RIP Flash Player

Well, saw this sad news story: https://twitter.com/i/moments/890109172754329602

This gives us a few years to still enjoy some of the classics of the early Internet. For instance, I don’t know where I would be without Homestar Runner.

• http://www.homestarrunner.com/

They’ve moved some of their content onto YouTube, but by no means all of it – and it lacks all the Easter Eggs and games.

For one you may not know, Amy Winfrey’s short films on Flash are some of my very favorites.

• http://amywinfrey.com/

The final tweet in that Twitter Moment was a plea hoping that someone does something about preservation for Flash videos – and I second that thought. Hopefully someone figures out a way to do that. Would be an amazing museum exhibit. Or a good conversion project to some newer technology – even if the best they can do is uploads to YouTube, like with Homestar Runner.

What Flash videos and games are you sad to see go?

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And Now, GIFs.

So first Twitter, and now Facebook it seems, have added a quick button to search for and add .gif moving images to your comments, replies, and posts. Because what the world needed, apparently, was more GIFs.

On the one hand, this is a good add – I have tried sharing GIFs a few different ways prior to this, and something generally always went wrong. It was clunky, trying to save the file to your phone, or download it, or copy in the link, or whatever else. I didn’t do it enough to get good at it – instead collecting a phone full of memes.

Now I feel late to the party as everyone else is skilling up their GIF-fu. So tell me your tips and tricks for laying down the best GIFs! And drop in some of your favorites if, ya know, you can.

Don’t Forget Net Neutrality!

Yesterday was a day organized as a big push for those who support Net Neutrality, with the Day of Action. Net Neutrality is a big issue we pay attention to, so it seemed important to note that supporting Net Neutrality doesn’t end after the Day of Action!

For more on Net Neutrality, Philip DeFranco did a nice job covering it (warning: language):

I’ll just copy-paste the links from his show notes if you’re looking for more:

Net Neutrality:
https://www.battleforthenet.com/
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/0…
https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/2/155…
http://mashable.com/2017/07/12/net-ne…
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-40…
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/27/te…
https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/search/proce…))

The Pesky “Save” Feature on Facebook

I have, at various times, turned to different ways of scrolling through and experiencing the Internet. At one time, it was opening all my webcomics to read in different tabs from my bookmarks. Going to forums. Facebook feed, WordPress Reader, Tumblr feed, Twitter feed, Instagram feed…

I’m currently back on the Facebook feed, and have added a number of sites and things that I might otherwise go to some other way (like news sites). Sure, you suffer under Facebook’s display algorithms, but by-and-large I get a pretty decent experience. And I use things like AllSides and Twitter Moments to make sure I’m not missing something.

However, there’s a feature of Facebook that I’ve used… yeah, way too much. Since I’m generally scrolling on my phone, while doing something else, filling a few minutes, whatever – when I get to something that I want to read but that seems too long, I click the “save post” button. Similarly, when I find an image, story, or meme that I want to consider sharing here on Comparative Geeks in some way, but that I’m not sharing immediately, I save the post.

I have over 1,500 saved posts at this point.

So in an effort to clear up some tiny bit of this now unmanageable backlog, here’s a few things from the saved archives… Happy Throwback Thursday!

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Cool Art!

From https://www.facebook.com/thegeekstrikesback/posts/1523701504340398:0

From https://www.facebook.com/dndmemes/photos/a.735357799861056.1073741828.735346629862173/1488435511219944/?type=3

From https://www.facebook.com/GamingGeeksEtc/posts/1878050905546295

From https://www.facebook.com/thegeekstrikesback/posts/1479599188750630:0

From https://www.facebook.com/thegeekstrikesback/posts/1461142373929645:0

From https://www.facebook.com/fantasyscifi/posts/1416012875128290

Click Bait/News I thought might be good for blog posts…

• Spider-Man Is Only Sony Character in the MCU, Feige Says

• 12 Awesome Openly Queer Superheroes

• DC Has No Idea What We Love About Wonder Woman, Introduces New Comic Arc About Diana’s Brother

• Battlestar Galactica‘s Ronald D. Moore Admits the Cylons Never Had a Plan at All

• 15 Times The Harry Potter Movies Butchered The Books

• The Hardest Video Game Boss Battles

• Every Mass Effect Squadmate (Including Andromeda), Ranked Worst To Best

Potentially, at some point, I’ll still at least read these articles…

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Hopefully you’ve smiled or read something here that was new to you… Maybe I’ll do this again sometime! But for now, hey! Slightly fewer saved items on Facebook!

Technology Outpacing Laws

We live in an age when technology keeps trying to one-up the last hit thing. This works not only for legitimate technology for the masses, but also for people who might be taking illegal actions.

Recently there has been an interesting increase in robocalls to people who had previously signed up for the no call list. The problem is while legitimate businesses will follow the no call list, the scammers and any illegal business is not going to follow that law. Now with all the different technologies they make it easier for these groups to make call after call with no way to track where the call is coming from.

This is just one example where probably the new technologies can make it difficult to prosecute someone. In some ways we see this complication all the time with online harassment with no way to track the perpetrator – often there is nothing that can be done. The technology that we use and have access to outpaces so many of the laws that exist in this digital age.