Top all-time · #3232
Mike Chambers
Personal blog · mikechambers.com/blogprogrammingweb
Mike Chambers's personal blog at mikechambers.com covers programming and web. Since 2009, 24 different Hacker News readers have linked it 35 times, most often “Clarifications on Flash Player for Mobile Browsers and the Future of Flash”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2025-08-31, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (13) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Mike Chambers's blog on Adobe and Flash, including mobile, touch and Apple's Flash restrictions. Commenters cite its 2008 to 2011 posts as evidence in Flash debates, and one a 2025 post on generative AI.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 13 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Another world is possible
Most-linked posts?
- Clarifications on Flash Player for Mobile Browsers and the Future of Flash4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2011-11-11
- Mike Chambers (Adobe) on Flash CS5 and iPhone Applications2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2010-04-21
- Flash Player content, Mouse Events, and Touch input2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2010-02-22
- Photoshop Is Dead Long Live Photoshop2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2025-09-08
- On Adobe, Flash CS5 and iPhone Applications2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2010-04-21
- Digest: Improved listening and reading experience for The Economist (2024)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-09-01
- Digest: Improved listening and reading experience for The Economist2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-08-02
What Hacker News says?
I have trouble swallowing some of this. A few of these theories have been debunked successfully. I have a small problem with this "don't look at the man behind the curtain" routine. Proprietary is proprietary. Don't try and swing it. Battery Life: http://vimeo.com/9705969 , http://vimeo.com/9724682 Delays: http://www.neowin.net/news/adobe-quotapple-hurts-customers-f... Touch/Scroll: http://www.mikechambers.com/blog/…
Comment linking /blog/2010/02/23/scrolling-html-with-flash-content-on-touch-devices
on “Thoughts on Flash”Submitted Flash is a CPU hog? as a story · 37 points
HN discussionThe iOS App Store preceded the Flash ban. "Apple introduced the App Store on July 10, 2008 with 500 apps" https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2018/07/app-store-turns-10/ Apple's Flash restrictions were published in draft form in April 2010. http://www.mikechambers.com/blog/2010/04/20/on-adobe-flash-c... And justified by Steve Jobs that same month: https://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/
Comment linking /blog/2010/04/20/on-adobe-flash-cs5-and-iphone-applications/
on “Adobe to remove Flash Player from web site after December 2020”Submitted Flash Player content, Mouse Events, and Touch input as a story · 21 points
HN discussionYou're right, but I really do think it was inevitable. Flash Lite just didn't run well on any of its supported platforms at the time, and the then-new technology "HTML5" had the advantage of being simpler and more open. The main thing Flash had going for it was the inertia from developers who already knew it. If you're interested here's a blogpost from Adobe's developer relations person at the time of Flash on Mobil…
Comment linking /blog/2011/11/11/clarifications-on-flash-player-for-mobile-browsers-the-flash-platform-and-the-future-of-flash/
on “Adobe to remove Flash Player from web site after December 2020”Submitted Exploring AI Integrations with Adobe Photoshop, InDesign and Premiere Pro as a story · 16 points
HN discussion> Does anyone know of any other incidents that make case against centralized servers? Yes. Many of these are undemocratic, but others are merely unintentional problems of reliability induced by a single point of failure. http://www.delicious.com/kragen/decentralization-stories has a few dozen items up through 2008. http://beckyzoole.livejournal.com/395310.html livejournal users want more control of livejournal. dece…
Comment linking /blog/2010/04/20/on-adobe-flash-cs5-and-iphone-applications/?r
on “Why I do not want to work at Google”Submitted On Adobe, Flash CS5 and iPhone Applications as a story · 15 points
HN discussion> The problem is, at least in the case of image editors (and 3d editors), standard formats arguably stifle innovation because you have to break the standard to add anything. Indeed: that's exactly why Adobe created FXG instead of adopting SVG in the first place[1] (though they are now circling back to SVG). [1]: http://www.mikechambers.com/blog/2008/09/30/why-adobe-chose-...
Comment linking /blog/2008/09/30/why-adobe-chose-fxg-over-svg/
on “We Need A Standard Layered Image Format”Submitted Clarifications on Flash Player for Mobile Browsers and the Future of Flash as a story · 12 points
HN discussionWait, how exactly did Adobe create noninfringing models? Edit: not a full explanation, but https://www.mikechambers.com/blog/post/2025-09-24-generative... ; this is subtly different. It's a claim that the model will not create infringing output , but that's not the same as "this model was trained only on content which was licensed for the purpose of AI training". (there's also a discussion of the idea that the outpu…
Comment linking /blog/post/2025-09-24-generative-ai-commercial-safety/
on “Indie game developers have a new sales pitch: being 'AI free'”Submitted Mike Chambers (Adobe) on Flash CS5 and iPhone Applications as a story · 9 points
HN discussionYeah, I got my general license a couple of years ago, and was really trying to get into it, but where I live in the SF bay area, there is just too much interference. I am looking forward to when I eventually move and hopefully have some more electronically quieter spaces. Its really fun and exciting doing digital modes to see how far you can send / receive on simple antennas. I wrote up some info on on of the digita…
Comment linking /blog/2016/02/19/example-jt65-qso-exchange/
on “The Uncertain Future of Ham Radio”Submitted Photoshop Is Dead Long Live Photoshop as a story · 3 points
HN discussionIf by 'working with flash' you actually mean, 'producing a SWF to run in the Flash Player'... 1) I've been using Vim for years to produce SWFs. I hate their tool too - that's why I don't use it. You can use any text editor you want. 2) The 'Flash UI' is very skinnable (not as skinnable in Flex3 as in the upcoming Flex4, see: http://www.mikechambers.com/blog/2008/08/27/everything-there... ) 3) I'm not sure what you m…
Comment linking /blog/2008/08/27/everything-there-is-to-know-about-flex-4-gumbo/
on “Processing + Javascript = Flash Killer”Submitted Flash Professional and the Future at Mike Chambers as a story · 3 points
HN discussionFlash isn't dead like kayluhb pointed out Mike Chambers post: http://www.mikechambers.com/blog/2011/11/11/clarifications-o... True, "if you can't deal with it..." approach is rude. But it's the truth. And Tom did explain the situation in detail to the students as he wrote in his post. It wasn't like STFU or leave.
Comment linking /blog/2011/11/11/clarifications-on-flash-player-for-mobile-browsers-the-flash-platform-and-the-future-of-flash/
on “Flash is dead. If you can't deal with this sort of change...there's the door”Submitted Photoshop Is Dead Long Live Photoshop as a story · 2 points
HN discussionHere you go: https://mikechambers.com/blog/post/2024-08-02-digest--improv... Ping me if you have any questions.
Comment linking /blog/post/2024-08-02-digest--improving-the-listening-and-reading-experience-for-the-economist/
on “Boox Palma Review: A Phone-Sized E-Ink Android Device That Isn't a Phone”Submitted Rethinking how we think about AI in the Creative Community as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThere's many reasons this didn't happen. Some of them Adobe's fault, some not. The main thing to realize is that Adobe based AS3 on many leading proposals for Ecmascript 4. Ecmascript 4 would lay the groundwork for future versions of javascript, etc. Flash would still be closed source, but the language would be useful elsewhere in the browser. Several people have described the political issues surrounding this ES4 s…
Comment linking /blog/2008/08/14/actionscript-3-and-ecmascript-4/
on “Getting Rid of Flash”Submitted Digest: Improved listening and reading experience for The Economist (2024) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionhttp://www.mikechambers.com/blog/2010/02/22/flash-player-con... FTA: Flash Player Mouse Events on Touch Screen Devices- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tj1hiLnIp_g
Comment linking /blog/2010/02/22/flash-player-content-mouse-events-and-touch-input/
on “Flash for Android running fairly well on the Nexus One”Submitted JavaScritp QuadTree Implementation as a story · 2 points
HN discussion"You seem to think that the entire mobile platform runs iOS." It's silly to assume that someone on HN would be unaware of the players in the mobile marketplace. Adobe themselves said that Apple's move to block them proved to be the clincher: http://www.mikechambers.com/blog/2011/11/11/clarifications-o... Quote: "This one should be pretty apparent, but given the fragmentation of the mobile market, and the fact that o…
Comment linking /blog/2011/11/11/clarifications-on-flash-player-for-mobile-browsers-the-flash-platform-and-the-future-of-flash/
on “Flash is fine. Dont be a Fundamentalist.”Submitted PixelFlow - EaselJS for Canvas Dynamic Graphics Example as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Relative Performance of Rich Media Content across Browsers and Operating Systems as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Flash Player content, Mouse Events, and Touch input as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Using AI to create self describing PNG files as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Digest: Improved listening and reading experience for The Economist as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
