Browser - Adobe Flash

Links: Slackware Flash update :: Opera plug-in page

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Like most reasonable people, I dislike Adobe's proprietary obsfucation. It's most oppressive in the Linux environment, where its intrusive modules don't interact well with Linux's more transparent libraries.

A recent Adobe Flash update¹ screwed my Iceweasel installation and, in turn, destabilized a previously 3-years' stable Zenwalk install. That is, immediately following the update of (libflashplayer.so), including complete deletion of all prior versions, etc, the previously rock-solid Iceweasel intermittently crashed at Flash intensive sites. A new installation of FlashBlock did not stop the crashes. Reinstallation of all three applications did no better. I eventually had to move to ArchLinux from Zenwalk, due to these Adobe-related Flash crashes. In other words, I had to change my entire OS structure thanks to Adobe's closed-sourced, DRM intensive elements, which are so-far impossible for average users to ignore for a typical browsing environment.

¹Pop-up windows demanding Adobe Flash Player updates began to appear in sponsored YouTube videos December 2012. Prior to this update ads could be bypassed. Following the update, they could not.

tweet clients, drm

last update: 20200309

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Gee, why wouldn't the Chinese want to adopt our unintrusive, unlitigious DRM/IP restrictions? Injecting an army of IP attorneys into their economy shouldn't cost much or swamp their legal system (cough).

Adobe used to purchase content creation companies (eg. Macromedia), then sell content creation software, meanwhile adding layers of DRM. This means whatever "free" player is released slows to check DRM and/or nags users for updates. Good for revenue, but a percentage of creativity is lost, at least for all of those who can't buy the Adobe software.

Unsurprisingly, TweetDeck software requires customers to sign a EULA and to install Adobe's proprietary run-time platform Adobe AIR. Adobe AIR appears to have Adobe's customary DRM layers and potential phone-homes (updates, statistics) drawbacks. To me, TweetDeck means "Twitter, now with statistical data-mining, nagware, and under-the-hood file manipulation". Extrapolating a bit, watch for Adobe to someday "partner" with Twitter or otherwise make "reliability" data-sharing agreements with Twitter. One of the simplest explanations for why DRM seems to make financial sense to companies is this article which notes how creation software helps lock non-purchasers out of the creative process. The article is from Techdirt. I emphasize "seems", because they could likely make more money if they GNU licensed, but offered paid support subscriptions.

tag hasher options
TweetDeck :: Linux version available but, as noted, requires the installation of Adobe Air runtime.

TweetGrid :: Linux compatible. Nothing to download. It appears to require that one's referrer header is set to "2" in "about:config". The developer told me this is to prevent hotlinking. I left my referrer header at "0" and installed the RefControl add-on to firefox to manage the header. This helps on other sites which require headers as well (eg. Adobe!). Appears TweetGrid searches both a tweet's text and its title.

Twitter Search :: This is a sort of rudimentary way to go about it, which is why Adobe and TweetGrid can step in, but it can find whatever I want. Apparently limits its search to tags.

video streams

As of 2020, we sometimes can use Widevine to access some DRM accounts, such as Netflix. It's a browser plugin for chromium... $ yay chromium-widevine, then activate it. The streamer can then gather as much personal and impersonal data as possible from the content viewer. The other major Silverlight clone, Pipelight, appears to operate similarly.