MER Website Issues Options

[Juramike]

Ahhhh! I figured someone had developed a solution, somewhere! Thanks for reposting that link!

[Xerxes]

It turns out there is a Y2K-style problem in most flash applications. When they check the version number for compatibility, they only check the first digit, forgetting that one day in the distant future, this number might go to two digits. It's possible to work around this problem without downgrading by giving the flash dll a little brain surgery. Just locate the two spots in the code where the strings "10,0" occur and change them to something like "90,0". This will make the bad version checkers think you still have v9 while you can enjoy the benefits of actually having v10.

I'd post my modified binary except it's probably illegal, and tampering with a binary might cause your computer to implode into a black hole. I wouldn't want to be responsible for that. But from what I've seen so far, it works for me.

I might point out that since this problem is a bug on the application side rather than a bug in v10 itself, it's unlikely that Adobe will (or even can) fix it by updating Flash. Since it's also unlikely that every bad application will get fixed, this kind of patch might be the only way to get things running for a wide variety of uses.

[Del Palmer]

Anyone else having browser crashes when using Flash 9 on the new YouTube player? Just updated to v10 on Firefox which solves the issue, but will keep IE6 at v9 for the MER clocks.

[briv1016]

Update: The Spirit image seems to be working now but not Opportunity.

[Del Palmer]

I guess they've only just noticed the issue (it is usually around this time of year when they have to change the total sols count -- in Flash 9 land, Spirit's clock is correct but Oppy's clock reads Sol 1405.)

[briv1016]

Both scripts are now working.

[Stu]

Did this "Flash 10" issue ever get resolved?

I ask because I've just bought myself a netbook, and having been advised by a friend to use Firefox on it (I know, I know, how behind am I...!!) I can now see why everyone raves about it, and have put it on my main PC too. Haven't needed it before because AOL (and yes, I am the last person on Earth using AOL...) has its own browser, which is really good actually, but I wanted to use the Firefox add-ons I've heard so much about, especially to let me download YouTube videos etc to use in my talks...

Anyway, installed FF on my PC, and an app (Downloadhelper) to let me download YouTube content, and an FLV viewer to let me, well, view them, but when I went to watch YouTube on the PC with Firefox it told me I needed to upgrade to Flash 10. Hmmm. That set alarm bells ringing, cos I remembered this thread reporting that that has caused some problems fpr people... but the subject just peters out, so, wondering now if I'm okay to go ahead and install it, or if it will frak things up. I can download stuff on my netbook just fine, so not a problem really, and that does kinda suggest the problems have been resolved, but still, can't hurt to ask. It would just be easier to do it on the PC, obviously...

Any advice/suggestions appreciated, as usual.

[helvick]

No issues for me and I run Flash Player 10.0.22.87 (the most recent) on a bunch of systems. I had a lot of problems with the early V10 Flash players as a lot of the training material I use in my job is built on Flash (amongst other things) but those issues have been resolved one way or another with the various minor version updates and other things.

Go for it, and welcome to the world of high performance browsing.

[Stu]

Go for it, and welcome to the world of high performance browsing.

Very reassuring, thanks.

[Astro0]

Not that it's really crucial, but I noticed that the clocks on the MER webpage are out of sync again.

[Tman]

They have been "out of synch all along". But this year not anybody seems to bother that they are attached wrongly to the respective Rover.