Our short survey will take about two minutes to complete, and one survey respondent will win an iPod Nano for his or her trouble. Start here.
Our short survey will take about two minutes to complete, and one survey respondent will win an iPod Nano for his or her trouble. Start here.
Survey does not work in Firefox/Linux (checkbox mark not working) but works with Konqueror…
Yes it does. Debian Sarge, up to date.
Using Firefox 1.0.7 on SUSE Linux 10.0 and no issues with completing the survey.
Works for me…Firefox 1.0.7 on Fedora Core 4.
Works on Firefox 1.0.7 on FreeBSD 6 RC1
Works on firefox 1.0.6 on gentoo 2005.1 too…
Worked for me with Firefox 1.0.7. But then again I’m in WinXP atm.
Me I also got WinXP and FF 1.0.7, but it doesn’t work, buttons doesn’t change when they get clicked.
Works with FF1.0.7 on Ubuntu PowerPC, though
needs cookies – so no thanks.
Got a Nano already, along with one of all the other iPods.
I think I have a iPod fetish.
finished the survey, this site needs a better layout to handle the increased traffic and it’s godawlfulbuttfuggly too.
Heck I have a 30″ monitor and stuck using the narrow size.
Amen to that!
increase that freak font!
i read at work on a 15″ with 800×600 and it’s still small!
One thing I hate about online draw/contest is it is US citizen only. (Anyway I understand the situation about provide/contact to other countries).
But the question is whether non US people can get nano or not?
US residends not citizens. it is a difference, but I got your point nonetheless.
oops… I just filled the form thinking I will be in line for an ipod nano draw! hmm you pricked my dream bubble!
Where in the survey did it say non-US residents are not eligible for the iPod Nano? I didn’t see that mentioned anywhere. I didn’t look too closely tho, but still, it’s far from obvious IMO.
yeah it wasnt mentioned but i was replying to a post
http://www.osnews.com/permalink.php?news_id=12301&comment_id=47382
First, the Javascript gets blocked by my proxy filters, so it initially doesn’t work. What’s wrong with regular radio buttons?
Because of the crappy javascript psuedo-form, the answers weren’t remembered when I went back, like they would’ve been if regular radio buttons and check boxes had been used.
Also, on the last page, you can select “Yes, multiples times”, “Yes”, and “No” for the same question.
If it wasn’t for a website I visit regularly, I would’ve left after the first page.
It worked fine under Linux and Firefox for me. Not interested at all in the iPod Nano, though.
Good luck to those of you hoping to win it!
“It worked fine under Linux and Firefox for me. Not interested at all in the iPod Nano, though.”
Sell it on eBay bro.
Why bother? Why not just send the cash as an option? I am also not interested at all in all the iPod hoopla or iApple for that matter, but that’s another story
Anyway, what’s the point of the survey? Blatant advertisement for those sites? Honestly, this is the first time I’ve heard of them and after being presented with the ” version tracker doc com ” site I have gone back to my home page right away not even glancing at the site at all. I did not care about it before and I do not care about it now that I know about it. Here’s a tip: create a context when promoting a site. Otherwise people are not interested.
didn’t seem to work (the next button) under handheld
(iPAQ with Pocket PC 4.20.1081)
I just did it for the nano. I feel dirty, but I want a nano.
I think everyone has done something like that before, you won’t get any confessions out of me since some of the things I’ve done were far too embarassing and I truly regret them now.
I think my situation can be summed up by saying that parents who have kids should buy them nice things every once in a while instead of being cheap, I’m just glad I’m old enough to have a job now 🙂 .
I thought OSNews.com was about informing us of technological/os related new?
This survey is nothing more than a Target Marketing tool designed to help OSNews.com determine how to better advertise and market to us.
Essentially OSNews.com can go to their add partners and say “these are the kind of people/profiles that visit OSNews.com and this is what they would most likely be interested in buying.”
I’m sorry to be so blunt, but I find it in very poor taste to ask someone about their annual household income and other personal information at a site like this.
OSNews.com should at least have a foreword telling people what this survey is for before they start filling it out.
This survey is nothing more than a Target Marketing tool designed to help OSNews.com determine how to better advertise and market to us.
Maybe, but so what? I took the survey simply because they asked nicely and didn’t try to shove it down my throat,a nd I figure it’s the least I can do, considering that I visit this site at least once a day and contribute nothing to it.
Personally though, if I were an advertiser, I wouldn’t advertise here. I mean, how many readers of this site are running without ad-blocking software anyway?
It was pretty obvious to me what this was, and I largely filled it out because of that. I don’t really care about winning a prize, but the staff spend time developing and administering this site and the least I can do is fill out a stupid survey. I certainly don’t feel tricked. I don’t use any of the services advertised in the survey, though, and they didn’t account for not seeing advertising on OSNews at all in the multiple choice questions.
If you don’t want to report your annual household income and don’t want to lie about it, then you can stop clicking at any time. You’ll free up time to do things that you do like.
“This survey is nothing more than a Target Marketing tool designed to help OSNews.com determine how to better advertise and market to us. ”
You say that like it’a a bad thing. Quite frankly, how many times have we heard people complaining about irrelevent ads? Well here’s a chance to correct that, and have a nice feeling that you’re helping this site (that most here aren’t paying for). You may even get a prize out of that. Neat.
my point was simple…
to make others aware of the agenda behind this survey.
if you agree with it you fall into a certain profile, if you don’t you fall into another profile.
just like the survey.
i personally think that it shows a sign of respect to disclose what this information is going to be used for before the individual takes the survey.
At least it did for me.
expect a lot of spam
Should be radio buttons instead of checkboxes. Now you can answer both Yes and No.
The ads on OS News that have stuck in my mind have been ones that downright offended me. The main series being the “Geek not needed” adds which scream “We want stupid clients who don’t know we are ripping them off.” I give OS News the benefit here of assuming that these adds come through a service, but I’m never giving Vonage a dime, and that is all because of their ads here.
I did buy the goggles reviewed in this article: http://osnews.com/story.php?news_id=11773
I found them to have the same benefits and problems as highlighted in the review. They were worth the purchase price just to see where the technology is today. I look forward to more such reviews.
I said I occasionally visit Version Tracker because I used to use Version Tracker before they systematically ruined their user experience.
I didn’t put down my name partially because I already have a 4GB iPod Nano. After completing the form and seeing it handed off to Version Tracker, I am quite glad I didn’t.
“Geek not needed” sounds like “Yes, regular people like you can use our service without assistance.” Which doesn’t strike me as any different than any other “our product is easy” pitch. That’s far less intellectually-insulting than the broken “source code” in dice.com ads, which I assumed are aimed mostly at programmers. At least in my book.
I agree on the advertisements, they are so obnoxious that I’d far sooner give up browsing the internet than see another fugly vonage ad banner. The Vonage ads have always been hideous, whoever does their marketing probably bought their diploma for $100 from one of those online psuedo-colleges.
Why can’t companies grasp the childishly simple concept that advertisements that make us wish we were deaf and blind don’t attract customers. Of all the ads I’ve actually seen people click on, 99% of them were accidental..
The only reasonable commercials and advertisements are the ones that aren’t loud, don’t have awful music or dumb scripts, and actually tell you in a professional manner what the product is without cheap cartoon sound effects and excessive movement.
The only ads I don’t have on my adblock list so far are the google adsense ones because they are textual, don’t distract me from the articles I read, and most importantly they don’t use up a lot of bandwidth with hideous images.
Strange survey, I know it’s targeted marketing. Why not regular radio buttons tho? Anyway using Opera 8.5/SlackWare Linux 10.2 works fine.
I understand You didn’t want to create list of 100 OSes, but You could at least add input field for users to mention their choice.
The radio buttons, checkboxws and checks looked quite pleasing. Standard widgets would have been better, but I have to say the look was ok
Since it did not mention my operating system, econstation, I could not complete the survey, so I ticked ALL operating systems in the list.
[i]Target Marketing
So what,just don’t give an e-mail address when you don’t like spam.I sincerly entered the survey but deleted all the session cookies afterwards and disabled java+javascript.I just entered my hotmail address which i never visit,and if they wouldn’t allow you to enter those free addresses i just enter a temporarily address on my mail server which i delete after i have filled the survey.
It struck me as odd OSNEWS would have that kind of a thing on there, so I though maybe the site had been hacked, or something. Anyway, I took the survey. I’m bored, can’t sleep, and need something to do online. (If anyone mentions WoW, I’ll hurt them. :-P) So, yeah, my take is simple: It’s a marketing ploy, almost like those, “Click for free iPod Nano!”. That’s ok with me. I actually click those things… (when in linux, sending all that junk to my hotmail account) just to see how insane they make it. One of these days, I migh just try to collect. Either way, OSNEWS should most likely put a nice little, “Warning, we’re posting an ADD as NEWS” disclaimer, or something.
Then again, this is about technology… Wait, I see now… this is the next evolution of spyware. This is the news site equivalent of ‘CoolWebSearch’, or ‘BonziBuddy’. Pretty soon, we’ll have to upgrade to OSNEWS SP2 to keep the virulent news items away. (Or maybe they’ll just hype to ‘OSNEWS Vista’, showing us buggy betas, and pretty screenshots, claiming to now be just as secure as the compitition, ‘Slashdot’. Sounds like there might even be a ‘Get the Facts’ campaign, where we see why OSNEWS is more secure.)
Ok, I’ve compared Slashdot to linux, poured gasoline all over myself (post included) and handed the MS lovers a box of strike anyware matches, and a blowtorch. Looks like it’s time for bed.
See how userfriendly this page is? It didn’t even log me in when I tried… oh well. I really do like OSNEWS, and read it every day. (Sometimes I spam the refresh key when I’m bored.)
However, that above post is from me. The one I covered myself in gasoline for. Hey, woah… keep that blow torch away… *EXPLODES IN FLAMES*
It was thrilling, inspiring, beautiful……… NOT! I thought it was a survey about the news quality and weather or not I liked it… instead it’s more like “What kind of commercials do you react upon?” Well, none! I use adblock! Make a donation button or whatever if you need money…
What is with this Javascript crap? No thanks. I’ll come back when you learn to code HTML properly. I should be able to submit my results using Lynx if I wanted.
That attitude so is 1995 and so obnoxiously elitist. I’ve had it with standards nazis and this idea that you must regress to the lowest common denominator to be somehow” worthy. Don’t you get it? The train has moved on, and obviously, you aren’t on it.
Have fun with your Lynx while I’m using Google maps, Gmail/new Yahoo Mail/new Hotmail, Flickr, Meebo.com, and all great new sites that use AJAX and CSS to make the site look nice and run quickly. Lynx is nice for testing compatibility and in-a-pinch usability, but I honestly believe that anyone who insists on Lynx fulltime is standing on ceremony.
Web 2.0 is here. Looking forward to you joining us someday.
Replacing <input> elements with JS enabled images is hardly Web 2.0. ever heard of the semantic web – that’s what web 2.0 is, AJAX is just a web design tool, it’s purpose in Web 2.0 is irespective of web 2.0, and for you information Web 2.0 would increase access to _disabled_ users who use Lynx, screen readers and so forth.
This isn’t 1996 when every page was a JS laden IE4.0 only POS.
It’s 2005 and web standards are moving the web forward. Looking forward to you joining us someday.
Oh, and the grandfather is OSN staff, I would a hullva lot more sight than a slashdot mod. If I could mod you down, I would for thinking that Web 2.0 has nothing to do with Lynx and Input elements.
It doesn’t have to be designed in the stone age. But it should atleast work, even if degraded, with alternative systems.
That plus as another poster said, if the site specific javascript doesn’t work with the standard browser interface contract it’s just bad.
I’m not defending it. I’m just suggesting that building for Lynx doesn’t necessarily always make for a great, attractive, practical webpage.
It doesn’t, the graphical view is seperate from structure using CSS. If your site works in Lynx, it means that you designed the understructure well to not include redundent formatting information, that should be in CSS. Having a well designed structure means the site needs less maintenance, can be reskinned at the drop of the hat without editing any HTML and of course, is highly accessible to the blind and disabled – which is the law for online shops. (The website for the Sydney olympics was fined $20’000 for non-compliance)
Thank you, I understand the difference between HTML/CSS and old non-CSS HTML. I understand how regression works, or rather, is supposed to work.
What most people don’t understand is how things work when you’re REALLY developing something for true universal access. Google maps doesn’t work in Lynx. Gmail uses a pared down interface. Hotmail Kahuna will not work, nor will Yahoo’s new tool. Microsoft’s OWA doesn’t either.
Download HotJava 3.0 from Sun and get an idea of what you should build for. Writing to code to standards and writing for real life use are often very different. Don’t blame me: blame the people who make browsers that don’t follow rules for which, we, as developers, must compensate. This often results in a mishmash that is good enough.
Sure, I could be a tightass and code XHTML and say it’s valid, but I’m only spiting myself.
I agree. There was a time, almost ten years ago, when I tested my sites with Lynx and WebTV.
It is frankly amusing that people with misconfigured systems, disabled Javascript and proxies that block Javascript are actually trying to point their fingers of blame at someone else…in 2005.
You guys are nerd primadonnas, and mostly Linux primadonnas.
You want your elitist, we are the best, OS _and_ you want to whine like little girls when your preferred OS/config DOESN’T WORK.
Grow up.
Personally, I accept that sites need to show ads. I agree that Vonage ads are the worst — may they rest on a bed of nails. And I happily filled out the survey to assist OSNews who are currently one of the most interesting sites I visit each day.
Maybe we need one of those “You must be this tall to comment in this forum” measuring sticks…
An ad is, at most, a call to look at a product or product category further. It is not mind control. There is no mechanical hook that automatically reaches into your wallet.
By the way, when I see NetFlix ads I often click on them …just to support NetFlix as well.
Hi,
It costs someone something to make OS news possible. As far as I can tell they ask nothing in return other than a few small adverts (which most people’s minds learnt to ignore years ago).
I did the survey as a token of my appreciation, and suggest other regular readers consider doing the same.
-Brendan
What in the hell is this survey for?
OSNews could have saved itself and its readers a lot of aggro if they had included a “Not willing to Answer” option on the Income question. Personally, I never give out such information, and to have chosen an answer at random would have affected the results, so I stopped answering the survey at that point. I know of two other people in this office who did exactly the same thing.
Also, you really do need an Other in the OS boxes. I need space to add eComStation and Sinclair QDOS!
If the Income question were to be amended, I would be happy to take the survey again, as I do believe that we should help OSNews out where possible.
Without wanting to repeat others, although I am, a few more OS choices would’ve been nice or at least an Other option. I couldn’t register some of my OS choices.
Sucky form though – why on earth a standard form couldn’t have been used I don’t know. As for the sites it was trying to plug: not heard of them before and can’t say I’m interested in visiting them either – even after being redirected to one at the end, rather than back here.
XP with Firefox, doesn’t work for me.
There’s no option to reply, I subscribe to get rid of the damn things.
Why does it require javascript?
What are they doing that requires javascript?
Quite annoying.
“You must enable Javascript”
f–k you then.
Trust is mututal, when a site doesn’t “need” javascript, I’ll switch it on.
This is a very good example of BAD web design. This should have been a straight forward HTML input form with no javascript and people would have rated it higher than 3.5, in fact you’d probably also get a much larger amount of people filling it in, unlike pretty much every comment in here.
I can’t pass the first page FF107/Win2003. Then I read that nonUS residents may not be eligible for that nano stuff. Maybe I have to enable Js, enable all cookies, open up and bend over.I’m bored and lazzy atm afterall, thus no thanks.
I didn’t realize that it wasn’t OSNews I was giving my mail to before it was to late. Maybe it could be better expressed.
I can’t see an entry for the United Kingdom in the countries list……
Oh yes their is. I was looking in alphabetical order……
Great way to start my day. I also did not realize it wasn’t OSNEWS I was giving my e-mail address to. I no longer trust you OSNEWS.
it wasn’t OSNEWS I was giving my e-mail address to.
That’s why i allways use the trash can:hotmail.com.
Or make a e-mail alias and delete it after sending the survey inclusiv all what has been stored and i don’t need such as cookies.
Sorry, I should have mentioned that the survey is being run by one of our (trusted) ad brokers, and that it’s them that’s giving away the iPod. Your email address won’t be sold to spammers, but it’s usually a good idea to use a throwaway hotmail address for this kind of thing anyway.
Just for reference, I worked Mac World for a well respected (at that time) company. We swipe your badge for the chance to win an iPod, and badge info goes into our spam database.
About a month after the show I asked who had won the iPod. No one had remembered to actually choose someone.
Moral of the story: TANSTAAFI.
I’ll make sure someone gets the iPod. But I agree about the free lunch.
That makes sence.
+1
In the OS section BeOS is missing.
I use it more than the other options listed.
‘BE the difference that makes a difference’ – JEWEL
Several times recently I’ve been faced with a big banner for exactly the sort of registry cleaner that frequently causes problems on Windows machines… pay-to-download junk.
I recognise that OSNews needs to be funded but frankly I’d expect better ads than that: The Crucial memory campaign was far more suited…
What country are you in? If you’re outside the US, Canada or the UK, sometimes the ads can be a little crappy, since many of our advertisers geo-target and other countries kind of get the dregs.
I call first dibs on the iPod, and if I don’t win it one of you is going to have to wrestle me for it
i read at work on a 15″ with 800×600 and it’s still small!
Why don’t you use firefox or konqueror www-browser.
Pressing both CTRL and + will increase the font-size.
“Please contact the author of this survey for further assistance.”
Kool. Can’t even do it. XP & Firebird 0.7
Yeah, it’s old but does what I want almost all the time.
My original post. I’m in the UK
Kind of a small window of opportunity on that one…some of us have to work for a living <g>!
Because I believe that by infroming OSNews of things about their advertisments can give us ads for products we actually want instead of ads for things that just waste bandwidth. Even if I never buy the products.
As for the NON-US problem that is really a hard problem to overcome. There are problems such as legalities, transport costs, taxes, etc (different for almost every country on the planet).