[off-topic] ActiveX on websites

[Gavin Chester]

Hi Folks,

I'm looking for education an enlightenment, please :-)

I am unsure and curious about the role of ActiveX on dynamic webpages,
for 'tricks' such as revealing, or unrolling, hidden text for example.
I do know there are other ways to do such fandangled tricks, which
doesn't require ActiveX. Why do I think a site was using it? Well I
complained bitterly to my local Shire (who charge enormous rates) that
their website was broken because this page:

http://www.murray.wa.gov.au/services/recycling-waste/

for example did not work at all for me no matter what browser I was
using or even whether I was using dreaded Win8. None of the text
revealed itself, nor did the menus expand.

I sent them an email and had a real good ol' rant about it:
accessibility, compatibility, you name it I complained (ranted) to them
about it.

The twist was that it turned out that I could see the pages ok on the
same laptop as long as I was not at home! There's a clue, I thought :0.
So I examined my home modem/router settings and saw that I had wisely
elected to block ActiveX at the router. When, instead, I allowed ActiveX
the Murray Shire webpages worked as they intended.

ActiveX is known as potentially 'nasty' - or at least "use with
caution". So why would blocking it break a website? It's the only site
that I have been aware that blocking it did cause it to break.

I still have a very good case for complaining about several aspects of
site usability, but am I ending up trolling them by complaining about
how they've chosen to implement their 'dynamic' web content?

-- 
Gavin Chester
Pinjarra, Western Australia
email: gavin.chester at gmail.com