I go to download eTax 2005 and am stopped because I’m not using Internet Explorer. Luckily, the ever-useful User Agent Switcher lets me pretend I’m using Internet Explorer, and download the eTax application with Firefox.

So I go through and answer all the questions — honestly, I might add — and as I get to the end… $350 bill payable to the Tax Office. So much for working hard and being honest. What a gip.

Guess I’ll have to get an accountant to lie for me.

The newest toy I have installed on Firefox is the User Agent Switcher. What is the User Agent for? It’s a small line of text that the web browser reports to a web server so it knows who’s reading. Some sites appear differently depending on the browser reported. Normally I wouldn’t bother with such a thing.

Completely different topic now (and they will link shortly). Some sites, such as the New York Times and now even The Age require you to sign up for a free registration to read their articles. Since I’m lazy, I just usually browse elsewhere instead of signing up to read the article in question.

Here’s where the topics link, and things start becoming enjoyable and worthwhile. These sites don’t require the Google bot (the process which scans websites for the Google archives) to login, so it can scan their site. Hopefully you’ve seen the connection now. Using the User Agent Switcher, I specified a User Agent with the string (which reports back to web servers, remember?) Googlebot/2.1.

Of course, I had to test it right away. I went to The Age website, and opened (but didn’t bother reading) the number of articles you can read before it asks you to sign in (two or three). Switching to the Google User Agent, I was allowed into the article. Going back out, switching back to the default (Mozilla Firefox) User Agent, then back in I was prompted to login.

Fantastic!