If they used flash, this story would seem ridiculous: -- Adobe will offer U.S. Web surfers this month thousands of hours of free video direct from the Olympics

If they used flash, this story would seem ridiculous: -- Adobe will offer U.S. Web surfers this month thousands of hours of free video direct from the Olympics in Beijing. The service, produced in conjunction with NBC, is being hailed as a bold experiment in delivering on the original promise of the Web. For the first time, it will be possible to watch specific events on demand as well as many of the less popular sporting events, which have received scant attention in mainstream television coverage of the games. But there's a catch. To view the video, it will be necessary to download a Adobe Web browser software component based on a new proprietary technology, Flash, that is intended to make it possible to display interactive animations, graphics, audio and video, all within a fixed window inside a Web browser display. Flash will work for both Macintosh and Windows PC users, and a version for Linux is also available. A mobile version will be available on Windows Mobile and Nokia smartphones.