The major issue with all this, is that although China does produce an immense amount of polution, to a certain extent, much of it is to satisfy western consumption.

If the rest of the world wants to criticise China, the first thing they need to do is start restricting the import of products that do not meet local pollution control requirements, or request that the importer pays for some sort of carbon offset/capture.

I have a similar issue with animal husbandry, where the UK has some of the strictest welfare regulations in place, but still allow the import of animal products from other EU countries.

However I can make a consumer choice, when purchasing meat, I have less of a choice when it comes to purchasing plastic etc.

This is not about stopping China from exporting goods, just that the factories these goods come from should be upheld to local pollution quality standards.

You do realise you can go into your brower settings on Android and turn on the plug in on demand option. This is effectively no script. You choose which Flash object to download and run.

It would help if people understood what it is that is now allowed on an iPhone. You cannot run Flash on the iPhone, you, however as a developer, now write one Flash (AS3) or Flex app and WILL be able to deploy it as a stand alone application to:
1) iOS
2) Android 2.2
3) RIM
4) Symbian
5) Windows Mobile
6) Meego
7) Palm OS
8) Linux (Desktop App)
9) OSX (Desktop App)
10) Windows (Desktop App)
11) Any browser that supports Flash 10.1

So, yeah, Flash is bloody awful apparently, but the value proposition of one set of code deployed to pretty much everything, is erm...well awesome. The development tool set Adobe (and others) have released for ActionScript 3 are exceptionally good. Flash isn't going away, but people keep bitching about the performance of it within the browser and how all it is used for is messing up your web experience and that is completely missing the point.

Adobe, and I have spoken to the Flex product development team, don't give a damn about web browser support, they want/need Flex to run as a standalone application through Air because that means they can deliver it to the above 10 operating systems.

From a business point of view, Adobe have a development platform that really can't be touched and the clause change Apple announced rightly caused Adobe's stock to rise 15%.

For all those anti-flash people, ActionScript 3 ain't that bad, and Flex is very productive.

The FTC investigation would only need to insist Apple play by the rules and remove all apps that were not written only in Objective C.

You would probably lose 99% of the games on the store.

Have absolutely no idea why Google are forcing tablets to have 3G. The Tab will come in at around $100-$200 with a 2 year contract. I actually think this type of price discounting FUD should be illegal. Tell me the total cost of the device and what part of the monthly fee goes towards the cost.

Anyway, so I already have a mobile phone that allows tethering, so I would like a wi-fi only Android 2.2 tablet please. I do not need another SIM. Google, get your act together.

The actual price, contract free, is likely to be in the $750 range. In the UK, the price of the Tab has been stated as being slightly more expensive than a Galaxy S. I can get one of those for around £400, so I expect to get a Tab around £500.

My problem is still that most new phones can tether. So my tablet does not need to have 3G functionality.

This is the first device I have seen where I've gone, wow, this has real business potential.

We can port our Flex (Flash) based applications to this using Air or through the web (with the settings set in the browser to only run plugins on demand). The resolution is also very good.

I'm quite excited by this.

In the UK, normal consumer broadband is shared across 50 house holds. So if I can pay to have my broadband connection prioritised over 20 other people downloading torrents, then that is fine by me.

The issue is of course, as you said, prioritisation only works IF there is an agreed limit to the 'number' of prioritised connection per set of 50 house holds.

The point is that some people just don't care about ping rates and bandwidth. For the life of me I can't get my father in the USA to upgrade his internet connection from a 1MB connection to a 10MB connection for an extra $10 per month. I just do not get it.

However if I'm gaming and my ping rate goes above 200ms I get very concerned. I would pay to have my network traffic prioritised, but I am doing something for which I perceive a greater need for a better response time. I know Demon are trialling a new gaming broadband service, however I don't think what they are doing is degrading the service for others.

They have their normal good network, but also have direct hooks into gaming events and servers. If AT&T offered a direct network connection to a game network (say Battle.Net) that got my ping rate down to 40ms on a game I played 24/7, then I would be seriously considering buying this 'premium' service. Even the idea of offering better connection to NetFlix would appeal to some people.

Anyway there has to be a recognition that some people don't give a shit how fast their connection is and there are those that really really really do and some of us might even pay for that.

Without governments accepting the expertise they employed and where Portugal has demonstrated that the decriminalization of drugs actually works, then this type of tracking system will only ever work when there is a root and branch reform of the criminal system.

This really is a bandaid.

The problem here is that there are people in prison because they need therapy for drug addiction. Cannabis is less destructive than Alcohol.

I know this is a rant about drugs, but prohibition, really comes with massive social costs and to lock away people that actually need therapy is wrong.

I know I'm asking for a lot here, but could people who state "Flash sucks" or "Flash runs like a pig" try and quantify which verison and what you were running it on?

I've found Flash 10.1 to be extremely good. I haven't seen Flash running on Android 2.2 yet, so don't want to comment, but from articles on the matter, the main thing that people are saying is that it is the first true "internet in your pocket" experience but it needs a decent phone and even then, you need a decent programmer who has written mobile friendly code.

This reminds me of a Software Team lead who stated that a particular product was awful. After a bit of questioning, the last time he had used the product was 4 versions ago. It's a horrendous closed mentality to have.

Personally Adobe really got to grips with the failings of Flash and 10.1 is their answer.

If a pressure group has a specific issue to address, rather than ask their members to spam their MPs, they should collect signatories and then submit one email to the MPs whose constituants have signed up. The email should also list the set of MPs to whom the email has been sent. It should also provide a respone email address which will distribute the response to the sigantories. If really clever, then the MPs in question come up with a reasoned response each or one official one for each party.

Instead we have this pressure group sending out 700 emails to each of the 600 odd MPs who then have to create an individual response and most need to respond in writing. The cost is enormous.

I can understand why this MP is asking his constituants to write to him. It takes effort. You really have to care about the issue. Sending off an email is easy. Writing a letter and putting in the post shows you actually care.

I still don't get why this is BP's fault and not the sub-contractor. As a software contractor I have a professional duty to deliver sound good quality code. If not I get sued. At what point is Halliburton or one of the other contractors involved not financially responsible for their poor work.

Yes you do, you just don't understand why.

The actual cost to you would be site subscriptions and all apps costing you money.

Society is not prepared to bare this cost.

Whether you like it or not, Flash is here to stay:
http://smokescreen.us/

For iPhone/iPad users, it just runs a lot slower now. :)

The point is the development tools are awesome for Flash and support the Designer -> Developer synergy necessary to get good looking apps/sites out there.

All the reasons given in the article are valid, but to understand why those reasons are valid, you need to have been involved in the design process, and more importantly, tried taken a design through the development process and tried to argue why SIFR ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalable_Inman_Flash_Replacement ) is a bad thing, but still have to implement it.