Hello, newbies, when the first time you hear Flash Mob, I guess your immediate reaction is to think is this flash the same one as flash swf file that we always talk about here and what kind of tools we can use to convert it to regular video for easy playback on more platforms.

Well, I admit I had the same first reaction as you did. However, flash mob and flash are totally two different things! They share nothing in common except the same English word – “flash”. Seriously, flash mob refers to a large group of people who assemble suddenly via telecommunications, social media, or viral emails in a public place, perform an unusual and pointless act for a brief time, then disperse.

Some basic background info about flash mob you should know:

The first flash mob – created in Manhattan in May 2003, by Bill Wasik, senior editor of Harper’s Magazine. The first attempt was unsuccessful but the second one was, which subsequently occurred on June 3, 2003 at Macy’s department store.

Notable flash mob 1 – the second largest and well-known flash mob was the April 2006 silent disco in London. At various London Underground stations, people gathered with their portable music devices, and at a set time began dancing to their music. It was reported that more than 4,000 people participated at London Victoria station.

Notable flash mob 2 – the world’s largest flash mob to date: Worldwide Pillow Fight Day (or International Pillow Fight Day) was a pillow fight flash mob that took place on March 22, 2008. Over 25 cities around the globe participated in the first “international flash mob”.

Will you be a part of flash mob to celebrate New Year 2011?

I personally think it is a good idea and definitely you can give it a try! New Year 2011 is just around the corner and a flash mob new year celebration is no doubt a unique start. By the way, the only flash mob I have participated is Free Hugs, wow, that feels good! LOL!

I always come across the question asks that: how to upload the SWF files to website? Well, it depends on different circumstances, I ‘ll try to explain according to what I know, if you have something to add, just go ahead and let me know.

Usually, I have two ways to get the source SWF files: online flash making programs and the existed SWF files in my PC.

The former means you produce the SWF file from some online flash making programs. They can be flash banner making programs, flash chart making programs and so on. In this case, you don ‘t have to download and install the program, just do it online according to their instructions. When you finish all the editing and customizing work, the program will generate several lines of codes, and that ‘ s all you need to put in your website.

The latter means the existed SWF file with the extension .swf saved in your computer or produced by Adobe Flash CS5(the latest one). The created SWF files like this works perfectly in Internet Explorer, but doesn’t load in all netscape. Or vice versa. The reason is flash has a lot of issues with its plugin player and browser compatibility. In circumstances such as these you need to be able to convert SWF to animated GIF before uploading to your website.

Again, at least this is what i’m doing right now. Of course, you have many other options like you can directly upload the SWF file to your web server; like you can convert the SWF file to video format first, and then make a player for it, and at last, upload them all to website.

However, convert SWF to animated GIF is the easiest among all the methods because you can easily upload it to your website as the same way you upload a common picture.

Another reason to make it the easiest solution is some of your clients don’t want flash content or do not have the flash plugin. Again, in these situations, you need to be able to convert the .swf file to a .gif file so that you can display the swf image to those particular clients.

I have to emphasize here that convert SWF to animated GIF will not make it ugly! The dynamic effect of the originally SWF file keeps unchanged because you have the frame-by-frame control of the whole conversion progress and you can even customize the frame rate, image size and compression quality etc to ensure a better output.

Convert SWF to animated GIF will not cost you anything either! It ‘s free and available to get within just few clicks.

3 Steps to Convert SWF to Animated GIF with Moyea SWF to Video Pro

Step 1: Launch SWF to Video Pro and select the way you prefer to input the source SWF file.

Step 2: This SWF converter can convert SWF to Video, SWF to Video with alpha, and SWF to Image series respectively. Now choose Animated GIF as the target output format from image series style drop down menu.

Step 3: Click “Convert” to start the SWF to Animated GIF conversion.

When the conversion completes, you can upload the generated animated GIF to anywhere on the website and enjoy it as a high-quality SWF substitute.

Flash is a very common format used to deliver animations over Internet. Flash brings us a lot fun but at the same time, flash viewers have to concern the security issues as well. The first flash file virus WF/LFM.926 appeared in early 2002 but was fortunately refused by patch tools emergently released from Macromedia company. However, just after two years in November, 26th, 2004, another new virus DJ2005 (Win32.Troj.QQMydj2005) which can be downloaded automatically with the flash file was found. When you are browsing the exquisite flash files, be extremely careful if another website is opened simultaneously or an irrelevant program is downloaded automatically, because that might be the virus! It can modify explorer. exe process and registry, besides, it can also send messages through QQ to cajole other users.

Strategies: first, scan DJ2005 trojans through free online virus check http://scan.kingsoft.com/; second, make sure your virus database is up to date to prevent any new virus; third, make sure your flash player, flash converter or other flash relevant programs are clean and safe, 100% virus free.