step backwards--something that Mordak, Preventer of Information Services, would have done.

It isn't as if the site was windows-only from the beginning--it wasn't.

Also, I know it's extremely satisfying to point out pithy logical inconcistencies on forum posts, but don't make a habit of doing it maliciously or I will be very much displeased.

LaRoza
April 20th, 2008, 04:14 PM
I noticed my daily Dilbert has changed also. It has this new interface with no increase in function.

What was the point?

imronak
April 20th, 2008, 04:30 PM
Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows XP Media Center 2005, Mac OSX 10.3 or Mac OSX 10.4 is required to view this page

Guys, did you notice, it doesnt support Vista either :lolflag:

LaRoza
April 20th, 2008, 04:38 PM
I had no trouble viewing it with Opera, but flash for navigation?

I sent them a message letting them know they are excluding many users and are breaking some laws...

Mr. Picklesworth
April 20th, 2008, 05:12 PM
They have an RSS feed on the Comics page which is infinitely better than the web site:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/DilbertDailyStrip
Good choice for them to do that; now they are in control of comic scraping. Subscribed in Liferea and I needn't look at the real thing (and its torment of advertising) again. Unfortunately, it appears Dilbert.com still relies soley on advertising in the worst form. They should look at how other online comics do it with single tiny text-based ads (if anything). Profit via advertising is not sustainable, because it assumes a huge majority of businesses continue to rely on "conventional" methods and continue to pay for ads.

@LaRoza: Flash for navigation breaks laws? That is exciting! Please explain...

perce
April 20th, 2008, 05:17 PM
As someone noticed, it works perfectly with user agent switcher set to Explorer 7 on Vista. They're just idiots.

TheWizzard
April 20th, 2008, 05:42 PM
I'm sorry...


I'm such an ***.



yeah, i noticed the moment i posted this.
nevertheless, letting those people know they're loosing their user-base this way does help.

So, everyone. go to the Dilbert site and leave a message!

Frak
April 20th, 2008, 05:43 PM
I mean, we have roughly the same... what is it called? 'market share'? As Mac don't we?

Linux = ~1%
Mac = 7%-9%

cardinals_fan
April 20th, 2008, 06:16 PM
It all works perfectly for me...

FuturePilot
April 20th, 2008, 06:42 PM
It works here. I didn't have to do anything.:confused:

Moop
April 20th, 2008, 06:44 PM
It works for me too. I use noscript and have java blocked. Maybe it works better that way.

lswest
April 20th, 2008, 06:50 PM
if you guys are talking about the comic strips, yeah, those work fine, it's the animations that are for windows/mac only (and if that's what you meant, sorry for repeating it). And if it does work, consider yourselves lucky :P

Sukarn
April 20th, 2008, 07:01 PM
Using noscript addon for firefox, I found that the message that is being discussed here is actually coming from mavenapps.net

sdowney717
April 20th, 2008, 07:01 PM
user agent switcher set to ie7 vista lets the animations work fine.

BUT, why we have to do this is bad.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/59

working on firefox 3 beta

tuebinger
April 20th, 2008, 07:03 PM
I've just added the user switcher and the animations work fine. Shouldn't have to do that though. What BS to block out Linux users -- I sent them a complaint!

Mr. Picklesworth
April 20th, 2008, 07:20 PM
Well, the comic strips are pretty horrible, too, unless you are using the horribly constructed glob of binary that is Adobe's flash player. If you are running swfdec or Gnash, you are out of luck. (Until discovering the superior RSS feed).

Strangely, this web site works better on my N810 than on my laptop, entirely because of its reliance on user-agent information. Interesting turn-around...

LaRoza
April 20th, 2008, 07:30 PM
Shameless pro-Opera statement:

Opera has the "user agent switcher" built in.

madjr
April 20th, 2008, 07:37 PM
use their blog and comment !

http://www.dilbert.com/blog/entry/dilbert_unleashed/#SB_Comments

FuturePilot
April 20th, 2008, 07:38 PM
if you guys are talking about the comic strips, yeah, those work fine, it's the animations that are for windows/mac only (and if that's what you meant, sorry for repeating it). And if it does work, consider yourselves lucky :P

Now I see. Yeah those don't work unless you change the User Agent. That's stupid though. It's just Flash. Are they that clueless that Flash is available for Linux too?[-(

Frak
April 20th, 2008, 07:41 PM
Shameless pro-Opera statement:

Opera has the "user agent switcher" built in.
As does Konqueror

phrostbyte
April 20th, 2008, 08:08 PM
Dilbert invaded by pointy haired boss who wants in on that summa Web 2.0 stuffs? Say it isn't so!

macogw
April 21st, 2008, 01:29 AM
Linux = ~1%
Mac = 7%-9%

I thought it was:
Linux 3%
Mac 4%

And the animated comic strips (scrolling side to side thing, right?) works fine in FF3 on Hardy.

EDIT: nevermind. you meant the *other* animations

In the comment box I'm putting:

Geeks & nerds love Dilbert
Geeks & nerds hate Microsoft
Many geeks & nerds love Linux and *BSD
New site barfs at Linux and *BSD
New site alienates geeks & nerds
New site alienates Dilbert-lovers

Frak
April 22nd, 2008, 04:01 AM
I thought it was:
Linux 3%
Mac 4%

And the animated comic strips (scrolling side to side thing, right?) works fine in FF3 on Hardy.

EDIT: nevermind. you meant the *other* animations

In the comment box I'm putting:
Windows 91.57%
Mac 7.48%
Linux 0.61%

Source (http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=8)

madjr
April 22nd, 2008, 04:41 AM
Windows 91.57%
Mac 7.48%
Linux 0.61%

Source (http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=8)

sorry but i believe linux has much more marketshare than win98 in my not so humble and a bit pissed opinion

http://www.w3counter.com/globalstats.php


1 Windows XP 78.78%
2 Windows Vista 6.93%
3 Mac OS X 4.91%
4 Windows 2000 3.20%
5 Linux 2.02%
6 Windows 98 1.01%

This report was based on the last 22,126,917 (over 22 million) unique visits

how much people were tested on your study?

macogw
April 22nd, 2008, 05:59 AM
Windows 91.57%
Mac 7.48%
Linux 0.61%

Source (http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=8)
HitsLink scripts are blocked by AdBlock Plus, so none of the Linux users who use AdBlock Plus (probably a statistically significant number as compared to number of Windows/Mac users who do so) are counted.

OZFive
April 23rd, 2008, 08:54 PM
Well I wrote in too to them and I just got back a response....


Hi,



We are so sorry for the delay in helping with this issue. We have been having a great deal more people coming to our website than anticipated in first days of launch and have been working through some technical glitches. We are working very hard to rectify all of these problems and are very sorry for any issues that have resulted.



One of these issues has to do with animation lockout for certain operating systems. This is a behind the scenes issue we did not know would occur that stemmed from certain code from our animation distribution channel that we were not aware of. We are implementing a fix right now and it should be rectified in a few days at the most. We are so sorry for any inconvenience this has caused. Expect your animations to be available to you shortly. They are pretty funny, so we are sure you will like them.



Thanks so much for your time and patience as we work through these initial kinks. Make sure to check out our mashups at http://www.dilbert.com/mashups/ and find out if you are funnier than Scott Adams by creating your own punch line of today’s strip.



If you need any more help, please feel free to contact us again.



Thanks,

Tom

Dilbert.com

Looks like they were not excluding anyone, just a mistake or a good PR dept making things right.

Frak
April 24th, 2008, 02:28 AM
sorry but i believe linux has much more marketshare than win98 in my not so humble and a bit pissed opinion

http://www.w3counter.com/globalstats.php


1 Windows XP 78.78%
2 Windows Vista 6.93%
3 Mac OS X 4.91%
4 Windows 2000 3.20%
5 Linux 2.02%
6 Windows 98 1.01%

This report was based on the last 22,126,917 (over 22 million) unique visits

how much people were tested on your study?
Don't be mad. It will only cause you to fail.

No poll is perfect. Yours isn't either, yet both of ours are close.

It'll be better tomorrow, I promise ;) Wake up and start feeling better.

elvis
April 24th, 2008, 02:31 AM
All of these polls are nice, but they don't accurate reflect the percentage of Dilbert readers.

Given Dilbert's premise and setting, it wouldn't surprise me if there were a great deal more readers using Linux than if you compared it to the generic masses.

DarkStarAeon
April 24th, 2008, 02:41 AM
I wonder if it counts all the Linux and BSD users who have their browser set up to look like it's Windows to those detection scripts so they can have compatibility?

Frak
April 24th, 2008, 03:32 AM
I wonder if it counts all the Linux and BSD users who have their browser set up to look like it's Windows to those detection scripts so they can have compatibility?
They look like regular browsers, so, yes, the User-Agent Switcher will be counted as what it is hiding as.

madjr
April 24th, 2008, 05:32 AM
Don't be mad. It will only cause you to fail.

No poll is perfect. Yours isn't either, yet both of ours are close.

It'll be better tomorrow, I promise ;) Wake up and start feeling better.

oh lol, not mad at all :)

just hate marketshare (excuse me, i mean hitslink.com)

They don't even say how they get those figures or how much people the test are base on. I even saw once paid ads of Mac and windows... so i consider them unreliable and biased.


"No poll is perfect. Yours isn't either, yet both of ours are close."

i don't agree. Saying that linux has 0.61% instead of 2.02% is rather significant.

1% = is about 20 to 25 million users or more.

0.61% would mean that linux as a whole only has like 10 million users ...

Ubuntu alone would have 0.61% world market share.

also, hitslink.com states that mac users outnumber linux users 8 to 1. So if linux has 40 million users than Mac OS would have 320 million users... so, i don't think so.

If you compare linux with the old and obsolete win98 from 10 years ago than people will also say linux is obsolete and not worth their time. Not worth porting apps, drivers, etc...



also, quantity is not everything.

we also have more quality people than any other OS. Most of our users are the most highly tech and trained people in the industry.

Even our user base is highly tech savvy part of the population. How ever these tech savvy people are also striving to get their non tech family and friends also involved :)

Sukarn
April 24th, 2008, 12:55 PM
Well I wrote in too to them and I just got back a response....



Looks like they were not excluding anyone, just a mistake or a good PR dept making things right.

The reply you got from them seems to further add to what I wrote earlier -


Using noscript addon for firefox, I found that the message that is being discussed here is actually coming from mavenapps.net