My Commentary on the Current Web Debacle (why Flash is more relevant today than ever before)

I will start by quoting a couple of articles, and then share my views.
Java and Flash both vulnerable—again—to new 0-day attacks

“There’s no indication that either of the newly discovered Flash vulnerabilities are being actively exploited…”

I point out that Java has also been exploited, and this is active: Cyberespionage group Pawn Storm uses exploit for unpatched Java flaw

“A sophisticated group of hackers known for targeting military, government and media organisations is currently using an exploit for a vulnerability in Java that hasn’t been patched by Oracle.”

This has NOT been patched, Flash (on the other hand) has been quickly patched.
It’s interesting how no one is talking about that (Java), but Flash (with a quick fix, and no known active exploit) is under fire. Again.
Flash has been under fire ever since ever.
I believe because this is the “new browser wars”. Instead of browsers, we’re fighting over tools/standards. All of these companies are pushing for their own solution, and that could go in another post, but the point that I’d REALLY like to make…

We’ve stopped dreaming.

We’ve come to a point where we put money before innovation, and now things have become stagnant and over-standardized (in so many ways).
The people in charge of the web today (setting the standards) stopped dreaming. You have your social media giants, and really when you boil it down it’s not so much about connecting people as it is about connecting people with advertisements.
There’s no more talk about the 3D web, or augmented reality web (if you rolled your eyes just now and got a usability argument ready, then I rest my case). These ambitions are just gone.
The tools we used to look up to, to realize and experiment with, these dreams are being attacked because of their lack of standardization.
I don’t see how vulnerabilities are such a huge argument, when literally everything about the web has that history. I could compile a long list of javascript exploits. It is more “insecure” than Flash.
Chrome experiments puzzle me. I’ve seen the same things done years ago in Flash plus some. So is that it? Is that what we’re happy with? Going backwards?
If it’s a real killer shouldn’t it do EVERYTHING the platform it’s killing can do, and some?
What happened to the real “experiments” — when it used to be about how we can push “the new thing” “the new discovery”. People just stopped dreaming, and that’s so sad.
We used to want websites with uniquely composed soundtracks, and interactive dynamic audio, and 3D spaces, and all these interesting ways to show things to people. We used to be largely doing these things. I know I was!
Granted that it wasn’t always the most usable, but that’s just disappearing. I realize we can belly ache about how “unusable” it was, but if you’re only fixated on usability then new ways of looking at things and doing things die out. What we now consider edgy, in light of “back then”, would have been fairly common.
What I like about games (especially alt games) is that people are still dreaming. Developers are still asking questions and seeing what they can do that’s new.
The internet is just letting that die. We’re removing tools. We’ve stopped at pretty much scrolling down a Twitter feed, and transitions for menus.

I will continue to use “Flash” until HTML5 is really all that it’s been hyped up to be. I will continue to use it even if I’m the only person interested in this sort of thing, and the only person playing my games. Why? Because I have a dream for the web (I want art, I want an “art space” and the internet-as-game, and so much more). Current “killer” tools are not there yet.
Whenever this comes up I spend a long time thinking if I even want to create this content for the web anymore? Should I just quit? HTML5 is just not capable of half the stuff Flash can do, yet I shouldn’t use Flash. Without it (without both, honestly) I wouldn’t be able to make what I’m making.

In regards to usability…
Really? When has art, or entertainment, ever been usable? Does usable mean making as much money out of your visitors as possible? How we best design the UI so they see the ads? How we best position things so they are most inclined to click on the ad and drive revenue up? Because that’s all that’s being asked for anymore.
We can’t live without art or entertainment. Humanity can’t advance without it.
What future do we have if we control everything? This is the point the internet is at today.