Re: Another good reason to use Windows
- From: "Jim Lee Jr." <peejster01@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 07 Sep 2005 04:55:47 GMT
In article <g8osh1h3cmpksh867c1n922o2555423r73@xxxxxxx>,
Tom Elam <tom_elam@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9231271/
Want to file for aid online? Better run Windows
FEMA site requires assistance seekers to use Internet Explorer 6
By Gary Krakow
Columnist
MSNBC
Updated: 6:35 p.m. ET Sept. 6, 2005
The good news: If you've survived Hurricane Katrina, the government
will let you register for help online. The bad news: But only if the
computer you're using is running Windows.
Yes, it turns out that to make a claim with the Federal Emergency
Management Agency's Individual Assistance Center, your Web browser must
be Microsofts Internet Explorer 6 or higher and you must have JavaScript
enabled. It even says so right on the page itself. One problem: IE6
isn't available for Macintosh or Linux computers.
Complaints about government Web sites requiring Microsoft software
aren't new, of course. (MSNBC is a Microsoft - NBC joint venture.) But
this is one instance that struck particularly hard for some.
Mac user Gary Mullins wrote Monday on the MacInTouch Web site:
"My 90-year old mother sat out Katrina in her brothers home next
door in Diamondhead, MS, about eight miles from the Mississippi coast
where the hurricanes eye hit. They survived without injury but with
massive destruction to their homes, and my mother has lost most of her
possessions. I brought her to my home in California yesterday and this
morning went to the FEMA website to register to start the assistance
process.
To my dismay, our Federal emergency agency requires Microsoft
Internet Explorer 6, and only IE 6, to use the website for disaster
assistance. I don't want to be political about this, but this smacks of
a serious leadership failure that the use of the Internet is reserved
for only the Windows community.
When reached Tuesday afternoon, a FEMA spokeswoman said they were aware
of the problem and had passed it along to their tech guys to try to
resolve the issue. The spokeswoman I spoke with declined to venture a
guess on when the problem might be solved, however.
I tried myself to access the FEMA site
(http://www.fema.gov/register.shtm) using the latest version of Mozilla
Firefox on a Windows PC, a brand new Mac mini and a Linux laptop. No
luck. Whenever I got close I was directed to a page which told me to
try again later or We are sorry for not being able to proceed your
requests because you have failed our tests. Trying with Opera, Netscape
or Safari wasn't any better.
If you're running Mac OS X, you could run Virtual PC 7 and then access
Windows and Internet Explorer. Some people also have been having some
success using Firefox and the User Agent Switcher extension and setting
it to IE6. I tried this and was able to get a little further in the
process, but stopped before actually having to fill out a form. I'll
leave that to those who really need help.
At this time, Id say the safest way for non-Windows users to register
for assistance is to call FEMA directly at 1-800-621-FEMA
(1-800-621-3362) or for the hearing/speech impaired at TTY:
1-800-462-7585. FEMA says the phone lines are staffed 24/7.
.
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