Disabling "talking heads" in Flash?

At 2:18 PM -0700 4/16/07, David Emery wrote:
>Does anyone know if there's a way to disable automatic multimedia
>playback in Flash?

<snip>

>I find this even more revolting (and that's saying something) than
>Flash-based pop-ups.

You know, I think that that is kinda the point. Not that it is
revolting, of course, but that it is that much more intrusive,
therefore that much less avoidable. Banners were one wave of ads, and
people figured out how to disable them. Pop-ups another wave, more
intrusive and annoying. Now, these talking heads, you call them.

Isn't it kinda inevitable if people find a good way to bypass them
that there will eventually be another wave of advertisements by some
other method, ever more intrusive?

>I'm seriously considering removing Flash altogether from my browser.

I'm with you as to their annoyance. However, removing flash is really
a big deal. More and more sites require it.


--
=Alex Hoffman
Leadership Policy & Politics
Teachers College, Columbia University

Quoting David Emery <emerygrebyn.com>:

> Does anyone know if there's a way to disable automatic multimedia
> playback in Flash?

In Firefox I use the NoScript extension. It blocks most Flash until I
temporarily re-allow it by enabling Javascript for the page.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/722

I don't intentionally block advertising (some sites are smart enough
to display static ads when Flash is disabled) but like you flash
anything with excessive amounts of animation or any sound at all are
inexcusable.

I have complained to some of the larger sites I visit when this has
happened and they've actually removed the noisy ads.

On 16-Apr-2007, at 15:18, David Emery wrote:
> Does anyone know if there's a way to disable automatic multimedia
> playback in Flash? I'm getting really disgusted with going to a
> website
> and there's some damnfool talking head running in an Ad window,

Firefox + Adblock Plus

On 16 Apr 2007, at 22:54, Alexander Hoffman wrote:

>> I'm seriously considering removing Flash altogether from my browser.
>
> I'm with you as to their annoyance. However, removing flash is really
> a big deal. More and more sites require it.

Firefox with the Flashblocker extension is your friend. Whitelists
for those sites you visit which use Flash and which you need. For the
others, a PLAY arrow which you can click if you want to see the Flash.





Kindest regards,



Niall O Broin

At 14.18 -0700 2007-04-16, David Emery wrote:
>Does anyone know if there's a way to disable automatic multimedia
>playback in Flash?

There are a few Safari plugins that can block or delay Flash content.

http://pimpmysafari.com/plugins/safaristand
http://pimpmysafari.com/plugins/safariblock-112
http://pimpmysafari.com/plugins/safariplus

--
     Johan Sölve [FSA Member, Lasso Partner]
     Web Application/Lasso/FileMaker Developer
     MONTANIA SOFTWARE & SOLUTIONS
http://www.montania.se mailto:joh-nmontania.se
 (spam-safe email address, replace '-' with 'a')

At 14:54 04/16/07 -0700, kevinvanhaaren.net wrote:
>In Firefox I use the NoScript extension.

Or use Opera. Two keystrokes to turn plug-ins on or off.

Edward
--
Art works by Melynda Reid: http://paleo.org

On 16-Apr-2007, at 23:15, Johan Solve wrote:
> http://pimpmysafari.com/plugins/safaristand
> http://pimpmysafari.com/plugins/safariblock-112
> http://pimpmysafari.com/plugins/safariplus

All three of these returned a 403 forbidden error.

--
<http://pvponline.com/archive.php3?archive=20040114>

On 4/16/2007 at 2:18 PM -0700, David Emery emery-at-grebyn.com
|TidBITS/1.0-Allow| wrote:

>Does anyone know if there's a way to disable automatic multimedia
>playback in Flash? I'm getting really disgusted with going to a website
>and there's some damnfool talking head running in an Ad window,
>interfering with my music playback, and generally annoying the hell out
>of me...

Yes, they are annoying at times - like glorified animated gifs or blink tags.

If you are using Firefox, there is an add-on called FlashGot, which
puts a button in place of any Flash objects:

   <https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/220>

For Sarafi, there is an add-on called SarariStand which allows blocking:

   <http://hetima.com/safari/stand-e.html>

Regards,

Ed Holloman

I use the Saft plug-in with Safari, which lets you toggle animation on and
off (Ctrl-Opt-Cmd-A). Saft isn't free, but at just $12, it's the smartest
money I ever spent on software.


~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Joy Freeman
~ from manuscript to bound book ~
Editorial, Design, and Production Services
joy at pagesbyjoy.com

At 06.04 -0700 2007-04-18, Google Kreme wrote:
>On 16-Apr-2007, at 23:15, Johan Solve wrote:
>>http://pimpmysafari.com/plugins/safaristand
>>http://pimpmysafari.com/plugins/safariblock-112
>>http://pimpmysafari.com/plugins/safariplus
>
>All three of these returned a 403 forbidden error.

Must have been temporary, they all work for me both when I posted and now.


--
     Johan Sölve [FSA Member, Lasso Partner]
     Web Application/Lasso/FileMaker Developer
     MONTANIA SOFTWARE & SOLUTIONS
http://www.montania.se mailto:joh-nmontania.se
 (spam-safe email address, replace '-' with 'a')

There is a very simple solution to get rid of Flash content (and it is extensible to animated gifs) as follows. Create at a sensible place a file "noFlash.css" with the following content (2 lines):

embed[type*="shockwave"], object[codebase*="shockwave"] { display: none !important; visibility: hidden !important; }

Then in Safari goto Preferences>Advanced, and select said file as "Style Sheet" in the pop-up selection.

Voila, Flash content is no longer rendered!

Best, Michael <http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/>

At 23:30 -0700 UTC, on 2007-04-21, Michael Bach wrote:

[...]

> embed[type*="shockwave"], object[codebase*="shockwave"] { display: none
>!important; visibility: hidden !important; }
>
> [...] Voila, Flash content is no longer rendered!

It will still be fetched though.


--
Sander Tekelenburg, <http://www.euronet.nl/~tekelenb/>

On 22-Apr-2007, at 17:36, Sander Tekelenburg wrote:
> At 23:30 -0700 UTC, on 2007-04-21, Michael Bach wrote:
> [...]
>> embed[type*="shockwave"], object[codebase*="shockwave"] { display:
>> none
>> !important; visibility: hidden !important; }
>>
>> [...] Voila, Flash content is no longer rendered!
>
> It will still be fetched though.

And most people do not want to disable ALL Flash anyway, just the
annoying unwanted flash.

I like to watch Flash videos so disabling all things Flash is not what I want. However I can stop the animation by Control clicking on the animation and unselecting Play and/or Loop. Not all animations show these choices but in those cases I just Control click, which stops the animation, and leave it like that until I'm finished reading the page.

I agree that these things are totally distracting and I make a point of not supporting the advertised products.