Peter Bromberg's UnBlog

A couple of days ago I started having an issue where if I’d go to Youtube.com to look at a Flash movie, I’d get to see only a black screen in the movie area. A right – click on the movie and I’d see “Movie not loaded”. In addition, the browser status bar reports “1 item remaining” – basically meaning, “I’m waiting for this movie to load”. Of course, this never goes away. You might be tempted to uninstall the Flash plugin or try any number of fixes including changing your Internet Explorer security settings, among other "tricks". Don't do it. Try this first. Here’s how I fixed it: In Internet Explorer, choose “Tools / Internet Options”. In the Browsing History section, click the “Delete” button and you should see a dialog like the above. Note that I have checked the History and Temporary Internet files checkboxes. Click Delete at the bottom and that should fix it. If that doesn’t work, do it again but this time uncheck the “Preserve Favorite website data” Item and click D...

Some interesting observations I read recently from a Flash blogger: Flash was not intended for RIA applications. ActionScript was created for animated vector graphics; queuing messages on a single thread. It was hijacked to support Flex with complex content; but the threading model didn’t change. But Silverlight was built from the start for fully fledged applications. I’m looking forward to the MVP Summit and MIX to see what’s coming in Silverlight 3. Currently, I’m developing real – world application with Silverlight. I’m putting together pieces and utility classes that I expect to be able to use going forward. For me, the clear winner is having a feature – complete subset of the .NET Framework to code with, being able to share my creations in both Silverlight and the full .NET Framework, and not having to deal with the intricacies of the ActionScript learning curve to get what I want. I’ve been coding C# since 2001 and at this late stage of the game I feel prett...

Is fuel efficiency really what we need most desperately? I say that what we really need is a car that can be shot when it breaks down. –-Russell Baker I had a chance to reflect a little bit today on Silverlight and Flash and I’d like to offer these observations. I have some not insignificant experience with Flash. Many developers are too new to remember FutureSplash – but I remember it very well, and I used it when it first came out, circa 1995. That was the predecessor of today’s Flash, which was ultimately purchased by Macromedia, and now of course subsumed into Adobe. A lot of the stuff you read today revolves around “Flash vs. SIlverlight”. The media loves controversy, and they’ll hammer on this subject ad-infinitum – often to the extreme detriment of any real content.  If you are on Twitter, the latest volley was about MLB (Major League Baseball) dropping Silverlight and going back to Flash for their video coverage. Its seems like every Tom, Dick and Harry Blo...

Lots of people (me included) have been complaining that Flash (such as for viewing videos on Youtube.com) doesn't work. You go and install Flash again (as prompted) and when you go back to view the video it's like you haven't done anything -- no Flash. Here's the fix: Navigate to C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash Then right-click over both 'Flash9b.ocx' and 'FlashUtil9b.exe', and choose Properties. In Properties choose the "Security" tab. Click on the "Everyone" account (or add it if it isn't there), and the button called "Edit" and then check the box called "Full Control", click "Apply" and do the same with your own Windows local account name. Once you have done this for both files, run the FlashUtil9b.exe and it should install and update and tell you to restart. Do so and you should now find that YouTube and other sites that use Flash now work.