Microsoft bribes Oz to ditch Firefox Microsoft isn't just bribing people to use its search engine. It's bribing people to ditch Firefox for Internet Explorer. "We're buried $10,000 somewhere on the internet and if you're the first one to find it, you get to keep it," Microsoft's Australian arm has told the Land of Oz. "But you'll never find it using old Firefox …
Now we know at least a few things:
A) ie8 is not using standards else you could use opera/ff as well
B) ie8 is prob. crap, else it would be chosen for its quality and not for a $$$ bribe.
C) what other "easter eggs" or "options" are hidden in ie8 ??
So ms pays/bribe you when you search+shop with blunt/live/whatever they call it today, but if you get too smart they cry foul-play
So what will happen if a bunch of smart guys "find" the treasure at the same time ??
i would LMAO
And one thing is for sure:
the ms pricing will go up to cover all those financial games.
i think you have a better chance in the lottery ...
<my warped blue striped coat with pinguins and dragons on it ...>
If Micro$oft thinks it can bribe me to ditch Firefox for the latest version of the crappiest browser in the world, the are deluding themselves, as I am EARNING almost this amount in the last few weeks flat out removing IE8 from my customers computers! They got it automatically thru windows update, no notification it was going to happen, THEY'RE NOT HAPPY!!!
Microsoft, GGF
IE Tab is simply an IE window in Firefox, so it's not really Firefox... Use User-Agent Switcher instead, and copy the IE8 headers into the header spoof panel! Although knowing Microsoft they'll probably bury it in an ActiveX control or some crap like that.
I won't be bothering though, myself. Suxplorer 8 is still Suxplorer.
I suggest that the Mozilla people run their own advert, where they place one very simple clue that leads to a web page that only IE users can access. This web page will have a download that will wipe IE from your computer and replace it with Firefox.
The selling point can be that with Firefox on their PC instead of IE, the time and aggravation that Australian citizens will save over the next year will be worth over $100,000 as a nationwide total. Go worldwide and make the advertised savings as $millions.
Yeh, come here, there's ten grand, just click this link and accept the Active X control it downloads....
And if it doesn't work, keep doing that whenever you see anyone offer you 10 grand to just make sure it's not us, we'll offer lots of consolation prizes in the form of addons for your browser along the way.
ONLY AVAILABLE WITHIN INTERNET EXPLORER 8!
So now we know, IE8 doesn't comply with standards, and is bloated with MS-unique features. What other malware does it contain?
Are MS going to pay for web devs to be trained to deploy these "features" on sites? No, thought not.
Are we going to see a rise in the number of IE-only sites, just when web devs are abiding to W3 standards, and the number of browser-specific sites is diminishing?
I'll stick with my Linux/Firefox desktop, thankyou. MS can stick their cash where the sun don't shine.
The Penguin, the answer.
This post has been deleted by its author
This must be the best value for money in the history of marketing. In return for an investment of a paltry 10k dollars they got themselves (free !) wall-to-wall coverage in just about every computer magazine on the planet.
That kind of money won't even buy you a decent editorial or a cover photograph anymore. Perhaps you'd get a half page full-colour on page two, but that's it.
Learn from Microsoft people!
Firstly $10,000 is worth about as much to Microsoft as the pus out of a pimple on my bum is to me. It probably cost MS more in lunches for the marketing bods to come up with the idea.
Secondly, this IE8 is obviously not compatible with any standards so why don't Microsoft stop calling it a browser and give it some other name thereby also avoiding all the ant-competition stuff.
As a marketing strategy, this looks a bit dodgy. Users who are using early versions of IE may wonder why MS is so keen to bribe them to use IE8 and assume that it must be a pile of crap. Also, whilst many of them may not have known or bothered about Firefox before, the very fact that MS is prepared to bribe them to steer clear of Firefox may pique their curiosity enough to try it.
All Australians are lacking in education, prefer to be drunk, and are proud of 'not taking themselves too seriously'. That's according to every advert for Australian products I have ever seen on British TV anyway. They should think themselves lucky that Microsoft have tried to suss out their parlance, they'd never dare use a phrase like 'get lost' in their British advertising because like most yanks they think we all prance around wearing bowler hats and having tea with the queen.
By the way Cade, Windows Explorer isn't a web browser, it's the file browser in Windows. As an Apple whore you are excused from knowing that but maybe the editor on an 'ITsite' should have spotted it.
To all other pppppp-posters, I'm not a Microsoft whore, or an OSS whore, just a human being who is glad not to need to define myself by saying things like...
"I am so clever that I can see the marketing tricks Micro$oft uses, and the flaws in the software they produce. That's not enough though, I also need to constantly point out how superior that makes me and how stupid everyone else must be if they don't make the same decisions as me regarding what software to install on their hardware"
Love you all really though (you bunch of twats)
x
That's Ozzy dollars, which are about 3 to the pound. So you have to endure IE8 for about 3500 quid. (give or take the exchange rate)
It isn't worth having.
And you have to endure a social networking site for more than ten minutes at a time. Yes twitter might be okay, now and then in small doses, but some of us actually have lives, and jobs and the need to talk to a live person.
As others have pointed out, just change your user agent using a plug-in switcher. An IE8 one is:
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; Trident/4.0; SLCC2; Media Center PC 6.0; InfoPath.2; MS-RTC LM 8)
With that in place I am now able to get some MS love on Linux. Mmmm, don't I feel all cosseted.
I like the idea of OpenSauces getting the money and then donating it. But it really would not surprise me to find out that MS is using some non-standards trick to make sure only IE8 can access.
Either way...OpenSauces claiming the prize is a PR disaster for MS:
1) THey got taken by the OpenSauces; or
2) They have to admit to non-standards in IE8.
... in Firefox, even on Linux (!!), works just fine. You can just edit the provided IE 7 agent or use these settings (they work):
Description: Internet Explorer 8 (Windows Vista)
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.1)
App Name: Microsoft Internet Explorer
App Version: 5.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.1)
Platform: Win32
I agree with what they all said, I think <insert name of multinational> are really bad for promoting <insert name of product A> when I can use <insert name of product B> which is much better than <Product A> and <Product C>. I use <insert name of OS> anyway so it doesn't affect me.
Isn't that how comments are usually written for a web browser or OS article? ;-)
Anyway, doesn't this prove that Internet Exploiter really makes you more productive than DireFox? Provided you find the $10K of course!
Is this for real? Is it April 1st again?
Assuming that it is (and I'm finding it very hard to believe) - it means that Microsoft have launched IE8 in Aus with a BUILT IN gift for driveby download and phishing scammers. All some enterprising scammer has to do now, is start sending out emails subject: "Find the secret MS $10,000", containing a link to a dodgy scam site, and entrants into to this new MS contestant will have their brand new IE8 browser used to steal their identity, or install malware on their machines.
This is BRILLIANT. Can't wait for the IE8 news stories from Aus over the next few months.
Wheres the "laughing my b***cks off" icon?
...you'd think M$ could afford a nicer price.
It'd take you half an hour to win more money than that on most cheapo day time TV game shows.
Maybe if they were pitching a Ferrari or a new house or your own call girl or something it might be worth installing a UA switcher on Firefox and giving it a go.
As it stands, who cares.
it's all Publicity.
As someone pointed out, it is incredibly cheap advertising.
Also pointed out, if GNU/Linux doesn't 'sell', because it is free*, people will be removing IE8 like mad.
*free - they are giving it away, it must be a turkey.
It annoys me when the Goliath does this, but we seem to be lacking Davids - it is like a Hollywood movie in negative: the big, evil, anti-American corporation, doesn't get blown to bits at the end.
The background image on their Twitter page is stored in Amazon's cloud:
http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_background_images/18636171/SMIS0308_IE8_twitter_bg.jpg
Does M$ not have their own webspace!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am not getting the nasty message about not using IE8 when I go on the page, they taken that bit out?!?!
The working is confusing, it doesn't quite say in the T+C that it is IE8 exclusive:
7. The Clues URL and Hidden Webpage can be viewed in Internet Explorer 8.
CAN be viewed in IE8 and other browsers also?!?????
fink wrote: "http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/get-the-facts/browser-comparison.aspx"
It's such a heap of BS. I mean everyone with half a brain knows Internet Exploiter is a pile of poo.
Microsoft have set the criteria for compairson so obviously they've chosen ones they think they can win. Even then, it's mostly innuendo and lies!
Basically it comes up with the browser you are using - quite a few of us Mac people were complaining YESTERDAY about it's demolition of Safari. So it's not basically picking on FIrefox - it's just picking on EVERYTHING which is NOT IE8.
The wording was amusing though - but they'd never get away with it in the UK.
... as unless it's something preclusive like a craptiveX widget, they're gonna find a way to hack it just for the bragging rights and the chance to rub M$ noses in the doodoo - even just make it work in an older version of IE, of course, but one of the 'alternate' browsers would be best!
And as an aside, a colleague of mine who works for a sizeable IT company told me yesterday to avoid IE8 like the plague, as the 'advanced' security was playing havoc with their ability to do any legitimate work involving anything IE had chosed to define as 'potentially dodgy' (which apparantly includes Java, and possibly elements of JavaScript, too, at first sight), and trying to disable the offending 'features' is a nightmare...
https://www.tengrandisburiedhere.com/
www.tengrandisburiedhere.com uses an invalid security certificate.
The certificate is only valid for the following names:
msdness.microsoft.com , shell.windows.com
Typical MS really, they have not thought this through have they
No wonder your customers ARE NOT HAPPY!!!1 They're paying someone almost $10,000 who DOESN'T under$tand HOW to USE CAPS LOCK or a $ sign. Seriously, Windows Update updating a piece of software? Who'd of thought.
In related news, what twat thought this was a good idea? Although Fink's link is actually worse..
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/get-the-facts/browser-comparison.aspx
I REALLY wish I hadn't read that, I felt a rash of sudden anger and vitriol nearly explode out of me...
IE8 MORE standards compliant my arse... and its CSS implementation is buggy.
There appears to be a bug with the min-height attribute when styling a unique element by "id", the content ceases to define the height so, with overflow: hidden, it'll get cropped - it's fine if you assign the styles inline or by "class". The cascade inheritance model seems to be somewhat broken - any styling associated with an "id" takes precedence over anything else. So if you define an "id" style in an external CSS file it will override any inline styles that should take precedence - you normally wouldn't want to do that anyway but I was trying to work around the previous height bug.
Internet Explorer 8; It a stinky pile of old shit - just marginally less stinky and less shit than previous versions.
Here's a quickie on Australia:
* The ACT is full of pollies and public servants.
* The harbour bridge (in Sydney NSW) is one of the worlds widest bridges.
* Melbourne has trams.
* Tasmania is bloody cold.
Home to worlds most deadly snake:
Eastern Taipan (snake): Can kill you in 30 milliseconds. Will bite you 9 to 20 times. Mostly in the balls.
"Microsoft isn't just bribing people to use its search engine. It's bribing people to ditch Firefox for Windows Explorer."
You mean Internet Explorer, not Windows Explorer - the desktop file browser and manager.
I'm not being a pedantic nerd or moaning specifically about this one mistake, but I really am surprised that someone on a website like this has made that kind of 'housewife' mistake. I've noticed a lot of this sort of thing on The Register lately. There were three Opera articles in a row where different writers clearly didn't know what they were writing about, and the same things have been happening in other articles about everything from hardware to software to business.
And with a growing trend to just rehash press releases, the Reg 's IT reportage is slowly turning into that of the BBC or ZDnet, complete with perfectly acceptable comments sometimes failing to show up. Has something changed at the top or has there been some kind of recent exodus/walkout?
It occurs to me that M$ is embracing it's old ways, extending the functionality of it's browser in an attempt to extinguish the competition. As the saying goes... a leopard can not change it's spots.
Rule #1: Don't deal with Microsoft
Rule #2: See Rule #1
The Australian site was working, then not, then going to a 'live' search result, then working. Then only working in IE8, then working again in Opera and FF. The other site (wintengrand.com or whatever) never worked yesterday (yesterday being Thursday 18th June) for me.
Of course it's all largely redundant as you can just set Firefox's UA to the exact same thing as IE8s, so unless the target site has the thing hidden in some custom (probably unsigned) Active-X control, there's no way to stop a Firefox user. And yes because I was bored enough I really did grab UA Switcher and copy and paste the UA from IE8 into it *cough* Worked fine too.
It's my understanding that under US law, no purchase can be required in order for someone to enter any contest or sweepstakes. The Terms and Conditions for this contest make no mention of a similar restriction.
So here in the US, one could fairly easily argue the contest should be declared invalid: not everyone uses Windows, and owners of other OS's might possibly need to expend a some amount of money to obtain or access a Windows machine.
Frankly, my guess is that's WHY the contest is based in Australia. Of course, everything M$ does makes me suspicious they're trying to do an end run around something. >:->
$AU 10,000 isn't really a lot of money. About £3500 or so.
Your chances of getting that cash are pretty slim.
All in all, you stand a very small chance of coming out of this ahead.
But by feigning using IE8, you're handing MS a major publicity coup - "Look at the Beeeelions of IE8 users on the web. They're everywhere".
This is a *very* cheap way for MS to inflate their browser statistice. And we should not help them to do that.
...IETab?
Red rag to both proper developers and haX0rs everywhere, not to mention anyone who wants to do a fake "you've just won... now give us your bank details so we can pay you" to fool any bogan who runs across it.
Also, @ AB3, I think the pTerry take on Australia is appropriate. The invaluable part-work "Dangerous Mammals, Reptiles, Amphibians, Birds, Fish, Jellyfish, Insects, Spiders, Crustaceans, Grasses, Trees, Mosses and Lichens of Terror Incognita" extends at least into "Volume 29c Part Three", while a list of the harmless ones contains only "Some of the sheep."
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