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Chrome will begin pausing many Flash ads by default on September 1

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Re: Chrome will begin pausing many Flash ads by default on September 1

#61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're not system crash but application crash, both are reported on MacOS X. So no, Flash didn't crash the OS, only apps like Safari, Firefox or Chrome. Isn't it enough ?

>They're not system crash but application crash, both are reported on MacOS X. So no, Flash didn't crash the OS, only apps like Safari, Firefox or Chrome. Isn't it enough ? That wasn't what Apple (Steve Jobs) claimed... [1]"Whenever a Mac crashes more often than not it’s because of Flash. No one will be using Flash, the world is moving to HTML5." Also Flash doesn't crash Chrome, doesn't crash FF for ages either. No c…

I doubt it's worth picking over all that stuff Jobs said about Flash - it was FUD top to bottom. I mean, in his famous letter he flamed Flash for being closed even as iOS locked people into a single browser, flamed it for being nonstandard while Apple pushed out Safari-only web pages [1] and weird quicktime extensions, etc. He even called out Adobe for being late to adopt Cocoa even though core Apple apps hadn't migrated yet.

So, the language about crashes may have had more or less basis in reality, but it's not as if Jobs was concerned with nuance and details.

[1] http://www.infoq.com/news/2010/06/apple-html5-gallery

Re: Chrome will begin pausing many Flash ads by default on September 1

#62
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just out of curiosity - could there be issues other than just performance here? For ex., could it be that Flash based ads can identify user/device contributing to privacy issues?

Flash provides much more identifiable fingerprinting information (e.g. detailed information about your system fonts) and looser "Flash cookie" (Local Shared Objects) restrictions than JavaScript. https://panopticlick.eff.org/index.php?action=log&js=yes

Did you read their conclusions? Javascript is most certainly a method for fingerprinting, regardless of Flash presence.

"Browser developers should also consider what they can do to reduce fngerprintability, particularly at the JavaScript API level."

"We identified only three groups of browser with comparatively good resistance to fngerprinting: those that block JavaScript, those that use TorButton, and certain types of smartphone."

Not having Flash doesn't mean you're immune to fingerprinting. That said, it would be nice if Adobe prevented system font lists via Flash.

Re: Chrome will begin pausing many Flash ads by default on September 1

#63
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been developing WebGL content for the past 18 months and, so far, it hasn't crashed from any WebGL issues. And that's with my code which is pretty awful most of the time.

I've had WebGL crashes quite often on YouTube. Allot of the WebGL demos are also either forcing a WebGL crash from time to time or just hang browsers due to performance. You can say allot about Flash but atm it's performance and stability are better than WebGL in it's current state. The problem with WebGL is that it pretty much inherited the mess of OpenGL every driver version on every GPU can implement different fea…

Chrome & FF do not use OpenGL drivers on Windows, they translate to DirectX using Angle: https://code.google.com/p/angleproject/

Re: Chrome will begin pausing many Flash ads by default on September 1

#65

I hope that Google takes the next, bigger step and kills its YouTube Flash player. The HTML5 one is superior in almost every way and so many browsers now support HTML5[1]. It would be a really meaningful statement. This is just a bit 'meh'. [1] http://html5readiness.com/

"The HTML5 one is superior in almost every way"

Not it isn't. The flash player is actually superior in almost every way. And like you, I won't provide any data to back that opinion up. I'll just use the word "almost" to give me some room in case someone jumps in with actual data.

Re: Chrome will begin pausing many Flash ads by default on September 1

#66

I hope that Google takes the next, bigger step and kills its YouTube Flash player. The HTML5 one is superior in almost every way and so many browsers now support HTML5[1]. It would be a really meaningful statement. This is just a bit 'meh'. [1] http://html5readiness.com/

I tried html5 on youtube for a week while scaling is nice (the video size increases for window/resolution size), the quality is very poor the same video with same 480p in flash much clear. Though I don't like flash because it crashes many times it is the only way to watch clear 360p or 480p video. Also flash detects 480p as default for my 8 mb internet connection whereas HTML5 will choose 240p now and then. Also you tube menu (choose xxxP or annotation on/off) is inverted L for any thing with sub menus whereas flash is strait oneclick. The other the lightswitch plugin does not work properly with html5 . so I will flash stays as it is only way for me to watch good quality video.

Re: Chrome will begin pausing many Flash ads by default on September 1

#67
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had WebGL crashes quite often on YouTube. Allot of the WebGL demos are also either forcing a WebGL crash from time to time or just hang browsers due to performance. You can say allot about Flash but atm it's performance and stability are better than WebGL in it's current state. The problem with WebGL is that it pretty much inherited the mess of OpenGL every driver version on every GPU can implement different fea…

Chrome & FF do not use OpenGL drivers on Windows, they translate to DirectX using Angle: https://code.google.com/p/angleproject/

I didn't say they use OpenGL, the WebGL implementation on Windows is trickey since there is no OpenGL mini driver so native support is implemented a bit differently it's only matters who does the translation (GPU driver, vs Browser).

Also are you sure they still use ANGLE by default? Both Chrome and FF had the ability to enable native support years ago using –use-gl=desktop for Chrome or webgl.prefer-native-gl for FF, 2-3 years ago that was the only way of getting any reasonable performance out of them..

But even with ANGLE, WebGL feature implementation is still not consistent across hardware and drivers (Graphic drivers treat DX like one would treat a 5 year old, they'll hear it and do what they want ;)) from even a single vendor yet alone across the 3 desktop and 3-4 mobile GPU vendors.

Re: Chrome will begin pausing many Flash ads by default on September 1

#69
post #22

I can already disable flash ads. Good luck disabling HTML 5 ads without browser plugins support.

Right. I felt very comfortable drawing a line between ad-blockers and just not providing viewers for goofy formats when I did not ask for the content. I already miss the days when flash-ads where the norm and flashblock was not only a way to get a somewhat clean surfing experience, but also an incentive for advertisers to do less intrusive ads.

Re: Chrome will begin pausing many Flash ads by default on September 1

#70
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to the article, it's based on whether it's the "main" object on the page. Size and centeredness both play a role, I'd guess.

So, say, a browser plugin which renamed "main" elements to, oh, say, "notmain", would have the effect of killing autoplay. Though for Flash that's already possible. It's HTML5 that's bugging the shit out of me now.

For Chrome: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/disable-html5-auto...

For Firefox, I think you can just set media.autoplay.enabled = false in about:config.

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