Back issues & Flash plugin

[Gene PavlovskyParticipant @genepavlovsky]

Back on topic:

Summary:

– New digital issues, and some back issues (>= #278) use an HTML5 reader, and so are not affected by the Flash End-Of-Life

– Majority of the back issues (<= #277), are not accessible anymore, unless one goes to some trouble to re-enable Flash.

How to re-enable Flash:

Here's what I found so far.

Adobe announced the end of Flash in 2017. It is likely that the "time bomb" (Adobe will block Flash content from running in Flash Player beginning January 12, 2021) was inserted into the Flash Player already at that time. One solution would be to install a pre-2017 Flash Player – full of known unpatched security holes. Not the best.

There's an official proper way to continue to use Flash for specific things. In the Flash Player Administration Guide there is a section "Enterprise Enablement". It explains how to add particular locations to a whitelist of allowed URLs. After this is done, Any allowed Flash content will continue to run on browsers that have not disabled Flash Player (even after January 12, 2021).

Proposed solutions to the magazine:

– Prepare an easy-to-follow, step-by-step guide with a lot of screenshots, so that anyone could set this up. Could be as simple as a downloadable ready-to-use mms.cfg and instructions where to copy-paste the file, depending on OS.

– Make older back issues available as PDF downloads. Let this be available for subscribers only, or if you're feeling generous, for everyone. If somehow you don't have the archive in PDF, I can tell you where to get them

– Consider providing new digital issues in PDF as well. Like I've discovered, it's already trivial (for a subscriber) to download the new issues (in jpg or pdf, individual pages – one file per page). These download links are not even password protected, so once any subscriber shares a link somewhere, anyone without a subscription can download them. Would be more convenient if there was a proper single-file download option, this should be password-protected (require a valid subscription)

[CalumParticipant @calumgalleitch87969]

Posted by Nick Clarke 3 on 14/01/2021 10:55:27:

Posted by Paul Lousick on 13/01/2021 22:19:00:

Adobe has has always suggested to update to their latest version for security reasons. Is there a security risk when viewing Flash files ?

This site lists over a thousand **LINK**

Flash has always been a massive security risk, due to the way it works. However, the risk is in what you download and run on it, and one may reasonably assume the good people at MEW are not out to get us.

Presumably the Flash versions are powered by some sort of backend; I can't imagine that it would be a huge amount of work for someone suitably skilled to create a script to churn through this backed and produce PDF versions of these back issues. The archive wasn't the only reason I subscribed, but it was a big part of it. I am sure I can find a way round it, but a future-proof system seems preferable.

[Gene PavlovskyParticipant @genepavlovsky]

Flash has always been a massive security risk, due to the way it works.

Presumably the Flash versions are powered by some sort of backend; I can't imagine that it would be a huge amount of work for someone suitably skilled to create a script to churn through this backed and produce PDF versions of these back issues. The archive wasn't the only reason I subscribed, but it was a big part of it. I am sure I can find a way round it, but a future-proof system seems preferable.

"Due to the way it works" sounds vague and unsubstantiated. It works in a quite similar way to a modern web browser. This is significantly more secure than a normal program that you download and run on your OS, because Flash and browsers run Flash and web applications (respectively) in a sandbox with limited access to a subset of your computer. At least in theory. In practice the sandbox has bugs and can be escaped if suitable ones are found and cleverly exploited.

I just noticed that somehow the Flash Player still works in Firefox on my work MacBook. I opened issue #269 and observed the network traffic (using a tool called Charles). The individual pages are downloaded as jpg files. As with the HTML5 player, the files are not password-protected and you don't need to log in as a subscriber to download them. Here's a link to page 30 of issue #269, for example:

https://www.mydigitalmagazine.co.uk/de/7/2787/pubData/source/images/zoompages/zoompage30.jpg

You can download all the pages and then stitch them together using one of various tools or online services (e.g. here's one from Adobe). I would also recommend to try the djvu format, could result in smaller file size.

So yeah, with a bit of effort all the back issues can be downloaded and converted to pdf or djvu. All that's needed is to figure out a way you can still run Flash (I posted about it couple of posts above), log in as a subscriber, open all the back issues one by one, and monitor the URLs being requested with a suitable tool. Take a note of base URL for each issue, then download all the pages with a simple script, and convert to desired format. Could be a fun little challenge.

Of course this would be much simpler if MyTimeMedia would take care of this for us

Or, like I mentioned before, you can find all the back issues already available as PDF downloads, in a shady back alley somewhere on the internet. It's not piracy if you already paid for access, or is it?

Edited By Gene Pavlovsky on 14/01/2021 16:07:36

Edited By Gene Pavlovsky on 14/01/2021 16:10:51

[Martin 100Participant @martin100]

It would be interesting to know precisely what native format these flash crippled magazines are stored.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Martin 100 on 14/01/2021 16:07:06:

It would be interesting to know precisely what native format these flash crippled magazines are stored.

.

See Gene’s post, above

MichaelG.

[Mike HurleyParticipant @mikehurley60381]

Posted by Paul Lousick on 14/01/2021 09:45:56:

Mike,

You will still be able to view the issues of MEW that you subscribed for and some of the archive issues as they are not in Flash format.

Pocketmags is a better way of viewing the digital magazines and all issues of Model Engineer and Model Engineers Workshop are readable from January 2016 as they do not use Flash. But Pocketmags does not have all of the earlier issues that are on the ME site

Paul

Edited By Paul Lousick on 14/01/2021 10:10:53

Thanks Paul, I was OK with the post-Flash copies on the site, but hadn't thought of trying Pocketmags again. However, when I did it only gave me access to the recent copies and no archive copies at all. So I'm still no better off. Looks like i'll just need to grin a bare it! Regards Mike

[mechman48Participant @mechman48]

Similar probs today…

Have found it; issue 251, the problem is that Adobe flash is not supported any longer & I cannot open digital issue to retrieve dwgs. This is a flaming nuisance! Is MTM going to address this point?. My renewal is due soon, am I to no linger to be able to access long time back digital issues, if so what is the point of renewing subscriptions if I can no longer refer to back issues. Can moderators look into this?. Does anyone have access to issue 251 & possibley down load article & forward via mail.

George.

Sorted, have to go through 'Pocket mags' web site, sign in to registered MEW a/c then can access digi back issues; convoluted way of going about it !

George.

Edited By JasonB on 15/01/2021 16:52:50

Edited By JasonB on 15/01/2021 16:54:15

[Gene PavlovskyParticipant @genepavlovsky]

George, somehow your post is breaking layout on my browser. I wonder if it's just my browser, or some funky edit you did.

I tried pocketmags.com, the username/password I use to log in to model-engineer.co.uk doesn't work there. Is this the right website? How do you log in?

Gene

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Gene, you have to have a digital subscription and need to enter your 10digit subscriber number.

J

PS sorted out Georges formatting.

[mechman48Participant @mechman48]

Posted by JasonB on 15/01/2021 16:55:38:

Gene, you have to have a digital subscription and need to enter your 10digit subscriber number.

J

PS sorted out Georges formatting.

That's what I had to do, thanks for sorting formating.

Geo.

[Gene PavlovskyParticipant @genepavlovsky]

All right, so I logged in to PocketMags, and the earliest back issue I can see is Feb 2020 (I subscribed in Jan 2020).

So, I can't access any old mags this way.

–Gene

[Gene PavlovskyParticipant @genepavlovsky]

Below you will find something I read on Hackaday today:

What’s that they say about death and taxes? Apparently that maxim doesn’t apply to Flash, at least when it comes to the taxman. As we noted last week, the end of the Adobe Flash era took with it a scheduling and routing app for the railway system in a Chinese city. This time around, it’s the unfortunately acronymed SARS, for South African Revenue Services, having Flash woes. They still have several online tax forms that haven’t been migrated to HTML5, so to keep the revenue flowing they built their own Flash-enabled browser. Taxpayers are free to download and use the browser while SARS works on getting the rest of their forms migrated. It sort of reminds us of those plans the Internal Revenue Service has to ensure tax collection continues after a nuclear apocalypse — death and taxes indeed.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by Gene Pavlovsky on 16/01/2021 16:58:01:

All right, so I logged in to PocketMags, and the earliest back issue I can see is Feb 2020 (I subscribed in Jan 2020).

So, I can't access any old mags this way.

–Gene

Hi Gene,

Feb 202 is the issue published in Jan 2020 – this is the way magazines are dated in the UK.

Pocketmags is the viewer for your subscription issues. These you can download and keep as long as you have a Pocketmags account.

While your subscription is active, you can also access the back issues via the online archive, which is being migrated to HTML5.

All explained here.

Neil

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Posted by mechman48 on 15/01/2021 16:40:17:

Is MTM going to address this point?.

Yes the archive is being updated to HTML5

Neil

[Gene PavlovskyParticipant @genepavlovsky]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 08/02/2021 20:39:43:

Yes the archive is being updated to HTML5

Neil

Hi Neil,

Thanks for addressing this. Do you have any rough ETAs on when the update will be complete? Is it going to be on pocketmags as well?

I didn't find the option to download them, using pocketmags website on PC. Does this downloading refer to being able to read the mags offline within the mobile apps, or is there some "download pdf" option on the website? I did find the web reader is downloading pages one by one as single-page pdfs, so as a software developer myself, it's trivial to write a script that downloads all the pages and then what's left is to merge them into a single pdf with one of pdf editors such as Acrobat, FineReader etc. But if there's some convenient "download pdf" option already available on pocketmags, I would like to know about it.

Thanks

–Gene

[Paul LousickParticipant @paullousick59116]

Hi Gene,

Unless it has changed, you cannot download from Pocketmags, only print 1 or 2 pages at a time (to office printer or pdf, etc) . Then merge pdf's into a single file or use the mobile app to read offline. I can't do this because the app requires Win 10 and I am runnin g Win 7.

Paul

Edited By Paul Lousick on 08/02/2021 22:14:19

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

It has not changed BUT you can and always have been able to download the whole mags that you have paid for from Pocketmags for offline viewing with a similar magazine viewer. No need to muck about with pdfs etc.

Download the app and go from there this is the windows one others on their website for ipad, android etc . EDIT having a job linking to the app but follow the "How it works" at the bottom of Pocketmags screen. start at step 2 as you have already purchased

They will come up like this though yours won't go back as far as mine.

 

 

Edited By JasonB on 09/02/2021 08:18:36

[HeWeParticipant @hewe]

Hello

I am new subscriber of MEW and bought print & digital. Digital only because I still wanted to read the old excellent contributions and because I speak the English language very badly – I can translate the digital version well with DEEPL ( I have no shares ).

Thanks to " Corona " and a very cold workshop ??I had time with very – very many different versions to access the MEW from No. 180 ( 2011 ) – nothing worked – by the way also "RUFFLE" which is mentioned above does not work for me. All suggested replacement programs work on Window 10 – Firefox does NOT.

I read the post dated 20-04-2020 20:40 from Neil regarding this problem. I don't quite agree with him, because the newspaper : "Machinen im Modellbau " publishes every year a CD with the previous years contributions WITHOUT advertising. Obviously that it is profitable after all, because this newspaper is much smaller than MEW.

Sorry for my bad english,

Hermann Werlen.

[Nigel TollParticipant @nigeltoll39934]

Just tried using Ruffle with Google Chrome with no success due to missing features.

Does anybody have any suggestions for Windows 7 that do work.

Nigel T

[Gene PavlovskyParticipant @genepavlovsky]

Posted by Nigel Toll on 13/04/2021 07:50:30:

Does anybody have any suggestions for Windows 7 that do work.

Maybe ask Neil on their progress with "Yes the archive is being updated to HTML5"?

[TSHParticipant @tsh73987]

I too have been frustrated by not being able to view the older editions—especially when a new article refers to something previously published. So I decided to spend some time researching what to do about it.

One source pointed out that Adobe "built a kill switch into Flash from version 32.0.0.387 onward ", but it turns out that only applies to a Flash player running within a browser. Adobe also makes available a stand-alone Flash player program—I believe that originally this was to help software developers, but it is still there.

You can get it here.

What you need is "Flash Player projector content debugger", and this is provided for a number of different operating systems. For Windows the download is just an ".exe" file—you just run it when you need it; it doesn't need installing.

When you run it, it opens in a normal window with an "Open" > "File" menu item as usual. This needs to be pointed to a ".swf" file, either locally on your computer, or (more usefully for our purposes) in a URL link to the magazine.

If there is a clamour to be able to do this I'll make another post on how to find the link after logging on with your subscription in the usual way.

Best regards,

Trevor

Edited By TSH on 17/10/2021 18:29:11

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