Union Pacific 844

[C855B]

And, once again, the video seems to be unplayable unless one is a Facebook member. ...

Interesting. I rarely have a problem with FB videos linked here, and am not a member. I thought it might be a combination of tracker blockers or something to that effect, but even in the "open sewer" version of Safari I keep for blocker-sensitive browsing, Mark's vid opened right up for me.

I'm on a Mac, obviously, and my normal browser is a relatively current version of Firefox with a couple of add-ons. But like I said, an unmodified Safari sees the (cool!) vid just fine.

[nkalanaga]

Mine is the latest version of Firefox, but I can try turning of the tracker-blockers.

[nkalanaga]

Nope.  Turning off both Ghostery and Adblock Plus had no effect.  It still won't play.  The YouTube video plays fine, I never seem to have trouble with them.  My system, for whatever reason, simply will not play Facebook videos, regardless of who posts them.

[Mark W]

The videos are identical except that the facebook video has the originally recorded audio which is very uncomfortable when 844 blows the whistle.
 
In any case, Firefox handles Facebook links by trying to force you to login with an overlay which blocks the video.  If you try another browser or an overlay killer extension you should be able to view it.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/behind_the_overlay/

[Albert in N]

 :)Enjoyed both the muted sound and full whistle one. Had no problem opening on both my Lenovo Windows laptop and on my Amazon Fire Android pad. I am not on Facebook and nothing asked for user ID nor password. Makes me want a Kato N steamer like the video. BTW, this was an incredibly vibration free moving train show!

[nkalanaga]

"n any case, Firefox handles Facebook links by trying to force you to login with an overlay which blocks the video.  If you try another browser or an overlay killer extension you should be able to view it."

Now THAT sounds like a good explanation for my problems.  I didn't know there WAS such a thing as an "overlay killer"...  Thank you!

[nkalanaga]

I installed the add-on, and it removed the overlay, as advertised.  It also removed any evidence of the video, leaving only the text portion of the post.  So, no luck there.  Oh well...

Another browser might work, but all I have is Firefox.  IE died several years ago, and I never bothered to replace it.  It executes, but won't show a window, so is useless.  That's what I get for sticking with an obsolete OS.

[peteski]

That's what I get for sticking with an obsolete OS.

I still use XP and even Win98SE on some of my computers.  The latter is where I do most of my hobby work (as my Alps printer is attached to it and I have Corel Draw installed).  No, I don't use it for going online. Not that I'm afraid of viruses - it is just that most websites don't properly display in the browser and no updates are available. 

[nkalanaga]

MOST websites work fine in Firefox, which is part of the reason I left IE in the first place.  Sites decided they'd no longer support IE6, and a few actually barred users from accessing their sites, so I had to upgrade to IE7.  It never did seem to work right, so I gave up.

Even at work, I was using Firefox, in the "Portable Apps" version, on a USB stick.  That way I didn't leave a lot of garbage on the company's PCs.  They let us browse in our spare time, mostly while waiting for a job to run, but I didn't like the idea of leaving temporary files and other "junk" behind.  Also, they used "WebSense" censorware, to keep us out of porn and other undesirable sites, which was understandable.  Being a bank processing company, security was important, and such questionable sites were, and are, prime sources of malware.

But WebSense had a problem.  Subscribers could report any site as "undesirable", for a variety of reasons, and it would be blocked automatically, for anyone blocking that class.  UNBLOCKING a site, on the other hand, was a complicated process.  They had some very odd blocks.  The Swiss Rhaetian Railways site was blocked for "Adult Content".  The "Darwin Awards" site was blocked as "Tasteless".  At one point our own company site was blocked for a few days!

It turned out that one site not blocked was (our company name).COM.  Unfortunately, we were (our company name).NET.  The ".com" site WAS porn, and full of viruses.  Every now and then someone would make a mistake, usually either a new employee or on a new computer, type ".com", and the system would be infected again.

Firefox could usually get around the blocks, because our host servers, for some odd reason, seemed to ignore it.  I had no interest in the sites they actually WANTED blocked, but the mistakes could get annoying.