When Flash Player 9 goes into full screen mode, it pops up a little security message that tells the user how to exit full screen mode. It appears as white text on a semi-transparent black background so it is generally always visible (which is good). Still, I wondered if it could be obscured.
The message is always on top, so it is impossible to draw over it. But what if we tried distracting the user from the actual security message?
Here’s a silly test:
This movie requires Flash Player 9
Of course, you can press Esc (or alt+tab to another window) to escape.
UPDATE: I have made the source code available, warts and all, under a ZLib licence. Share and enjoy :)
Bravo! Best use of FP9 fullscreen feature I’ve seen so far :)
This is too cruel :)
For bonus points, detect the platform and display the error message appropriately (the current bsod is from Win98 I think), imagine displaying a kernel panic for Linux and the equivalent for Mac.
Nice.Can you provide the source ?
Oh that’s nasty indeed – great idea! I think you could spice this up with a little bit of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu_moia-oVI
you are right… it really confuses users.
heh, not bad. I honestly didn’t see the message the first time.
Now I’m curious whether one can enter fullscreen automatically with flash… I am tempted to freak out my fiancee that way :P
Funny! The BSOD was a strange sight to see on my MBP.
Very nice!!
The first time i clicked your link i was looking for the message that told me how to exit full screen.
I couldn’t see it and I was looking for it… I’m sure that anyone not looking for it will get freaked!
It would be more effective if the distracters contained actual words and phrases, rather than just random letters.
Pretty sweet though :)
Source please!! THIS WAS GREAT!
Heh, thanks everyone :)
@Gaspy: Very astute! I grabbed the BSOD image from a Google image search. Platfrom-specific screens is a good idea.
@Mario: Haha that did cross my mind too :)
@Brady: Yeah, that thought occurred to me too, but I was already awake too late as it was ;)
I will be making the source available for anyone who wants to add stuff or just hack on it. The code is an embarrassing spaghetti mess, though!
EDIT: I’ve edited the original post with a link to the source code.
And I forgot to reply to @Joequincy: Flash full screen mode can only be triggered in response to a keypress, mouse click or menu selection.
Thats hillarious! Great use of the bsod.
Eeep! That’s cool. I haven’t seen that screen for a while now acutally. The blue screen on death.
Unfortunately, the BSOD instructs the user to hit Ctrl+Alt+Del, which will snap them out of the full-screen. You could probably just edit the image text to say something else, though….
Jesus. Scared the crap outta me. I woulda went NUTS if I didn’t know it was a test.
Scanning my computer for the next week, hah.
Great!
I lol’d because im using linux :P
Awesome idea. Only suggestion; hide the mouse on BSOD.
retarded
I have not seen that – or any, come to think of it – crash message since I banished Windows into the VirtualBox on my Linux desktop.
eh, font is off a bit, which is why i noticed the original msg at first, but otherwise its pure genious
I’m running on Linux, it was so strange to see a windows blue screen. lol
Haha, that’s nasty. I love it.
Its not long enough in animation, I still spotted it fairly easily.
I didn’t see the actual warning message until the 2nd time I looked at it. Clever…
How about making the messages fade out in sync to the full screen exit message? I didn’t see the message until it started fading out, and I had time to read it.
funny and wicked
That was the funniest thing ever. Genius. Gaspy is right, display one for mac and linux too!
Hi, i came here from Su. Just stopped by to say kudos!
This is just great. So … evil :)
I just saw it and I already pranked one of my friends with it.
Awesome job, looking forward to some updates for linux and mac :D
Loved it. I remembered when I was working at an Internet caffee and we had win ’98, XP was just out on the market and I got tones of BOSD’s a day. Crappy times …that led to Linux fun times. Thanks again for the flashback.
Great flash test.
That’s great… I had to run it several times before I could spot the message (and I’ll admit to thinking I’d been had at first… made me quite nervous when the bsd popped).
hehehe
i love this “prank”
I will send it to my distribution group and wait for angry responses :)
This is why I use the NoScript addon for Firefox. I only allow flash and java on websites that I approve.
I don’t leave my homepage without it :)
Wonderful way to play a trick on someone. Check out CoComment for some other useful developer’s tools…
LOL! funny. evil.
as long as NO REAL DAMAGE happens..then it’s hilarious!!
Thank god i know some flash … nice one.
this is just too cool, it did scare me a bit coz i turned off my anti virus and i was using windows,hehe, nice work
Not as believable when you have a Mac and it tells you there’s a Windows fatal error. I guess there probably are people who think Macs run on Windows, though…
It should disable the cursor in the blue screen
You shouldn’t do that! That just freaked me out. Yes, you may be making people aware but make sure they have their morning coffee or tea first.
Thank you for the info and the near pulsating beating in my chest.
I never should have clicked on it.
I can see how this could aggravate someone pretty easily lol. Nice use of flash, interesting.
lol, i almost hit control alt delete. Great post anyway.
It will be cooler with the mouse hidden :))
and if you can, make it start without having to click :D
send me a email with the source please
i have made the mouse hidden but i cannot do the fullscreen thing
To be honest, you need to disable right clicking, that kinda destroys the illusion.
Funny thing. How can I get BSOD on Linux :S
Impressive. The b* screen was an unexpected cool touch.
This is hilarious…but I’m running Slackware…OS detection would be killer XD
It was so cool dude !
Thanks a lot.