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New York Times Crosswords pages do not work, slow youtube video as well.

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Quercus

19 Jun, 2012 09:39 AM

Just switched from Firefox 3.6 to 10.4Fx 10.0.5, because of the annoyingly repeating "Update Now!" messages. Also youtube did not work on the old version, so. Not being a wizzkid, I have chosen the stable branche for my G5 Mac.
When doing the daily routine as a first test, it appeared that the puzzles on NYT (see http://www.nytimes.com/ref/crosswords/sudoku/medium.html ) come up very fast, but without the content that I'm after. In Ffx 3.6, first a Javathing comes up (chessboard-like revolving pattern), which apparently decodes the puzzle to something my machine can handle. I was not expecting to see this working the same, as I read that Java (or is it JavaScript?) is disabled. However, it does not work at all! Neither do the difficult or simple versions of the sudoku, Set-puzzles, etc..

Question 1: does this mean that 10.4Fx does not support what I usually describe as my daily Alzheimer Prevention Therapy? Should I go back to Ffx 3.6. to do this, or what?

Second test was whether me beloved jazz banjo videos on YouTube would do something recognizable. When opening, a very quick reference to Silverlight plugin (by default disabled, I have read that note on 10.4Fx) flashes over the screen, too fast to read what it is all about. Next the sound works as expected, but the video gives a still frame every 5 to 10 seconds (try f.i. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pu3jT7GE1Lg and don't forget to enjoy the music in the first place). No problem listening, but if one wants to find out how the player does it, where he grabs the chords, etc., this is not much help.

Question 2: should I disembark from my faithful G5 and stimulate the economy by buying a totally new machine that's too big to fit on my desk, with software that is up-to-date but needs another year of training?

Many thanks in advance to get this sorted out.

1. Support Staff 1 Posted by Cameron Kaiser on 19 Jun, 2012 01:26 PM

   

   The first part undoubtedly requires Flash. You could use a browser such as OmniWeb or Camino for that, but you should be advised that Flash has not been updated in some time for Power Macs, and has security concerns, which is why it is disabled in TenFourFox.

   The second part should be playable, but the video may be too much for the G5 to decode. Again, Flash will help here, although the video appears to play fine on my quad G5.

   Both of these usages do benefit from software no longer being produced for Power Macs, however, so if they are primary portions of your browsing habits, you will find getting an Intel Mac to unfortunately be the best way to handle them. It will not only be faster, but it will not suffer from the security or feature deficiencies of the last Adobe release for PPC.

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2. Support Staff 2 Posted by Chris (chtrusch... on 19 Jun, 2012 02:14 PM

   

   Your Sudoku is a Java applet, which is even worse than Flash. Java security holes are actively being exploited on the Mac, so you wouldn't be safe in any browser on PPC Macs. There are several html based Sudoku games on the web, such as www.sudokubum.com that work just fine without either Java or Flash.

   For YouTube, you could also use the MacTubes application. It seems a bit tedious at first to copy the video url and insert in MacTubes, but once you're used to it, you actually save a lot of time and anger I think because video will play instantly, smoothly and without audio stuttering. This way I can even watch YouTube videos on my 400 MHz G3.

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3. 3 Posted by Quercus on 19 Jun, 2012 07:22 PM

   

   Both Cameron and Chris, thanks you both for your reply. You make clear that this perfectly functional system cannot be used anymore without risking severe infection by nasty bits and bytes. It also makes clear that 10.4Fx is not the solution for the problems that Ffx3.6 is said to have. Although googlemail keeps reminding me it might not work in co-operation with Ffx3.6, I never had the slightest problem there. Your answer is much more informative than Google: it's not Ffx3.6, but someone else's additions to it that may harm my defense (if relied on in court).

   The link to Mactubes that is on the 10.4Fx FAQ page brings me to an apparently Japanese website. Probably very good, but unreadable for me (it could as well be Chinese), and with no sign as to where I could convince the site to let me read English. No Union Jack or Stars and Stripes to click on, let alone a Red-White-and-Blue. If you have a suggestion where to get Mactubes in a usable form, I would be once again very grateful. Even if it's got something tedious, it can't be more tedious than WordStar under MS-DOS 2.10, if you're old enough to remember that. Or changing the boot sector of a floppy to make it readable under CPM on a Dec Rainbow with an Intel 8088 CPU. Kidding.

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4. Support Staff 4 Posted by Cameron Kaiser on 19 Jun, 2012 07:35 PM

   

   Thank you for alerting us to the fact their site has moved. They are now at http://macapps.sakura.ne.jp/mactubes/index_en.html and the URLs are corrected.

   Fx 3.6 has its own security failings, which Mozilla openly warns of. The problem is that Java and Flash compound them, and because these are not open source solutions, they cannot be rebuilt for PPC Macs in the way that Firefox can to yield TenFourFox.

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5. 5 Posted by Quercus on 25 Jun, 2012 11:06 AM

   

   Cameron,

   Thanks for this extended answer. Now my level of knowledge and understanding concerning these matters is very basic, so just to make sure that I understand it correctly:
   1 Is the sole presence of the plugin on my system already opening the backdoor for people with bad intentions?
   2 Using Java applets is a security risk. If I assume that f.i. the website of the New York Times is guarded very precisely, could someone with bad intentions attack my system nevertheless, from the moment that the Java applet is started untill I'm done?

   Thanks in advance for your advise.

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6. Support Staff 6 Posted by Chris (chtrusch... on 26 Jun, 2012 07:25 AM

   

   Quercus, yes, both Java and the Flash plugin (being not up to date anymore on PPC Macs) in theory provide backdoors. Any website can start the Java plugin, not just the NYT, without you even noticing it. The Java plugin's backdoor has actually been used by bad guys to install malware on Intel Macs. PPC Macs could have been specified as a target as well: The exploit worked, but the actual malware was Intel only. The difference is that Intel Macs can be updated (both the OS and the plugins) to be secure again. PPC Macs will never be updated, and it's only a matter of time until even more security holes are discovered and a bad guy compiles the malware to work on PPC Macs as well. It could be done today, no problem.

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7. 7 Posted by Quercus on 28 Jun, 2012 07:38 AM

   

   Chris,

   Thanks for your effort. After I read your message, I started a search for a virus checker that could tell me whether my machine was infected. An older version of Norton indeed found two Trojans in a back alley of one of the users files. (I never do normal work under su priviliges, only when needed for system management.) The infected files were found in a caches/java folder. Names were des.jar, then a long number, and piu.bin with a long number, both zip-files. Does that ring a bell? They have been dealt with immediately, of course.
   This makes me think more and harder about replacing this perfectly working machine, however sad that may be. A Macmini and a screen will probably be enough. And a lot of work to get all of the 624,000 files sorted out before transferring a few 1000 important ones.
   Only other option: replace OS X 10.4 with Ubuntu 10.04, which is still supported.

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8. Support Staff 8 Posted by Chris (chtrusch... on 28 Jun, 2012 08:11 AM

   

   Quercus,

   Norton will probably do more harm than good in the long run. I can't say if the things it found were malware, might have been since one of them (the .jar file) is Java related. Deleting stuff in caches/java is harmless, however.

   If you feel you need an anti virus tool, I recommend first uninstalling Norton, re-starting the Mac and then installing ClamXav (free). There's a version for 10.4 (2.2.1). http://www.clamxav.com/

   To get Linux running and to adjust your workflow to the new OS means a lot of work, if you succeed at all. If you keep Mac OS X 10.4, use TenFourFox without plugins and use ClamXav to check for malware every once in a while, you're pretty safe right now.

   BTW, I strongly recommend backing up important files before running any sort of antivirus tool.

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