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Thoughts on Flash

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Owen Densmore

Thoughts on Flash

Administrator

Steve Jobs has published an open letter on the exclusion of Flash on
all their mobile products:
http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/?AID=10480621

Although I see the Complex potentially benefiting from Flash (ambient
projects), I have come to agree with the difficulties Flash presents
after digging into the technology a bit more, see earlier post: http://bit.ly/9EXYHA

Now here's a question I haven't answered yet: can a Flash video be
viewed without the rest of the Flash platform (which includes non-
media components)? I.e. could Flash video itself be standardized so
that a "simple player" could be made with a standard video codec and
html/css/javascript for the rest of the player?

This approach appears the only direction that would satisfy both Adobe
and Apple.

-- Owen

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

Jochen Fromm-4

Re: Thoughts on Flash

The Flash debate was a hot topic this week in WSJ, too.
I guess Apple would find a solution if Steve Jobs would
really want to find one. It is not a technology question, it is
about power, control and money (and egos).
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704302304575214114101014460.html

-J.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Owen Densmore" <[hidden email]>
To: "The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group"
<[hidden email]>; "SFx Discuss" <[hidden email]>
Sent: Friday, April 30, 2010 8:27 PM
Subject: [FRIAM] Thoughts on Flash

> Steve Jobs has published an open letter on the exclusion of Flash on all
> their mobile products:
> http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/?AID=10480621
>
> Although I see the Complex potentially benefiting from Flash (ambient
> projects), I have come to agree with the difficulties Flash presents
> after digging into the technology a bit more, see earlier post:
> http://bit.ly/9EXYHA
>
> Now here's a question I haven't answered yet: can a Flash video be viewed
> without the rest of the Flash platform (which includes non- media
> components)? I.e. could Flash video itself be standardized so that a
> "simple player" could be made with a standard video codec and
> html/css/javascript for the rest of the player?
>
> This approach appears the only direction that would satisfy both Adobe
> and Apple.
>
> -- Owen
>
>
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

Owen Densmore

Re: Thoughts on Flash

Administrator

It is clear the WSJ doesn't get the deeper issues. For example, they refer to flash as a video format. It isn't. It is a very complete, and siloed, environment. Thus my as yet unanswered question about factoring out just the flash video without the complete suite of actionscript and the byte code VM.

Steve is right on about many the other flash problems. I've wondered why my laptop has so much memory and cpu usage and so have been running a system analyzer. Boy, whenever the browser is on a noisy page with lots on flash adds and widgets, the resource consumption goes through the roof!

Don't get me wrong, there are no nice guys. But Steve gets standards. He had a true a-ha experience about unix, Internet standards, and graphics (postscript) when he built NeXT.

---- Owen

I am an iPad, resistance is futile!

On Apr 30, 2010, at 11:15 PM, "Jochen Fromm" <[hidden email]> wrote:

> The Flash debate was a hot topic this week in WSJ, too.
> I guess Apple would find a solution if Steve Jobs would
> really want to find one. It is not a technology question, it is
> about power, control and money (and egos).
> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704302304575214114101014460.html
>
> -J.
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Owen Densmore" <[hidden email]>
> To: "The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group" <[hidden email]>; "SFx Discuss" <[hidden email]>
> Sent: Friday, April 30, 2010 8:27 PM
> Subject: [FRIAM] Thoughts on Flash
>
>
>> Steve Jobs has published an open letter on the exclusion of Flash on all their mobile products:
>> http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/?AID=10480621
>>
>> Although I see the Complex potentially benefiting from Flash (ambient projects), I have come to agree with the difficulties Flash presents after digging into the technology a bit more, see earlier post: http://bit.ly/9EXYHA
>>
>> Now here's a question I haven't answered yet: can a Flash video be viewed without the rest of the Flash platform (which includes non- media components)? I.e. could Flash video itself be standardized so that a "simple player" could be made with a standard video codec and html/css/javascript for the rest of the player?
>>
>> This approach appears the only direction that would satisfy both Adobe and Apple.
>>
>> -- Owen
>>
>>
>>
>> ============================================================
>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
>> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
>
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

Roger Critchlow-2

Re: Thoughts on Flash

Owen --

But when push comes to shove, standards can go hang themselves.

The iTaser that Jon Stewart showed on The Daily News only runs on Apple electrons.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-april-28-2010/appholes

Don't iTase me bro!

-- rec --

On Sat, May 1, 2010 at 10:37 AM, Owen Densmore <[hidden email]> wrote:

Don't get me wrong, there are no nice guys. But Steve gets standards. He had a true a-ha experience about unix, Internet standards, and graphics (postscript) when he built NeXT.

Sarbajit Roy (testing)

Re: Thoughts on Flash

In reply to this post by Owen Densmore

Dear Owen,

I would like to disagree with some aspects of your post

The one deep issue which goes out clearly from Steve Job's essay is
that Apple is deeply against "cross platform" applications.

As I mentioned in an earlier post the only time I''ve ever used an
Apple software product is a really sh***ty piece of software called
Itunes which was so resource heavy on my Win-tel PC (a-ha cross
platform) that I've thrown their hardware (Ipod Shuffle) away.

If they can't design a simple, light-weight easily interfaced AUDIO
hardware / software player (which every Chinaman in the business can)
, Apple has no business trying to sabotage a robust and pervasive
INTERNATIONAL "video standard" which has powered equally iconic brands
like Youtube etc.

CoI disclaimer: Adobe has a significant engineering presence in India,
whereas Apple ran away after 2 months when they discovered Indians
were disinclined to buy their junk.

On 5/1/10, Owen Densmore <[hidden email]> wrote:

> It is clear the WSJ doesn't get the deeper issues. For example, they refer
> to flash as a video format. It isn't. It is a very complete, and siloed,
> environment. Thus my as yet unanswered question about factoring out just the
> flash video without the complete suite of actionscript and the byte code VM.
>
> Steve is right on about many the other flash problems. I've wondered why my
> laptop has so much memory and cpu usage and so have been running a system
> analyzer. Boy, whenever the browser is on a noisy page with lots on flash
> adds and widgets, the resource consumption goes through the roof!
>
> Don't get me wrong, there are no nice guys. But Steve gets standards. He
> had a true a-ha experience about unix, Internet standards, and graphics
> (postscript) when he built NeXT.
>
> ---- Owen
>
>
> I am an iPad, resistance is futile!
>
> On Apr 30, 2010, at 11:15 PM, "Jochen Fromm" <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
>> The Flash debate was a hot topic this week in WSJ, too.
>> I guess Apple would find a solution if Steve Jobs would
>> really want to find one. It is not a technology question, it is
>> about power, control and money (and egos).
>> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704302304575214114101014460.html
>>
>> -J.
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Owen Densmore" <[hidden email]>
>> To: "The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group"
>> <[hidden email]>; "SFx Discuss" <[hidden email]>
>> Sent: Friday, April 30, 2010 8:27 PM
>> Subject: [FRIAM] Thoughts on Flash
>>
>>
>>> Steve Jobs has published an open letter on the exclusion of Flash on all
>>> their mobile products:
>>> http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/?AID=10480621
>>>
>>> Although I see the Complex potentially benefiting from Flash (ambient
>>> projects), I have come to agree with the difficulties Flash presents
>>> after digging into the technology a bit more, see earlier post:
>>> http://bit.ly/9EXYHA
>>>
>>> Now here's a question I haven't answered yet: can a Flash video be
>>> viewed without the rest of the Flash platform (which includes non- media
>>> components)? I.e. could Flash video itself be standardized so that a
>>> "simple player" could be made with a standard video codec and
>>> html/css/javascript for the rest of the player?
>>>
>>> This approach appears the only direction that would satisfy both Adobe
>>> and Apple.
>>>
>>> -- Owen
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ============================================================
>>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
>>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
>>> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
>>
>>
>> ============================================================
>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
>> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
>