[thelist] Please tell me why I hate Flash

[deke]

On 21 Apr 2001, at 20:17, Erik Mattheis posted a message which said:

> At 11:26 AM -0400 4/20/01, deke wrote:
> >The latency and incompatibility issues, though, are Flash's
 
> There are no "latency" issues with Flash. As I understand packets, 
> they don't care what types of data they contain.

latency
(1) In general, the period of time that one component in a system is 
spinning its wheels waiting for another component. Latency, therefore, 
is wasted time. For example, in accessing data on a disk, latency is 
defined as the time it takes to position the proper sector under the 
read/write head.

Flash is not slow - once it arrives. But if it takes five friggin minutes
for the page to arrive, that's one heck of a lot of latency.

> Flash is the MOST compatible way to deliver page specified fonts, 
> page specified layout, MP3 audio, and ... uh, well vector graphics. 
> Here is some interesting info: 
> http://www.macromedia.com/software/player_census/flashplayer/

That page says there are 340,603,938 worldwide users of Flash 
multimedia player, which is 80 million more people than are online.

http://cyberatlas.internet.com/big_picture/geographics/article/0,1323,5911_151151,00.html

You might also explain that "most compatible" argument. I cannot
think of any browsers that support Flash but don't support the
font tag, or the table tag, or GIFs. 

> >And that's only because I already *have* a Flash plugin. The folks
> >that don't? They have to download the plugin, and close their
> >browser in order to install it.
 
> Wrong.

Thank you for your enlightening answer.

However, the instructions say that you *do* have to close the 
browser in order to install a plugin. And when I haven't noticed
that I have a minimized instance of the browser, the installation
has refused to proceed.
 
> >It takes four minutes to find out the viaduct is a furniture sales rep.
> >It takes five minutes to find out that turbonium has a turbocharger,
> >and five valves per cylinder.
 
> You're saying every website must be accessible and easily 
> understandable to all web users and that the aim of every website is 
> to quickly convey information as clearly as possible. If that's what 
> you belive, maybe Flash isn't too useful in your world, but you 
> should know that your version of the world is still in the primal goo 
> era.

If a website isn't going to be accessible, then what's the point of
uploading it? It runs *much* faster from your hard drive.

I will agree that not every website is supposed to convey information 
clearly. In some cases, the purpose of a website is to *obscure* 
information. 
 
> The end of the VW site (turbonium.com) isn't to give the visitor 
> information about a car ... that's what vw.com is for ... 
> turbonium.com tries to get visitors from a certain demographic to BUY 
> a car ... I'd venture to guess that you've puzzled by print ads in 
> which you have to look at a small amount of tiny writing to 
> understand what the add is for ... guess what - that ad worked on you 
> ... anyway, if you're thinking anything else other than: "Oh, gee, I 
> get it now," you need to search the web for "branding" or "brand 
> identity".

What I am thinking is "Sheesh! If their *car* is this slow, I'm better
off walking."

> All this "usefulness" talk aside, there are tons of (even poorly 
> designed) Flash sites that millions of people have fun visiting. How 
> could you be down on that?

There are millions of people who have died of syphillis, and they
had fun acquiring it. I'm kinda down on venereal diseases.

I suppose Flash, like Java applets, are OK for "my ferret fred" 
sites, where the webmaster drives over to his mother's house 
and downloads a new browser for her, and installs the plugins, 
and enters the URL for her. "Look, ma, no hands!"  It's a shame,
though, that she can't show off Junior's work to cousin Tilly in
Atlanta. 

Communications requires someone to send a message and
someone to receive the message. When people click on the 
back button, you're missing a vital piece. Flash isn't not 
communication, it's masturbation. And while masturbation is 
safe, clean, and won't rot your teeth, it's lonely....

deke

------------------------
 "The church is near but the road is icy; 
  the bar is far away but I will walk carefully." 
                            -- Russian Proverb