NEWS FLASH
Within the last month or so, though, you might have noticed that Flash components of websites require a couple of clicks to enable, or perhaps you've noted a faint hashed line surrounded the Flash element. If you're really clever, you might have noticed a little Tool Tip pop-up that explains "Click activate and use this control."

What's up?

Back in 2004 Eolas Technologies won a lawsuit against Microsoft over a patent for "Distributed hypermedia method for automatically invoking external application providing interaction and display of embedded objects within a hypermedia document."

That is to say, Eolas owns the patent on a process that allows ActiveX controlled objects to launch automatically from within your IE browser window. (This does not apply to Firefox as that is an open source application.)

What did Microsoft have to do? Essentially, add a little "permission request" click to the process of invoking an ActiveX application - which is why you have to click on a Flash object, and then click again, before it will perform. Or, click to activate.

"A similar thing happens to movies," explains Thomas Baekdal, on www.baekdal.com, "Any embedded movie (Quicktime, Real or Media Player etc.) will start to play. But the buttons to control the movie - like a simple thing as the volume control is inactive."

None of this sounds like such a big deal, until you stop and think of how many things, like VR, Flash Navigation, Quicktime, and total Flash websites have relied on the smooth operation of ActiveX in IE.

While this is clearly an annoyance to most of us (who can avoid the issue simply by using Firefox), it's a real pain-in-the-you-know-what for developers, who will be faced with a mountain of fix-ups as site owners realize their users are running into slow-downs on the way to ActiveX controlled content.

VIRTUAL HIDE 'N' SEEK - OR JUST A BIG RUMOR?
According to poster BlackKnight over at Digg.com, Nintendo's Wii Hide You Seek adds a 21st Century component to a game that's as old as children. A massive, online hide and seek game, players assemble in one of a range of locations - a mansion, a neighborhood, a city, etc. Teams are assembled and choose a game. (There will be variations on the basic one team hides, the other teams seeks game play.)

Each team plays on a designated chat channels (and can communicate via microphone).

Just as in real life, the place in which the game is played is subject to alterations over time. The backyard you choose to hide in may be empty when you start... but then the dog comes home!

To tag another player out, you have to run up to him and touch him with one of the game controllers.

Games are typically from 4-16 players, with variations such as Cops and Robbers, and Night Seek (played in the dark with flashlights).

Sounds like it might be fun, huh? Except that nobody can confirm it's anything other than a game fan's bright idea! As Nintendo itself has yet to confirm or deny, it might be either!

DIGG IT
While we're at it, you might want to stop over at www.digg.com for "non-hierarchical" technology news. Digg.com users submit stories, but rather than editors deciding if they're "good enough," users decide (via readership) whether a given story makes it to the "cover."

Of course, the idea is democratically noble enough, but in reality, there are so many ways to a) scam the system (you and all your friends vote for your story - there are ways top get around the IP checks for votes), and b) publish bunk that nobody's checking.

While we all like to think that editors are just a bunch of gatekeepers, ideally they were more than that: they served to fact check and verify that what their writers were submitting was researched, fact-checked, well-written, and adhered to the basic tenets of good reporting (all the necessary facts, and the appropriate follow-up questions. Too many blog-type articles these days will quote the claimant "Joe S. hit fifteen holes in one" rather than the more appropriate "Joe S. says he hit fifteen holes in one, though that has not been confirmed."

Still, Digg.com is full of information from real tech devotees, and there's always something to learn.

Take this article posted June 12, 2006:

NET NEUTRALITY
Net Neutrality: Meet the Winner
by Declan McCullagn
CNet News.com

"Thomas Tauke must be one of the most ecstatic lobbyists in Washington right about now.
As Verizon Communications' executive vice president for public affairs, policy and communications, Tauke has spent the last few months embroiled in a fiery debate over Net neutrality, the concept that broadband providers must be legally required to treat all content equally.

"And now he's won. Thursday evening, in a testament to Verizon's lobbying prowess, the U.S. House of Representatives definitively rejected extensive Net neutrality regulations in a 269-152 vote.

"Now the telecommunications bill approved by the House heads to the Senate, where Sen. Ted Stevens, the Alaska Republican who heads a key committee, has been an ally so far. But in an apparent nod to companies like Amazon.com, eBay and Google that are pressing for Net neutrality rules, Stevens did say last week that he might be willing to bend and consider more regulations.

"Tauke, a lawyer, is a former member of Congress from Iowa and former chairman of the United States Telecom Association, a telecommunications trade association."

If that doesn't alarm you, it should. The idea behind Net Neutrality is that all internet content providers (business websites, your favorite blogs, game sites, your public library site) are treated the same way by those who deliver those sites to your desktop. Service providers are looking at the possibility of CHARGING for faster delivery. Content providers would PAY for faster delivery of their material. And once again, all the little guys would get sent to the back of the line.

This is an idea that has this capitalist starting to doubt her convictions!

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