That’s right. I’m sick and tired of the most popular, most successful browser plug-in ever. Why? Two reasons.

First, it can be a bandwidth hog. I know, I know … dial-up, blah blah blah. But seriously. Sometimes I wait for one page to finish loading before I click on a link to get another page loading, and I scroll around the page to find out what I’m waiting for, and it turns out to be some Flash advertisement that has an embedded video file. I don’t want the video file. And as it turns out, I don’t want Flash.

Second, it can be a processor hog. Typically the same media that occupies the internet connection also occupies the processor — video files and long, complex animations. My computer has a 1.8 GHz processor and only (only) 256 MB of RAM. I assume that the RAM is what’s killing me, but come on — scrolling down a web page shouldn’t give me an epileptic seizure just because it’s got a couple Flash ads.

So I formatted a couple days ago and I have not installed Flash since then. It’s great. I get the little white box instead of an ad that brings my computer to its knees. Before the format I had resorted to using a Firefox extension called, appropriately enough, Flashblock. It is just slightly clunky. But I’m afraid that I will once again be installing it, because of one Flash animation:

Behold: Girl in black bikini, falling. Just click on it.

PS – When she gets stuck, you can drag her around, through tight squeezes, etc.