Hey guys, thanks for the replies.

Your question about distinguishing between ads and legitimate flash would definitely be the hardest part. I noticed that sites like hulu and comedy central seem to crank up the volume on ads, so I was hoping it would be possible to detect some type of pattern with the volume or other variables that could accurately distinguish between the two.

Now that I think about it, it seems like if it were possible to detect this it would be so unreliable that it wouldnt work in the great majority of cases.

I like your idea about the button though. That was my first idea, but I realized that when im actually watching a streaming show, I'm usually at least 10 feet away from my monitor.

What about a wireless mouse or keyboard or some type of bluetooth device to tell the computer when to switch to "ad mode" and when to switch back? I know some people have controlled their computer via wiimote before, and that would be awesome.

Lately all I use is linux, so I want to figure out how to write something to work in it. Which language would be best? I knew that web languages dont do this sort of thing which is why I was considering java.

So, would it be simple to make a java app that runs on startup, waits for a particular input that comes from a wireless device, and then plays music and darkens the screen when its told to? I dont know where to start, but i guess i'll start with google.

Thanks again for the responses.

(P.S. whats with the session timeout length for this site? I was logged out by the time i finished writing my post lol)