WTF is it with these sites that you simply can’t access w/o our favorite crapware magnet, swiss cheese security, bloated IE?

And it got even better today. At work, someone asked me to purchase this hideously expensive Adobe web software. He suggested going to Adobe because you could purchase and dl it right there. Or so he thought.

I brought up adobe.com and ran right into the Regular Roadblock: you must install Flash to view this site.

I don’t WANT to install Flash. I want to purchase one of your web-bloating, time-wasting design products for a lot of money. And no matter how I tried, I could not GIVE them money. I suggested that the fellow go to the site himself and launched the credit card at him in the manner of that Bond movie where the genetically short fellow hurls a circular saw blade and decapitates people.

There were even a few actual lines of text at the bottom that suggested Flash was needed to EXPERIENCE the site. I don’t WANT to EXPERIENCE the site - I want to buy some %*#&ing software. Even if I liked Flash, it was not necessary to EXPERIENCE it. I don’t EXPERIENCE websites… I READ them. I don’t need blinky graphics or some genius’ idea of `music’ coming at me because I had the misfortune to stumble onto their site.

My esteemed coworker appears at my desk 20 minutes later, looking sheepish and defeated, having also failed to purchase the pricey tool. And this guy HAS Flash. To make matters worse, at home he uses a Mac!

We wound up calling a 3rd party vendor. Did you know there are no discounts? Dell and CDW sell this for the same price as Adobe.

In any case, since this guy is temporary webmaster, I told him we could save a lot of money by not purchasing this bloatware.

BUT HOW WILL WE GET FLASH ON OUR SITE?

I told him it didn’t matter - we weren’t allowing Flash. He tried to trump me by telling me there already IS Flash on our site, but I told him we block it from going out at the firewall :)

It’s pretty cool when, once in a great while, the curmudgeons get control of things, isn’t it?