so the geniuses at adobe have added a goddamn pain in the ass security feature into the latest flash player. file upload via FileReference must be triggered via a direct user interaction, i.e., a click.

sure, sounds harmless enough, right? WRONG.

one of the great things about flash is the ability to do lots of behind-the-scenes server roundtrips with a file. a user uploads a file, does some stuff to it, then the file is sent to a server, which does more stuff to it, then back down to the user, then back up to the server, and so on. now, the upload-to-server has to be directly approved by the user.

this has broken a bunch of things all across the web. we found a fix for our make me super campaign (just needed to rework some event listeners and the way messaging between objects worked), but i imagine there may be some situations where a fix is impossible without changing UI.

entire businesses have been built around flash. for adobe to make such a change — regardless of intent — and then completely ignore the pained screams of the development community is a very bad decision. while i think microsoft couldn’t develop their way out of a wet paper bag, this provides a tiny opening for silverlight. which, of course, microsoft will proceed to fuck up in record time.

many developers seem to get lost in their own world, assuming that what’s good enough for them is good enough for everyone. you see this on any message board where a person asks a question:

Q: “How can I install subversion under cPanel?”

A: “Don’t use subversion, use [random ass open source piece of shit]:”

A: “Why are you using cPanel? I prefer command-line for everything, because I live in my mother’s basement.”

guess what, guys? some of us have businesses to run. the web has changed since netscape navigator 1.0, believe it or not.

i was a member of prodigy back in the early 90s.  co-sysop’d a couple of bulletin boards, posted to fidonet, chatted on irc, posted to usenet.  not only have i grown up connected, i’ve made a career out of being connected.

what is it like to be disconnected?  i can’t imagine not being able to listen to any song from my music collection ondemand, regardless of where i am.  or not being able to answer stupid trivia questions (who was nixon’s running mate? what animal can you get hantavirus from?  who wrote “happy birthday”?) at 2am, drunk, in a bar.  or writing checks to pay bills.  or waiting until NBC decides to show a rerun of heroes.  or going to the store to buy a cd.

memory is a funny thing.  there was a time, of course, where these things were not possible — and i’m old enough to remember them.  yet i act as if this connectivity has always been there, and will always be there.

what is it like to be disconnected, when everyone else is plugged into the grid?  is it like being blind?

the sum of human knowledge is available at our fingertips.  i can verify almost any statement anyone makes, wherever i am, in near real-time.

what is it like to intentionally disconnect yourself?  is it like being a hermit?

humans are, by nature, social creatures.  we yearn for connections with others, and we always have.

is that because, at the end, we are alone?