[SWLUG] Re: Motorola SB5100 cable modem

[Steve Anderson]

Julian Hall wrote:

> The only drawback is the online banking.  Historically the banks have 
> always (foolishly in my opinion) stuck rigidly to only allowing 
> customers to use Internet Explorer as their web browser, not making 
> their websites compatible with anything else, e.g. Firefox.  So you're 
> nailed to using IE with all its' many insecurities with WINE (if using 
> Linux) or trying to nail down the rest of MS's famously insecure 
> operating system.

Last year the Co-operative Bank (and it's entirely online subsidary, 
Smile) redesigned their online banking. It used to be an absolute arse, 
because it was all Java-based. Microsoft's Java-based. So having Sun's 
Java VM installed meant it didn't work. I argued with some people who 
clearly had no idea what they were on about why this was a ridiculous 
state of affairs, and I moaned that, while they were attempting to 
promote an image of right-on-ness, they were handcuffing their online 
banking to a poor system supplied by a convicted monopolist. Then 
Microsoft stopped distributing their Java VM, and they had a problem on 
their hands. As a stop-gap measure they linked to a copy of the MS 
version off on some other site...

... and then last year they "got it". Their new online banking system 
can even be accessed with eLinks (and it has been at times - and is even 
slightly attractive like this). So, if your bank is too stubborn to 
consider the alternatives, try considering an alternative bank =)

(Or you can get the Firefox plugin that changes the UserAgent and give 
that a whirl. Works most of the time.)

Steve