Skip to main content

Homestar and Strongbad on the woes of Flash’s demise

Flash is Dead!!
The demise of Adobe’s long-running plugin and creative tool, Flash, has been hailed as imminent from as far back as most of us can remember. Despite that view, and the likes of Apple dropping it from its smartphones years ago, Flash has soldiered on in a select few places, continuing to support the creation of games and animation despite more contemporary alternatives. However, with recent security holes revealed after the Hacking Team hacking, it’s end now seems closer than ever.

That’s put the willies in some of its longest-running fans. Even fans who have been absent for some time while their creators worked on other projects, like Homestar Runner and Strongbad, two characters that wouldn’t even be alive if it wasn’t for Flash. Now they’re going to have to move over to HTML5 and that could take some time.

Related: Enough is enough: Mozilla blocks Flash in Firefox until Adobe fixes security holes

Fortunately, Strongbad claims that with his old pal F-Sack, he’s managed to collect enough motion tweens to keep the series running until that time, but it could be touch and go for a while.

While the creation of the animations might now require different tools, we can all watch them far more easily now on YouTube, which means that all of the classics, as well as any new creations will be safe — even if not all of the Easter Eggs may work as intended.

Of course HomeStar and Strongbad aren’t the only two characters that Flash gave us over the years. Alien Hominid helped start the game-making careers of Tom Fulp and his fellow Newground alumni with their Behemoth company. There was Brackenwood and Bitey, not to mention the ever-popular Madness series of games and short films.

What are some of your most memorable Flash cartoons and games?

Editors' Recommendations

Jon Martindale
Jon Martindale is the Evergreen Coordinator for Computing, overseeing a team of writers addressing all the latest how to…
Power up your tech game this summer with Dell’s top deals: Upgrade for a bargain
Dell Techfest and best tech on sale featured.

One of the best times to upgrade your tech stack, be it your desktop, a new laptop, or some high-resolution monitors, is when great deals are to be had. Well, I'm here to share that thanks to Dell's top deals, you can power up your tech game and have most of the summer to make it happen. Maybe you're happy with your current system or setup. That's excellent, but you're likely considering upgrading somewhere, and that's precisely what these deals are all about. Dell has a smorgasbord of deals on laptops, desktops, gaming desktops, monitors, accessories, and so much more. We'll call out a few of our favorite deals below, but for now, know that you should be shopping this sale if you're interested in anything tech-related.

 
What summer tech should you buy in Dell's top deals?

Read more
I love the MacBook Pro, but this Windows laptop came surprisingly close
Apple MacBook Pro 16 downward view showing keyboard and speaker.

There are some great machines in the 15-inch laptop category, which has recently been stretched to include the more common 16-inch laptop. The best among them is the Apple MacBook Pro 16, which offers fast performance for tasks like video editing and the longest battery life.

The Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 is aimed not only at other 16-inch Windows laptops but also at the MacBook Pro 16. It offers many of the same benefits but at a lower price. Can it take a place at the top?
Specs and configurations

Read more
How to set an ‘Out of Office’ message in Microsoft Teams
Person using Windows 11 laptop on their lap by the window.

Many people use Microsoft Teams regularly to communicate with colleagues both inside of the office and remotely. It is considered one of the most efficient ways to ensure you can stay in contact with the people on your team, but what if you need to let people know you’re not readily available? Microsoft Teams has a method for you to set up an "Out of Office" status for your profile to let staff members know when you’ll be gone for the afternoon, for several days on vacation, or for an extended period.
Where do I go to set up my ‘Out of Office’ status for Teams?
It is important to note that your Microsoft Teams and Outlook calendars are synced. This includes your out-of-office status and automatic replies. So, whatever you set up in Microsoft Teams will reflect in Outlook. Similarly, you can set up your out-of-office status in Outlook, and it will be reflected in Teams; however, the former has a more straightforward instruction.

First, you can click on your profile icon in Teams and go directly to Schedule an out of office, as a shortcut. This will take you to the settings area where you can proceed. You can also click the three-dot icon next to your profile icon, then go to Settings > General, then scroll down to the bottom of the page. There, you'll find out-of-office settings and click Schedule.

Read more