Let us tell you something…

Yertle was the ruler of his little pond. He sat on his throne and ruled all he could see.

He decided that he wanted to rule more and he ordered the other turles to pile upon one another and lift him higher.
His turtles did what they were told and as Yertle was lifted higher, he proclaimed himself ruler of all he could see.

But as the stack grew higher those turtles below started complaining. And all it took was a small shrug from those supporting him to topple Yertle’s reign.

Ultimately Yertle was dethroned, literally; coincidentally by a turtle named “Mac(k).”

I see similarities between Yertle and Jobs. Apple was small and wanted more. Now Jobs’ throne is pretty high, and he’s hurting those people that helped lift him up to where he is now. Will Apple get higher? Perhaps. But it time I’m certain Jobs (or his replacement) will feel the Yertle effect.

Throughout the years of working with flash I have been asked if Flash can be made accessible to support the U.S. Government Standards for Accessibility (Section 508).  I’ve found some great resources I would like to share.

Adobe has made some great strides in making Flash more accessible. Accessibility with Flash has been a challenge over the years and had prevented many organizations, especially U.S. Government agencies, from using Flash.

The first thing I do it go to the source: Adobe Accessibility Blog

Creating Accessible Sites in Flash – Here’s an Adobe presentation provides a great introduction on how to make Flash accessible to users with disabilities. It is also a good example of an accessible Flash site.

Adobe – Accessibility Resource Site – a collection of products information, examples

The Double Div Method – Some logistics and samples of how to nest HTML content on the same page as Flash to provide accessibility navigable and SEO leaders.

Flash Accessibility Tips – DoodleDoo’s practical tips for making Flash accessible.

Flash Accessibility Requirements and Methods (FARM) – DoodleDoo’s requirements guide along with an “Accessible Flash Checklist.”

Frustration with accessibility and Flash – A blog post with some good information for those of you using Flex and Flash ActionScript 3.

Of course, the obvious question I don’t ask is, if it needs to be 508 Compliant, why are you using Flash?

Flash is for multimedia, audio and video. 508 Compliance requires web applications to be accessible with controls OTHER then the mouse… although not impossible; it may be impractical to navigate through animated content with the keyboard… just a thought.

-Lenny

I keep hearing a lot of “Flash Haters” these days telling me that HTML5 is going to be the “Flash killer” and it started to concern me. So I’ve done a little research, to see if there was anything behind that speculation, and if I should start pondering a new career.

Here is some HTML5 information:

1. It has taken the W3C over 5 years to develop the standards for HTML5, and it is still not complete. It is still a ’standards in progress’ so claiming it’s victory is far too soon to predict.
2. Browser implementation of these standards “may vary.”  As of today only Firefox 3.5, Google Chrome, Safari, and Opera browsers support some of the standards like the Video and Canvas tags. Microsoft, although claiming it will adhere to standards in the future, has only implemented a minutia of the new HTML5 advanced features (local storage, AJAX navigation, and mutable DOM prototypes)
3. “One of HTML 5’s goals is to move the Web away from proprietary technologies such as Flash, Silverlight, and JavaFX,” says Ian Hickson, co-editor of the HTML 5 specification. (Hickson is a Google employee, while his co-editor David Hyatt works for Apple.) Hickson adds, “It would be a terrible step backward if humanity’s major development platform [the Web] was controlled by a single vendor the way that previous platforms such as Windows have been.”  – Paul Krill – Infoworld
4. Yes, YouTube and Vimeo have put out HTML5 test sites to get ahead of the market in delivering video in a less CPU-intensive method than Flash.

Reasons why HTML5 isn’t going to kill Flash, Silverlight and JavaFX:

1. The browser market is fragmented and supporting all platforms will be more difficult if implementation of the standards aren’t the same.  Here’s a lovely example of “Video on the Web” from Dive into HTML5 by Mark Pilgrim.  In this excerpt he explains the multitude of video and audio formats available, and the inconsistencies across browsers using the <Video> tag. Not to mention that ultimately, the solution still requires you to put in something that will play Flash video for those browsers that aren’t HTML5 compliant.
2. Microsoft isn’t too excited about killing Silverlight… since it’s invested a lot of resources into filling the gap that the browsers have left open. Although they may make improvements in the future, Silverlight is not going away anytime soon. (Nor will Flash or JavaFX)
3. Rich Internet Applications are not just the <Video> and <Canvas> tag. There is far more development required to build truly immersive internet experiences, and there will always be a market for plug-ins that extend the browser’s limited functionality.

As far as Apple’s iPhone.. it doesn’t play any embedded video. You’re forced into the iPhone’s video player regardless of your designs.  The iPad seems to have enhanced that by allowing for “in-line” video playback.. using HTML5;

So why does Apple continues to ignore Flash?  Performance issues, battery-life draining processes, fear of loosing “Oober Veto Power” of applications within their precious devices… or a dozen other excuses…

Courtesy of Lee Brimelow - theFlashBlog.com

Thanks to Jesse Warden for publishing the solution to one of my current issues with Flash and the XML Object.

Read the details here: http://jessewarden.com/2007/06/e4x-xml-binding-cdata.html

Since Apple released the 3.0 update to its iPhone; I’ve been living under duress. My wife, who is a meticulous woman, requires her calendar to be synced and available on her iPhone at all times. (Polar opposite of me; I wouldn’t survive without her.) Needless to say, when the release was pushed out by Apple on June 17th, 2009 she wanted to upgrade. After all, we’ve been craving copy-paste-undo for over a year…  So, the upgrade went… neither poorly nor well. (my upgrade was another story, not pertinent at this moment.)  I had assumed all was well, until she returned home from work on the 18th with a booming complaint. “My iPhone Calendar doesn’t have any of my meetings on it.”

We contacted our “employer’s” IT Department Help Desk; because that’s the first place to go for no reason what-so-ever.  We were informed that our employer, who supports the iPhone through their Exchange ActiveSync services, is not yet supporting the iPhone 3.0 upgrade.  So I spent the next few days trying to understand what changed with this release, after all, it worked flawlessly in the 2.2.1 release.

A temporary solution, perhaps? : June 21, 2009

I learned about all the great new features in the 3.0 upgrade; enhanced support for calDav which meant Google Calendars without a third party interface. (YAY, a solution, for the time being…)  I created an account for her with Google Calendar, and installed the Google Sync client on her PC, and set up the account information on the iPhone (as I have it installed on my iPhone) and I was pleased with myself. (Or so I thought)

It appears that my wife’s Exchange Calendar has over 1,300 appointments on it, dating back to June of 2007. (She never deletes, she’s a real CYA kind of person.) So Google Sync was choking trying to interface with the Outlook client on her PC, and after several hours, I gave up on that approach and went to bed.

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