NBC Olympics online video: who else is pissed?
 

I love the Olpympics, but I have a problem with having to work and I only get 3 TV stations. So after some time I realized "Hey there has to be videos online of the events that arn't on TV". And sure enough on NBC's website there is. But it doesn't work in Linux! You have to have IE or Firefox running on windoze or mac for the video to work! Try it out if you don't belive me http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/index.html

WTF I'm freakin pissed! Who else is?

I can't say I really care about the Olypmics. I think the ludicrous money spent organizing and covering the event could be better spent on researching disease or taking care of the poor. The whole thing is a monstrous waste of money and time.

Well, maybe not *pissed*, but even under Windows the coverage and video could be better, and if I'd wanted "Silverlight" I'd have installed it when it came out. Microsoft is basically using the Olympics and their NBC connection to push Silverlight on users. Hope it works for them.

I don't much care for the Olympics either, especially the sports where they're scored by judges rather than actually beating the other opponent is usually purely favoritism on account of the judges. I'm also not a fan of how China treats it's citizens so I can really care less about supporting it this year.

I'm a bigger fan of the winter Olympics if I do pay attention to them.

Its not so much the Olympics that i'm asking about, I don't care if you like them or not. Its the fact that its something that is being broadcasted world wide and linux users are being left out. Thats what really pisses me off.

I have not tried this yet because I am at work right now. But it may be worth checking out - I will try it when I get home.

http://newblogonstuff.blogspot.com/2...-on-linux.html

I guess I really don't care as much then. If a site chooses a particular OS to support and leave out others, I just move on and not bother with the site any longer. I leave video watching to my LCD HDTV, not my computer. Computers are for computing to me, TV's are for watching TV, Movies and Videoss.

Normally I'd agree, but unfortunately most of the Olympic events aren't shown on TV, or shown in incredibly small amounts. If all one wants is beach volleyball and swimming then one can always visit California.

It is pretty hard for me to get upset about something I have no interest in, so I think the content of said videos is fairly important in the scope of your question.

Especially since this is hardly the first time Linux has been left out of the streaming video loop (Silverlight is not new by any means, and let's not forget the BBC incident); why be outraged only now?

Yeah, I'd have to agree, hence my original post saying my lack of interest in the Olympics.

I also agree about being pissed about it, there are plenty of sites that are geared only towards IE and Windows, etc. You have to realize, to corporations that read or probably see the statistics that claim 90% of more of the internet users are using IE which tells them they're also on Windows, they can probably give a rats ass about the remaining 10% of users on a different platform. That's just a hypothetical theory though, but if you think like a Corporation, it makes sense.

Outraged? That's kind of strong. But although the Olympics don't seem to be very popular here, they are very popular among the general population, so this has been a great opportunity for Microsoft to leverage their software onto the world stage. Don't know about the BBC incident, I must have missed it - but that's kind of my point. And Silverlight has been around, but not used much, which is also the point.

Ummm...has anyone called NBC to get their side of the story?

Nope, to be fair, haven't tried that. Of course where I'm at, NBC puts "LIVE" on their broadcasts when they're not in fact "LIVE", so I figure, why bother asking them? They have little credibility.

That's a good point pixellany, I work for NBC's parent company GE. I should see if there are any e-mail addresses in the global e-mail address book to send an e-mail to... anyone know any names?

There really isn't any point in contacting them. Even if you got a positive response (which is unlikely) there is nothing they can implement before the Olympics are over anyway.

Though on the other hand, there is something to be said for simply making your opinion heard; perhaps something will change for the next time.