A few days after a Paul Palumbo from AccuStream iMedia Research, was quoted everywhere saying that audio and video streaming is finally "mainstream", one reader contacted me asking why an update of the Netscape Radio application suddenly prompted Internet Explorer message boxes asking for permission to allow "scripting and Active-X".
The Netscape Radio application is bundled with the Mozilla-based Netscape v7.1 browser, and also distributed in stand-alone form at https://radio.netscape.com. When these days you run the original bundled version of Netscape Radio, you get a friendly dialog saying the current version will "expire soon", and that you should upgrade to the newest version to continue using the service. Once you approve the installation of the update, there is something interesting... the "Real Audio" plug-in doesn"t seem to be used, and instead an Active-X component is launched by the radio software.