Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends
Department of Homeland Monopoly
TUAW friend and fellow Weblogs, Inc. blogger Mike Schleifstein (I hope I spelled that right, Mike!) was recently displaced by Katrina. Go donate to the people who are going to help him and everyone else get back home as soon as possible. Of course, he might be able to get back a little sooner if were able to file a claim with FEMA, but he's reporting that the on-line claims form requires IE 6, and, more importantly, IE's non-compliant JavaScript implementation; even changing the UA string in Firefox or Safari won't help. Hopefully by now he's found a friend with a PC, but I really hope the government realizes soon that if you're filing a FEMA application, you probably don't have much choice about what OS you're using.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
George Brett said 9:40PM on 9-02-2005
Given the Federal Govt response to Katrina victims I think it will be a cold day in hell before fema will respond in a positive manner.
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Wheels said 11:03PM on 9-02-2005
Just one more reason why I am ashamed at my Government right now. For those of you who think Bush, and his administration, is so compassionate and moral, I say BAH!. Is the head of FEMA in the disaster area? NO! Where is he? Safe and sound in Washington, DC, doing the friggin' Larry King show, telling us all - all of us fortunate enough to have our homes, electricity, cable TV, loved ones, water, pets, and don't have to worry about roasting to death on some roof top of some flooded out factory for another day because we can't get rescued - how FEMA is GOING to respond, and that we really shouldn't criticize the government for being so slow.
Does anybody remember last year, you know, in Florida, before the election? President Bush couldn't wait to get the government mobilized and go down to that disaster area and hand out water. This year, he was bothered because Katrina cut into his vacation. Morality my foot!
I hope that Mike can get back to having a good life soon; what happened was a tragedy that no one should live through.
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Sam said 11:17PM on 9-02-2005
I'm not sure where he's displaced, but if he's in the North MS/East TN/North AL area, I will provide him with access to an entire network of PC's if he can email me
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Rob Knight said 1:19AM on 9-03-2005
I think we can add this to the LONG list of to-do's this administration/governemnt/FEMA/DHS has to answer for in this situation. I think the 2nd comment summed up what a lot of us feel right now given our own privilaged position: frustration. Frustration that it wasn't one of us in charge as I think most of us feel WE could have handled it better. That is a sad mindset to have.
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John said 2:18AM on 9-03-2005
It is amazing how widespread the dependency on MS-only features is. I have emailed numerous companies about their websites not working on non-IE browsers. The reply? One of: "There are not enough people using other browsers for us to spend time on it" or "It is too difficult for us to test our site on more than one browser."
The government should know better. It also concerns me that they might be using insecure and unreliable Windows-based servers at the other end of that link...
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G said 4:58AM on 9-03-2005
Not that I want to further the image of being a litigious American, but would it be possible to sue the government over something like this? Maybe on the grounds of equal access, or discrimination? I've seen more ridiculous things happen.. This is a cancer on our Internet and it must be stopped.
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John said 11:38AM on 9-03-2005
I have some friends who work at FEMA and they indicated that the IT folks were working on this problem last night. They're hoping to have it corrected in the next day or so.
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Diego said 11:51PM on 9-03-2005
When is this MS-IE-only thing going to get smacked down by 508?!
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Mike said 10:13PM on 9-06-2005
In the same boat here. At home, I'm dual-platform, but I've evacuated to my sister's, and she's Mac only. I'm rather miffed.
In fact, I have a trio of PIII systems that I bought surplus and was almost ready to resell for a small profit. They're running a clean install of Mandrake. I was thinking of donating them to a shelter, but one of the most important sites to someone in a shelter is unavailable.
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