I really hate when designers use flash for basic text elements without some sort of backup text behind it. My proxy blocks flash, and this results in a very broken website.
It's sIFR[1]. It was one of the more popular techniques for embedding custom fonts into pages, before CSS-based web fonts. It should degrade gracefully without Flash; it does for me, using ClickToFlash with Safari.
Unfortunately Chrome built-in plugin blocker is not smart enough, and neither is its FlashBlock extension.
I block flash by default and only enable it on a site by site or case by case basis.
I definitely agree. Flash Block is an essential add-on.
Curious, why? I've looked at Flash perf on my machine (Thinkpad, Core2Duo, Win7) and streamed 1080p video at 35% CPU utilization. I've never noticed any perf degredation using Flash and never had a crash as a result of it. I know people generally dislike it on mobile devices, but for a laptop/desktop class machine it seems pretty lightweight at even the biggest tasks.
I do it to prevent the autoplay of videos in almost all news sites and huge ugly flash banner ads.
Thanks, I hadn't considered that. I don't go to many sites with either, so I never noticed, but I think the NYTimes might have some.
I run Linux mostly which flash is a bit of a dog on unfortunately.
That's because you're on Windows. On Mac and Linux, Flash eats CPU while doing nothing, and frequently stutters on mere 480p.
They should make some special glasses for viewing web pages without getting headaches from flash.