Importing NanoBlogger post "User agent spoofing and ebrary"

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+[[!meta  title="User agent spoofing and ebrary"]]
+[[!meta  date="2008-06-30 13:57:00"]]
+While trying to read an e-book from Drexel's library, I got:
+
+"We have detected that you are attempting to access this book from a Linux-based browser, which is not yet supported by the ebrary Reader."
+
+I was using Firefox, so I can't imagine I'm not actually supported.
+I read up on spoofing user agents, and there are
+[one-off instructions](http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2004/04/24/changinguseragent.html),
+[a Firefox addon](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/59),
+and a [list of idiotic websites](http://webtips.dan.info/brand-x/useragent.htm).
+
+The one-off method (a la John Bokma, link above):
+
+ * `about:` in address bar to get the current user agent string.
+In my case `Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8.1.9) Gecko/2007102514 Firefox/2.0.0.9`
+ * `about:config` in the address bar
+ * right click on the window background and select `New->String`
+ * name the new string `general.useragent.override`
+ * impersonate Firefox on a Mac with `Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.8.0.4) Gecko/20060508 Firefox/1.5.0.4` (from David Atkins on [Zytrax](http://www.zytrax.com/tech/web/firefox-history.html))
+ * delete your override string when you're done
+
+Hrm, while the spoofing worked, now I get:
+`Download/Install ebrary Reader™ Plug-in for Macintosh`.
+On to learn about [ebrary](http://www.ebrary.com/corp/), a browser for my browser.
+Able to do all the things my current browser can't, like view images.
+You'd think they could at least link PDFs for those on less popular OSes.
+Ah I suppose they are worried about people stealing the copyrighted material.
+Sigh.
+
+There is also a [wine hack](http://commandline.org.uk/linux/2006/mar/5/using-the-ebrary-reader-on-linux/) to get things working in the short term.
+One of the comments points out that the wine info is now up [at ebrary](http://www.ebrary.com/kb/users/linux_under_wine.jsp).
+Users of non-`apt` distros certainly "can try" to install using their directions, sigh.
+
+[[!tag  linux]]