Department of Homeland Monopoly

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.

When is this MS-IE-only thing going to get smacked down by 508?!

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.

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.

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...

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.

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

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.

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.