Tag Archives: drdobbs

Dr.Dobb’s Journal and “the Broken Web”


Last week I was invited to a "Webinar" organized by Dr. Dobb's Journal about software engineering, "The Future of Software Delivery", sponsored by IBM. I was curious about this so I registered for the event.

On the registration page, there was a link to test your system to see if it met the technical requirements. So I took the test and, guess what? Only Internet Explorer and Firefox were admitted to the party.

So I wrote an email to the guys:

Subject: Dr. Dobb's Webinar event. Required browsers.
To: webcast@techonline.com
Regarding this event:

http://event.on24.com/eventManager/presentation/html.jsp?profiletype=customHTML1&eventid=25571

I'm using Opera 9.5 and I think it's perfectly fine
for streaming purposes. It runs both RealPlayer and
Windows Media Player.

Is there a reason why Opera shouldn't work for this event?
Thanks!

I was trying to send out the message "Strange. Opera should meet the requirements, because it seems we aren't talking about browser here, only video plugins. Can you explain?". Certainly not something like "You suck. Why isn't Opera your first preferred browser, you morons?"

A few days later I received an email from TechOnline.

Hello Cosimo,

You must use either Internet Explorer with Windows Media Player (preferably) or Firefox with RealPlayer to view the webinar. It will not work with other browsers.

Best Regards,
Lenda

Lenda Carter
TechInsights | TechOnline
lcarter@techinsights.com

Uh… This isn't serious.
Something's rotten in the state of The Web.

Open the Web!