[balug-talk] Flash Wrapper

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Ruben Safir (ruben at mrbrklyn.com):

> Is there a wrapper for Flash that can give you more controi
> of it for firefox?

Ruben, I like to install FlashBlock -- even on machines where I have no
Flash interpreter of any sort.  http://flashblock.mozdev.org/

One of my aims is to make the more-obnoxious advertising disappear.
Sites will often do a Javascript test to see if your browser is claimed
to be Flash-capable.  If so, your browser is sent Flash code for the
advertising.  If not, it's sent animated-GIF equivalent advertising.

Installing the FlashBlock extension causes Firefox to (1) claim to be
Flash-capable, and (2) display a graphical "play" widget in place of any
Flash code it receives (sort of a right-pointing triangle in a grey
space the size of the images that would be displayed).  In other words, 
Flash code received is _not_ immediately passed to an interpreter, but
instead you see the widget as a placeholder and can activate the "movie"
or not at _your_ option rather than the Web site's.

By preference, I install FlashBlock but then _no_ Flash interpreter for
it to invoke.  The result is that my browser isn't sent animated-GIF
advertising, but rather Flash ones, but I don't see the latter, but
rather "play" widgets in their place.  Lacking a Flash interpreter, the
widgets don't _do_ anything when frobbed -- but the point is that I
successfully evade (seeing) both types of advertising.

Of course, if you actually _want_ to (selectively) see some Flash
content, you can also install either the proprietary Macromedia Flash
interpreter, gplflash, or one of the others.