Ben Galbraith’s Blog

I like Flash. Really, I do. I love all the subtle animation and graphical effects it makes possible, and how seamlessly it can be integrated into websites.

However, when given a task I can perform using either Ajax or Flash, I always prefer Ajax. There are a number of reasons for this; let me illustrate one.

Recently, a Macromedia employee created a Flash version of Google Maps to demonstrate how much better it would be in Flash. Not a bad idea. But, when I visited the site using Firefox 1.0 on my Mac PowerBook (OS X 10.4.2), the Flash version proceeded to drive my CPU usage up to 100% and render my browser completely unusable. I had to Force Quit the sucker.

I know, I know. It’s unfair to judge the Flash movie based on this experience. After all, its just a hacked up demo. But… I’ve yet to have any Ajax demo hang my browser. Hmm…

Over at Ajaxian.com, Dion and I have entered the Podcasting world, and it’s been a lot of fun. We spent three hours today recording on Dion’s crap laptop microphone and we did the editing/mixing on my PowerBook using Apple’s GarageBand. I was really surprised at how fun it all was. After spending a few hours tweaking virtual knobs and dials, I have new-found respect for all the pro mixing engineers out there…

Hope you enjoy the first episode of what will be a regular Ajax podcast series.