Online Olympics coverage and Silverlight

Like a lot of people I'm becoming an Olympic junkie. I have my favorite teams that are either not covered on television or that I want to see live, despite of the time difference.

I wasn't surprised that NBC is using Silverlight  to broadcast on MSNBC. OK, I'll download your plug-in to see what I want to see. It's from Microsoft, right? It should work fine because they make the FRICK'N OPERATING SYSTEM AND BROWSER. We'll it doesn't. I'm not able to see what I'd like to see. However, I am able to watch the 30 second commercials each time I try to bring up the games, which pisses me off even more.

Maybe it is a problem with my Internet Connection. However, how come I can see the 30 second spot in all of its bloated ad agency ego glory?

Once again Microsoft has proven that they can release products without really testing them. You'd think that they realize they could capture the market and create a brand that would chase out competition due to their roots as the creator of Windows and Internet Explorer. Not so. It seems like Microsoft hasn't been able to release a trusted version of any of it's products since the 90's. With all the anti-trust pressure on them, just making it part of what's installed on a PC won't work anymore. Nothing substitutes doing it right the first time.

- Paul Herring

Comments

[Roger von Oech]

My son, a big sports enthusiast, has been disappointed with Silverlight as well. He has a 2005 PowerPC Mac (a pre intel one), and Silverlight doesn't run on those. : - (

[klimzk]

I was using the latest Windows Server 2008 64-bit to watch it and got the exactly same result: 30 seconds of commercial only. I am, however, able to watch it on another Windows 2003 64-bit server tho. Video quality is pretty good. I guess SilverLight is so beta it cannot keep up with M$ own Windows version upgrade. I should not have jumped onto 2008 that eagerly had I known this issue. Heck, I might have to fire up a VM running my old 2003 to solve it. What a mess.