Re:Flash as an application development platform
on
The Future of Flash
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· Score: 1
Vector animation is not a fad.
Agreed.
There are some things you just cannot do in HTML/DHTML/AJAX/whatever.
Like, umm, vector animation. (Though hopefully that will change with widespread acceptance of SVG.)
What this is about, though, is whether or not Flash as a development environment for more complicated applications, and that's where it falls down. Keep Flash around for the vector animation, but I hate browsing a site that's made entirely in Flash.
Flash as an Application Development Platform? No.
on
The Future of Flash
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
The only reason that YouTube, Google Video et al adopted Flash as their video player client was because Flash is pretty much universal, and it's easier to convert videos into a Flash video file than to deal with all the compatibility issues that come with embedding a Windows Media / Quicktime / RealVideo file. Nothing wrong with that, because Flash was designed to be an animation / movie player, and moving to full motion video isn't that big of a step.
What Flash is not is an API, at least not in terms of developing complex applications. The first thing wrong with that is that Flash itself is very closed compared to open HTML. Getting a screen-reader to work with Flash is a Herculean effort that I'm pretty sure nobody has yet accomplished. The second thing is that you're basically limited to working with Flash alone as your presentation layer. Want to do AJAX-like things? Sure, but you have to do it Adobe's way or not at all. Want to have server-side execution of certain things? OK, but you have to go through Flash's weird ActionScript connection points and are limited to what Adobe has programmed into it. This will allow them to do a bunch of things to lock those already developing in Flash into staying there as moving to another environment (like, I don't know, HTML with server-side processing) would take too much effort.
Flash is great for certain things, but for complicated web applications, stick with HTML. It's already universal, you won't have compatibility issues if written well, and you can keep your animations embedded. Just keep them separate from the rest of the page. Nothing annoys me more than a website run entirely in Flash.
It's generally easier to ship them separately on disk anyway; put whatever encryption on it you like, if the game is able to read it, a careful following of the execution instructions in RAM will reveal how to decrypt the art / music / sound / what-have-you files, which will allow anyone to change them.
You can't hold developers responsible for what third party mods add / change in their programs.
But I think that's just a misunderstanding that the grandparent had about the review process; if the ESRB reviews games in an as-shipped form, third party mods won't matter anyway. Here's what annoys me though: that the government is so concerned about things like removing blurryness where there's no actual nudity beneath anyway (Sims / Sims 2). It's not that big a deal, dammit! If the game truly deserves it (and the only case I can think of is GTA: SA, but even that's just borderline), rebrand it to a higher rating and move on. Get retailers to stick M stickers over the T rating before they put them on shelves.
The government should be concerned about more important things, like, I don't know, fixing what they started in Iraq, for example.
It'll certainly make administering a family computer much easier as the technical user can keep the Admin password for themselves and enter it when others need that sort of access to install software, etc.
Course, Linux has had this sort of thing for ages.
Welcome to Slashdot. To keep carriage returns, post using the "Plain Old Text" method (which, somewhat oddly, does indeed keep HTML, it just nl2br's it). You can set your posting method to use that as the default (I did that a while ago as I kept forgetting to change it like you).
First off, as mentioned by a sibling post, that paragraph has already been reverted. This resulted in an edit war which apparently is still ongoing (see next link for examples).
Secondly, the edits that added those paragraphs happened today.
Now, I'm not saying necessarily that contrar1an was the one who posted those paragraphs, but isn't it interesting that the arguments the parent quotes were added today, by a conservative-minded person, who has apparently resorted to an edit war to keep his views in the article?
Hehe. Well, I guess they could be more clear on their beta download page that the software is indeed unfinished and may have bugs. But that's a moot point when they release the Gold version (as theoretically it should be stable).
Besides that, I think that individual users aren't going to be as affected by this change as larger companies. If Microsoft had just pushed the download with no confirmation, it would cause huge headaches for IT departments everywhere. Now, at least, they can control it.
Indeed. The argument they'd make is that the entire Bill of Rights (and the Constitution) is written to protect citizens and nobody else. The text only applies to citizens.
Of course, I'd be the first to argue against that, but it is fairly likely.
Seriously, it's pretty easy for them to change the product key / product ID of an installation, and you won't have to reinstall anything. Plus, I doubt they'll care that much that you pirated in the first place if you say you want to purchase a legal version now.
It probably doesn't apply to you, but if your mom didn't know she received an illegal copy, she could actually get a complimentary Windows license. However, she'd have to rat out said teacher, would have to have bought the counterfeit Windows (and have a proof of purchase), and the counterfeit itself would have to be "high quality".
To get the kit, go through Windows Genuine Validation, either by attempting to download something that requires validation or by installing the Windows Genuine Notifications update and subsequently getting the nag screens (which link to a more info page which should allow you to get the kit).
Sure, but assuming (and I will be the first to admit, this is a very, very big assumption) that they knew, without a doubt, that the building had no weapons in it and the people weren't fighting back in any measurable way, they should have taken them prisoner rather than completely obliterating anyone inside.
Well yeah, when I was doing tech support, you were often lucky if a System Restore fixed the issue, at least for a lot of the spyware issues. Now, if the spyware can run itself in Safe Mode when you log into the hidden Administrator account, THAT'S an advanced piece of software.
Not that I'm suggesting anything to spyware authors. 99% of spyware has at least one weakness though, and most of the time it's that you can prevent it from running if you boot into Safe Mode, which allows you to do pretty much anything to get rid of it before rebooting.
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Vector animation is not a fad.
Agreed.
There are some things you just cannot do in HTML/DHTML/AJAX/whatever.
Like, umm, vector animation. (Though hopefully that will change with widespread acceptance of SVG.)
What this is about, though, is whether or not Flash as a development environment for more complicated applications, and that's where it falls down. Keep Flash around for the vector animation, but I hate browsing a site that's made entirely in Flash.
The only reason that YouTube, Google Video et al adopted Flash as their video player client was because Flash is pretty much universal, and it's easier to convert videos into a Flash video file than to deal with all the compatibility issues that come with embedding a Windows Media / Quicktime / RealVideo file. Nothing wrong with that, because Flash was designed to be an animation / movie player, and moving to full motion video isn't that big of a step.
What Flash is not is an API, at least not in terms of developing complex applications. The first thing wrong with that is that Flash itself is very closed compared to open HTML. Getting a screen-reader to work with Flash is a Herculean effort that I'm pretty sure nobody has yet accomplished. The second thing is that you're basically limited to working with Flash alone as your presentation layer. Want to do AJAX-like things? Sure, but you have to do it Adobe's way or not at all. Want to have server-side execution of certain things? OK, but you have to go through Flash's weird ActionScript connection points and are limited to what Adobe has programmed into it. This will allow them to do a bunch of things to lock those already developing in Flash into staying there as moving to another environment (like, I don't know, HTML with server-side processing) would take too much effort.
Flash is great for certain things, but for complicated web applications, stick with HTML. It's already universal, you won't have compatibility issues if written well, and you can keep your animations embedded. Just keep them separate from the rest of the page. Nothing annoys me more than a website run entirely in Flash.
Amen.
It's generally easier to ship them separately on disk anyway; put whatever encryption on it you like, if the game is able to read it, a careful following of the execution instructions in RAM will reveal how to decrypt the art / music / sound / what-have-you files, which will allow anyone to change them.
You can't hold developers responsible for what third party mods add / change in their programs.
But I think that's just a misunderstanding that the grandparent had about the review process; if the ESRB reviews games in an as-shipped form, third party mods won't matter anyway. Here's what annoys me though: that the government is so concerned about things like removing blurryness where there's no actual nudity beneath anyway (Sims / Sims 2). It's not that big a deal, dammit! If the game truly deserves it (and the only case I can think of is GTA: SA, but even that's just borderline), rebrand it to a higher rating and move on. Get retailers to stick M stickers over the T rating before they put them on shelves.
The government should be concerned about more important things, like, I don't know, fixing what they started in Iraq, for example.
I'd mod you interesting if I still had my points from yesterday.
I wonder if this will change with Vista?
You're not a very good liar.
NO! The poker chips will stack up and clog the porn! You meant lottery balls, my friend.
It'll certainly make administering a family computer much easier as the technical user can keep the Admin password for themselves and enter it when others need that sort of access to install software, etc.
Course, Linux has had this sort of thing for ages.
(Sorry about the whole welcome to \. thing BTW, I didn't look at your profile before posting.)
Welcome to Slashdot. To keep carriage returns, post using the "Plain Old Text" method (which, somewhat oddly, does indeed keep HTML, it just nl2br's it). You can set your posting method to use that as the default (I did that a while ago as I kept forgetting to change it like you).
First off, as mentioned by a sibling post, that paragraph has already been reverted. This resulted in an edit war which apparently is still ongoing (see next link for examples).
Secondly, the edits that added those paragraphs happened today.
Third, the contributions of the IP in question that inserted the paragraph quoted by the parent have nearly all been political in nature and supporting conservative views.
Now, I'm not saying necessarily that contrar1an was the one who posted those paragraphs, but isn't it interesting that the arguments the parent quotes were added today, by a conservative-minded person, who has apparently resorted to an edit war to keep his views in the article?
Hehe. What, you're too lazy to add him to your foes list? Do you really think you're that important that he should have to do the same?
Get over yourself.
Oh, thank god! I was just about to copy that random Slashdot signature into my mission critical application. You've sure saved me some frustration!
I know! Just the other day my great great great great grandfather was complaining about his identity being stolen! WHERE WILL IT END?!
This was almost funny enough to warrant me modding it up, but you went a bit beyond my sarcasm threshold.
Better luck next time!
Hehe. Well, I guess they could be more clear on their beta download page that the software is indeed unfinished and may have bugs. But that's a moot point when they release the Gold version (as theoretically it should be stable).
Besides that, I think that individual users aren't going to be as affected by this change as larger companies. If Microsoft had just pushed the download with no confirmation, it would cause huge headaches for IT departments everywhere. Now, at least, they can control it.
Indeed. The argument they'd make is that the entire Bill of Rights (and the Constitution) is written to protect citizens and nobody else. The text only applies to citizens.
Of course, I'd be the first to argue against that, but it is fairly likely.
Nah. They'll actually just let you through.
The lesson here: If you're taking a laptop across the border, make sure it runs Linux!
Contact Microsoft.
Seriously, it's pretty easy for them to change the product key / product ID of an installation, and you won't have to reinstall anything. Plus, I doubt they'll care that much that you pirated in the first place if you say you want to purchase a legal version now.
It probably doesn't apply to you, but if your mom didn't know she received an illegal copy, she could actually get a complimentary Windows license. However, she'd have to rat out said teacher, would have to have bought the counterfeit Windows (and have a proof of purchase), and the counterfeit itself would have to be "high quality".
Otherwise, the prices are still quite cheap by Windows standards. See Microsoft's Genuine Windows XP FAQ for more details.
To get the kit, go through Windows Genuine Validation, either by attempting to download something that requires validation or by installing the Windows Genuine Notifications update and subsequently getting the nag screens (which link to a more info page which should allow you to get the kit).
Funny that, I've been running TightVNC, both server and client, on my Windows machines for years.
Could have sworn my bullshit alarm just went off.
Sure, but assuming (and I will be the first to admit, this is a very, very big assumption) that they knew, without a doubt, that the building had no weapons in it and the people weren't fighting back in any measurable way, they should have taken them prisoner rather than completely obliterating anyone inside.
Please, please, if you can't measure in Libraries of Congress, I have no time for you.
Well yeah, when I was doing tech support, you were often lucky if a System Restore fixed the issue, at least for a lot of the spyware issues. Now, if the spyware can run itself in Safe Mode when you log into the hidden Administrator account, THAT'S an advanced piece of software.
Not that I'm suggesting anything to spyware authors. 99% of spyware has at least one weakness though, and most of the time it's that you can prevent it from running if you boot into Safe Mode, which allows you to do pretty much anything to get rid of it before rebooting.
You, sir, have made my day.
;^)
Already saw the video, but good timing.
Microsoft has tried to do this multiple times. Ever hear of Windows System File Protection?
Not that they've ever entirely succeeded, but the idea has been run through its paces a few times.
They'll be looking at... whatever the software that they outsource to scan laptops at the border chooses to look for.
What, you think they'll actually train Customs officers to scan a hard drive?