[oclug] Zed

[Brad Barnett]

On Mon, 11 Mar 2002 23:15:09 -0600
Raymond Wood <raywood at magma.ca> wrote:

> On Mon, Mar 11, 2002 at 09:55:36PM -0500, Brad Barnett imagined:
> 
> > On Mon, 11 Mar 2002 21:47:56 -0500 Dave Edwards <dle1 at sympatico.ca>
> > wrote:> Hey Gang,
> > > 
> > > Like a well trained zombie, I followed a link from a CBC-TV promo to
> > > a site for something called "Zed", which is promoting itself as
> > > "open source television".  I can't tell you much more about it,
> > > because ironically enough, the site is heavily dependant on Flash-5,
> > > which I don't have.  (Their little notice goes thus:  "It's 2002,
> > > and there's 
> 
> > Quick answer - install flash ;P
> 
> I recommend killing flash instead  =)
> 
> > Flash is fast becoming a standard.  Hell, it's even on cell phones!
> 
> Well there are certainly those who *want* flash to become a
> standard ;>  This begs the questions 'who' and 'why'...
> 
> I find it ironic that this promo originates from a TV station.
> As far as I can tell, this is more of the 'let's keep trying to
> turn the web into TV' mentality.  In this context flash is cool
> not because it is kind of a nifty new technology that extends
> multimedia boundaries and capabilities, but rather because it's
> a great way to stuff more banal advertising down our collective
> throats.  Cynical but oh so true, me thinks  ;>

If you are talking about those that use flash in banner ads and so on,
sure.. it's annoying.  However, so are animated gifs, java ads, and what
not.

On the other side of the coin, flash has to be just about the coolest
thing in the html spawned universe.  It makes java look big and chunky. 
My biggest complaint with it (and I could be incorrect here) is that I
haven't seen any flash compilers.  It's all GUI stuff.. point and click
menus, and it pisses me off to no end.

I'd love to use flash, play with flash, but you won't see me using a
compiling environment to do so.

> 
> In response to this 'hurd-speak' I say:  
>   =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
>   The Web Is Not TV!
>   =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
> 
> My $0.02,
> Raymond