A Flash in the Pan

A Flash in the Pan was Originally Posted on May 30, 2012 by lavarock

Pan: (Informal, to criticize severely, as in a review of a play.)

Flash and pan, it will all make sense in a minute.

I don’t like Flash! (see? it DID all make sense).

Actually, I guess Flash has its uses but it is the implimentation that makes me crazy. I read my news through Yahoo and many of the pages contain a Flash ad which then starts automatically. It may be late at night or I’m on the phone. There is no control to pause or stop it (why would an advertiser want you to easily mute, pause or stop an ad?). When I drive on the mainland, I have an option of not looking at a billboard. I have no such option when an ad starts on an internet page.

OR DO I?

Actually I do. I installed a Flash-blocker in my browser and now instead of ads playing on their own, I have to click on a blank area to start it.

Flash is used very often for content and I cannot imagine a reason to not be able to block muting or pausing, except for ads. Since the advertisers have taken control of my ability to control the content, I have taken the extreme control of blocking them. It would have been better for them to allow me to at least mute the volume and leave their ad running where I might happen to see parts of it. Now I see and hear nothing. And they think they won!

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Notes: 1) I used to use similar software but it got disabled during various browser updates. 2) Hawaii does not have billboards as such. What we have are people standing by the side of the road, waving signs, or signs in the bed of a truck (which can and are moved). THAT is why we call it Paradise!