filtering Flash?

Michael O'Donnell mod+gnhlug at std.com
Mon Jan 20 14:43:46 EST 2003


>> to create some irritating Flash thingy that refuses to
>> allow me to stop it.  I finally removed the Flash plugin
>> from my machine and, so far, I don't miss it much.
>
> A right click on the display brings up the Flash menu which allows
> one to toggle the "play" off [stop] for a running Flash animation
> or using the "stop" option in the browser will make the d/l cease
> if it hasn't begun to play.


It would be nice if that were true, but it ain't - the
"honorable gentlemen" at MacroMedia (and I mean that in
the most Senatorial way possible) have apparently provided
Flash programmers with the ability to remove/disable
the Stop selection from that little menu.  I'm on
another mailing list where there's a guy who works
for MacroMedia and whenever this topic comes up his
eyes just roll waaaaaayy back up into his head and he
starts chanting the party line about how great Flash is,
being very careful not to notice how much frustration is
being expressed by the other list members.  Unsurprising,
really - MacroMedia make no money on the players; it's the
composition software that people pay for, and the people
writing those checks are the advertisers who, obviously,
have an interest in preventing you from shutting down
their ads; MacroMedia are complicit.

BTW, I did dig up that CSS hack - it turns out
that it's keyed on file size like some of other ones.
I've not used this one but, IIRC, you're supposed to
stick this in your /chrome/userContent.css -
 (MCLX alums: FYI this is from John Baboval)


/* this hides the usual 468x60 Flash banner ads */
embed[type="application/x-shockwave-flash"][width="468"][height="60"] {
  display: none !important;
  visibility: hidden !important;
}
/* this hides the not so usual but very annoying 728x90 Flash banner ads */
embed[type="application/x-shockwave-flash"][width="728"][height="90"] {
  display: none !important;
  visibility: hidden !important;
}
/* three last entries for "Inquirer" style small, vertical and square ads */
embed[type="application/x-shockwave-flash"][width="125"][height="300"] {
  display: none !important;
  visibility: hidden !important;
}
embed[type="application/x-shockwave-flash"][width="95"][height="40"] {
  display: none !important;
  visibility: hidden !important;
}
embed[type="application/x-shockwave-flash"][width="125"][height="125"] {
  display: none !important;
  visibility: hidden !important;
}




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