waffle

Dear Adobe,

There’s one thing you could do to demonstrate clearly that you support web standards and work toward their betterment, that you understand today’s web landscape outside of it hosting your plugin, and that Flash as it exists provides value above it.

Implement an “export to HTML” command in an upcoming version of Adobe Flash (not Flash Player, Flash).

I’ve counted the Flash ads, movies and sites that I’ve run into during the past week and I haven’t seen very many actually use functionality that can’t be provided cross-current-generation-browser with a good layer of abstraction. HTML, CSS and JavaScript are more capable now, not just together but on their own. It’s not 1997 anymore. It’s not even 2007 anymore. By any measure, you know this: by your measure, you champion emerging web standards; by other measures, you stand by watching as an increasingly more capable competitor diminishes the value of your product.

Not every Flash movie can be turned into a similarly functioning HTML-based version. But enough can, in combination with Flash Player’s documented decline of ubiquity, that it would clearly be a valuable feature in Flash; one that would move hundreds of thousands of sold copies and provide an argument against leaving for pastures new. By making this a solid feature, Adobe could also make a more solid argument just how much value Flash movies could add by highlighting the extra capabilities available.

Adobe is not responsible for the obnoxious and abhorrent uses that make up much of the Flash movies available today — misguided creators are. This wouldn’t change that at all, but I don’t believe it’s Adobe’s problem to solve. The strength and flexibility of the tool is an accessory to these crimes in the same way that the electrical grid and Internet access are.

What is Adobe’s problem to solve is meshing its recent statements with the lack of decisive action. What has Adobe done lately for web standards at all, besides indirectly sparking the creation of the video and audio HTML5 elements?

It’s time for Adobe to step up its game. Reinforce its gallant prose with action. Prove that it’s not all public relations.

Colin Barrett claims that people aren’t morons just because… actually, let me explain something else.

When I tell people what I do for a living, most of them, by a wide margin, young and old, reply immediately with “oh, computer stuff, you’re a computer guy”. Sometimes, I launch into a snarky exposition about how they wouldn’t call painters, carpenters, architects, plumbers and designers “house people”. Mostly, I just stew quietly.

I hate being lumped in with “computer guys”, because this entire field is so vast, with so many nooks and crannies. But the pendulum swings both ways. We’ve also got to come to terms with that many people are still learning to master many of those fields. It takes an enormous amount of time to form a vocabulary for even using all aspects of a computer because of the proliferation of applications, operating systems, interaction design approaches, more-or-less reputable alleys and layers.

It’s increasingly part of life preparedness and common sense to make this connection, and most people are doing fine. But far from all are doing great in every situation. And perish the thought, it may even be the case that Snow Leopard, Windows 7 and Karmic Koala and their collective interaction models won’t forever remain the pinnacle of usability in computer operating systems.

As for logging into Facebook using the first Google hit: a) a lot of people use the Internet and Facebook, and even a tiny amount of those people are enough to make a big splash, and b) a lot of people also believe literally that everything it says in every newspaper or news channel is objectively, factually, and incorrigibly true.

Thank god it doesn’t suck and thank god it’s different. I don’t know if I could take another ten years with the same zombified Windows Mobile experience. I wouldn’t call it exceptional, or even really that well thought-out, but it’s its own thing and it’s a clear signal to Windows Mobile developers that “actually, the other guys are right: hunting and pecking shrunk versions of the Windows GUI isn’t a good way to go”.

As always, sadly, Channel 9 has the best demo. The small clips on the official web site don’t answer any of the tough questions. (Like “how the hell does Outlook look like?”)

Summary: Unlike any other previous Windows Mobile version, I could see myself using this without necessarily teaching the phone how the wall looks like when approached in high velocities.

One of the tens of great things from what I guess is now the second to last decade was the game The Neverhood.

Released about a year following the launch of Windows 95, I recall it as being a tour-de-force claymation multimedia point-and-click pre-DirectX adventure game; a cavalcade of techniques and technologies all hitting their stride in this game, right on the precipice of their impending and obvious obsolescence. And by “great” previously, I meant that it was awesome in concept, completely grueling to play but so damned compelling that you just wanted to solve the next puzzle to see where the hell they were going. Imagine mixing Desert Bus with non-stop Sudoku solving. Last time around, 2004 as I recall, I stopped playing a bit in under the impression that I got a fair bit in. Turns out that I was wrong.

Today I found a completely wonderful Let’s Play YouTube series for The Neverhood, narrated by a dry compatriot (a fellow Swede). He’s the perfect match for this game: easily frustrated, talking a lot without saying anything, tantalizingly witty when you least expect it and occasionally medically high (you’ll see), admitting to it often enough to make you wonder if he isn’t all of the time.

Less description, more watching. This will probably be a waste of your time, but at least you don’t have to play through it and will see a great deal more.