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Smokescreen - a Flash player written in Javascript and HTML5

smokescreen.us

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Re: Smokescreen - a Flash player written in Javascript and HTML5

#31

Post by lotharbot »

d0m wrote: post #30
d0m wrote: post #7

smart!

I can't believe I've been downed because I found something smart.

We at Hacker News prefer comments that have valuable, thoughtful, substantial ideas contained in them.

Your first comment expressed very little. It would have been better to simply upvote the thread; saying "smart" or "I agree" or "good idea" tells us nothing more than your vote would have. It makes for boring reading, and as such, it gets downvoted as a form of discouragement.

Complaining about downvotes makes for even more boring reading. Instead of complaining, learn from the experience. If you want to express "I agree" or "good idea", just click the little up arrow. Only post a comment if you have something substantial to say.

Re: Smokescreen - a Flash player written in Javascript and HTML5

#32

Post by john_oshea »

raganwald wrote: post #27
jcl wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The sad thing: the ads were coming anyway. If you build a popular platform like the iPad, the advertisers will find a way to get ads on it, whether it's with Flash or not. But by banning Flash, Apple is pushing advertisers to HTML/Javascript, which ruins the experience for those marginal, blissful few who use Flash blockers on other platforms. Really, you couldn't have asked for a better indicator, short of a mandato…

Hmmm... I wonder if we could build a bayesian filter for ad blocking rather than deal with explicit blacklists?

I suspect (OK, I'd like if) someone will release a spamassassin/dspam variant targeted at ads as a proxy, optionally with some distributed Pyzor goodness thrown in.

In an ideal world, it would be open-source and locally-installable, a la Privoxy.

In a slightly-less-than-ideal world, it'll be hosted somewhere "out there". It will probably be wonderful for 6-12 months, then bog down as everyone starts using it, then the site owners will use it to start serving ads themselves. At which point their only hope for any kind of redemption will be if they've called the service some variant on 'samsara': http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saṃsāra

Re: Smokescreen - a Flash player written in Javascript and HTML5

#33

Post by chc »

kierank wrote: post #26
zweben wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people probably just assume that switching to HTML5 content always uses fewer CPU resources. There are plenty of informed reasons to prefer HTML content over Flash though. One is that putting performance into the hands of multiple companies will introduce competition. Just like with Javascript speeds, you can expect browser-makers to start racing in other areas of HTML5 performance. I wouldn't be surprised to se…

Anyone could equally write their own version of Flash; the standard is freely available.

That standard is for Flash as it existed several years ago AFAIK. It's not useful for creating a viable competitor to modern Flash except maybe as a jumping-off point to the actual hard work.

Re: Smokescreen - a Flash player written in Javascript and HTML5

#34

Post by wmf »

kierank wrote: post #26
zweben wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people probably just assume that switching to HTML5 content always uses fewer CPU resources. There are plenty of informed reasons to prefer HTML content over Flash though. One is that putting performance into the hands of multiple companies will introduce competition. Just like with Javascript speeds, you can expect browser-makers to start racing in other areas of HTML5 performance. I wouldn't be surprised to se…

Anyone could equally write their own version of Flash; the standard is freely available.

The amount of work required to do so is epic, and considering the rate of Flash's evolution it's like getting on a treadmill whose speed is controlled by Adobe.

Re: Smokescreen - a Flash player written in Javascript and HTML5

#36

Post by not_an_alien »

wmf wrote: post #34
kierank wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone could equally write their own version of Flash; the standard is freely available.

The amount of work required to do so is epic, and considering the rate of Flash's evolution it's like getting on a treadmill whose speed is controlled by Adobe.

Funny metaphor, and very accurate. However, HTML5 is like that same treadmill, only that people still have to build the treadmill itself. It's epic work times two.

Re: Smokescreen - a Flash player written in Javascript and HTML5

#38

Post by chc »

not_an_alien wrote: post #36
wmf wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The amount of work required to do so is epic, and considering the rate of Flash's evolution it's like getting on a treadmill whose speed is controlled by Adobe.

Funny metaphor, and very accurate. However, HTML5 is like that same treadmill, only that people still have to build the treadmill itself. It's epic work times two.

HTML5 is mostly based on existing de facto standards. If you stick to those, you're good with HTML5.

Re: Smokescreen - a Flash player written in Javascript and HTML5

#39

Post by al_james »

EricButler wrote: post #35

Very cool. I look forward to a Chrome extension that automatically replaces flash objects with this.

Why would you want to do that for? You would still have the annoying ads (or whatever) plus the overhead of a chrome extension to convert them when the page loads!
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