Active-X: what is it good for?

From: "Yardbird" <yardbird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "JFW List" <jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
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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Active-X: what is it good for?

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