Shumway: Mozilla-backed Virtual Flash SWF Technology

Browser makers have four options to deal with Flash issues. They can do nothing and continue to support the Flash plugin, start to integrate Flash natively into the browser like Google did and Microsoft is doing, block Flash from their browser completely, or try to replace it with an alternative.

The Shumway project tries to do the latter. It is officially backed by Mozilla but community-driven, and aims to create a technology that can interpret Flash contents without “native code assistance”. This basically means a technology that can display Flash contents in the browser even if Flash is not installed on the computer.

This sounds familiar to Mozilla’s pdf.js project where the organization created a PDF reader for Firefox that is purely based on JavaScript, HTML and CSS. The PDF reader has been integrated into nightly versions of the browser. As far as Shumway goes, it will take some time before we are going to see working prototypes of the project.

And while integration with Firefox is possible, it is not a dead-given at this point in development as the developers note.

Creating a pdf renderer and a Flash interpreter are two different beasts, with the latter being more complicated than the former. To give one example: Once you have rendered the pdf document in the browser, you do not really have to take performance into consideration any longer. With Flash, especially when it comes to interactive elements or games, performance is always an issue.It is a complex beast that the developers of Shumway have to tackle, and it is not really clear yet if it is possible to create a 100% compatible version in the end.

The developers have made available an extension and several examples on the official project website over at Github. If you are really interested in the project I suggest you check those out.

Shumway is by no means the only project that aims to create an alternative to Adobe Flash. For Linux, there is Lightspark and Gnash, and Google too has created a Flash SWF to HTMl5 converter called Swiffy.

For Mozilla, the idea makes sense, considering that the company is not in the same boat as Google or Microsoft that both have access to Flash’s source code to implement the technology natively into its browsers. For Mozilla this meant no Flash support under Windows 8 Metro, and that’s exactly what Shumway will take care of.

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About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Tuesday June 12, 2012 -
Tags:Firefox, flash, mozilla

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If You Sell Online, Protect Your Virtual Goods Properly

Back in 2007 I discovered by accident that virtual goods sold on the large digital marketplace Clickbank were not protected properly from unauthorized access (see Clickbank we have a problem). Five years later, I’m going to find out if Clickbank has resolved the issues, and if other marketplaces or products are also improperly protected from third party access.

Before I start, I’d like to point out that downloading those products without having purchased them first is not legal. My main motivation for writing the article is to raise awareness for the issue.

If you look at the Clickbank order process, you will notice that payments are handled by Clickbank, but that the products are provided by the merchants on their sites. The big issue here is that customers do not need accounts to buy the products, and that this means that vendors cannot protect their download pages by locking out everyone who has not an account.

Two core issues come together here:

The product download page is not protected, for instance by making it only accessible to registered users.Search engines may index those links so that they become available publicly on the Internet.

The process itself has not changed in the past five years. Clickbank suggests however that merchants run scripts on their Thank you Page that checks the validity of the page visitor. The company has started to pass along values, the cbreceipt value for instance, the proof of purchase value or the item number to the thank you page. Vendors can use scripting languages like PHP or Perl to verify the visitor before the download page is displayed.

Clickbank furthermore suggests to add a meta tag to the Thank You Page that protects it from getting indexed by search engine robots. (see Protecting Your Products)

The big issue here is that these are recommendations, and that many Clickbank vendors are not making use of them.

If you search for “CLKBANK Download instructions” or CLKBANK “save as” for instance, you will come up with dozens, if not hundreds of product Thank you pages. The verification script could protect the download pages, but most sites during tests did not have that implemented. If a Thank You Page is indexed, it is an indicator that the vendor has not implemented the meta tag, and it is therefor very likely that the verification script has not been implemented as well.

You will find some broken links there. Vendors often change their Thank You Page url when they notice that it has been leaked on the Internet.

Is Clickbank the only digital marketplace that is favoring ease of access over product security? No it is not. Warrior Special Offers, or WSO, is another merchant where this is happening. These products concentrate on the Internet Marketing niche. When you search for wso thank you you will again find dozens of results that point directly to product download pages.

Those two are not the only marketplaces where virtual goods are sold.

Solution

If you, as a vendor, are limited by the marketplace protection-wise, you might want to think about switching the marketplace. It is not always a feasible thing to do, especially if the marketplace you are using is the only big player in your niche. Clickbank vendors should implement the protection suggested by the marketplace to protect their goods from being indexed by search engines and downloaded by people who have not purchased them.

Similar options may or may not be available on other marketplaces.

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Properly Reset Firefox Download Actions About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Sunday March 4, 2012 -
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Retail Graphics and also other Virtual Advertising and marketing Options You Could Rely Upon

While your primary goal in doing business is to generate income, you won't accomplish this if you do not give proper attention to promoting. You can actually choose from several products to advertise your brand. One of the classic yet beneficial components to work with is retail graphics.

It is not necessarily sufficient that you've your brand or logo in front of your shop. That is helpful for organized agencies along with unique logos that individuals realize right away. If you're a new storeowner, you will need to compete with other established companies to get your share of the market. It is not just regarding specializing in the standard of your items; you will have to work hard in promoting your brand.

While you're still a budding business within a strict budget, you will need to work with the accessible and reasonable sources. Going for TV advertisement strategies is really pricey. Simple visuals you can placed in your retail window or exhibit near your shop can be enough to draw people in. Large printing products and services are around to produce posters, banners, tarpaulins, and billboard advertisements.

There are 2 different systems where one can efficiently utilize retail graphics to promote your products. Let's use a clothing store as example.

In-store promotion

Don't you continually find huge prints plastered inside of the store window, throughout the walls or on the sides of clothes racks? Using mannequins to display the clothes is not sufficient to hook people's particular attention. People desire to get connected to the things they observe. This is the reason it will always be easier to utilize large prints of models wearing your products. Individuals need to visualize the way the clothes would appear on them by way of images of real folks, not headless statues. Not only do they have an effect on potential customers, they may additionally give your outlet a qualified look.

Outdoor marketing

As being a freshly opened up shop, people will have no clue within the location of your outlet. Banners, posters and tarpaulins can be quite a great method to point and direct potential customers to the shop. If your advertising is fixed in your store and close by areas, you will simply be depending on word-of-mouth and chance. Your visitors is going to be restricted as well. Large printing packages often specify several duplicates for your promotional supplies. You possibly can purposefully place these prints on legal advertising posts and areas.

The design of your retail graphics is the most crucial factor. It must create brand recall. If people keep seeing the name of your store, chances are it will be imprinted on their brain until they finally decide to check your store out. Teasers are good strategies to lure people in. Your prints do not have to show everything about your store. It should only stir up emotion, or generate interest enough to call people into action. Sometimes, you do not even have to include what your store is about. You can play on text and images through unique and interesting displays.

Remember, if you want people to spread the word about your store automatically, you need to produce a catchy and effective campaign.

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