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Linux Not Supported For Democratic Convention Video
Posted by
kdawson
on Mon Aug 25, 2008 06:11 PM
from the winning-strategy dept.
from the winning-strategy dept.
bucketoftruth writes "If you browse to the Democratic Convention website and attempt to check out any of their upcoming streams, you bump into the following limitation: 'We're sorry, but the Democratic Convention video web site isn't compatible with your operating system and/or browser. Please try again on a computer with the following Compatible operating systems: Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, or a Mac with Tiger (OS 10.4) or Leopard (OS 10.5). Compatible browsers: Internet Explorer (version 6 or later), Firefox (version 2), or, if you are on a Mac, Safari (version 3.1) also works.'"
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User agent (Score:5, Insightful)
I wonder how the website might respond if you spoof the browser's user agent string. Would it function well enough, or is their notice legitimate?
Re:User agent (Score:5, Informative)
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Furthermore (Score:5, Informative)
Biden his VP choice is against net neutrality [gizmodo.com]
I think Obama has lost his mojo.
Re:Furthermore (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Tech Savvy Convention (Score:5, Insightful)
Really? If it were the "most technologically-savvy event" wouldn't it at least make an effort to support ALL operating systems, especially the one used mostly by the "technologically-savvy" people. It isn't a difficult feat to use technology which is supported by the three major OSes on the market. This isn't acceptable in this day and age. =/
Re:Tech Savvy Convention (Score:5, Funny)
Really? If it were the "most technologically-savvy event" wouldn't it at least make an effort to support ALL operating systems
Damn right! If it doesn't work on either my Amiga 5000, NeXT cube, or BeBox, Obama's DEFINATELY losing my vote!
Parent
I'm watching it on xine right now (Score:5, Informative)
Here's the direct link to CSPAN's feed
http://play.rbn.com/play.asx?url=cspan/cspan/wmlive/cspan1v.asf&proto=mms?mswmext=.asx [rbn.com]
use this with VLC (Score:5, Informative)
http://cnn-cnnlive-2-primary.wm.llnwd.net/cnn_cnnlive_2_primary?MSWMExt=.asf [llnwd.net]
Re:use this with VLC (Score:5, Informative)
Except it's the no-sound version. With a little guesswork, I was able to figure out the right one:
http://cnn-cnnlive-2-primary.wm.llnwd.net/cnn_cnnlive_1_primary?MSWMExt=.asf [llnwd.net]
Parent
Re:use this with VLC (Score:5, Funny)
Except it's the no-sound version.
You say that like it's a bad thing...
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Email Time (Score:5, Informative)
Rather than everyone speculating WHY they chose to use such an annoying setup and complaining here, let's just all Email them and let them know we are not happy and why. I did (not that I even WANT to watch the video). Doesn't take long.
Here is the Email address: info@demconvention.com
Hah! (Score:5, Funny)
We're sorry, but the Democratic Convention video web site isn't compatible with your operating system and/or browser.
Phew. That's a relief.
The party is screwed up (Score:5, Interesting)
They lost my vote when Obama voted for immunity for Telco's.
I was hoping that they were going to be on the forefront of technology issues. They weren't even close. During the computer/technology meeting they spent 45 + minutes during a 2 hour session talking about Short Wave Radio issues.
Finally some other people took over the meeting and it started getting more towards computer and technology issues. but basically a lot of it was hog wash.
They spent a lot of time talking about caps on downloads. They were upset that they couldn't download more than 10 movies during a month.
I'm sorry but I feel there are more pressing issues, like broadband for rural areas, software usage in schools and government, open internet. Just to name a few. They were all more interested in who got elected, not what they were getting elected for.
Later I had someone come talk to me about my blog. He told me there were some things we just shouldn't talk about. He never mentioned my blog, but I think it was more than a coincidence that he came and talked to me the day after I posted the info.
I met some good concerned people there, but the people in charge were totally off the wall and I felt that it was more of a way to pacify the masses, making them have a feeling that they had an input to the party. I left the convention feeling like they were so screwed up that they could actually lose the next election.
And I bet it is going to be a lot closer than they thought.
It's going to be interesting, a large number of Republicans don't want McCain and a large number of Democrats don't want Obama.
Re:The party is screwed up (Score:5, Insightful)
one more reason to vote republican, eh?
Ummmm.... help me out here.... I looked through the grandparent post trying to find your "one reason", but I was unable to locate it.
Lets see... Obama reluctantly voted for telecom immunity?
McCain was not only FOR telecom immunity but some of his staffers were the ones running around lobbying congress to manufacture legislation to grant that immunity in the first place.
Lets see, Obama being anti-tech?
They botches this issue on their website, but Obama is FAR FAR more favorable to our side on these issues than McCain.
Lets see, Obama being clueless on tech?
Again, yeah they botched this issue on their website, but McCain may as well be Ted Steven's grandpa. McCain LITERALLY needs a few good lessons from Ted Stevens teaching him how to use e-mail.
Lets see, conventions where they don't take real input from the masses?
Buahahahahaha. Yeah, McCain is real big on that. Snicker. The closest McCain comes to "taking input" is to run and cover his ass when he gets caught out as pro-life-pandering-bullshit-artist after leaking Tom Ridge for VP.
So ahhh, perhaps you could help me out and be a little more specific? What exactly is the one reason you had in mind to vote republican instead? I must have overlooked it.
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Parent
Not working on my Mac (Score:5, Interesting)
Okay, on my Mac it doesn't work in either Firefox or Safari. I have intentionally not installed the Silverlight plugin; but it doesn't tell me I need it! It just says it's not compatible with my browser - and then tells me to use... my current OS and browser.
There's a web developer that's on the ball...
Those elitist snobs! (Score:5, Funny)
They want me to pay for my operating system??
Oh well, I think I have windows installed in a PC in one of my seven houses....
But the server runs RedHat (Score:5, Informative)
Netcraft confirms it. [netcraft.com]
I can't believe you guys didn't notice this yet. You're slipping.
Just try to email them about it (Score:5, Funny)
This Message was undeliverable due to the following reason:
Your message was not delivered because the destination computer refused
to accept it (the error message is reproduced below). This type of error
is usually due to a mis-configured account or mail delivery system on the
destination computer; however, it could be caused by your message since
some mail systems refuse messages with invalid header information, or if
they are too large.
Your message was rejected by mail.demconvention.com for the following reason:
5.7.1 Message rejected as spam by Content Filtering.
The following recipients did not receive this message:
Please reply to
if you feel this message to be in error.
Reporting-MTA: dns; xxxxx.xxxx..xxx
Arrival-Date: Tue, 26 Aug 2008 11:07:40 +0200
Received-From-MTA: dns; [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]
Final-Recipient: RFC822;
Action: failed
Status: 5.1.1
Remote-MTA: dns; mail.demconvention.com (67.132.2.16)
Diagnostic-Code: smtp; 550 5.7.1 Message rejected as spam by Content Filtering.
From: xxxxx xxxxx
Date: 26 August 2008 11:07:39 GMT+02:00
To: info@demconvention.com
Cc: news-tips@nytimes.com, letters@washpost.com
Subject: How much did Microsoft pay you?
Hi,
at http://www.demconvention.com/dncc-video/ [demconvention.com] clicking on the link asks me to install Microsoft's Silverlight plug-in in order to view the videos streamed there. Given that around 90% of the world's computers already have Adobe's Flash plug-in installed which is the basis behind sites such as youtube, etc (and, yes it does do HD video and streaming), and about 0.1% of the world's computers have Microsoft's Silverlight technology installed and that Flash works on all browsers on Windows, Mac and Linux (and most mobile phones), one really has to ask oneself what incentive Microsoft gave you to get you to use their technology, and how one can square that incentive with the claim that the Democratic Party is a party with a platform aiming to avoid the stain of lobbying and corruption?
One also has to ask oneself how and why a supposed convention interested in reaching out to as many people as it can is using technological means that almost guarantee a smaller audience than using existing ones.
I've already written to a number of newspapers, including the NYT and the WashingtonPost, alerting them to this.
I would truly love to hear what you have to say about it.
Regards
xxxx
xxxx
xxx
Re:Doesn't matter to me (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Doesn't matter to me (Score:5, Funny)
They should get a hold of Ted Stevens. He knows alot about computers and networking stuff.
Parent
Re:Doesn't matter to me (Score:5, Informative)
If I recall correctly, he was the head of the commerce committee that was in charge of the network neutrality bill being pushed through a couple years back.
The guy was in charge of regulating the internet. And called the internet a series of tubes.
I don't even know what analogy to come up with in comparison. Car analogies are welcome ;)
Parent
Re:Doesn't matter to me (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe you should read this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Series_of_tubes [wikipedia.org]
I really don't think that was the bad part of his speech. The bad part was:
"an Internet was sent by my staff"
This from the guy who is supposed to be overseeing the ISPs.
Parent
Re:Doesn't matter to me (Score:5, Insightful)
You mean this part?
Stevens' speech was analyzed by Princeton computer science professor Edward Felten, who said that he disagreed with Stevens' argument but felt that the language "series of tubes" was entirely reasonable as a non-technical explanation given off-the-cuff in a meeting.
Clearly not at his most lucid, but it's obvious that he meant "email".
As I said, I'm not a fan of Ted Stevens, and I'll go further and say I don't want him in charge of the Commerce committee. But I still fail to see why this basically sound—if ineptly and overexcitedly delivered—part of his speech is more than a simple malapropism, or why /.ers continue to find it so blindingly hilarious two years after the fact.
Parent
Re:Doesn't matter to me (Score:5, Informative)
I think considering his experience he has an idea of what Linux is.
http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/cbcd3a48-4b0e-4864-8be1-d04561c132ea.htm [johnmccain.com]
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Re:"considering his experience" (Score:5, Funny)
Heh, who said I could install Windows?
Parent
Re:Doesn't matter to me (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:OS Related? (Score:5, Funny)
Since invention of flash video we are free from unnecessary plugins and related burden.
Right, because Flash is free software, so it works with every current OS and browser.
Parent
Re:OS Related? (Score:5, Insightful)
In 2004 that would have been great. ;)
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Re:OS Related? (Score:5, Informative)
From what I gathered at the Ubuntu Forums this is an issue with Flash 9 and PulseAudio, hopefuly it will be fixed with Ubuntu 8.10.
So, Flash works on Linux, but not very good, and especially not very good on one of the major Linux distributions.
Parent
Re:OS Related? (Score:5, Funny)
Since invention of flash video we are free from unnecessary plugins
Plugins like, oh, I don't know, maybe, FLASH?!
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Re:OS Related? (Score:5, Funny)
"Since invention of flash video we are free from unnecessary plugins"
*headexplodes*
Parent
Re:No, Security Related (Score:5, Insightful)
Funny, I thought it was the hackers [2600.com] who needed to be protected from the political parties.
Parent
Re:Priorities (Score:5, Interesting)
I do not want the Democratic party wasting its money on a partisan Operating System war by supporting a fringe OS that has less than 1% share of the desktop.
Odd.
If it is compatible with the firefox 2 browser, then they have already spent the money on supporting a fringe OS. In fact, it would have taken them MORE effort to give error messages based on OS type as well as browser type like they have than to leave well enough alone.
So in effect, they wasted your money on a partisan operating system war by thinking theres even a difference between the two once its browser compatible. Malice or stupidity, it's still a waste of manpower as that stands right now.
Not exactly a platform (heh) breaking issue, but still rather ignorant of them.
Parent
Re:Priorities (Score:5, Insightful)
Let's be serious here - nobody's spending money to block anything. The DNC didn't build anything themselves, nor should they - they're a political party, not a software shop. They chose a vendor to build out and operate a video infrastructure for the convention, and that vendor happens to have built on Silverlight (that's where incentives and support from MS likely came in, not directly to the DNC). Why the vendor did that, I have no idea.
I'm a pretty big believer that these things should be built on open technologies, not the least of the reasons being that it's GOOD for political parties to have their content built upon and reused (that's much of what fuels political blogs). As such I'm a little miffed that they chose a vendor that didn't support open technologies, but my guess is that someone's list of questions didn't extend past "can you run it on a Mac" (thereby showing that they're not part of the old Windows-only generation, they're part of the new Mac generation). Given the size of the Linux market, I think the use of content question is much bigger than the runs-on-a-particular-OS question.
Parent
Re:Priorities (Score:5, Insightful)
The DNC didn't build anything themselves, nor should they... They chose a vendor....
First, we do agree that they chose this vendor -- so they probably should have gone with a different vendor, right?
Second, whether it's the DNC, some vendor, or Microsoft itself, there was, at some point, someone who made a choice to spend a bit of extra work on "choosing an OS"... which implies that money was spent (somewhere, somehow) to block that OS, instead of letting the site fail (or succeed!) on that OS.
Silverlight does exist for Linux. Perhaps not in a usable form, but it does exist. Because of the user-agent detection here, someone would not only have to get Moonlight working, they'd also have to spoof their user-agent -- which, among other things, tells the DNC that they have no Linux users.
Now, what's the alternative? sakusha was implying that getting Linux support would mean spending extra money, but you've made it very clear -- it would, instead, be about choosing a vendor who's already implemented Linux support (or simply Flash support).
I believe it would be worth it, even if there was some cost. But I don't think there would be.
Parent
Re:So what? (Score:5, Informative)
It says you have to install Silverlight to see it.
I hate to say it, but Flash has existed, and been a viable option, for long before Silverlight, and it's got a far greater install base. Why'd they choose Silverlight over Flash?
I'm sure there are valid reasons, I'd just like to hear them.
Does silverlight for linux exist?
Short answer: Yes [mono-project.com].
Parent
Re:So what? (Score:5, Insightful)
agreed. This is the exact same setup as the olympics. Gotta hand it to microsoft, when they lock people out from anything other than their own solution, they go all the way.
Parent
Re:So what? (Score:5, Informative)
Ever try exporting messages from Thunderbird to anything else? I'm trying to do it right now, and oh yeah...
Tbird stores email as the text mbox format. Just copy/ftp the file. No problem!
Still, you've got to be a geek to know that. But as a /. reader, you are supposed to be a geek and therefore know how Tbird stores email.
At least in any MS product that I've ever seen, there's ALWAYS an option to export data out as a lowest common denominator
Outlook gives you the "opportunity" to export emails as tab- or comma-delimited files. What app, besides Outlook, knows how to import tab- or comma-delimited email files????
Parent
Re:So what? (Score:5, Interesting)
At first I thought your post was tongue-n-cheek until I read some of your other posts.
Thunderbird uses the mbox format to store e-mail, which is a lowest common denominator (ie: flat file).
Here are a couple of super-duper-secret links, but shhh, don't share these with anybody else.
http://www.google.com/search?q=convert+mbox [google.com]
- or -
http://www.google.com/search?q=convert+thunderbird [google.com]
By the way, where do I sign up to Astroturf? I could really use the extra money.
Parent
Re:So what? (Score:5, Insightful)
Funny you should say that since I use Thunderbird to extract email out of Outlook's PDB format into an mbox file so I can do something useful with it.
In other words, it already stores the mail in a lowest common denominator format. Of course, since it performs decently well with an IMAP server, you can just push it all up that way if necessary.
In contrast, Outlook offers to throw away half of the relevant metadata and excrete a tab delimited mess.
Parent
Re:So what? (Score:5, Informative)
Why'd they choose Silverlight over Flash?
For *live* streaming, I suspect that it's far cheaper to set up a bunch of Windows Media servers than it is to set up a bunch of Flash servers.
Flash Streaming Server licenses are *extremely* expensive. There are open-source alternatives, but so far as I know none of them are very good at handling thousands (or tens of thousands) of simultaneous connections.
Windows Media servers, however, are just regular ol' Windows servers -- couple hundred dollars per box with no user limits, and they do quite well with heavy loads.
Unless Adobe manages to compete better on pricing, or unless some of the open-source alternatives get better at scaling to thousands of users, then I bet we'll see more and more developers pushing Silverlight without Microsoft having to pay them to do anything.
And note that I'm talking about *live* streaming, not streaming prerecorded stuff like YouTube.
Parent
Re:So what? (Score:5, Insightful)
Well it certainly wasn't because they care about openness. I suggest next time you offer a more plausible reason they chose this technology, rather than just dismissing what is at least a mildly plausible explanation as kooky.
I can't think of one that doesn't make them come off as flakes, though. YMMV.
-hobo
Parent
"Impressed with Silverlight" (Score:5, Insightful)
"I'm no Microsoft fanboy or anything, but I've been pretty impressed with Silverlight."
There's this bullshite meme here on dotslash that supposes Microsoft does nothing right. But while they've had their legendary failures(who hasn't? Hello, Apple Newton), we don't give them enough credit for what they do right. For all it's instability, Windows 95 was a lot of fun, and 98 was a pretty good game platform. Windows 2000 was a very good OS with what has become an almost cult following. Face it, once the first service pack arrived, Windows XP was pretty fast, pretty stable, and pretty useful. Their servers since 2000 have been very popular with the enterprise, and those people just love Sharepoint, all for good reasons. They're great products. Office got it's foot in the door because of the OS monopoly, but it eventually beat out Wordperfect because it became better than Wordperfect.
They made good games even before they bought Bungie, and just about everyone can agree that their hardware is top notch. It ought not to be a Karma sin here to give them credit when they actually earn it.
Parent
Re:What's a better option? (Score:5, Informative)
There's Flash, Silverlight, QuickTime, RealPlayer, and Windows Media Player to choose from.
I'd suggest h.264 in an mp4 container. Quicktime will play it, Media Player should play it, and Linux (totem/kaffeine/xine/etc) will play it.
Flash is the known quantity -- it works on Linux, just not very well.
But I think pretty much all of the ones you suggested are a better choice than Silverlight, in its current state.
Parent
Re:Obama hates linux! (Score:5, Funny)
Vote McCain/Whoever 2008
Finally! A VP candidate with no bad positions on any of the issues!
Well hell, we should just skip waiting for McCain to drop dead of old age for the VP to move up to president. Whoever is the better half of that ticket! I say we just elect Whoever as President in the first place!
Who's with me? WHOEVER FOR PRESIDENT! Hell yeah!
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Parent
Re:Obama hates linux! (Score:5, Funny)
Well, he is the bigger evil. The bigger and the better evil(I mean, he could be the devil's great-great-grandfather).
That's why he gets my vote. Because Obama is a lesser evil and I don't like to vote for lesser.
Parent
Re:Obama hates linux! (Score:5, Funny)
Well, he is the bigger evil. The bigger and the better evil(I mean, he could be the devil's great-great-grandfather).
That's why he gets my vote. Because Obama is a lesser evil and I don't like to vote for lesser.
If you take that thought to it's conclusion, I believe you'll find a preferable candidate here: http://www.cthulhu.org/ [cthulhu.org]
Parent
Flamebait? It's true! (Score:5, Informative)
Sheesh, we even had a story about McCain's tech platform [slashdot.org] (once he finally formulated one).
It specifically says that he believes in protecting children from porn and the RIAA's War on Sharing, but NOT 'prescriptive' legislation like Net Neutrality.
Parent
Protecting chidlren from the RIAA? (Score:5, Funny)
It specifically says that he believes in protecting children from porn and the RIAA's War on Sharing, but NOT 'prescriptive' legislation like Net Neutrality.
Well two out of three isn't bad. Children should be protected from all three: porn, the RIAA war on sharing and prescriptive legislation like net neutrality.
Parent
Re:And so... ? Many websites don't do Linux (Score:5, Insightful)
Exactly. Rather than complaining on Slashdot, send the Democratic Convention people an Email at tell THEM you are not happy. I did. Took about 2 minutes to compose a polite and informative message.
Linux/*ix users might be in the minority, but they do tend to be more vocal.... and often it works (to my utter surprise)
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