Mac doesn’t want to play Olympic Games

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It’s not even 11 a.m. on Tuesday in Beijing but I’ve already got a wealth of Beijing Games streaming video -- including live basketball, field hockey, handball, softball, water polo and wrestling -- to choose from, courtesy of NBCOlympics.com.

I’m not the only one going online. By Monday afternoon, fans had watched streaming video replays of the U.S. men’s stunning, come-from-behind victory in the 4x100 relay against France more than 1.1 million times, according to NBC Universal.

But my nephew in San Clemente and his mother (my sister) in Ohio aren’t among them. Neither household has been able to access streaming video on NBCOlympics.com.

Nephew Justin’s diagnosis: The software required (Microsoft’s Silverlight) doesn’t work on their Macs. One of Justin’s Macs has a G4 PowerPC chip, the other runs Linux. Back in Ohio, the Mac in question has a G5 chip.

‘I suspect it’s because Silverlight was only developed on x86 chips (like Intel and AMD),’ Justin said.

Any other Mac fans out there with this problem -- or, better yet, a solution?

photo credit: a screen grab that shows what Justin sees when he tries to watch NBCOlympics.com streaming video on his Mac.

-- Greg Johnson