ColdFusion Helps Catch America's Most Wanted

"(and also makes extensive use of Flash)" I don't know about you but web sites that have that many flash components slow my computer to a crawl. No I do not have top of the line, but it is a decent machine. Thankfully I use firefox with the AdBlock extension, and block all .swf, works like a charm.

It depends on the Flash, how it is used, and how effectively. I agree, I have seen lots of examples of Flash that I don't quite care for, but there are also some useful and well implemented examples. And so I am not ready to block all Flash.

It's an unfair, blanket statement to say that all Flash sites with Flash components slow computers to a crawl. There are two issues: one is the code instantiation (when the components initialize) and the other has to do with the vector aspect of Flash and the components. The true beauty that I'm hoping Flex (with the built-in layout class) will demonstrate is that Vector components that scale without distorting makes for a much more usable interface. The UI can be bigger, more consistent, and faster (when moving from page to page without page refreshes that ate considerable CPU usage). The code instantiation has always been a problem for Macromedia, but it's improved in the preloading of Flex, and in Flash, the linkage can be adjusted to ease the freeze. The improved player in Version 8 should hopefully resolve this issue. With BlackStone, I'm assuming the forms use a many of the built in Flex Classes including the one for preloading which works superbly to ease CPU usage.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that nobody has clued them into the Enable Whitespace Management checkbox.... ;)