disappearing Java

[Andy Lee]

The ability to run Java seems to have disappeared from my Firefox and  
(temporarily) my Safari -- yet not Camino.

Details:

In Firefox, I went to a page that runs a Java applet I need [1] and  
got a blank area.  I checked that Java is enabled in prefs.

Opening the same page in Safari, I got a message saying Java wasn't  
supported (I forget the exact wording) and the blue icon that looks  
like a Lego block meaning a missing plugin.

It seemed a long shot, but I opened the same page in Camino -- and it  
worked!  Stranger still, when I retried it in Safari, that worked  
too.  But still not in Firefox.

I wonder if this could be related to Java 1.5 vs. 1.6.  It's  
happening on an iMac I bought two weeks ago.  When I set up the iMac,  
I used Apple's assistant thing to transfer data and apps from my old  
computer, where I had the beta of Java 1.6 installed.  I didn't  
install that beta on the new machine.  But I have trouble believing  
this is the cause of the problem.  Why would Camino be okay, and how  
could running Camino have fixed Safari?

Any ideas?

--Andy

[1] Well, "need" may be an exaggeration.  It's the New York Times  
Sunday acrostic puzzle.