An application that can inventory the entire network assets without installing any client side or other programs on remote PCs.
Network Inventory Reporter is a Administrator solution management software that collects and reports network hardware, software, program groups, and programs for all network computers. Network Administrators can inventory the entire network assets without the need to install any client side or other programs on remote machines.
This software will enable you to identify protected and unprotected wireless networks within receiving range of your network.Using Network Inventory Reporter System Administrator in the Network Inventory Reporter will receive the following hardware and software inventory data: Domain Role, Operating System, Computer Manufacturer, Computer Model, Processor, Motherboard, On Board Device(s), BIOS, Physical Memory, Video Controller, Desktop Monitor, Floppy Disk Drive, Disk Drives, DVD/CD-ROM Drives, Logical Disks, Network Adapter, Mac Address, Modem, Printer(s), USB Controller(s), USB Hub, Sound Device.
The Network Inventory Reporter software reports Hot Fixes, installed software and drivers. These reports can be saved into a database, spreadsheet and matched up to software licenses, software renewal dates. With The Network Inventory Reporter System Administrators can view, store, anaylze all running processes and services, shared resources; and in doing so, System Administrators can identify hardware purchases (hard drive space or RAM memory shortages);software issues or software and hardware conflicts. All Network Inventory Reporter reports can be saved, parsed, and printed.
People tend to be much less bothered by spam slipping through filters into their mail box (false negatives), than having desired e-mail ("ham") blocked (false positives). Trying to balance false negatives (missed spams) vs false positives (rejecting good e-mail) is critical for a successful anti-spam system. Some systems let individual users have some control over this balance by setting "spam score" limits, etc. Most techniques have both kinds of errors, to varying degrees. So, for example, anti-spam systems may use techniques that have a high false negative rate (miss a lot of spam), in order to reduce the number of false positives (rejecting good e-mail).
Detecting spam based on the content of the e-mail, either by detecting keywords such as "viagra" or by statistical means, is very popular. Such methods can be very accurate when they are correctly tuned to the types of legitimate email that an individual gets, but they can also make mistakes such as detecting the keyword "cialis" in the word "specialist"; see also Internet censorship#"By-catch". The content also doesn't determine whether the email was either unsolicited or bulk, the two key features of spam. So, if a friend sends you a joke that mentions "viagra", content filters can easily mark it as being spam even though it is neither unsolicited nor sent in bulk.
Lists of sites
The most popular DNSBLs (DNS Blacklists) are lists of IP addresses of known spammers, open relays, zombie spammers etc. Spamtraps are often email addresses that were never valid or have been invalid for a long time that are used to collect spam. An effective spamtrap is not announced and is only found by dictionary attacks or by pulling addresses off hidden webpages. For a spamtrap to remain effective the address must never be given to anyone. Some black lists, such as spamcop, use spamtraps to catch spammers and blacklist them.
Enforcing technical requirements of the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) can be used to block mail coming from systems that are not compliant with the RFC standards. A lot of spammers use poorly written software or are unable to comply with the standards because they do not have legitimate control of the computer sending spam (zombie computer). So by setting restrictions on the mail transfer agent (MTA) a mail administrator can reduce spam significantly, such as by enforcing the correct fall back of Mail eXchange (MX) records in the Domain Name System, or the correct handling of delays (Teergrube).
This is where you can find the best WebCams on the net! A WebCam is a small camera which take pictures in a fixed interval from a specific place in the world. These pictures can be viewed on this page.
Considered as one of the most effective marketing tools, e-mail fliers have become quite a rage and a necessity in the business world, fast providing a cheaper and more focused alternative to the traditional printed flier. An email flier draws the attention of the customer and presents the benefits and features of a product or service or company in an appealing manner. With the capability of reaching out to a large number of potential customers in a matter of few seconds, email fliers provide businesses and effective way to promote their products or services amidst a targeted audience with the help of a select mailing list. To design an effective and professional looking email flier, you need to follow some important steps:
The most important starting point of an email flier is to decide what its objective is – what it intends to do or achieve. An email flier is in other words a beautifully designed advertisement sent out over the email chain. Hence, you must know for sure what you want to convey to your customers - whether you want to inform them about recent launches in your product line or promote a particular product or services or announce a special promotional offer and so on.
Secondly, define your target audience so as to ensure that the email flier reaches the most high potential target group. Prepare a demographic profile of your customer base identifying their age group, location, preferences, gender, education level, etc. Having knowledge of who you are writing for would help you to meet the requirements of your clients.
Build a mailing list containing the email ids of your customers And keep updating your mailing list from time to time.
Review quality email fliers from leading sources. There are email directories such as Adpera.com and iStorez.com that show professional email campaigns from the internet's top retailers. Retailers spend a lot of money on graphic designers, marketing professionals and testing various approaches. You will quickly notice there are some common "best practices" used through out the industry.
Make a rough draft of the design of the email flier by deciding where to put the logo of your company, content, images etc. Decide where you want to place the images, whether on top of the flier or in the centre.
Write a thought provoking headline. Project the main benefit of your product or service in the headline so that the reader instantly knows what he/she stands to gain. Make it attractive and eye catching. Remember that the headline should act like a magnet to draw the attention of the readers.
Use sub-headings to break the text in the right places. Don’t use long paragraphs and long winding sentences. Keep the content short and crispy so that the readers can understand what you want to say at first go.
Write the content as if you are having a conversation with the readers. Directly address the reader and tell him/her about the benefits he/she can get from the products or the services.
Stick to just one type of font. Don’t slap in too many different kinds of fonts in the mistaken belief that it looks creative. It doesn’t. The use of different types of fonts in one fliers creates confusion and makes the flier look amateurish.
Insert appealing pictures in the email flier. For a profound effect, put one large picture instead of a number of smaller pictures.
Use sufficient amount of white space to break up the text. Proper usage of white space makes the copy look interesting and attracts the reader.
Don’t keep the border very close to the text. It makes the copy look too clumsy.
Include a free coupon or some discount in the flier and encourage the reader to take advantage of the freebies. Include the link of the appropriate webpage which you want your customers to visit.
Include a call to action. Encourage the reader to email back or call back. Include information of your website url, email and the contact number.
On April 30, 2007, Google renamed "Google Personalized Homepage" to "iGoogle".[2] As of 17 October 2007 (2007 -10-17)[update] Google had made the service available in many localized versions in 42 languages, and in over 70 country domain-names
Gadgets
iGoogle gadgets interact with the user and utilize the Google GadgetsAPI. Some gadgets developed for Google Desktop can also be used within iGoogle. The Google Gadgets API is public and allows anyone to develop a gadget for any need.[5]
Google also allows all users to create a special gadget that does not require the use of the Gadgets API. The gadgets are designed to be shared with friends and family. The special gadgets must be created using an online wizard and must belong to one of the following types:
"Framed Photo" – displays a series of photos.
"GoogleGram" – creation of special daily messages.
"Daily Me" – displays user's current mood and feelings.
"Free Form" – allows the user to input text and an image of their choice.
"YouTube Channel" – displays videos from a YouTube channel.
"Personal List" – allows the user to create a list of items.
"Countdown" – countdown timer.
"Daily Literary Quote" – displays literature-related quotes served up by ModeRoom Press.
Some of the developer-made gadgets include:
"Meteo-si": displays the current weather and the weather forecast for selected area(s)
Throughout 2009, iGoogle released a sidebar at the side of the home page which also altered the overall appearance of the iGoogle pages. It allows users of Gmail to chat from their homepage without going to gmail.com along with organising the iGoogle tabs vertically instead of horizontally along the top. The addition to this sidebar feature upset many users of iGoogle, many voicing their opinions in the Google Forums, as currently there is no way to opt-out of the change to the site design.
Themes
With iGoogle, users can select unique themes for their Google homepages: some themes designed by Google itself and others by the userbase
Artist themes
In April 2008, Google began offering a choice of themes by professional artists
Experimental iGoogle
On July 8, 2008, Google announced the beginning of a testing period for a new version of iGoogle which alters some features, including replacing the tabs with left navigation, adding chat functionality, and a canvas-view gadget for RSS.[7] Users were selected for this test and notified when they logged in by a link to a brief description and further links to forums. On the forums, it was explained[by whom?] that there was no opt-out, as a control for the test. Further, there was no information on how long the test would continue. Many expressed dissatisfaction with the new version and with the inability to opt-out.[8]
On October 16, 2008, Google announced the release of this new version of iGoogle and retired its older format. The release did not initially include the persistent chat widget. It does include the left navigation in place of tabs as well as a change to widget controls, however.[9] The stated purpose is to prepare for OpenSocial, with the new canvas view stated as playing an important role in that.[10]
On October 17, 2008, InformationWeek[11] reported "a vocal group of users" as unhappy with the changes. They[who?] point out that many users don't want change forced on them, and that this is a general problem with cloud software under a service provider's control.
A workaround to restore the original tab layout was found by attaching "?gl=all" to the end of the iGoogle URL. On June 4, 2009, this workaround was eliminated. Within days, another workaround was discovered. Simply changing the URL ending to "?hl=all" would again restore the original tab layout, with some missing links across the top of the home page, including "Maps" and "more".
On November 18, 2009 this workaround was again eliminated resulting in the tabs being placed on the left and with the links still missing. This led to an immediate resurrection of the controversy over user choice, both in the UK and world-wide, as many people unhappy with the new layout imposed on US users had switched to the UK Google site where the workarounds still worked. Within hours, the most frequently asked question on the help forum was how to restore the old layout, and there was a large number of feature suggestions to the same effect on the Google product ideas page. Other solutions have come to the fore, which require adds-ons, greasemonkey scripts or bookmarklets
XChat is a popular Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client. It has a choice of a tabbed document interface or tree interface, support for multiple servers and is highly configurable.
XChat is a full-featured IRC client and includes all basic functionalities that are found in most other IRC clients, including CTCP, DCC file transfers and chats.
It supports a plugin system for various languages (including C, C++, Perl, Python, Tcl, Ruby, Lua, CLISP, D, and DMDScript). By writing plugins, the features and functionality of XChat can be extended and customized.
This is a 30-day shareware trial version.
A Web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content.[1]Hyperlinks present in resources enable users to easily navigate their browsers to related resources.
Although browsers are primarily intended to access the World Wide Web, they can also be used to access information provided by Web servers in private networks or files in file systems.
The history of the web browser dates back to the late 1980s, when a variety of technologies laid the foundation for the first web browser, WorldWideWeb, by Tim Berners-Lee in 1991. That browser brought together a variety of existing and new software and hardware technologies.
The introduction of the NCSA Mosaic web browser in 1993 – one of the first graphical web browsers – led to an explosion in web use. Marc Andreessen, the leader of the Mosaic team at NCSA, soon started his own company, named Netscape, and released the Mosaic-influenced Netscape Navigator in 1994, which quickly became the world's most popular browser, accounting for 90% of all web use at its peak (see usage share of web browsers).
Microsoft responded with its browser Internet Explorer in 1995 (also heavily influenced by Mosaic), initiating the industry's first browser war. By bundling Internet Explorer with Windows, Microsoft was able to leverage its dominance in the operating system market to take over the web browser market; Internet Explorer usage share peaked at over 95% by 2002.[3] As of October 2009 Internet Explorer has 65% browser usage share as of October 2009 according to Net Applications.[4]
Opera debuted in 1996; although it has never achieved widespread use, having 2% browser usage share as of October 2009,[4] it has a substantial share of the fast-growing mobile phone web browser market, being preinstalled on over 40 million phones. It is also available on several other embedded systems, including Nintendo's Wii video game console.
In 1998, Netscape launched what was to become the Mozilla Foundation in an attempt to produce a competitive browser using the open source software model. That browser would eventually evolve into Firefox, which developed a respectable following while still in the beta stage of development; shortly after the release of Firefox 1.0 in late 2004, Firefox (all versions) accounted for 7.4% of browser use.[3] As of October 2009, Firefox has a 24% usage share.[4]
Apple's Safari had its first beta release in January 2003; as of October 2009, it has a dominant share of Apple-based web browsing, accounting for just over 4% of the entire browser market.[4] Its rendering engine, called WebKit, is also running in the standard browsers of several mobile phone platforms, including the iPhone OS, Google Android, Nokia S60 and Palm WebOS.
The most recent major entrant to the browser market is Google's WebKit-based Chrome, first released in September 2008. As of October 2009, it has a 4% usage share
Function
The primary purpose of a web browser is to bring information resources to the user. This process begins when the user inputs a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), for example http://en.wikipedia.org/, into the browser. The prefix of the URI determines how the URI will be interpreted. The most commonly used kind of URI starts with http: and identifies a resource to be retrieved over the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). Many browsers also support a variety of other prefixes, such as https: for HTTPS, ftp: for the File Transfer Protocol, and file: for local files. Prefixes that the web browser cannot directly handle are often handed off to another application entirely. For example, mailto: URIs are usually passed to the user's default e-mail application, and news: URIs are passed to the user's default newsgroup reader.
In the case of http, https, file, and others, once the resource has been retrieved the web browser will display it. HTML is passed to the browser's layout engine to be transformed from markup to an interactive document. Aside from HTML, web browsers can generally display any kind of content that can be part of a web page. Most browsers can display images, audio, video, and XML files, and often have plug-ins to support Flash applications and Java applets. Upon encountering a file of an unsupported type or a file that is set up to be downloaded rather than displayed, the browser prompts the user to save the file to disk.
Information resources may contain hyperlinks to other information resources. Each link contains the URI of a resource to go to. When a link is clicked, the browser navigates to the resource indicated by the link's target URI, and the process of bringing content to the user begins again.
Features
Available web browsers range in features from minimal, text-based user interfaces with bare-bones support for HTML to rich user interfaces supporting a wide variety of file formats and protocols. Browsers which include additional components to support e-mail, Usenet news, and Internet Relay Chat (IRC), are sometimes referred to as "Internet suites" rather than merely "web browsers".[5][6][7]
All major web browsers allow the user to open multiple information resources at the same time, either in different browser windows or in different tabs of the same window. Major browsers also include pop-up blockers to prevent unwanted windows from "popping up" without the user's consent.[8][9][10][11]
Most web browsers can display a list of web pages that the user has bookmarked so that the user can quickly return to them. Bookmarks are also called "Favorites" in Internet Explorer. In addition, all major web browsers have some form of built-in web feedaggregator. In Mozilla Firefox, web feeds are formatted as "live bookmarks" and behave like a folder of bookmarks corresponding to recent entries in the feed.[12] In Opera, a more traditional feed reader is included which stores and displays the contents of the feed.[13]
Furthermore, most browsers can be extended via plug-ins, downloadable components that provide additional features
User interface
Most major web browsers have these user interface elements in common:[14]
Back and forward buttons to go back to the previous resource and forward again.
A refresh or reload button to reload the current resource.
A stop button to cancel loading the resource. In some browsers, the stop button is often merged with the reload button.
A status bar to display progress in loading the resource and also the URI of links when the cursor hovers over them, and page zooming capability.
Major browsers also possess incremental find features to search within a web page.
Privacy and security
Most browsers support HTTP Secure and offer quick and easy ways to delete the web cache, cookies, and browsing history. For a comparison of the current security vulnerabilities of browsers, see comparison of web browsers.
Standards support
Early web browsers supported only a very simple version of HTML. The rapid development of proprietary web browsers led to the development of non-standard dialects of HTML, leading to problems with interoperability. Modern web browsers support a combination of standards-based and de facto HTML and XHTML, which should be rendered in the same way by all browsers.
Google’s Gmail service bills itself as an intuitive, innovative way of organizing e-mail. One of the more useful concepts you may encounter in Gmail is the use of labels. Labels are much like tags on a blog post. They allow you to quickly access and sort through related information. Unlike a folder-based system in which each file or message can only be located in one folder, you can apply more than one label, and thus more than one reference, to each e-mail message. This article walks you through the basic steps to manage labels in Gmail.
Click the empty box next to any Gmail conversations you’d like to label or change labels on. A check mark should appear in each box.
Add a New Label
Click the “Labels” button in your Gmail toolbar. This will provide a pull-down menu.
Select a label. Use either one of the default labels provided (Work, Personal, Receipts, Travel) or select “Create New” to enter your own. Once you’ve selected a label, it will be applied to all selected conversations. Any new labels created will then be available under the “Labels” pull down menu for future use, along with the defaults.
Remove Labels
Select a labeled conversation.
Click on the “Labels” button in your Gmail toolbar.
Click on the checked box next to the label you’d like to remove.
Select “Apply.”
Edit or Remove Labels
Access the label you’d like to edit or remove via the pull-down list of labels on the left side of your Gmail display. If the label you’re looking for isn’t displayed as a clickable link, you’ll find it underneath the “(#) more” heading, where (#) is the number of additional labels not being displayed.
Click the down arrow to the left of the label. This supplies a menu that allows you to hide, rename or delete labels. You can also use this menu to add color to labels.
Display Labels
Use the “Hide” option, accessed through the pull-down menu to the left of the labels in the left-hand Gmail display, to remove labels from the default list on the left of your screen and hide them under the “(#) more” display instead. This will not hide labels on your Gmail conversations.
Click and drag hidden labels from underneath the “(#) more” display to the default label display if you’d like them to be readily visible once again.
Manage Labels
Manage labels in mass quantities by clicking the “Labels” button in your Gmail toolbar and then selecting “Manage Labels.” This will pull up a menu featuring all of your current Gmail labels, with “Hide” and “Show” buttons next to each label. Most labels will also have a “Remove” button next to them, and can be edited by left-clicking on the label name.
nternetworking involves connecting two or more computer networks via gateways using a common routing technology. The result is called an internetwork. The term has historically been contracted to internet.
The most notable example of internetworking is the Internet, a network of networks based on many underlying hardware technologies, but unified by an internetworking protocol standard, the Internet Protocol Suite(TCP/IP).
The network elements used to connect individual networks are known as routers, but were originally called gateways, a term that was deprecated in this context, due to confusion with functionally different devices using the same name.
The interconnection of networks with bridges (Link Layer devices) is sometimes incorrectly termed "internetworking", but the resulting system is simply a larger, single subnetwork, and no internetworking protocol (such as IP) is required to traverse it. However, a single computer network may be converted into an internetwork by dividing the network into segments and then adding routers between the segments.
The original term for an internetwork was catenet. Internetworking started as a way to connect disparate types of networking technology, but it became widespread through the developing need to connect two or more local area network via some sort of wide are network. The definition now includes the connection of other types of computer networks such as personal area networks.
The Internet Protocol is designed to provide an unreliable (i.e., not guaranteed) packet service across the network. The architecture avoids intermediate network elements maintaining any state of the network. Instead, this function is assigned to the endpoints of each communication session. To transfer data reliably, applications must utilize an appropriate Transport Layer protocol, such as Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), which provides a reliable stream. Some applications use a simpler, connection-less transport protocol, User Datagram Protocol (UDP), for tasks which do not require reliable delivery of data or that require real-time service, such as video steaming. Networking models
Two architectural models are commonly used to describe the protocols and methods used in internetworking. The Open System Interconnection (OSI) reference model was developed under the auspices of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and provides a rigorous description for layering protocol functions from the underlying hardware to the software interface concepts in user applications. Internetworking is implemented in Layer 3 (Network Layer) of the model.
The Internet Protocol Suite, also called the TCP/IP model, of the Internet was not designed to conform to the OSI model and does not refer to it in any of the normative specifications (Requests for Comment) and Internet standards. Despite similar appearance as a layered model, it uses a much less rigorous, loosely defined architecture that concerns itself only with the aspects of networking. It does not discuss hardware-specific low-level interfaces, and assumes availability of a Link Layer interface to the local network link to which the host is connected. Internetworking is facilitated by the protocols of its Internet Layer.
GMail Drive creates a virtual filesystem around your Google Mail account, allowing you to use Gmail as a storage medium.
GMail Drive creates a virtual filesystem on top of your Google Gmail account and enables you to save and retrieve files stored on your Gmail account directly from inside Windows Explorer. GMail Drive literally adds a new drive to your computer under the My Computer folder, where you can create new folders, copy and drag'n'drop files to it.
Ever since Google started to offer users a Gmail e-mail account, which includes storage space of 6000 megabytes, you have had plenty of storage space but not a lot to fill it up with. With GMail Drive you can easily copy files to your Google Mail Account and retrieve them again.
When you create a new file using GMail Drive, it generates an e-mail and posts it to your account. The e-mail appears in your normal Inbox folder, and the file is attached as an e-mail attachment. GMail Drive periodically checks your mail account (using the Gmail search function) to see if new files have arrived and to rebuild the directory structures. But basically GMail Drive acts as any other hard-drive installed on your computer.
Your Gmail account comes with 6,330 MB of data space and it's going up. It's not going to be easy to send and receive a total of 6,330 MB of messages, so you can take advantage of the space and turn it into a drive.
Extract the setup file from the ZIP and install it. The Gmail Drive will now appear in "My Computer".
Create a filter and a label called "Gmail Drive" or something similar. The filter should put everything with "GMAILFS:" in the subject into the label. You should also have it skip the "Inbox". This will prevent your Inbox from filling up with Gmail Drive stuff.
Don't know how to delete your Internet browsing history? Constantly revieling your secrets to your family? It isn't hard to delete the history, when you know how. Steps
Open your internet by double clicking it on the desktop.
Move the mouse up towards the top of the screen towards the blue bar.
On the far left of the blue bar is the word "file".
Move 3 words over to "history".
Click on it.
On the bar that apears underneath click on the words "Show all history"
Upon doing so a box full of all the sites you have visited will appear.
From here you can right click on a page and press delete.
Or for faster deleting, you can hold control and click a page then find another hold control and click again. This will allow you to click on many pages at once.
Once you have the pages you want to delete selected, right click on one and press delete at the button of the little bar that appears.
Adobe Flash Player is the high performance, lightweight, highly expressive client runtime that delivers powerful and consistent user experiences across major operating systems, browsers, mobile phones and devices.
Installed on over 750 million Internet-connected desktops and mobile devices, Flash Player enables organizations and individuals to build and deliver great digital experiences to their end users.
Immersive experiences with Flash video, content and applications with full-screen mode.
Low-bandwidth, high-quality video with advanced compression technology.
High-fidelity text using the advanced text rendering engine.
Real-time dynamic effects with filters for Blur, DropShadow, Glow, Bevel, Gradient Glow, Gradient Bevel, Displacement Map, Convolution, and Color Matrix.
Innovative media compositions with 8-bit video alpha channels.
Blend modes, radial gradient, and stroke enhancements.
Additional image formats: GIF, Progressive JPEG, and PNG.
This download is the standalone ActiveX installer for Internet Explorer.
The Adobe Flash Player is software for viewing animations and movies using computer programs such as a web browser. Flash player is a widely distributed proprietary multimedia and application player created by Macromedia and now developed and distributed by Adobe after its acquisition. Flash Player runs SWF files that can be created by the Adobe Flash authoring tool, by Adobe Flex or by a number of other Macromedia and third party tools.
Adobe Flash, or simply Flash, refers to both a multimedia authoring program and the Adobe Flash Player, written and distributed by Adobe, that uses vector and raster graphics, a native scripting language called ActionScript and bidirectional streaming of video and audio. Strictly speaking, Adobe Flash is the authoring environment and Flash Player is the virtual machine used to run the Flash files, but in colloquial language these have become mixed: "Flash" can mean either the authoring environment, the player, or the application files.
Flash Player has support for an embedded scripting language called ActionScript (AS), which is based on ECMAScript. Since its inception, ActionScript has matured from a script syntax without variables to one that supports object-oriented code, and may now be compared in capability to JavaScript (another ECMAScript-based scripting language).
The Flash Player was originally designed to display 2-dimensional vector animation, but has since become suitable for creating rich Internet applications and streaming video and audio. It uses vector graphics to minimize file size and create files that save bandwidth and loading time. Flash is a common format for games, animations, and GUIs embedded into web pages.
The Flash Player is available as a plugin for recent versions of web browsers (such as Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Safari and Internet Explorer) on selected platforms. Adobe states that each version of the plugin is backwards-compatible, with the exception of security changes introduced in Version 10.
Supported platforms
The latest version of Flash Player, Version 10, is available for Windows (2000 and newer, Win9x no longer supported), Linux, Solaris and Mac OS X. Version 9 is the most recent official version currently available for the Linux/ARM-based Nokia 770/N800/N810 Internet Tablets running Maemo OS2008, classic Mac OS, Pocket PC and Windows 95/NT. HP offers Version 6 of the player for HP-UX. Other versions of the player have been available at some point for OS/2, Symbian OS, Palm OS, BeOS and IRIX. The Kodak Easyshare One includes Flash Play. The Flash Player SDK was used to develop its on-screen menus, which are rendered and displayed using the included Flash Player. Among other devices, LeapFrog Enterprises provides Flash Player with their Leapster Multimedia Learning System and extended the Flash Player with touch-screen support. Sony has integrated Flash Player 6 into the PlayStation Portable's web browser via firmware version 2.70 and Flash Player 9 into the PlayStation 3's web browser in firmware version 2.50. Nintendo has integrated Flash Lite 3.1, equivalent to Flash 8, in the Internet Channel on the Wii.
Adobe released an alpha version of Flash Player 10 for x86-64 Linux on the 17th November 2008. Adobe engineers have stated that 64-bit editions for all supported platforms are in development; alpha releases for Mac and Windows will come in future pre releases. Adobe said it will optimize Flash for use on ARM architecture (ARMv6 and ARMv7 architectures used in the ARM11 family and the Cortex-A series of processors) and release it in the second half of 2009. The company also stated it wants to enable Flash on NVIDIA Tegra, Texas Instruments OMAP 3 and Samsung ARMs. Beginning 2009, it was announced that Adobe would be bringing Flash to TV sets via Intel Media Processor CE 3100 before mid-2009. Later on, ARM Holdings said it welcomes the move of Flash, because "it will transform mobile applications and it removes the claim that the desktop controls the Internet." However, as of May 2009, the expected ARM/Linux netbook devices had poor support for Web video and fragmented software base.
Although SWF has recently become an open format again, Adobe has not been willing to make complete source code available for free software development. The source code for the ActionScript Virtual Machine has been released as a project named Tamarin under the terms of an MPL/GPL/LGPL tri-license. It includes the specification for the ActionScript byte code format. This project is jointly managed by Mozilla and Adobe. The full specification of the SWF format is available without restriction by Adobe. The free software players Gnash and Swfdec, are quite incomplete at this time, however since SWF is now an open format, it should have a much higher quality going forward as developers implement the official SWF specifications.
Mobile operating systems
Following table shows Flash Player support for mobile operating systems:
Mobile OS
Adobe Flash version
Windows Mobile
7
Symbian OS
Lite 3.1
iPhone OS
none
Palm WebOS
None
BlackBerry OS
None
PSP XMB
5
Android
10
Maemo
9
Internet Privacy/Persistent Identification Elements
Flash Player is an application that, while running on a computer that is connected to the Internet, is designed to contemporaneously interact with websites containing Flash content that are being visited online. As such, under certain configurations the application has the potential to silently compromise its users' Internet privacy, and do so without their knowledge. By default, Flash Player is configured to permit small, otherwise invisible "tracking" files, known as Persistent Identification Elements (PIEs) or Local Shared Object files, to be stored on the hard drive of a user's computer. Sent in the background over the Internet from websites to which a user is connected, these files work much the way "cookies" do with Internet browsers. When stored on a user's computer, PIE (.sol) files are capable of sending personally sensitive data back out over the Internet without the user's knowledge to one or more third parties. In addition, Flash Player is also capable of accessing and retrieving audio and video data from any microphone and/or webcams that might be either built in or connected to a user's computer and transmitting it in realtime over the Internet (also potentially without the user's knowledge) to one or more third parties.
While these capabilities can all be affirmatively blocked and/or disabled by the user, the Flash Player application does not provide an internally accessible "preferences" panel to accomplish this. Instead access to the various settings panels necessary to manage the application's "Privacy," "Storage," "Security," and "Notifications" settings can be achieved through a web-based "Settings Manager" page located on the "support" section of the Adobe.com website, or by third party tools (see Local Shared Object). Each of the functions can be enabled/disabled either "globally" to cover all websites, or set differently for individual websites depending on how the user desires Flash Player to be able to interact with each one.
Although Flash Control Panel Settings in theory allow users to protect their privacy, they should also be aware that suitably crafted Visual Basic Script or similar code can overwrite any user defined settings before the Flash Player Plug-in is called by a webpage.
In addition to cookies, many banks and other financial institutions also routinely install Persistent Identification Elements using Flash Player on users' hard drives when they establish and access their accounts, as do other interactive sites such as YouTube.
History
Macromedia Flash Player 2 (1997)
First version under Macromedia brand
Mostly vectors and motion, some bitmaps, limited audio
Support of stereo sound, enhanced bitmap integration, buttons, the Library, and the capability to tween color changes.
Brought improvements to animation, playback, and publishing, as well as the introduction of simple script commands for interactivity.
As of 1998, Macromedia has shipped 100,000 Flash products.
Macromedia Flash Player 4 (May 1999)
Achieved 100 million installations of the Flash Player, thanks in part to its inclusion with Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.
Saw the introduction of streaming MP3s and the Motion Tween. Initially, the Flash Player plug-in was not bundled with popular web browsers and users had to visit Macromedia website to download it; As of 2000, however, the Flash Player was already being distributed with all AOL, Netscape and Internet Explorer browsers. Two years later it shipped with all releases of Windows XP. The install-base of the Flash Player reached 92 percent of all Internet users.
Macromedia Flash Player 5 (August 2000)
A major leap forward in capability, with the evolution of Flash's scripting capabilities as released as ActionScript.
Saw the ability to customize the authoring environment's interface.
Macromedia Generator was the first initiative from Macromedia to separate design from content in Flash files. Generator 2.0 was released in April 2001 and featured real-time server-side generation of Flash content in its Enterprise Edition. Generator was discontinued in 2002 in favor of new technologies such as Flash Remoting, which allows for seamless transmission of data between the server and the client, and ColdFusion Server.
In October 2000, usability guru Jakob Nielsen wrote a polemic article regarding usability of Flash content entitled "Flash 99% Bad". (Macromedia later hired Nielsen to help them improve Flash usability.)
Macromedia Flash Player 6 (version 6.0.21.0, codenamed Exorcist) (March 2002)
Support for the consuming Flash Remoting (AMF) and Web Service (SOAP)
Supports ondemand/live audio and video streaming (RTMP)
Support for screenreaders via Microsoft Active Accessibility
Added Sorenson Spark video codec for Flash Video
Support for video, application components, shared libraries, and accessibility.
Macromedia Flash Communication Server MX, also released in 2002, allowed video to be streamed to Flash Player 6 (otherwise the video could be embedded into the Flash movie).
Macromedia Flash Player 7 (version 7.0.14.0, codenamed Mojo) (September 2003)
Supports progressive audio and video streaming (HTTP)
Supports ActionScript 2.0, an Object-Oriented Programming Language for developers
Ability to create charts, graphs and additional text effects with the new support for extensions (sold separately), high fidelity import of PDF and Adobe Illustrator 10 files, mobile and device development and a forms-based development environment. ActionScript 2.0 was also introduced, giving developers a formal Object-Oriented approach to ActionScript. V2 Components replaced Flash MX's components, being rewritten from the ground up to take advantage of ActionScript 2.0 and Object-Oriented principles.
In 2004, the "Flash Platform" was introduced. This expanded Flash to more than the Flash authoring tool. Flex 1.0 and Breeze 1.0 were released, both of which utilized the Flash Player as a delivery method but relied on tools other than the Flash authoring program to create Flash applications and presentations. Flash Lite 1.1 was also released, enabling mobile phones to play Flash content.
Macromedia Flash Player 8 (version 8.0.22.0, codenamed Maelstrom) (August 2005)
Support for runtime loading of GIF and PNG images
New video codec (On2 VP6)
Improved runtime performance and runtime bitmap caching
Live filters and blendmodes
File upload and download capabilities
New text-rendering engine, the Saffron Type System
ExternalAPI subsystem introduced to replace fscommand()
On December 3, 2005, Adobe Systems acquired Macromedia and its product portfolio (including Flash).
Adobe Flash Player 9 (version 9.0.15.0, codenamed Zaphod) (June 2006) previously named Flash Player 8.5
New ECMAScript scripting engine, ActionScript Virtual Machine AVM2. AVM1 retained for compatibility.
Actionscript 3 via AVM2.
E4X, which is a new approach to parsing XML.
Support for binary sockets.
Support for Regular Expressions and namespaces.
ECMAScript 4 virtual machine donated to Mozilla Foundation and named Tamarin.
