Posts by oemebamo.
RE: End of an era
Disclaimer: This post wasn’t planned. In fact, it’s a comment on ‘End of an era‘, a blog post by my good friend Lennart, that’s gotten a bit out of hand. So much it didn’t qualify as a comment any more. Reading that post – and its references – first might help in trying to follow what I’m on about.
I get the impression there’s a whole bunch of people hoping to bring the Flash’ coffin to the grave, rather sooner then later. Here’s the arguments I’m hearing:
- Closed technologies suck.
- Flash websites suck.
- Flash is for ads. And ads suck, obviously.
- The web has innovated. We don’t need flash.
All of this is true.
In some way.
But the conclusion Lennart, and with him many other evangelists make, is – in my humble opinion – wrong, stupid and ignorant.
Closed technologies suck.
The car you drive, the stereo you use, the snowboard you skate, hell, even the OS and phone the Apple fans use (that includes me!), are all – in some extent – closed technologies. This post is typed on a machine that totally depends on one multinational’s benevolence. iTunes is closed software, right? But I still totally love it as my day-to-day media player.
I totally support open standards and open technologies – I make my living out of it -, but since when is that a synonym for thinking there’s no room, or even need (!), for closed technology?
Flash websites suck.
Last time Google indexed the web it probably found a gazillion POSH websites that are hard to navigate. Be it on the PC, iPhone or iPad; tiny click areas and unreadable color combinations aren’t an Adobe patent.
Apple tries to control quality for their iPhone OS Apps through whitelisting apps in the AppStore, making sure awful apps don’t get distributed. A policy that I can understand. But then why do they allow every single website, as sucky as it might be?
There’s both crap and good stuff for all platforms. Since when do we blame the platform itself?
Flash is for ads. And ads suck, obviously.
Why is flash being used so much as an advertisement technology? Because of its support and capabilities. From Farukat.es:
“Ever heard of an SVG blocker? A CSS3 blocker? They don’t exist because they’re not considered necessary; these technologies are open, but more importantly, they don’t get abused and they don’t create terrible user experiences.”
Is he joking? Not possible to create terrible user experiences with CSS3 and SVG?! What is annoying? Overlays that are hard to close, too much animation, ugly colors, autoplay of videos and sound, fake UI elements that don’t do what you expected them to do. Which one of those annoyances is only possible with Flash and not with CSS3 and SVG?
The only reason I see for the non existence of SVG or CSS3 blockers is because ad agencies don’t use those technologies. Yet. And they don’t use ‘em because not every user’s browser supports them properly, in a performant way. Yet.
Ad agencies use annoying ads because they want to make money, just the way salesmen can use annoying techniques. Be it on the phone or at your doorstep. Be it with flash or with open technologies.
The web has innovated. We don’t need flash.
Oh, hallelujah, the awesome stuff that you can do with open standards! Gradients, masks, reflections, animations, transforms, transitions, speedier Javascript, local storage; hooray!
No really, I love all this, it gets me excited. I’m a web developer, and I’m now handed new toys to improve my projects. I love the web, I love open standards, and I love all these new possibilities and the direction it’s going in. I’ve even advocated against the use of Flash for several parts of projects I was involved in. Either because better alternatives are (now) available or because more people in the company I work for could then implement and maintain that piece of code.
But, let’s face it; most of this isn’t innovation, it’s catching up with was already possible years ago. Yes, for some use cases Flash has lost its relevance and HTML5 now offers better alternatives. But don’t forget Flash has also helped innovating the web, has brought new possibilities and new ideas to this platform. (On a side note: Adobe even has offered us – web developers – the ability to easily create desktop apps through Adobe Air. While it sure isn’t the best platform to develop a MacOSX app on (hello there, Cocoa developers!), I still think that’s a good thing. I’m using Air apps on a daily basis.)
It is stupid to rule out the engineers of Adobe to continue trying to innovate the web. It is stupid to deny access to content that’s only available in flash right now. (You don’t get denied access to a HTML site that has more than 5 animated gifs, or – god forbid – tables-for-layout, either.) It is stupid to not use the potential of all those smart flash developers out there who do know a thing or two about usability and let them experiment on those new devices to create Plain Old Good Apps. (Disclaimer: I’m sitting in the room with three of them.)
I’m not saying Apple should support flash on their device. The iPhone and the iPad are theirs, if they decide not to support flash, that’s their choice. (Closed technology, right?)
In fact, personally I haven’t missed it all that much on my iPhone. And maybe flash even isn’t ready for these platforms. Is it fast enough? Can the OS support everything flash needs? I’d rather have a good implementation of flash then a slow buggy one.
I only don’t understand the shortsightedness of some of these evangelists who seem to be on a crusade against the availability of flash on those platforms, or any platform in fact. Invest your time in something else. Create good apps, support standards, teach best practices, talk about guidelines, experiment with the new possibilities, but – hell no – don’t try to start a battle against platforms that aren’t yours. It makes you look grumpy. Really.
No Worries!
From the end of July this year, me and my girlfriend will be leaving for a trip to Oceania and Southeast Asia. A nine month trip will mainly take us to Australia and New Zealand. If things become even more quiet over here than they already were, you might want to head over to noworries.jurriaanpersyn.com for posts about the upcoming trip and travel reports from while we’re there (in Dutch).
I’m so much looking forward to leaving with my girlfriend Laura for what will most definitely become one of the greatest adventures of our life, and surely the biggest so far.
California 2009
Reisverslag en foto’s van onze vakantie in California. Zomer 2009.
California 2009 reisverslag (deel 1) from Jurriaan Persyn on Vimeo.
California 2009 reisverslag (deel 2) from Jurriaan Persyn on Vimeo.
California 2009 from Jurriaan Persyn on Flickr.
Netlog Developer Day, April 2nd, Brussels
A month from now, the first Netlog Developer day will be held. On this one-day, free admission event we’ll be discussing oa. the OpenSocial API, the gaming platform and monetization possibilities on Netlog.
OpenSocial defines a common API for social applications across multiple websites. With standard JavaScript and HTML, developers can create apps that access a social network’s friends and update feeds.
Netlog is one of the social networks supporting this standard. So, if you’re interested in developing social applications and while-doing-that would like to learn a little more about Netlog, this event is for you. Topics will also include performance and scaling, giving you an insight on how a site like Netlog is built.
In the afternoon there will be a codelab, where Google and Netlog developers will help you out experimenting with the available API’s.
Parallel with the codelab, there will also be a “Brand Integration Day”, where creative agencies and media buyers are invited to learn all about leveraging Netlog’s Brand Integration Platform and key customers will share their experience with Netlog.
A lot has happened during the past months, and we continue to work on improving our platform – for users and partners alike. We’d be thrilled to see you on April 2 to learn what we’ve done and share some of your thoughts.
The Developer Day kicks off at 9 am on April 2nd at Kinepolis in Brussels. Interested? Register here.
Keep an eye on the Netlog Developer blog for more info.