Re: Active-X: What is it good for?
- From: "Yardbird" <yardbird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2005 01:36:26 -0700
Alan,
Thanks for responding. That's sort of the way I thought it was. But, so far
as I'm aware, the
pages at which I've been getting these notices don't have any intrinsic
programs that must run in order for the pages themselves to display. That's
why I am left to imagine that the Active-X would need to be turned on not
for the sake of the pages themselves, but to enable some sort of advertising
material to be displayed, or something like that. As I said, not responding
to these notices hasn't resulted in any inconvenience at all to me, so far
as I'm aware. And also, I do think the notices just started appearing when
I upgraded to Jaws 6.2 from 6.0. As if 6.2 is configured to inhibit or not
use this technology. maybe as a hedge against certain kinds of virus
introduction. Although I seriously doubt that The New York Times and the
Los Angeles times articles have been infiltrated by viruses awaiting the
chance to infect my computer.
So I guess I'll leave things as they are, and not let the notices worry me.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Alan Clendinen" <alanclendinen@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <yardbird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: <jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2005 1:24 AM
Subject: re: Active-X: What is it good for?
Yardbird,
I can't answer your question about why you have started getting the warning
about active-x controls, but I doubt it has anything to do whith JAWS.
I can tell you, however, that active-x dontrols are a useful tool, but as
with any tool, it can be misused.
Many security-minded techies (such as Kim Komando) advise going into your
browser settings and turning off active-x controls, because it is often used
by hackers to install malicious programs.
Yes, you may miss some features on web pages which use active-x, but I'd
rather be safe than sorry.
Alan
Yardbird wrote:
From: "Yardbird" <
yardbird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Active-X: what is it good for?
Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2005 11:12:30 -0700
sorry. "Seinfeld" allusion from my better-sighted days.
I've never been clear what active-x technology is, so that's one thing I'd
appreciate having explained to me. Then, here's my immediate question:
Just lately, when I open certain Web pages, specifically articles on The New
York Times and the Los Angeles Times sites, Windows and/or Internet Explorer
make this burping alarm sound and put a message on the screen which I've
read using the Jaws cursor. It says something like that this site uses
active-x and maybe I need to install it or enable it or something.
Again, this has just recently begun happening. the only change in my system
has been that I upgraded from Jaws 6.0 to 6.2 the other day in order to
overcome the cascading stylesheets problem at the New York times site.
Could this be what has brought on these warnings? Are they *really*
"warnings?" Or are they just saying that some feature, like a certain kind
of onscreen ad, won't display if you aren't running active-x?
I have only this vague notion that active-x is something that blind computer
users on my lists avoid because they can help transmit viruses, or something
like that. I have no idea what this stuff is, though.
thanks for any education on the matter. I'm not in any distress, because
nothing goes wrong when I simply ignore these messages and proceed to click
on the cleaned-up printer-friendly version of an article and read it. But
still I wonder. No, no, you old rockers. Not who'll stop the rain. What
is Active-X.
Apologies to John Fogerty (pronounced foaggerty)and Creedence Clearwater
Revival.
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