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> No, instead I'll watch the countless discussions of whether it's the idea or the execution, more discussion of whether it's better to go to school/college/uni

> No, instead I'll watch the countless discussions of whether it's the idea or the execution, more discussion of whether it's better to go to school/college/university or to go straight into business, or yet another submission of a much loved favorite. Have you read the FAQ[1]? "Please don't post on HN to ask or tell us something." (Ask and Tell HN posts where people showcase their projects and startups are part of its culture, however.) HN was originally "Startup News", and a lot of its content is related to startups and entrepreneurialism, but with a hacker flair. > Nor will I talk about my investigations of whether recent Windows updates have code specifically to destabilise Chrome, or other things that I would've thought of interest to the HN community. It would have been interesting to read your ideas on this in a blog post. (The site is Hacker News.) Regarding your question, put more effort in asking and people will put more effort in answering.[2] > Never mind that I've tried several technical forums and they are all bloody useless. Have you tried SuperUser[3]? [1] http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html [2] http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html#beprecise http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html#beprecise [3] http://superuser.com/ http://superuser.com/

RiderOfGiraffes 16y ago
Oddly enough if you look at my posting history you'll discover that I know the guidelines. Specifically, the bit you quote: Please don't post on HN to ask or tell us something (e.g. to ask us questions about Y Combinator, or to ask or complain about moderation) ... ... is talking about not posting to the group questions that are intended for YC or for PG - the "us" in the above excerpt. "Ask" and "Tell" are not part of the culture, they are independent of this. Moving on ... My investigations haven't got very far, not least because I've been struggling for the past 6 hours to make my machine usable again. I've given up. I'll just do without flash until someone can tell me how to fix it. The forums I've checked haven't helped at all, although I didn't know of SuperUser. I'll try that tomorrow. And regarding ESR's recommendations, again, oddly enough I've suggested in the past that people read them, and I had them in mind when I posted, but I am seriously beyond caring. I had hoped someone would (a) recognise the problem,and (b) cut me a little slack. I guess I was wrong. Pursuant to your observation, I've edited my original submission to give some indication that I have expended at least a little effort already in trying to solve this. ADDED IN EDIT: The question appears to have been asked in SuperUser and has had no replies. Based on other searches in other forums I'm not surprised, but I'll make more searches tomorrow.
- pmjordan 16y ago
  Have you tried using Chrome, with its embedded version of Flash (check chrome://plugins to enable only the embedded one)? If that doesn't work either, it sounds like there's a bust configuration somewhere, rather than a problem with the installation as such. Another thing to try: log in with another OS user account, and see if it works there. Finally: what's the failure mode, exactly? Browsers pretend no flash is installed? Flash hangs on start, etc.?
  - RiderOfGiraffes 16y ago
    Thanks for that - useful. I'll have a look at using the embedded version. Currently Chrome comes up with the bar across the top saying something like "the following plug-in has crashed: Shockwave Flash" (or something - I don't have the machine in front of me right now, and can't remember exactly).
    - pmjordan 16y ago
      I don't know if this works on the windows version, but you could try launching it from the command line and see if there's any output. Maybe get a chromium debug build or something? Have you tried other browsers? You might be able to trace which files are accessed by it as it starts (using whatever the equivalent of strace is on windows - Process Explorer?).
      - RiderOfGiraffes 16y ago
        Thanks for the advice and comments. Not sure how to launch from the command line - I've very little experience of Windows, although lots and lots of experience with DOS (of various flavors), Linux console/shell, and Linux GUIs. I can get to the command line, just don't know what executable to run. I haven't tried other browsers, and I have no idea how to trace system calls on Windows without some sort of dev environment. So far I've gone to chrome://plugins and disabled the Flash plugin, then re-enabled it, and now it seems to work. Mostly.

RiderOfGiraffes 16y ago

Oddly enough if you look at my posting history you'll discover that I know the guidelines. Specifically, the bit you quote: Please don't post on HN to ask or tell us something (e.g. to ask us questions about Y Combinator, or to ask or complain about moderation) ... ... is talking about not posting to the group questions that are intended for YC or for PG - the "us" in the above excerpt. "Ask" and "Tell" are not part of the culture, they are independent of this. Moving on ... My investigations haven't got very far, not least because I've been struggling for the past 6 hours to make my machine usable again. I've given up. I'll just do without flash until someone can tell me how to fix it. The forums I've checked haven't helped at all, although I didn't know of SuperUser. I'll try that tomorrow. And regarding ESR's recommendations, again, oddly enough I've suggested in the past that people read them, and I had them in mind when I posted, but I am seriously beyond caring. I had hoped someone would (a) recognise the problem,and (b) cut me a little slack. I guess I was wrong. Pursuant to your observation, I've edited my original submission to give some indication that I have expended at least a little effort already in trying to solve this. ADDED IN EDIT: The question appears to have been asked in SuperUser and has had no replies. Based on other searches in other forums I'm not surprised, but I'll make more searches tomorrow.

pmjordan 16y ago
Have you tried using Chrome, with its embedded version of Flash (check chrome://plugins to enable only the embedded one)? If that doesn't work either, it sounds like there's a bust configuration somewhere, rather than a problem with the installation as such. Another thing to try: log in with another OS user account, and see if it works there. Finally: what's the failure mode, exactly? Browsers pretend no flash is installed? Flash hangs on start, etc.?
- RiderOfGiraffes 16y ago
  Thanks for that - useful. I'll have a look at using the embedded version. Currently Chrome comes up with the bar across the top saying something like "the following plug-in has crashed: Shockwave Flash" (or something - I don't have the machine in front of me right now, and can't remember exactly).
  - pmjordan 16y ago
    I don't know if this works on the windows version, but you could try launching it from the command line and see if there's any output. Maybe get a chromium debug build or something? Have you tried other browsers? You might be able to trace which files are accessed by it as it starts (using whatever the equivalent of strace is on windows - Process Explorer?).
    - RiderOfGiraffes 16y ago
      Thanks for the advice and comments. Not sure how to launch from the command line - I've very little experience of Windows, although lots and lots of experience with DOS (of various flavors), Linux console/shell, and Linux GUIs. I can get to the command line, just don't know what executable to run. I haven't tried other browsers, and I have no idea how to trace system calls on Windows without some sort of dev environment. So far I've gone to chrome://plugins and disabled the Flash plugin, then re-enabled it, and now it seems to work. Mostly.