The video only proves that loading additional content takes additional time. Turn off the images, and the loading will be even faster. Turn off javascript and performance will be even better! News?
Being able to play web games on mobile, is really a cool thing. Turn on the 'on-demand' mode and Flash wont load/play content by default.Compared to how poorly iphone handles even basic javascript effects, the flash experience on Android is excellent.
I really appreciate the effort that has gone into building the demo. But i disagree with you.It is extremely easy for developers to provide fallback content when Flash is not availble.
As a developer, here is why i(personally) wont choose CSS3 animations for building similar content anytime in the near future:
-Works only on webkit browsers
-Performance is really bad on Chrome. Compared to most of the heavy weight flash content out there, this is just a very basic animation.
Pledging support for VP8 doesnt mean they will stop supporting H 264. Will be a disastrous business move to do so with the current market penetration H264 has.
Adobe supports several video codecs in the player (including VP6). Because of the kind of reach H264 already has,I dont think Adobe will ever ditch H 264 for VP8(if that is what you mean by 'VP8 based Flash'). They already support VP6, and as you might have already heard, will support VP8 in the future.
Flash Player is not completely open sourced, because of H264( the patent pool of which, Apple is part of). Adobe pays the licensing fee for using H264 . Adobe has released enough code and specification to let anyone build a flash playing software. Completely open sourcing Flash Player wont be possible unless H264 is open and patent free.
So if Apple really wants, they can build their own Flash Player without Adobe's approval.
When coding a flash app, keep all interface elements externally as an imagemap(an external png with UI elements in it and an xml which defines the coordinates of ui elements in the png). Then reskinning would require only updating the imagemap rather than recompiling the swf.
By hiding the flash core ,basically they are exposing the flash apis to javascript .This would be helpful for frontend developers who are not comfortable with flash, but want to build a decent mp3 player .Other than the advantage for developers , i dont really think there is any functional advantage for the end user.
A possible (and most common) reason for slowness is that the developers might have coded it such that all UI graphical assets required sitewide (buttons,icons and other graphical assets) are preloaded before the actual content starts rendering (rather than loading graphical assets on an, as-it-is-required basis).
Using generic flash frameworks and components definitely increase the file size as they usually come with a lot of functionality (thus code) and legacy code that you might never really use.So if time allows,building your own components is highly recommended to keep file sizes low.
It is possible to build real fast sites with Flash. As an example, if a page contains 20 small thumbnail images (means 20 separate http calls in an html environment), it is possible to load a single zip file with all 20 thumbs into flash and unzip and render it at runtime.Thus reducing the number of http calls from 20 to 1.
As lowdown commented above, the performance of a Flash app depends on how the developer approaches the problem.
As many other commenters pointed out, a 100% Flash based environment is definitely not a great choice for a social network site like Kontain. But the site's neat design and rendering is a great example to show that Flash sites neednt always be cheesy or flashy or flexy.
(1)You can build complete Flash applications using freely available Flex SDK & command line compiler. You dont have to stick on to Adobe Flash IDE or Adobe Flex Builder.
(2)'Cheesyness' depends a lot on how you implement fonts and how how much of a professional designer you are. Its is a function of your imagination and professionalism. See kontain.com
(3) Just like any other language, workflow tediousness depends on the kind of IDE you use. If you are of the developer kind and tries to use Flash IDE's timeline based designer workflow, it will be a disastrous experience.
Having said that , i wish Adobe open-sourced the Player.
Computer education is compulsory as part of curriculum in high schools here in Kerala(south Indian state).Every state controlled schools, no matter how remote, does have computers and trained teachers.
The government has so many programs (akshaya.net) in place to make sure that everyone(not just students) get access to good education. Education is one thing the Kerala government has done right.
Having said that , i dont really know the situation in other parts of India.The point is , its not as bad as you think.
I was just trying to explain how 'arranged marriages' work in my family and that the success rate of the system is pretty good in my experience.
Sex at college is a different aspect. Its true that the social setup doesn't encourage sex while you are at college. But i think the reason is not just an 'orthodox view' of Keralaites. Males mostly stay with parents until they finish college(&& get a job) and are fully dependent on parents financially.'Work while you study' is almost non-existant here. Perhaps girls just dont want to take the risk of hanging out with someone who doesn't have any proven earning potential(yet). At the end of the day, getting a girl depends on how you approach the girl !
Sorry to hear that you had bad experiences with 'ragging' at college. I never had any such issues. Infact, my seniors were very helpful throughout my college life.
I see that you created an account just to make that comment with personal insults against me. Try sticking on to the guidelines and keep HN a nice place: http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
I live in the South Indian state of Kerala. Here 'arranged marriage' means parents and relatives get a chance to background-check the future partner before you do. So for a girl, this means your parents check on the boy's character , his earning potential , the way his parents made money and other related aspects. If parents are happy, a meeting is arranged.If the girl and boy likes to go forward with a relationship, they can take time to know each other.If everything goes well, proceed to marriage.
In short, its like dating with the fittest. All marriages in my family happened this way, and we dont have even a single case of divorce in my family.
FTA: “Tweet” may be acceptable occasionally for special effect.
Definitely not banned.