Avoiding Flash

[JBroll]

If you're using Safari or Chrome (or Chrome Frame in IE), Youtube has opened up beta-testing for HTML5 video (rather than the usual Flash) - click on 'Join the HTML5 Beta' link at

http://www.youtube.com/html5

to try it. Some videos aren't available (for example, videos with ads), and there may still be kinks to work out and quality improvements to be made, but this is a hell of a step away from the widespread Flash dependence that needs to die a horrible, horrible death.

Jeff

 

[Kazrog]

Recently released Firefox 3.6 supports HTML5 and yet YouTube (Google) doesn't want to support it because they are trying to compete. This goes directly against their supposed support of "open standards."

Fuck Google.

PS - I HATE CHROME

 

[JBroll]

I believe the issue is actually that Firefox has a different idea of what HTML5 should be doing - I believe they're using h.264 and Mozilla wants Theora to be the standard. I haven't tried anything with Firefox, but I wouldn't be surprised if we soon saw a Firefox extension that bypasses any issues here.

Jeff

 

[Kazrog]

Interesting. At least Google is trying to steer things away from Flash, but perhaps what needs to happen is for HTML5 video to support multiple open codecs. I'm all for ridding the web of Flash, though.

 

[JBroll]

Given how much of a pain in the ass patent encumbrance has been elsewhere, I hope to see Theora play a major role - I doubt that any quality issues will last long (just look at how well Vorbis blows the competition away), but since some major players are trying to steer things towards h.264 we may not be too safe.

Also, out of curiosity... what's wrong with Google/Chrome?

Jeff

 

[kev]

Given how much of a pain in the ass patent encumbrance has been elsewhere, I hope to see Theora play a major role - I doubt that any quality issues will last long (just look at how well Vorbis blows the competition away), but since some major players are trying to steer things towards h.264 we may not be too safe.

Also, out of curiosity... what's wrong with Google/Chrome?

Jeff

I think a lot of people hated it because of the usage habbits tracking if I recall correctly? Which led to the iron variant. Im excited about the new HTML though. I'll be glad to see the back of silverlight too!

 

[AudioGeekZine]

At work we have a piece of shit for our POS (Point of sale) and Firefox constantly crashes even in safe-mode (no plugs or extensions). Very annoying.

Chrome doesn't crash at all on that computer. But Gmail and several other sites don't work right. The back button doesn't work. It's a great irony. But it does seem to be a very fast browser.
I also like that you can resize any text entry box.
When it first came out I hated it because it lacked the essential function of bookmark organization.

 

[Metaltastic]

I do use Firefox, but I have to admit, we have 5 PC's in our house (and now 1 Mac, but I digress ), and up until recently Firefox was semi-regularly crashing on each and every one of 'em (they seem to have ironed out the issues though, cuz thankfully it hasn't been as bad)

And why all the Flash hate?

 

[ttrentt]

And why all the Flash hate?

Flash is a very slow, antiquated, and more often than not, annoying way of getting information across.

 

[Torniojaws]

And why all the Flash hate?

- It's a ridiculous security hole
- Poorly made (read: 95%) Flash apps slow down the browser and system considerably
- There is no global mute for flash, so you cannot disable flash sounds by default. Say hello to fucking annoying audio explosions, usually advertisements (luckily there's Flashblock & NoScript)
- Flash scrolling is the complete opposite of any usability standards
- Most of the time any "cool" flash features could be replaced by simple, creative CSS usage for a fraction of the load
- Many places abuse Flash by playing all videos BY DEFAULT, instead of loading videos in a pause mode... enjoy opening a bunch of videos in tabs, only to have all of them play at the same time
- Flash steals keyboard focus: if you have a flash in focus, you cannot use application shortcuts (for example Ctrl + T to open a new tab in Firefox)

 

[Metaltastic]

Fair enough, that's why I asked

 

[JBroll]

I think a lot of people hated it because of the usage habbits tracking if I recall correctly? Which led to the iron variant. Im excited about the new HTML though. I'll be glad to see the back of silverlight too!

I can think of three ways to kill the tracking habits and I'm not even a programmer more advanced than 'occasional hobbyist' anymore.

Metaltastic... one thing was left out of the above list - Adobe is a company that has made a PDF reader with security vulnerabilities. Reread that sentence because it probably didn't sink in. If you're missing the background required to truly appreciate that, PDF was made because PostScript, the previous document format by Adobe, was Turing complete (rough translation: it can do anything) and that seemed like it could be, among other things, unsafe - now Adobe has decided that Javascript in PDFs is absofuckinglutely necessary and fucked everything up accordingly.

Jeff

 

[mick thompson]

hahaha i joined up and found a test video - look at it! its the last thing you'll ever expect

 

[kev]

I can think of three ways to kill the tracking habits and I'm not even a programmer more advanced than 'occasional hobbyist' anymore.

Metaltastic... one thing was left out of the above list - Adobe is a company that has made a PDF reader with security vulnerabilities. Reread that sentence because it probably didn't sink in. If you're missing the background required to truly appreciate that, PDF was made because PostScript, the previous document format by Adobe, was Turing complete (rough translation: it can do anything) and that seemed like it could be, among other things, unsafe - now Adobe has decided that Javascript in PDFs is absofuckinglutely necessary and fucked everything up accordingly.

Jeff

Certainly, but there are a lot of poor computer retards out there dude

 

[Metaltastic]

Certainly, but there are a lot of poor computer retards out there dude

At least compared to some of you weirdos

 

[kev]

 

[JBroll]

Even simpler than what I would have done (which is pretty basic - not just by my standards)... how about searching for "disable Chrome tracking", for fuck's sake? I understand that not everyone programs for fun, but if you're really so helpless that a *search engine query* is too far out for you (and after that the only hard part is picking one of the nearly 2.67 MILLION hits) then it's time to drop off the Internet and focus on essential skills like 'not choking on your own throat' and 'not running into walls' that may need a bit of a refresher. I'm not expecting everyone to speak assembler code - there's a point when coddling incompetent nonsense goes too far, and it's *far* before 'accommodating those who can't type words into a box and hit a button'.

Jeff

 

[Metaltastic]

Oh you

 

[kev]

Even simpler than what I would have done (which is pretty basic - not just by my standards)... how about searching for "disable Chrome tracking", for fuck's sake? I understand that not everyone programs for fun, but if you're really so helpless that a *search engine query* is too far out for you (and after that the only hard part is picking one of the nearly 2.67 MILLION hits) then it's time to drop off the Internet and focus on essential skills like 'not choking on your own throat' and 'not running into walls' that may need a bit of a refresher. I'm not expecting everyone to speak assembler code - there's a point when coddling incompetent nonsense goes too far, and it's *far* before 'accommodating those who can't type words into a box and hit a button'.

Jeff

Tell me about it dude. If that were the case I'd probably be out of work at the moment though, so to a certain extent i'm happy to live in a the world of people who haven't yet worked out what google's primary role is

Oh you

Got your powerball yet?

 

[Soundlurker]

hahaha i joined up and found a test video - look at it! its the last thing you'll ever expect

Oh..

lol