Top MSFT foe dispenses Internet Explorer from official website

Linux and Main ^ | May 14, 2002

[dep]

A leader in the push by nine states and the District of Columbia to pursue harsh antitrust remedies in the case against Microsoft Corporation is distributing Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser from his official state website.

Readers who visit the website of Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal using a browser that identifies itself as something other than Internet Explorer or Netscape are given a modal Javascript error box (screenshot) which says that a "newer" browser is needed to view the page. Clicking on the "OK" button brings readers to a page captioned "*** Please Update your current browser ***" and containing links for the download of Netscape and Internet Explorer. Because the dialog is modal, readers must click the "OK" button to continue using their browsers.

(Tests at Linux and Main demonstrated that the error appears when Konqueror, as shipped with KDE-3.0, and Opera 6 beta 2 view the site while properly identifying themselves. When Konqueror is configured so as not to identify itself, and when Opera is told to identify itself as MSIE 5.0, the attorney general's page renders properly and browsing is uneventful, even though Javascript has been disabled in both.)

Blumenthal has been among the most visible spokesmen in the continuing effort by Connecticut, eight other states, and the District of Columbia in opposition to a proposed settlement in the U.S. v. Microsoft antitrust case. He has made frequent national television appearances in support of the case, though in recent days he has chiefly gained notice for his lawsuit against the Stanley Toolworks of New Britain, CT, which is seeking to reincorporate in Bermuda to escape Connecticut's highest-in-the-nation tax rates.

Litigation in the states' and D.C.'s challenge to the settlement continues in U.S. District Court.

Contacted by Linux and Main, a spokeswoman for Blumenthal said that the link encouraging readers to download the latest Internet Explorer may have been due to recent changes in the website. "They've changed to a new system," she said. "I'll pass it along."

[dep]

not bright, no matter how you come down on u.s. v. msft.

[SpaceBar]

I suspect that AG Blumenthal simply farmed out the authoring of his website to some commercial website developer who no doubt used a Microsoft HTML site builder program for their development. It would be sort of like if Ralph Nader brought his car into the garage for repairs and his mechanic put in a part manufactured by some part maker he had an ongoing lawsuit with. Surely Nader doesn't look at the fine print on his replacement tie rod ends, and evidently neither did Blumanthal sit down and examine his website code line by line, nor should he. It is not his job. He's an attorney not a website developer. It is completely understandable that something like this went under his radar. The question remains that now he is aware of it, will he have it fixed?

[Bush2000]

Blumenthal is a loser.

[altair]

The question remains that now he is aware of it, will he have it fixed?

Apparently. I'm only running kde-2.2.2 not 3.0 though.

[altair]

Readers ... using a browser that identifies itself as something other than Internet Explorer or Netscape are given a modal Javascript error box (screenshot) which says that a "newer" browser is needed to view the page.

Losers. (I mean whoever did the website).

[Buckeroo]

When we find government regulating technology ... our freedoms are doomed.

[Mudcat]

Readers who visit the website of Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal using a browser that identifies itself as something other than Internet Explorer or Netscape are given a modal Javascript error box (screenshot) which says that a "newer" browser is needed to view the page.

Interesting... I use Mozilla (on the "Windoze" side of my 'puter, anyway) & didn't run into this problem.