You also want NoScript

I couldn't agree more. Further, I wish that sites would give me back my data in a useful format, as well.

This sounds a bit narrow minded. Not everyone thinks like that, say the common teen who loves shining and blinking stuff.

meh.

*Shrug* I'm an old codger in Internet Years. In fairness, I don't think I'm narrow minded (but I wouldn't, would I?). Shiny and blinky have their place, but so do crisp and clear without intrusive and distracting.

Allright. I've been a little harsh. Let's say that I don't believe the web has to be a way or an other. Even though, in the end, I entirely agree on how annoying those things are.

So what's the difference between data and information?

In other words, I think sometimes you need some interactivity to get information out of your data...

There's a lot to be said for not having Flash installed at all. The licence conditions are, to me, unacceptable. (You did read the conditions, didn't you? They say Macromedia can audit your use of the product. I don't know what "audit" here means so I don't see how I can be sure it wouldn't risk compromising any NDA's I might have made). It's a pity some sites require Flash but there we go.

I think you need to draw a distinction between "interactivity" and "information design". A properly presented piece of information is a hundred times more "comprehensible" than a poorly presented one.

Agreed that Flash is often abused, but on the other extreme, what you might consider of the utmost simplicity, the layout and formatting of your site here, I find terribly cumbersome and hard to extract information from... (no distinction of what is what, etc)

Just saying ;)

For every job, it's proper tool, used appropriately. Your beef is not with Flash, your beef is with marketing. Know how to pick you fights. ;D