Adobe FlashPlayer End Of Life

As a complete novice I have just bought a Stuart Oscillator kit, and like many others have some questions on machining sequence for the standard. From associated threads I discovered that this engine was covered in detail over 5 editions commencing 4396, and so took out a subscription to gain access to the on-line archive. However, on attempting to open the document I got the message that Flashplayer V9 or above is required, and on trying to find a download for MacBook found that Fashplayer went 'End Of Life' Dec 2020. Is there anyone out there who can advise how to view these older online editions without having Flashplayer, and/or point me to other helpful articles on the Stuart Oscillator. Please bear in mind when composing your response that I am a complete novice regarding model engineering, and fairly illiterate on all things IT!

Do a search for Adobe Flash __ using the search box on the home page

**LINK** : https://www.model-engineer.co.uk

You should find several threads … one or more of which will give you guidance.

Most notably : One recent thread mentioned that the iPad works O.K.

Despite the fact that Steve Jobs refused to put Flash on them !!

MichaelG.

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Thanks for the reply Michael, still struggling with MacBook but will keep trying and post if I find a solution.

Steve

I can open the old mags on my iPad using Google Chrome browser. See screenshot.

I don’t know if this will work on a MacBook.

Stuart

Stuart, thanks for this, I tried Chrome with Windows with no success and am reluctant to load Chrome on the MacBook as there are negative reviews on device performance. However, a very kind individual from this forum has sent me the editions for the Oscillator, so sorted for now thanks. Steve

Steve

My wife has a MacBook Air with Chrome installed, so I have tried to access the magazines on that. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work.

Stuart

Thanks for taking the trouble to confirm Stuart, I also have a MacBook Air. I would hope that ME mag get this sorted, access to the online archive was a key factor in my decision to subscribe. Steve

My personal opinion - being a moderator doesn't come with any understanding of the forum's inner workings or what MyTimeMedia are planning to do with it. I think the mixed results are because some of the early magazines have been converted to not require Flash, and therefore should read on any modern Browser, but the majority are still in Flash form.

There are 5 or 6 free Flash alternatives available but I've not got any of them to work on magazines. Seems they all decode Flash Videos and Games but not the Flash format used to store magazine pages.

As an ex-IT person, I can confirm you really don't want Flash on your computer. Although it functions extremely well there are several objections to it (see the Wilkipedia article if interested). Most worrying to the ordinary user is the underlying code is riddled with security problems. So many and so difficult to fix that Adobe pulled the product and recommend not installing it. Most browsers, operating systems and AVM products are configured to block it. It's roughly equivalent to fitting front and back doors with no locks to your home. They keep the weather out, but the first crook who tries the handle walks straight in.

Dave

Dave, I completely agree with you about FlashPlayer, and the issue of future proofing digital media is a nightmare. I am involved with a large museum which has 100s of 1,000s of documents and photos that that need to be preserved for posterity and ideally be available to the public on-line, sorting a long-term digital strategy is a major challenge given the rate at which formats and standards change. Let's hope that resolving this is a priority for MyTimeMedia. Steve

In case anyone is interested, I have just installed (free) software that allows me to read the old Flash based MEW archives on my PC ( windows 10).

I installed a browser called Pale Moon The Pale Moon Project homepage and a Flash replacement program called Lightspark Releases · lightspark/lightspark · GitHub. In my case both were the x64 versions.

The instructions for installing the Lightspark plugins to Pale Moon are at Getting Lightspark up and running in Web Browser · lightspark/lightspark Wiki · GitHub

After installation and logging into the Forum using Pale Moon, I was able to read both the current ( Latest in the archive i.e. 312) and old Flash based copies ( I was after 121).

Hope this helps someone.

Disclaimer. Installing this software is at your own risk. My (various) virus and security softwares have not yet thrown a wobbler at either the downloads at the installation - but take care. Dave's comments about Flash are valid, so I will only be using the Pale Moon Browser with Flash enabled for MEW  archives.

Edited By Peter Cook 6 on 21/05/2022 18:20:47