Filebrowser Permissions etc

Minisweeper

So I've been thinking about the whole issue relating to filebrowsers permissions since I decided to seperate my files into public and less public. I htaccess'd the folder but then realised that filebrowser just cut its way through anyway. I know its meant to be a simple directory viewer and to an extent i agree with this - but i think it is important that it can be told not to bother with certain things. I change the folder name to _folder but then it just skipped it off the list and still browsed it by clicking the next folder up (an issue i raised a while ago) I've been thinking of ways to do this without making filebrowser complex and needing to add admin panels and stuff which i know mark is avoiding - i'm not bothered about having different sized thumbnails or regular pics; wanting to add titles or comments to my photos; or any of that fancy stuff... But, what i thought would be good, is if the filebrowser could use files like _htaccess or _protected or something which it would check a directory for, and if it contained one, it would either just block it out or require a password. This way it stays nice and simple but offers that extra level of protection for the stuff you want to be able to see but dont want all that public. Mark/others who have examined the code more closely - what do you think of this idea? How plausible is it?