Okay, so here's what I want now.

- On IE, I want the <object classid=...> thing to work.
- On other-than-IE, I want the <embed> to run because it works around the Adobe Flash bug.
- On IE systems that do not have the ActiveX control installed, I want the alternate text.
- On other-than-IE that does not allow <embed> (eg Lynx) I want the alternate text.
- On other-than-IE that allows <embed> but that cannot run flash or does not have flash installed (eg iPhone, iPod), I want the alternate text.

In all cases, I don't want the alternate text to appear unless they are specifically missing Flash. I don't ever want a situation where the alternate text appears concurrently with the plugin.

Is that even possible?

I tried this:
<object classid=...>
 <param name=...>
   <embed src=...>
   <noembed>Alternate text</noembed>
</object>

This worked, except on the iPod, which shows neither the plugin (no flash player on iPod), nor the alternate text within the noembed. In fact, I didn't even see the alternate text on IE and I expected to see it.

Any other ideas?