The Pub Discussion Board

Since I've been using Firefox, as well, for the last couple weeks, I'm not sure... but would not the Merriam Webster toolbar utility also avoid this issue?

Net Wolf

Net Wolf wrote:

Since I've been using Firefox, as well, for the last couple weeks, I'm not sure... but would not the Merriam Webster toolbar utility also avoid this issue?

Install software? Latched to my browser? No, no. I shouldn't have to install software for such a thing. Until Fancee McMoron got a hold of m-w.com, I didn't have to.

There's entirely too much clutter out there. I shouldn't have to install fifty applications in order to do basic tasks, but everything has to be exciting and everybody has to do it their own way. Wireless network helpers, antivirus, a dozen system utility geegaws, Acrobat, Flash and Shockwave, Media Player, QuickTime (plus iTunes whether you want it or not), RealPlayer, DVD player, DVD burner, .NET Framework, XML4, please install IE7 now, works best with Firefox, needs Microsoft Word Viewer, have a Powerpoint slideshow, pick an email app, ooh messaging, how about a firewall, get the Google toolbar, FUCK why is Windows so unstable, FUCK why is my computer so slow, FUCK infected again, FUCK whaddya mean spyware, FUCK everyone please stop asking me because I didn't tell you to install all that shit -- no, I'm not installing another piece of software in order to indulge m-w's toy software department. They should get off their fat asses and create an OFFline dictionary that works worth a fuck, and make the website clean and functional.

Browser toolbar applets are great for some people. More power to ya. I like to keep my tools simple. And the spooging up of the Internet really grinds my gears.

"The great thing about IT standards is that there's so many to choose from."

Last edited by Imagineer (2006-12-31 04:56:05)

No, I'd like it if basic functions that could be (and have been) easily done with the huge toolboxes that we're already forced to carry around weren't so eagerly migrated away to new tools simply for sex appeal. I'd think that you as someone dealing with web standards and building a site that doesn't use JavaScript at every turn nevermind myriad go-go-gadget plug-ins could appreciate that. For many things, we need appliances, not the infomercial magic all-singing all-dancing shit of the week.

As a writer, I want a text editor, a file cabinet, and basic reference works. The bar's pretty low for that task, and ANY Internet-enabled operating system ought to cover it, so long as reference websites remember that they're websites. If they're also application providers, that's great.

Progress is great. Fashion, less so. That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it. There can be more than one. Hope that doesn't make your life difficult.

I have to admit, Flash is a powerful tool, and a de facto standard that may very well be a broader standard than CSS when it comes to practical precise presentation. (Also, Adobe nee Macromedia "gets it" and makes it easy to install the Flash Player, both for individuals and administrators.) Add that to the fact that it obviates a media player in a lot of cases (fuck you, QuickTime, and double-fuck you, RealPlayer) and dammit if I don't have to embrace Flash as a worthy addition to the toolbox.

Remember when there were a buttload of nascent players as everybody tried to make web pages dance? Thank God one of them rose above the rest quickly, and we didn't have a repeat of the media player mess.

An all-Flash site could certainly be a rich experience. Would it have to be a high-bandwidth site, though? Go easy on the media and maybe you could strike a balance that puts content in useful but small enough chunks. Not as fast a download as CSS/table formatted content, but for a place like this, where we're actually spending significant time reading (or typing) once we've settled on a story or topic, the experience might not be so bad.

I wonder what the accessibility issues are -- is there a "reader" out there for SWF media that could process a text-oriented Flash object and make it navigable? Could there be? One of my gripes against plug-in mania (or abuses of formatting in general) is that we're so quick to embrace sex appeal that we end up scrambling what would otherwise be ordinary text content. (Another of my gripes, with Flash in particular, is that a lot of sites hardwire pixel dimensions to a size that compromises useability for those with greater than least-common-denominator equipment. Not a big deal for games and movie sites, but if a site like this went all-Flash, I'd hope it could be made to stretch in the same ways that CSS pages usually are.)

I'm not against tools. But I do think that there should be a damn good reason for any prerequisite to any system, and all too often developers make assumptions that all tools are zero-cost and everybody's just like them.

Flash has critical mass. (And a version of Flash was shipped with XP, hence the recent hotfix for Flash.)

Last edited by Imagineer (2006-12-31 20:20:15)

Trekkie:

You're strongly in the minority, however, and I personally ain't willing to create a website that pleases everyone.  Hence the reason I'm asking for additional webmasters to deal with the other issues.

Imagineer:

One of the things I dislike about Flash is that it IS a pixel-based system.  That is, measurements are all absolute; there are no percentages in sizing.  The way around this, for the pages where it is important (ie, the stories) is to allow for different sized flash "story players" that you could choose your preferred dimensions to play it in.

As to the reduction in media... that pretty much defeats most of the purpose of using Flash.  The whole point is to make the site look good.  The best way to do that is to use graphics.  *shrugs*  It's a long way away from happening, since I haven't even begun learning Actionscript, but when it happens, it'll be aimed solely at broadband users.  Dialup users can continue to use the "regular" version of the site, and people like Trekkie can use the Accessible version of the site, when it's created. 

Net Wolf