And now I have that "Flash" song by Queen stuck in my head...

Dear TD Web Banking Support,

Ever since the weekend [when you upgraded your site], I've been unable to log on to EasyWeb. For reference, here are my browser details:

Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard)
Browser: Firefox 3.6.7

Whenever I try logging in, just after the userid/password screen, I would get a service unavailable message (see screen capture). However, I was able to log in successfully using Safari.

I looked at your JavaScript, and saw that you were using the Dojo JavaScript library to manipulate a Flash store. My Firefox instance has a Flash-blocking plug-in.

I tried some experiments, and discovered that if Flash is blocked, I cannot log in, but if Flash is unblocked, then I can. I am able to set up a configuration that permits Flash only for the TD site, which solves the problem for me.

I'm sending this note for two reasons:

1) I think that other TD customers might encounter this problem; and

2) I think that it's a bad choice to depend on an invisible Flash functions in order to make the site work, and I think you should rethink it.

Obviously, it's your site and you get to make these choices, but I nonetheless feel that this decision merits reconsideration.

Thanks you for your time,
BC

I mean, jeezuz, the site doesn't use Flash for anything visible.

Backwards World Weekly News

I'm finding this whole incident is leaving me stunned and wordless.

I think I must be getting the news from Backwards-World.

Why Does Google News Disappoint?

Google does a lot of neat stuff. So much really nifty stuff. There are so many cool features in Google Maps alone that I'm in awe of their tech skills. Google Books. Google Language Tools. Incredible tools. I don't even use many of the Google apps. I don't have GMail, and I seldom use Google Docs. But they really seem to know what they're doing.

So why is that Google News is such a big disappointment? ( Thar! She Blows! )

Punk'd

CRIME's press conference on Thursday comes one week after the French government stated it was considering legal recourse against those behind the spoof announcement that France would repay the 90 million gold francs it had demanded in financial compensation from Haiti after the former French colony's independence.

CRIME took responsibility for the fake announcement last Friday, with the group’s spokesperson Laurence Fabre commenting that "It is most unfortunate that the Quay d'Orsay has been so ungrateful, and frankly, uncooperative, with our bold initiative to improve the French government's reputation in Haiti."

In a public statement explaining their action, CRIME stated, "Is a spoof website such a grave crime, when compared to what the French have done in Haiti? We leave it to the court of world public opinion to decide: Who are the real criminals."

— "Haiti Hoaxters Hold Real Press Conference"

Oh... and France? Maybe you should quit complaining and pay.

And superheroes come to feast/to taste the flesh not yet deceased

Doesn't Jay Smooth know how much he's needed right now?