

Ten Grand is Buried Here - Microsoft Australia - Jem
http://www.microsoft.com/australia/ie8/competition/

======
luigi
Considering that we as web developers have collectively wasted millions of
dollars in man-hours dealing with IE's awfulness, $10,000 isn't quite enough.

~~~
luigi
Oh yeah, and the fact that they used images to render virtually all the text
on the page shows that they _still_ don't get it.

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jonknee
Humorously they are clever enough to detect my browser and take a pot shot at
Safari, but not clever enough to detect my OS and realize I can't download IE
8.

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shimon
Finally, the return of web pages that only render correctly in IE! I've been
missing that terribly since all web designers started using Firefox a couple
years ago.

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judofyr
"boring Safari", "old Firefox" and "Windows Internet Explorer 6". I'm not
quite sure if they got that right…

~~~
jcromartie
Add "tarnished Chrome"... which is just so wrong that I can't imagine that
someone wrote it with a straight face.

~~~
alexandros
At least it got recognised... Opera is just "that browser". I don't know if
that's more insulting or not.

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dxjones
Congratulations! You have found $10 Grand buried _right here_!

Now just click here to pay $4.95 through PayPal to cover mailing charges, and
we'll send you the cheque.

Isn't this marketing scheme open to wild scamming?? If nobody knows what the
"You've won!" screen will look like, then it opens the door to scammers.
You'll just " _know_ " when you've won. "When you find it, it'll be obvious
that the $10,000 is yours."

~~~
imp
Wow, yeah, they just invented a whole new class of phishing scams.

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alexandros
I wonder if the person who accidentally lands on this page will dismiss the
notification as just another 'you are the millionth user' scam... Wasn't there
an XKCD comic about that?

~~~
imp
<http://xkcd.com/570/>

~~~
alexandros
that's the one

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thorax
So... Aren't trolls going to watch for clues on that Twitter feed and then
setup fake sites that match the clues that say "You won!" and phish or confuse
the poor users?

Or, just as likely, give ads for Firefox, Opera, Chrome, or Safari?

~~~
Tower
Yep :-)

<http://tengrandburiedhere.com/winner.html>

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TrevorJ
The problem with an established player using such methods is it makes them
seem desperate. Makes me wonder why the product can't stand on its own.

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Jem
I'm posting this here because I'd love to see HN's reaction to this
competition. (Not because I want any of you to download IE8!)

I think it's an outrageous way of trying to pull in users. Can't attract
legitimate IE8 downloaders? Bribe them instead!

~~~
shabda
Firefox: Can attract FF downloaders. Ask your obnoxious supportors to
obnoxiously push it down everyone's throat. (I am tying this from FF on
ubuntu, I love FF.)

This is a legitimate strategy. Just because it is MS, this doesnot become
evil.

~~~
thorax
Or, of course, Google Adsense paying site owners $1 per Firefox download. That
was going on quite a long time.

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Steve0
"But you'll never find it using old firefox. (So get rid of it, or get lost.)"
This is the first time microsoft tells _me_ to get lost. A really weird tone
for the otherwise very professional sounding Microsoft.

~~~
nswanberg
The whole ad has that tone, but maybe I'm used to wishy-washy American ads. I
guess Australia is, after all, the birthplace of HTFU.

~~~
aarongough
As an Aussie I really appreciate your usage of HTFU there!

Anyone not aware of the meaning: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unkIVvjZc9Y>
(Possibly NSFW, swearing)

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jhawk28
No one needed to pay me to use Chrome...

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spkthed
This is an awesome thing. I can't see tech-savvy people switching to IE and
keeping it unless they prefer it. All of the less-tech-savvy people out there
that catch wind of this will _upgrade to IE8_ Goodbye IE6!!!

I hope this does catch on :)

~~~
sahaj
this is actually a really good thing for browser competition in general.

most people don't care about the browser they are using, and if microsoft
wants to make people more conscious about browsers, more power to them. it
will result in people being more careful with their browser selection,
essentially developing a taste in a preferred browser.

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anatoly
Ahahahahaha.

Stay classy, Microsoft. Stay classy.

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83457
(modifies user agent string and begins hunt)

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niyazpk
I think may be you can get away without actually downloading IE8. Use whatever
browser you are using and view the source of the page.

How are they going to find out the browser the you use if you change the User-
Agent-String?

Anyone up for the challenge without actually using IE8?

It would be really funny if someone using firefox/chrome won the prize.

~~~
rdj
This is going to be a popular idea but I don't think it will work if MS has
their act together. You can profile a browser based on things like plugins.
Maybe there is a plugin that only works in IE8 and is used for nothing but
real browser identificaation. (I think this is what
<http://www.the41st.com/default.asp> does)

~~~
niyazpk
I think as far as we are controlling the client, we can make it look like any
browser. As far as I know (my knowledge is very limited in this area, please
correct me if wrong) there is no way to be 100% sure that the user is using a
particular browser.

~~~
rdj
You are correct that the end user controls what is ultimately sent to MS (or
whomever is probing). However, if they are doing something like plugin
enumeration or using a java applet to go a little deeper, you then have to
know what the request looks like and what info they are expecting. You then
have to intercept that request and send back the expected data It's possible,
but a little harder and more time consuming than flipping the user agent.

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ssharp
Can't people with Australian domains just mess with people and serve up IE8
detected pages that tell users that they are big winners?

How can Microsoft actually inform the users that they have won? Will they
deliver malware through ie8's security holes that hack into the users PayPal
account and deposit the money?

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pierrefar
Is Microsoft trying out the same exact tactics that make spam emails
successful? At least it's not MS Nigeria.

Let's start a counter of the number of moms that forward this campaign to
their hacker kids.

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nswanberg
It's a funny contest, but not much to get worked up over. Unless the contest
grabs the attention of CNN, we're talking about a contest in a relatively
small market, and at a bargain for Microsoft.

While it would be nice if every IE user switched to Chrome, better folks
download IE8 than plod along with IE6.

Still, I wonder why IE8 is "the only browser capable of cracking all the
clues"...

~~~
Jem
> Unless the contest grabs the attention of CNN, we're talking about a contest
> in a relatively small market

I disagree - it's stuff like this that goes viral. There'll be the people like
me who think it's a farce, and then there'll be those who want to try it out,
all talking about it.

I'd be willing to bet that it'll be a trending topic on twitter within a
couple of days.

~~~
aarongough
Personally I'd even be willing to help it go viral by forwarding the link to
my non-techie friends. At least that way we'll be helping erode the IE6 user-
base...

~~~
Jem
Good point.

Are they Australian though? I can't seem to find an equivalent contest in the
UK or US.

Edit: scratch that, just saw your comment above saying you're Aussie. :)

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reduxredacted
Does anyone have a cache of that page? The link appears dead and it sounds
really interesting based on the comments :o)

~~~
Jem
I don't have a cache of the entire page, but I do have one of the image with
the contest wording on:

<http://www.jemjabella.co.uk/junk/copy-firefox.png>

(The original is still available at
[http://www.microsoft.com/australia/ie8/competition/images/co...](http://www.microsoft.com/australia/ie8/competition/images/copy-
firefox.png) too)

~~~
teej
Here's a grab of the site
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeresig/3635860872/in/set-72157...](http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeresig/3635860872/in/set-72157619870137650/)

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Steve0
Screenshot of page: <http://imgur.com/OvQNp.png> Referenced twitter feed:
<http://twitter.com/tengrand_ie8> edit: thing sees to work again

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gvsyn
...and there the page was gone (although I did get to view the comedy page).
The possibility of getting $10k (american or austrailian?) to tempt people to
use the newest deficient browser from microsoft.

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huhtenberg
This sounds like a challenge for 4chan crowd. I'm sure they will be ecstatic
if an FF user wins the contest :)

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timothychung
Someone please get that AU$10,000 and donate it to open source browser
projects.

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GotenXiao
You can break their code if you use an empty user agent string. Very robust.

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oomkiller
Firefox 3.5RC1 is old? I think not!

