Dearest Flash,
It's come to my attention that even in the past year, people have continued to be unkind to you, calling you useless, annoying, and the bane of a content-driven internet. I've heard that your reputation continues to be marred by certain miscreants who
abuse you and say all manner of
insult against you. It's not your fault that you've been mishandled and forced to do things that you were never meant to do. So I write this letter as a reaffirmation of my love to you, letting you know why I will continue to love and support you.
First, I love how you continually keep yourself fresh, changing on almost a yearly basis. I know that most of the arguments against you are based on who you were 5 years ago, when you were still dressing in Actionscript 1.0 and using those silly shape tweens (I've finally forgiven you for those). Over the last few years, you have won over this programmer's heart with object-oriented modeling, unified event handling, and a new virtual machine. Even your graphical advances like blending effects and custom anti-aliasing have made the designer in me smile. Such versatility has great potential and I've even seen it at work in more complex websites like
Road Runner's (to be honest, I couldn't believe it was you at first).
Furthermore, you have brought so much beauty and yes, even accessibility, to many industries. Who would ever use
YouTube if it required Real Media Player? Or who would visit
Kongregate only to find Java-based games? Where would I get my creative fix if not for
TheFWA.com? You continue to make photography
vibrant and education
fun. You've even visited the business sector, providing clean visualizations for Google Analytics and
Yahoo Finance.
Now I realize that you're not for everyone and that many people use you in all the wrong ways, forcing you to be something that you're not. Know that I will never do this to you, especially since you have helped me pay many bills and you have given me more creative release than most projects do. And now that you're in Adobe's family (I have a long history with them), I'm sure our relationship will continue to grow and flourish.
Always Yours,
S. Ryan P.S. I've heard that some developers have left you for this new gal named
Silverlight. Rest assured that I will not be so hasty, and will be sticking it out with you whom I know and trust...
译文:
一封致Flash的情书
最最亲爱的Flash：
我发现就去年一年中，人们还是对你这么的不友善，说你没用，说你讨厌，说你在这个以内容为主的网络上就是个祸害。我也知道，有些暴徒仍旧在不断的败坏你的名声，他们侮辱你，用各种各样的方式伤害你。遭别人如此错误地对待，我知道这都不是你的错，即便你被迫作了一些自己不愿意做的事情。所以，我写这封信重申我爱你，我要让你知道我会永远爱你，支持你。
首先，我喜欢你那总能让我眼前一亮的本事，每年都换个行头。大多数针对你的言论都是基于你五年前的形象，那时你还穿着Actionscript 1.0，带着那些傻乎乎的动画形状（关于这些，我终于可以不再介意了）。这几年里，你用面向对象的建模方式，统一事件处理和新型模拟机赢得了程序员的芳心。就连我，作为一个设计师，也不得不佩服你那特效与传统边缘柔化相结合的图像增强功能。如此多才多艺的你必有一番作为，事实上我已经见过你在更复杂网站上的展示才艺了，比如
Road Runner's（说真的，一开始我还真不敢认你）。
还有，你给许多产业注入了美感，当然还成就了可行性。要是在
YouTube上看视频还必须安装Real Media Player，谁还会去看？如果
Kongregate上只有Java平台游戏，谁还会去光顾？要不是有
TheFWA.com，我哪来创意组？一直以来，你让照片变得动感，教学充满乐趣。你甚至还为Google分析和Yahoo财经创造清爽的视觉形象，成了商务板块的座上客。
现在我意识到，你并不是和所有人都合得来，许多人以错误的方式利用你，逼迫你做你不适合做的事情。你要知道，我是绝对不会这样对你的。尤其是自从你还帮我付了帐单。有了你，我还能更好地发挥创意，比起其他项目来，更加畅快淋漓。再说你现在加入了Adobe家族（我和Adobe的关系渊源已久），相信我们的感情一定会越来越亲的。
你忠实的，
S. Ryan
P.S. 听说有些开发者为了一个名叫
Silverlight的小姑娘冷落你。请放心，我可不是见异思迁的人，我了解你信任你，所以一定会对你坚持到底...