what the fuck

[rone]

Somehow, Firefox has decided to handle Flash files with the QuickTime plugin.  If there's one thing about Firefox that really ticks me off, it's that there's no obvious way to tell it to handle a particular file type with the plug-in (or, if it normally does, to not do so).  It also seems to mishandle file extensions and file types, but i can't tell if that's its fault or Windows's fault (if a Web server sends a .mp4 file as "text/plain", should the browser figure out it's a binary file and send it to the right place, or accept the file type as authoritative?  is the solution to have the browser run "file" on the download to determine its type?  what if the magic number file is poor?).  I hate computers.  I hate the Web.

Comments

[nothings.livejournal.com]

I've always ranted about HTTP mime types, for years. To the extent that we serve static files on the web, it's just a total mistake. They could at least have just had HTTP bail and not provide a mime type when serving a static file.

It's a total mistake because either the browser's system knows how to handle the file or not, either through the extension or the magic number or whatever. With the HTTP server supplying the mime type, now the http provider has to know how to identify the right mime type given the file extension or its magic number or similar. Note that supplying the correct mime type isn't helpful if the browser's system can't actually do anything with it--and the cases where the browser's system can do something with it mostly corresponds to cases where the browser's system can identify the extension or magic number. Thus there's no real case where having the server provide the mime type for a static file helps (well, it allows resolving the ASCII/binary FTP mess, but I bet that is better just done on the client side as well, and you can hypothesize some scenarios where it allows the server to store things with non-standard extensions and appropriate mime mappings), and there are plenty of cases where it hurts--every time the browser's system knows about the filetype and the server doesn't. (Which is ALL THE FUCKING TIME. I have this wacky idea for a distributed 3D world where everyone just stores their small chunk of the world on their webserver. I'll have to make the extension be '.zip' so people on geocities or things like that can use it too.)

[nothings.livejournal.com]

PS: if the server sends you the mp4 as text/plain, aren't you just screwed because it's going to get corrupted?

[omarius.livejournal.com]

Hear, hear. Let's start John & Ron's Bicoastal Landscaping Service, LLC.

[rjray.livejournal.com]

I think the QuickTime plug-in takes over the Flash MIME-type on its own. I don't think this is a Firefox issue.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

You get one cookie. In my attempts to get the QT plugin to play mp3s, i turned on the "Flash" checkbox. Why the HELL is Quicktime able to play SWFs? And only old, lame ones at that. Re-tarded.

The hell with that

[palecur.livejournal.com]

On my computer out here in the living room, middle click (clicking the mouse wheel) opens the clicked link in a new tab. I have NO IDEA how to configure this behavior for the laptop's external wheelmouse. None. There is no 'configure mouse button actions' option anywhere I can find, and damned if I know how I did it to begin with.

oh, and that xhost problem I was talking to you about last week? misconfigured sshd on the target box, looks like. I'll bend the appropriate ears.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Can you click the wheel? That has worked for me.

I was afraid it'd be the sshd, because then you wouldn't be able to fix it. Bitches.

Re: The hell with that

[rbarclay.livejournal.com]

Installing tabbrowser extensions solved that for me.

Re: The hell with that

[manfire.livejournal.com]

Try the Tab Clicking Options extension. It's a godsend.

Re: The hell with that

[manfire.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I also recommend adding Tabbrowser Preferences and Undo Close Tab next time you're out downloading extensions. Those two combined with Tab Clicking Options manage to replicate most of the handy functionality of the old, deprecated Tabbrowser Extensions, but without the browser-crashing spaghetti code.

[rbarclay.livejournal.com]

On this here Lunix: Edit->Preferences->Downloads->Plugins

On Windows, there was the possibility to change this somewhere in the system controls, which (apart from IE) at least Netscrap honored. On Windos 98.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Yes, the Windows Firefox has that menu, but it's utterly useless. All you can do is disable a plugin. Whoopee fuck.

So disable it!

[vardissakheli.livejournal.com]

Next time you open a file of that type, you should be able to select a more appropriate action. I think.