Flash is one of those things on the internet that’s been a source of irritation ever since it first appeared. From the perspective of a programmer, it’s bulky and difficult to "mold" into what you want it to do. From the perspective of the user, it’s "That thing that makes me wait to load just to view it, and when it does can potentially crash my browser."

Speaking of crashing, Flash does not play favorites on which operating system it likes to crash browsers on. From time to time, something will go wrong with the plug-in and completely lock up the browser, forcing a restart of the program. Not even Linux is safe from this.

If you’re saying, "I can load any Flash page just fine", try it with multiple tabs. Chances are it’s the only type of content that will make your browser slow down and even potentially choke, even with the most powerful computer. Does that mean your computer sucks? Not in the slightest. It’s just Flash.

Flash is so absolutely hated by some that there are specific browser add-ons to block it. This is because there is no manual way (nor has there ever been) to turn Flash off without uninstalling it. I’m not kidding.

Unfortunately we are forced to use Flash for video on the internet, both for viewing and broadcasting. Every video sharing web site is chock full of it. Every broadcasting site like Stickam, BlogTV, Ustream, Livestream (formerly Mogulus) and so on are also full of Flash.

When I produce videos for PCMech, I don’t use Flash because I want to. It’s because I have to. Personally I would love to switch over to WMV or MOV format as both are far superior to Flash-based FLV. But the problem is that one is Windows specific and the other for the Mac. Mac people hate Windows Media Player. Windows people hate QuickTime. FLV is the only one that can play no matter what OS you’re using because everybody has the Flash plugin installed.

When Dave (owner of PCMech) produces videos, he also has constant arguments with the Flash video format because it’s literally a crapshoot on whether or not the encoding will work correctly. Bear in mind Dave uses Macs. I use Windows. And we both curse Flash almost every time either of us use it.

Ironically, Flash is now having the exact same problem it did years ago, but this time on smartphone devices.

The original problem was that many computers weren’t powerful enough to run the Flash plugin. Now they are, but only because our processors and memory are well along enough to handle Flash’s bloat.. even though it still locks up browsers from time to time.

Smartphone browsers on the other hand simply aren’t powerful enough to handle "full" Flash. Yes, it can handle a watered-down version, but it’s a repeat of the same problem that happened in Web 1.0 days.

Is Flash the worst thing on the internet? Yes. Slow to program, slow to load, crash-happy, incompatible with many mobile browsers.. the list goes on and on.

Since we’re all forced to use Flash to view "rich content" on the internet, how long is it going to take for Adobe to release a version that isn’t so unbelievably crappy?

My guess is not any time soon.

What’s your opinion?

Do you think Flash is the worst thing on the internet?

I am a DiscoverCard holder. Recently I started getting calls from 866-831-4847 that listed itself as an “800 service” on the CallerID. This didn’t bother me until I started getting at least 3 to 5 calls daily from the same number.

Per an internet search I found that yes, this is a marketing phone number from Discover (thank you, Internet) and the way to get them to stop calling you is to call them and request to be taken off their promotion/offers list.

I called and did just that. And I figured it would be over and done with.

However the problem is that it takes 2 to 4 weeks for the system to update (this is absolute b.s. by the way as it should be instant).

Again that same number called today. Three times. I answered on the 3rd time. Someone was actually on the other end (normally it’s just blank air).

Me: WHO THE @#*& IS THIS?!

Discover: Hello, Sir! This is DiscoverCard calling you with a fabulous offer on–

Me: I CALLED DISCOVER AND TOLD THEM TO TAKE ME OFF YOUR F@&!ING LIST. I AM NOT INTERESTED IN BUYING ANY !*%# FROM YOU, AND DON’T EVER F#$*ING CALL ME AGAIN, DO YOU UNDERSTAND?

Discover: (notably hesitant at this point) Uh.. um.. okay sir, thanks and have a good day..

[click]

Yes, I reamed the poor girl out who cold-called me. And she deserved it.

Note to DiscoverCard: When one of your card members calls and specifically tells you to stop calling them peddling your crapola, you stop, else you may get blogged about on a rather large web site telling the world how much you suck.

Additional note: The fact you have “800 service” on your CallerID when calling is very, very shady.

In case you hadn’t heard, more than a few YouTube users are stating that “it isn’t like it used to be” (more or less) and that the site is nothing but a big ball of boring. In addition to that, users of that site are abso-frickin’-lutely sick of the negativity that goes thru that place like a never-ending tidal wave; this means video-makers either “play it safe” with video content or just don’t post anymore.

I pondered this and came out with a well-thought-out pie chart showing what the content of YouTube is like.

As you can see, YouTube is overwhelmed with crap.

But maybe it’s the community that makes YouTube great? I don’t think so.

Here’s a screen shot I took of a random video comment section on YouTube. I blurred out the names (because I’m not about to make them “famous”, thank you very much.)

Bear in mind that other than the blur-outs, this is UNEDITED.

Want more proof? Check out Metafilter vs. YouTube and see for yourself.

YouTube is teeming with morons and people are abandoning it left and right (for good reason.)

It’s official: YouTube sucks.

But you probably already knew that.