Sorry, but accepting Flash is potentially devastating to me
Ars Technica Why Ad Blocking is devastating to the sites you love:
If you read a site and care about its well being, then you should not block ads or you subscribe to sites like Ars that offer ads-free versions of the site. If a site has advertising you dont agree with, dont go there. I think it is far better to vote with page views than to show up and consume resources without giving anything in return.
Let's be clear here: I don't run an ad blocker. I do run a Flash blocker, because Flash is unstable and insecure. And no, I will not white-list you to let you load Flash automatically.
And before you ask, you can't have my root password either.
I also don't keep a list of sites I'm not welcomed at. For the half dozen times a year I read a story on Ars (at most), I'm not going to feel guilty either.
Look, in the comments you have admitted you don't control the content of the Flash:
We don't allow ads with non-user initiated sound. So unless you interact with the ad you shouldn't hear a thing. If you ever do then let us know so we can fix it/nuke it.
If ads make sound uninvited, tell you?!? Are you serious? What if they use some new Flash exploit to root around and steal my private key, or otherwise execute arbitrary code on my computer?
Should I tell you then, too?
The first step to getting on my white list is to write your own Flash, not just serve someone else's. Taking people's security that cavalierly probably should be criminal.
You can't just say "Oh, that's on Adobe." By now you know what an insecure mess Flash is.
If you serve me HTML ads, I'll be happy to view them. I'm not sure if you've heard, but it turns out that you can do a lot of cool things with HTML.
Also I just checked, and Javascript can (indirectly) detect my Flash blocker. There's no reason you should try to blame users like me rather than take the responsibility on yourself. The difference between my Mac and an iPhone is that you're able to detect the latter without much effort, but the former would take a little more effort on your part.
Look, I'm sorry I cost you a fraction of a penny. But the potential pain for me in choosing to run Flash is far, far greater. And if you really cared about your users, you'd know that and have moved on from Flash already. Don't try to lay a guilt trip on me!
I'll see you in six months. Not intentionally, that'll just be the next time I have reason to visit Ars. Maybe you'll have this sorted out by then.
A one day project
I started work today on an iPhone project with a friend. I figured it would take only a day to get to a reasonable 1.0. I've only put in about a half day on it so far, but at this point I'm pretty sure it's actually a two day project.
Looked at one way, that's a 200% estimation overflow. But more realistically, it means it was pretty small and I tackled it in the wrong way. I had to refactor some code early that I left alone for too long. I should've written in the right way to begin with, and I should have realized it was wrong sooner, and I should have stopped trying to make it work.
More pragmatically, maybe I should have known better. But, of course, I didn't. And that's okay! I know better now.
What's my point in posting this?
Mostly, it's this: iPhone development isn't nearly as hard as I've made it out to be. Useful applications can actually be quite small and still be useful. Simple things are simple. When they're not simple, it's time to fix something.
I'll post a link here when I finish the project. It'll be a bit before I can devote another day to it. But I'm excited by its usefulness, its simplicity, and the idea of having an app in the App Store of my own.
Fraser Speirs of Connected Flow (author of FlickrExport and Changes) on the reaction to the iPad Future shock:
I'm often saddened by the infantilising effect of high technology on adults. From being in control of their world, they're thrust back to a childish, mediaeval world in which gremlins appear to torment them and disappear at will and against which magic, spells, and the local witch doctor are their only refuges.
Paul Graham (Wikipedia article) on Apple's Mistake, with a great comparison: What would happen if every update to Mac OS X had to go through an opaque, fickle intermediary?
Manton Reece, developer of Clipstart and Wii Transfer for the Mac, writing on the only two acceptable fixes for the iPhone App Store, boils down the iPhone problems to a single sentence:
I want my software to fail because it sucks, or is buggy, or doesn't have the right features, not because Apple can shut me down over a minor difference of opinion.
Joe Hewitt, creator of the iPhone Facebook application and Three20 framework, has moved back to web development. A blog post explains, placing on Apple's App Store process without using so many words. But he makes an observation on how little it means on his way out.
Rogue Amoeba no longer has any plans for additional iPhone applications, following an egregious Apple rejection.
Joshua Kaufman interviews Loren Brichter on Tweetie's reload gesture. A good, non-technical read on finding the right way to present a feature, adding a custom gesture, and providing feedback.
Cocoa With Love (Matt Gallagher): Memory and thread-safe custom property methods