The Flash Connection Make mine Actionscript 3.0!

I'd like to thank AOL, and their AIM instant messenger program, for showing me the way to NOT make user friendly software. For years I have maintained an AIM account. Until recently, I was using version 6.19.15.1 of their instant messaging software. That is, until the darned thing kept bugging me to upgrade to their "latest and greatest" version, which I know is just going to be a lot more technologically advanced at serving up advertising. I was happy with the version I was using, but it would seem that THEY are not happy that I was happy.

What really got me is that the nag screen that comes on several times a day (at least twice anyway!) only gives the following two choices: install now, or remind me later. It looked all over in vain for my preferred third choice, never bother me about this again, which I would have gladly checked off, but it was nowhere to be found. This sends a message that my choice doesn't matter to them one whit: I'm just an advertising sponge, soaking in the ads, and if you hammer me hard enough and long enough with them, I'll eventually buy something. Or if you hammer me hard enough and long enough to "upgrade," and only give me two choices where there should be three, well, I will eventually have no choice but to give in, right? Wrong.

Oh yeah, I had already been kind of disconcerted that their ads were getting more and more agressive, with movie ads literally popping out of the application's window. Yeah, that'll get your attention! Well, maybe not necessarily in a good way! I've haven't got that much of a beef with advertising, as long as the ads know their place and don't leap into other spaces univited, and let ME decide whether I want to look at them or not. So I was already getting more and more bugged by the popping ads when this aforementioned dialog box started bugging me to click it away on a daily basis!

My solution: uninstall and downgrade to an earlier version instead. I know what you're probably thinking: Jody, you seem like a sophisticated enough guy, why are you bothering with a crummy ad-serving, third-party-software-installing, wants-to-make-netscape-my-home-page, doesn't-care-about-it's-users piece of work like AIM? Well, because I've been using it for years and I like to talk to my dad on it, okay?

And what's all this got to do with Flash and Actionscript anyway? Well, nothing really, I just felt like venting, but if pressed, I could probably actually find a way to tie it in! Whew!

Wanna learn good software design? Apparently, you can just take a picture of the AOL playbook, and then study the negative!