He says I’ll be impressed if I visit the site. So I do. And get this where video should be playing:

Hm. Nice. So I figure it must be because I’m on my wife’s Mac laptop – although Silverlight reportedly runs on a Mac no one with half a brain expects it to be on parity with their Windows software. Try again on my hoopty laptop (the afore-mentioned ThinkPad), using my browser of choice- Firefox. Result?

(yep- exact same error message on Firefox/Vista)

And that pretty much sums it up.

Now sure, I could use Internet Explorer on Windows to get a seamless experience, but when over 98% of internet-enabled systems have Flash already installed (and that browser/platform combo is only one of many), why in God’s name should I have to download and install additional software just to see the site as it’s authors intended? You can argue that Flash is also a plug-in, but it’s a plug-in that’s PREINSTALLED on most all modern browsers, and can update itself as easily – without requiring a casual browser to configure their system to see a website.

If that’s what a banner Silverlight experience is supposed to look like, Microsoft’s got a lot of work to do. Utterly worthless.

Update, 4/2/08: Looks like the big bad Silverlight-powered MLB Mosaic launch is an absolute catastrophe. Many subscribers are already removing Silverlight to get better performance. To all the asshats who’d been shilling SL in the now-closed comments down below, note that the Flash viewers NEVER went down on MLB.com. Just goes to prove the title of this post definitively. Yep, that Silverlight’s a real treat – glad I didn’t pay for a Mosaic subscription….

References:
http://mosaic.mlblogs.com/archives/2008/04/mosaic_update_temporarily_unav.html

http://venturebeat.com/2008/04/02/mlbtv-strikes-out-with-premium-online-video/

ttp://www.pcworld.com/article/id,144061-pg,1/article.html

http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2008/04/02/mlbtv-strikes-out-again-0

But now, they’ve gone and placed themselves strictly in asshat territory by deciding to finally go DRM-free with a ‘select’ group of their repertoire, and of course bypassing doing so on the iTunes Music Store (the #1 online music retailer), again, ostensibly out of spite for Jobs’ resistance to UMG’s intended ‘variable pricing’ for MP3s in favor of a flat rate across the board. Sure, a ‘variable pricing’ scheme for UMG lets them price-gouge consumers at will, but ignore that. What they’re doing is a disservice to their own artists- by ignoring the best venue and channel for their music in the DRM-free distribution models.

Edgar Bronfman Jr and Doug Morris- f@#k you and your merry band of thieves. My best wishes for a swift and agonizing demise to the UMG empire as a result of your mismanagement and idiocy. And of course, that you pull your collective heads out of said collective asses long enough to actually watch it coming. It’s been vicarous fun watching you scurry about trying to protect your paper empire for the last few years, but given your collossal stupidity over the last 12 months it’s high time for you to come down screaming in flames. I’ll bring marshmallows to roast and a long stick to poke you with.

Witness Tom Tomorrow’s ‘Great Moments In Punditry: Four Years Later‘. Brilliant cartoon, Tom. Hats off t’ya.