Flash Applications That Can Be Used Online and Off

General Voltron writes "Macromedia, Inc., the same people that brought you Flash, have done it again with a new product called Central. Central will allow users to more easily interact with information on the internet by also allowing them to interact with it offline. It will also allow developers to create and sell their own applications. See the press release." I'm not a big fan of Flash myself, but I realize it has its niche. This looks like something that Flash authors have been clamoring for.

Comments

done what again?

[kraksmoka]

the things can already be made into .exe files. if they need occasional connection, they log on. i guess this gives the app a way to store info locally, but distributed work environments quickly loose sync if you're not on quite a bit.

nice one macro, but do we need this????

Re:this is Java's missed boat

[zipwow]

mbbac wrote: "There isn't any sandboxing with Java applications. Only the applets that run in an applet viewer (like a browser). "

This isn't technically correct. The SecurityManager in Java can be configured to allow or disallow many actions, not all of which are even enabled by the defaults you get with a standalone Java application.

Granted, for applications, you specify the security manager at JVM startup, but still, if you're not writing a networked app, your script can tell the JVM not to allow those kinds of actions. This is a key thing to do if you're accessing code from elsewhere (like allowing people to drop objects on you in RMI with their codebase elsewhere).

-Zipwow

Enabling and disabling Flash on-the-fly

[Isthistakenyet?]

My original solution to flash ads was to uninstall the flash plugin, but this meant that I couldn't view stuff like The Carabella Game: The Quest for Tunes. Then I found out that Mozilla and Phoenix can make use of plugins that are installed while the browser is running. This meant that I could load and unload the flash plugin without restarting my browser. I cooked up the following script, which was originally nicely indented:

#!/bin/sh

if [ $# != 1 ]; then
echo "Usage: $0 [off|on]"
exit
fi

case $1 in
"on")
echo "Enabling ShockWave Flash for Mozilla and Phoenix"
ln -sf /opt/plugins/ShockwaveFlash.class \
/opt/plugins/libflashplayer.so \
/opt/mozilla/plugins
ln -sf /opt/plugins/ShockwaveFlash.class \
/opt/plugins/libflashplayer.so \
/opt/phoenix/plugins
;;
"off")
echo "Disabling ShockWave Flash for Mozilla and Phoenix"
rm -f /opt/mozilla/plugins/ShockwaveFlash.class \
/opt/mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so \
/opt/phoenix/plugins/ShockwaveFlash.class \
/opt/phoenix/plugins/libflashplayer.so
;;
*)
echo "Usage: $0 [off|on]"
;;
esac

Here's how it works: Mozilla is installed in /opt/mozilla, and Phoenix is installed in /opt/phoenix. I have a directory called /opt/plugins where I keep my plugins so they aren't lost when I install a new nightly build. When I turn Flash on, the script makes a symlink to the Flash files inside the browser's plugins directory, and when I turn Flash off, the script deletes the symlinks.

To make this even simpler, I added the following entries to my window manager (IceWM). This way I can enable or disable flash with the click of my mouse.

prog "Flash On" general_configuration flash on
prog "Flash Off" general_configuration flash off

Obligatory Flash comment.

[Futurepower(R)]

Flash has been known for its security vulnerabilities, such as this one:

Security hole in Macromedia Flash allows attack through any browser.

By editing the Flash header (SWF), it is possible to run any code on the computer of a visitor to a web page, according to an eEye Digital Security Alert. The vulnerability exists in all versions of Flash and in all browsers that support Flash, making it "... trivial to bypass firewalls and attack the user at his desktop." eEye says they found 17 other vulnerabilities in Flash. eEye reported a previous vulnerability last May.

I've always disliked how Flash tends to be an advertisement for Flash. Visitors to a page with Flash often get upgrade notices.

When I read the above security risk announcement, I disabled Flash in Mozilla, and now I often get the Macromedia advertisement: "Click here to get the plugin." Did the owners of those web sites intend to force me to install unsafe software or go elsewhere? No, probably they just trusted a web site builder who knew that flashy graphics is cheaper than useful content.