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Author Topic: MarlinCrawler.com is now Flash Free!  (Read 2779 times)

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BigMike

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MarlinCrawler.com is now Flash Free!
« on: Jul 16, 2015, 06:20:49 PM »
Hello :turtle: fans world-wide!

We'd like to announce that in light of the recent multiple Adobe Flash security vulnerabilities, our website is now free from any Adobe Flash features :clap2:

Since I resumed Webmastering here at Marlin Crawler back in October of 2008, we have been using the Scalable Inman Flash Replacement (sIFR) web font implementation. sIFR combines Javascript with Adobe Flash to embed True Type Fonts directly into websites. We have used this to dynamically populate page headers with an otherwise unavailable font for a nice, custom and dynamic theme. Ironically, the last stable sIFR version was released that same month I began building the website.

Because Flash is a closed, proprietary system that is a "popular punching bag for hackers" (see Flash. Must. Die.), Firefox is now automatically disabling it if it's plugin is found to be outdated. While this doesn't break our website, it does negatively alter our theme which may lead to usability issues as it disables all our headers powered by sIFR. In addition to security concerns, sIFR text does not show up in webpage searches, is rendered post-page-load (slow), and triggers mechanisms in ad-blocking plugins.

Fast forward to the present and we have seen almost half a dozen Flash security releases this week alone (see Flash Player security failures turn up the hate). A bit of searching yields many anti-Flash websites such as Occupy Flash: The movement to rid the world of the Flash Player plugin. Apple iDevice users have long known that Flash is unsupported (Steve Jobs wrote an article explaining why), Andriod phones have not supported it since 2012, Facebook's security chief is calling for its end, and YouTube is phasing it out for newer HTML5 web-standard technologies.

Which brings us back to our website. We are now using an open-source and web-standard platform for displaying custom web fonts, @font-face. Additionally, we have switched to a publicly licensed (freeware) font type that better matches our open-ended creativity and public support business model.
@font-face is a style sheet technology that all modern browsers have support for right out of the box. :booya:

Benefits over sIFR include...
  • Faster page loads
  • Lower memory usage
  • Inline page rendering
  • Text search capability
  • Direct styling support
  • Ad-block software friendly
  • No longer requires Javascript
  • Less code to maintain
  • Full cross-platform support
  • Is Open Source (transparent)
    and best of all,
  • No more Security issues from Adobe! :hattip:

Thank you as always for continuing to visit and support http://www.marlincrawler.com, where we've always taken both your Off-Road Product Reliability and Internet Security seriously! :turtlehead:

Regards,
BigMike



ps. While we're on the open source and anti-Adobe train, might I suggest the open source, free, lightweight and portable Sumatra PDF reader. Get rid of the bloatware that is Adobe Reader today!
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Slabzilla

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Re: MarlinCrawler.com is now Flash Free!
« Reply #1 on: Jul 16, 2015, 07:14:08 PM »
Thanks for keeping us up to date and trouble free. :beerchug:
'85 Xtra-cab, 4.5" Downey Off-Road lift, 12-15 KM2's on American Racing Baja's, Marlin's-4.88's & 4.7's, Downey Off-Road CAI, Marlin rear bumper & sliders

BigMike [OP]

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Re: MarlinCrawler.com is now Flash Free!
« Reply #2 on: Jul 16, 2015, 08:00:36 PM »
Just had some fun with this on Facebook :yupyup:

Check out our new Rock Crawling Videos!
2016 56-speed 580:1 Tacoma Rock Crawler   
1981 36-speed 511:1 3RZ-FE Rock Crawler
1987 6-speed Supercharged 4A-GZE MR2
Instagram: @SlowestTacoma
Things are only impossible until they are not.
"The worst of both worlds, the best of neither." -abnormaltoy
"An informed question. But difficult to answer. I am what you see." -Nanaki

 
 
 
 
 

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