xjones,
You've assumed wrong that I've never bothered to google. Also, I'm not wishing to create my own countdowns, I just want to post them on my FReeper page and have them work. I follow the instructions on webpages, cut and paste the codes, but then they won't work.
A brief look shows the CodeAmber.org ticker uses Javascript.
I believe that if a code accesses a JAVA applet, or uses Javascript, it will not work on your FR homepage (or in a post made to FR).
You're limited to plain, vanilla HTML only.