A little over 5 years ago, I submitted a patch to the ming project, an API for creating Flash SWF files. The patch was a total hack: don't know how many frames of video you plan to send? Set the frame count in the header to an absurdly high number and just truncate the stream when you're done. Yes, that's better solved by streaming solutions today, but five years ago I could not find any free streaming solutions for Flash.
Today my patch was rejected for being a hack.
