Slashdot Mirror

First, I had to click the FlashBlock icon to get it to play (since autostarting flash is a dumb idea when it's almost always an annoying ad). Second, my default Privoxy install helpfully blocked the flash movie from playing since there's a nasty "/ads/" redflag in the URL.

Go install privoxy (http://www.privoxy.org/) and see the web ad free. You can even allow ads at sites you want to support like ./

The only ads that I see are the text based ones. Your surfing time is faster as you don't download all the graphics and flash files these guys put up. Privoxy also handles my popup blocking instead of Mozilla/Firefox.

Once the ads are blocked, the web is a much better place.

Okay, maybe it's a bit much for the regular user, but slashdaughters should be able to get this to work.

It showed:

Feb 07 12:14:59 Privoxy(03720) Request: www.xn--pypal-4ve.com/

That isn't a firewall. That's a web filter.

A lot of the higher-end products that include firewall capability also include at least some sort of web filter.

If, by some unlikely circumstance, your suggestion derives from astroturfing nor trolling and you honestly believe in the effectiveness of web filters, then pity prevents me from responding to it.

Then you'd agree I have the last word.

• inserting biased editorialising [slashdot.org] into story blurbs by putting words in quotes [slashdot.org] to put Democrat-oriented stories into disrepute
• going off on rants [slashdot.org] in the article text in all caps, screaming and railing against Intel's 64-bit efforts
• posting stories that have been instantly archived, allowing no one to post, and then not fixing the situation for an hour and a half
• moderating to -1, Offtopic or -1, Flamebait anyone who contests his idiot behavior
• modbombing entire threads of dozens of posts to -1, Offtopic
• applying a bitchslap operation [slashdot.org] to users who disagree with him, setting their karma to Bad or Terrible [slashdot.org] and taking away their ability to ever moderate again
• abusing his editor position for his personal vendetta [slashdot.org] against his DSL provider, inserting irrelevant [slashdot.org], insolent [slashdot.org] comments in the department line.
• not explaining his actions
• hijacking domains [google.com] (and then having the audacity to admonish others for it [slashdot.org])
• posting blatantly false hoax stories, perpetuating the flow of misinformation (case in point: the tsunami creature story [slashdot.org])
• posting links to sites that have then been switched to goatse, and then not explain what happened afterwards
• not editing stories in light of new, overriding information
• posting stories with broken URLs
• posting stories in the wrong section
• posting consecutive dupes - only he, CmdrTaco and timothy have managed to do this

The list goes on and on. michael must go. Slashdot's not that great as it is, but he's just dragging this place down all the faster. What can we do? Taco ignores all emails about his beloved $20K-a-year staff; he trusts michael more than the opinion of his beloved readers. Taco won't do a thing unless we can hit him where it hurts - in the pocket.

How? Simple. Taco relies upon the insightful-sounding commentary that this site occasionally produces. (You'll notice he doesn't go to the trouble of modding it up himself - he leaves it to us!). Without it, people stop visiting and Slashdot becomes unprofitable. So, here's what to do if you want to oust michael and force Taco to fix Slashdot:

• install adblocking software like Privoxy [privoxy.org] to block adverts
• set your preferences [slashdot.org] to eliminate the slanted crap posted by michael
• don't put links to Slashdot URLs on your blog; link directly to the URLs that the Slashdot story includes
• don't post gen

• inserting biased editorialising [slashdot.org] into story blurbs by putting words in quotes [slashdot.org] to put Democrat-oriented stories into disrepute
• going off on rants [slashdot.org] in the article text in all caps, screaming and railing against Intel's 64-bit efforts
• posting stories that have been instantly archived, allowing no one to post, and then not fixing the situation for an hour and a half
• moderating to -1, Offtopic or -1, Flamebait anyone who contests his idiot behavior
• modbombing entire threads of dozens of posts to -1, Offtopic
• applying a bitchslap operation [slashdot.org] to users who disagree with him, setting their karma to Bad or Terrible [slashdot.org] and taking away their ability to ever moderate again
• abusing his editor position for his personal vendetta [slashdot.org] against his DSL provider, inserting irrelevant [slashdot.org], insolent [slashdot.org] comments in the department line.
• not explaining his actions
• hijacking domains [google.com] (and then having the audacity to admonish others for it [slashdot.org])
• posting blatantly false hoax stories, perpetuating the flow of misinformation (case in point: the tsunami creature story [slashdot.org])
• posting links to sites that have then been switched to goatse, and then not explain what happened afterwards
• not editing stories in light of new, overriding information
• posting stories with broken URLs
• posting stories in the wrong section
• posting consecutive dupes - only he, CmdrTaco and timothy have managed to do this

The list goes on and on. michael must go. Slashdot's not that great as it is, but he's just dragging this place down all the faster. What can we do? Taco ignores all emails about his beloved $20K-a-year staff; he trusts michael more than the opinion of his beloved readers. Taco won't do a thing unless we can hit him where it hurts - in the pocket.

How? Simple. Taco relies upon the insightful-sounding commentary that this site occasionally produces. (You'll notice he doesn't go to the trouble of modding it up himself - he leaves it to us!). Without it, people stop visiting and Slashdot becomes unprofitable. So, here's what to do if you want to oust michael and force Taco to fix Slashdot:

• install adblocking software like Privoxy [privoxy.org] to block adverts
• set your preferences [slashdot.org] to eliminate the slanted crap posted by michael
• don't put links to Slashdot URLs on your blog; link directly to the URLs that the Slashdot story includes
• don't post gen

• inserting biased editorialising into story blurbs by putting words in "quotes" to put Democrat-oriented stories into disrepute
• going off on rants in the article text in all caps, screaming and railing against Intel's 64-bit efforts
• posting stories that have been instantly archived, allowing no one to post, and then not fixing the situation for an hour and a half
• moderating to -1, Offtopic or -1, Flamebait anyone who contests his idiot behavior
• modbombing entire threads of dozens of posts to -1, Offtopic
• applying a "bitchslap" operation to users who disagree with him, setting their karma to "Bad" or "Terrible" and taking away their ability to ever moderate again
• abusing his editor position for his personal vendetta against his DSL provider, inserting irrelevant, insolent comments in the "department" line.
• not explaining his actions
• hijacking domains (and then having the audacity to admonish others for it)
• posting blatantly false hoax stories, perpetuating the flow of misinformation (case in point: the tsunami creature story)
• posting links to sites that have then been switched to goatse, and then not explain what happened afterwards
• not editing stories in light of new, overriding information
• posting stories with broken URLs
• posting stories in the wrong section
• posting consecutive dupes - only he, CmdrTaco and timothy have managed to do this

The list goes on and on. michael must go. Slashdot's not that great as it is, but he's just dragging this place down all the faster. What can we do? Taco ignores all emails about his beloved $20K-a-year staff; he trusts michael more than the opinion of his beloved readers. Taco won't do a thing unless we can hit him where it hurts - in the pocket.
How? Simple. Taco relies upon the insightful-sounding commentary that this site occasionally produces. (You'll notice he doesn't go to the trouble of modding it up himself - he leaves it to us!). Without it, people stop visiting and Slashdot becomes unprofitable. So, here's what to do if you want to oust michael and force Taco to fix Slashdot:

• install adblocking software like Privoxy to block adverts
• set your preferences to eliminate the slanted crap posted by michael
• don't put links to Slashdot URLs on your blog; link directly to the URLs that the Slashdot story includes
• don't post genuine comments in the stories; if you must post them at all, do them in the journals of the people you want to talk to or email them privately
• any time michael (or any editor, for that matter) does something that they need to be

• inserting biased editorialising into story blurbs by putting words in "quotes" to put Democrat-oriented stories into disrepute
• going off on rants in the article text in all caps, screaming and railing against Intel's 64-bit efforts
• posting stories that have been instantly archived, allowing no one to post, and then not fixing the situation for an hour and a half
• moderating to -1, Offtopic or -1, Flamebait anyone who contests his idiot behavior
• modbombing entire threads of dozens of posts to -1, Offtopic
• applying a "bitchslap" operation to users who disagree with him, setting their karma to "Bad" or "Terrible" and taking away their ability to ever moderate again
• abusing his editor position for his personal vendetta against his DSL provider, inserting irrelevant, insolent comments in the "department" line.
• not explaining his actions
• hijacking domains (and then having the audacity to admonish others for it)
• posting blatantly false hoax stories, perpetuating the flow of misinformation (case in point: the tsunami creature story)
• posting links to sites that have then been switched to goatse, and then not explain what happened afterwards
• not editing stories in light of new, overriding information
• posting stories with broken URLs
• posting stories in the wrong section
• posting consecutive dupes - only he, CmdrTaco and timothy have managed to do this

The list goes on and on. michael must go. Slashdot's not that great as it is, but he's just dragging this place down all the faster. What can we do? Taco ignores all emails about his beloved $20K-a-year staff; he trusts michael more than the opinion of his beloved readers. Taco won't do a thing unless we can hit him where it hurts - in the pocket.
How? Simple. Taco relies upon the insightful-sounding commentary that this site occasionally produces. (You'll notice he doesn't go to the trouble of modding it up himself - he leaves it to us!). Without it, people stop visiting and Slashdot becomes unprofitable. So, here's what to do if you want to oust michael and force Taco to fix Slashdot:

• install adblocking software like Privoxy to block adverts
• set your preferences to eliminate the slanted crap posted by michael
• don't put links to Slashdot URLs on your blog; link directly to the URLs that the Slashdot story includes
• don't post genuine comments in the stories; if you must post them at all, do them in the journals of the people you want to talk to or email them privately
• any time michael (or any editor, for that matter) does something that they need to be

• insert biased editorialising into story blurbs by putting words in "quotes" to put Democrat-oriented stories into disrepute
• go off on rants in prominent comments in all caps, screaming and railing against Intel's 64-bit efforts
• posting stories that have been instantly archived, allowing no one
  to post, and then not fixing the situation for an hour and a half
• moderating to -1, Offtopic or -1, Flamebait anyone who contests his idiot behaviour
• modbombing entire threads of dozens of posts to -1, Offtopic
• applying a "bitchslap" operation to users who disagree with him, setting their karma to "Bad" or "Terrible" and taking away their ability to ever moderate again
• not explain his actions
• hijack domains
• post blatantly false hoax stories, perpetuating the flow of misinformation (case in point: the tsunami creature story)
• post links to sites that have then been switched to goatse, and then not explain what happened afterwards
• not edit stories in light of new, overriding information
• posted stories with broken URLs
• posted stories in the wrong section
• posted consecutive dupes - only he, CmdrTaco and timothy have managed to do this

The list goes on and on. michael must go. Slashdot's not that great as it is, but he's just dragging this place down all the faster. What can we do? Taco ignores all emails about his beloved $20K-a-year staff; he trusts michael more than the opinion of his beloved readers. Taco won't do a thing unless we can hit him where it hurts - in the pocket.
How? Simple. Taco relies upon the insightful-sounding commentary that this site occasionally produces. (You'll notice he doesn't go to the trouble of modding it up himself - he leaves it to us!). Without it, people stop visiting and Slashdot becomes unprofitable. So, here's what to do if you want to oust michael and force Taco to fix Slashdot:

• install adblocking software like Privoxy to block adverts
• set your preferences to eliminate the slanted crap posted by michael
• don't put links to Slashdot URLs on your blog; link directly to the URLs that the Slashdot story includes
• don't post genuine comments in the stories; if you must post them at all, do them in the journals of the people you want to talk to or email them privately
• any time michael (or any editor, for that matter) does something that they need to be called up on, say something. Post about it, even if others have done so - the more noise people make about editor screw-ups, the more incentive they have not to do them
• change your comment preferences to give a +6 bonus to Flamebait and Offtopic moderations. These are popularly used for moderation-enabled censorship. Overrated is too, but I guess Taco wants to keep at least one moderation that we can't dodge
• if you get the chance to metamoderate, moderate all positive moderations as "Fair" and all negative moderations as "Unfair". This won't get picked up at all and you're helping to stop over-sensitive censors like michael
• whenever you moderate, use your mod points to moderate comments at -1 and 0 upwards as "Underrated"; you can't get metamoderated for this

There you go. Now you know what needs to be done. If you agree, reply. If you disagree, reply. Whatever you do

Stop michael Now

For literally years, the "editor" "michael" has been splattering his moronic influence all over this website. Now, if Slashdot were some dipshit site without any effect on the online world, that'd be all well and good, but I and I'm sure you too would agree that as editor of the most popular "News for nerds" website, michael has a responsibility to us. Amongst the many things that michael has done are:

• insert biased editorialising into story blurbs by putting words in "quotes" to put Democrat-oriented stories into disrepute
• go off on rants in prominent comments in all caps, screaming and railing against Intel's 64-bit efforts
• posting stories that have been instantly archived, allowing no one to post, and then not fixing the situation for an hour and a half
• moderating to -1, Offtopic or -1, Flamebait anyone who contests his idiot behaviour
• modbombing entire threads of dozens of posts to -1, Offtopic
• applying a "bitchslap" operation to users who disagree with him, setting their karma to "Bad" or "Terrible" and taking away their ability to ever moderate again
• not explain his actions
• hijack domains
• post blatantly false hoax stories, perpetuating the flow of misinformation (case in point: the tsunami creature story)
• post links to sites that have then been switched to goatse, and then not explain what happened afterwards
• not edit stories in light of new, overriding information
• posted stories with broken URLs
• posted stories in the wrong section
• posted consecutive dupes - only he, CmdrTaco and timothy have managed to do this

The list goes on and on. michael must go. Slashdot's not that great as it is, but he's just dragging this place down all the faster. What can we do? Taco ignores all emails about his beloved $20K-a-year staff; he trusts michael more than the opinion of his beloved readers. Taco won't do a thing unless we can hit him where it hurts - in the pocket.

How? Simple. Taco relies upon the insightful-sounding commentary that this site occasionally produces. (You'll notice he doesn't go to the trouble of modding it up himself - he leaves it to us!). Without it, people stop visiting and Slashdot becomes unprofitable. So, here's what to do if you want to oust michael and force Taco to fix Slashdot:

• install adblocking software like Privoxy to block adverts
• set your preferences to eliminate the slanted crap posted by michael
• don't put links to Slashdot URLs on your blog; link directly to the URLs that the Slashdot story includes
• don't post genuine comments in the stories; if you must post them at all, do them in the journals of the people you want to talk to or email them privately
• any time michael (or any editor, for that matter) does something that they need to be called up on, say something. Post about it, even if others have done so - the more noise people make about editor screw-ups, the more incentive they have not to do them
• change your comment preferences to give a +6 bonus to Flamebait and Offtopic moderations. These are popularly used for moderation-enabled censorship. Overrated is too, but I guess Taco wants to keep at least one moderation that we can't dodge
• if you get the chance to metamoderate, moderate all positive moderations as "Fair" and all negative moderations as "Unfair". This won't get picked up at all and you're helping to stop over-sensitive censors like michael
• whenever you moderate, use your mod points to moderate comments at -1 and 0 upwards as "Underrated"; you can't ge

First, I will continue to use the ad blocker. Nothing you say will convince me otherwise.

Second, I am in no way obligated, implicitly or explicitly, contractually or morally, to view ads. If you're willing to take this route, you also have to argue that it is/should be illegal/immoral to fast-forward through commercials on the T.V., or to get up and make a sandwich when they come on, or to not look at the advertisements in a magazine.

Third, ad-blockers will win this particular game of cat and mouse. If websites do not serve us without an ad download, we will download the ad and fail to render it.

Fourth, I don't see a problem with paid-subscription services once the market equilibrates. Something that few people seem to understand is that looking at ads inflicts a cost on you. Companies wouldn't pay for your eyeball time if it weren't worth something. Why is it worth something? Because we are sheep. We react to ads.

Everyone, of course, seems convinced that only other people react to ads. No one admits that they, themselves, are personally influenced. But if you don't react to ads, then why do you object to my ad-blocker? And if you DO react to ads, necessarily in a way that costs you financially, then why aren't you just willing to make the payment up front? At least that way you KNOW what you're paying. At least that way you cut out the inefficiency of the middle-man advertiser and actually get your product cheaper.

So get your moral outrage off of my ad-blocker. Better, get one of your own. I use Privoxy, which works miracles with any web browser on any platform.

Stop michael Now

For literally years, the "editor" "michael" has been splattering his moronic influence all over this website. Now, if Slashdot were some dipshit site without any effect on the online world, that'd be all well and good, but I and I'm sure you too would agree that as editor of the most popular "News for nerds" website, michael has a responsibility to us. Amongst the many things that michael has done are:

• insert biased editorialising into story blurbs by putting words in "quotes" to put Democrat-oriented stories into disrepute
• go off on rants in prominent comments in all caps, screaming and railing against Intel's 64-bit efforts
• posting stories that have been instantly archived, allowing no one to post, and then not fixing the situation for an hour and a half
• moderating to -1, Offtopic or -1, Flamebait anyone who contests his idiot behaviour
• modbombing entire threads of dozens of posts to -1, Offtopic
• applying a "bitchslap" operation to users who disagree with him, setting their karma to "Bad" or "Terrible" and taking away their ability to ever moderate again
• not explain his actions
• hijack domains
• post blatantly false hoax stories, perpetuating the flow of misinformation (case in point: the tsunami creature story)
• post links to sites that have then been switched to goatse, and then not explain what happened afterwards
• not edit stories in light of new, overriding information
• posted stories with broken URLs
• posted stories in the wrong section
• posted consecutive dupes - only he, CmdrTaco and timothy have managed to do this

The list goes on and on. michael must go. Slashdot's not that great as it is, but he's just dragging this place down all the faster. What can we do? Taco ignores all emails about his beloved $20K-a-year staff; he trusts michael more than the opinion of his beloved readers. Taco won't do a thing unless we can hit him where it hurts - in the pocket.

How? Simple. Taco relies upon the insightful-sounding commentary that this site occasionally produces. (You'll notice he doesn't go to the trouble of modding it up himself - he leaves it to us!). Without it, people stop visiting and Slashdot becomes unprofitable. So, here's what to do if you want to oust michael and force Taco to fix Slashdot:

• install adblocking software like Privoxy to block adverts
• set your preferences to eliminate the slanted crap posted by michael
• don't put links to Slashdot URLs on your blog; link directly to the URLs that the Slashdot story includes
• don't post genuine comments in the stories; if you must post them at all, do them in the journals of the people you want to talk to or email them privately
• any time michael (or any editor, for that matter) does something that they need to be called up on, say something. Post about it, even if others have done so - the more noise people make about editor screw-ups, the more incentive they have not to do them
• change your comment preferences to give a +6 bonus to Flamebait and Offtopic moderations. These are popularly used for moderation-enabled censorship. Overrated is too, but I guess Taco wants to keep at least one moderation that we can't dodge
• if you get the chance to metamoderate, moderate all positive moderations as "Fair" and all negative moderations as "Unfair". This won't get picked up at all and you're helping to stop over-sensitive censors like michael
• whenever you moderate, use your mod points to moderate comments at -1 and 0 upwards as "Underrated"; you can't get metamoderated for this

There you go. Now you know what needs to be done. If you agree, reply. If you disagree, re

For literally years, the "editor" "michael" has been splattering his moronic influence all over this website. Now, if Slashdot were some dipshit site without any effect on the online world, that'd be all well and good, but I and I'm sure you too would agree that as editor of the most popular "News for nerds" website, michael has a responsibility to us. Amongst the many things that michael has done are:

• insert biased editorialising into story blurbs by putting words in "quotes" to put Democrat-oriented stories into disrepute
• go off on rants in prominent comments in all caps, screaming and railing against Intel's 64-bit efforts
• posting stories that have been instantly archived, allowing no one to post, and then not fixing the situation for an hour and a half
• moderating to -1, Offtopic or -1, Flamebait anyone who contests his idiot behaviour
• modbombing entire threads of dozens of posts to -1, Offtopic
• applying a "bitchslap" operation to users who disagree with him, setting their karma to "Bad" or "Terrible" and taking away their ability to ever moderator again
• not explain his actions
• hijack domains
• post blatantly false hoax stories, perpetuating the flow of misinformation (case in point: the tsunami creature story)
• post links to sites that have then been switched to goatse, and then not explain what happened afterwards
• not edit stories in light of new, overriding information
• posted stories with broken URLs
• posted stories in the wrong section
• posted consecutive dupes - only he, CmdrTaco and timothy have managed to do this

The list goes on and on. michael must go. Slashdot's not that great as it is, but he's just dragging this place down all the faster. What can we do? Taco ignores all emails about his beloved $20K-a-year staff; he trusts michael more than the opinion of his beloved readers. Taco won't do a thing unless we can hit him where it hurts - in the pocket.

How? Simple. Taco relies upon the insightful-sounding commentary that this site occasionally produces. (You'll notice he doesn't go to the trouble of modding it up himself - he leaves it to us!). Without it, people stop visiting and Slashdot becomes unprofitable. So, here's what to do if you want to oust michael and force Taco to fix Slashdot:

• install adblocking software like Privoxy to block adverts
• set your preferences to eliminate the slanted crap posted by michael
• don't put links to Slashdot URLs on your blog; link directly to the URLs that the Slashdot story includes
• don't post genuine comments in the stories; if you must post them at all, do them in the journals of the people you want to talk to or email them privately
• any time michael (or any editor, for that matter) does something that they need to be called up on, say something. Post about it, even if others have done so - the more noise people make about editor screw-ups, the more incentive they have not to do them

There you go. Now you know what needs to be done. If you agree, reply. If you disagree, reply. Whatever you do, don't just moderate me down without responding first to explain why. Discussion is what this idea is all about. Spread the facts. Keep the dream of journalistic integrity alive. Peace.

You use privoxy and are happy? I find it annoying... Not from the functionality aspect (where the filtering is awesome) but from the user experience. The proxy does not "forward" the HTML page until it has been 100% received by privoxy. The end result is that you sit there waiting and waiting for a long page to load in your browser and you don't even get a partial page until privoxy gets the whole thing. See the FAQ

This also means that no connections are opened to load images or CSS, etc. until your browser gets the main file from privoxy. While my connection is fast, many sites are not, so the impact is significant.

You can simply bookmark the "toggle" bookmarklet at this site and put it on your toolbar. Voila: on/off

It doesn't actually shut off tor, it just tells privoxy to go in passthrough mode, so you don't have to reconfigure Firefox.

The biggest problem with using the sidekick on non-mobile pages is how much longer rendering/downloading takes for sites heavy with ads. The proxies should be filtering these out.

I recently picked up a Zaurus SL-C3000 and was using it for web browsing on a trip last week, and I totally agree with your point about the pain of rendering ad-heavy sites. I don't know if this is an option for the SideKick, but I found that the Privoxy proxy would compile and run fine on the Zaurus, and helped with getting a usable render/layout of many sites.

I've read most of this thread, and I've seen plenty of people mention Adblock, but the best solution to blocking stupid ads is Privoxy.

There are a lot people saying that extensions like AdBlock will destroy the revenue stream of sites that we visit...Why don't they complain about those of us that use Lynx??? With a site like slashdot, Lynx is not that bad...the other option is to turn off images all together. That is also a viable option for sites like slashdot...

As far as ads go, I wouldn't mind looking at an alt tag or even a google ad if it was something besides the "[Click Me]" that most use...

If these advertisers would give me an option to select the types of ads I'ld like to see then maybe I wouldn't mind seeing them...

What I would really like to see incorporated into the adblock extension is some sort of html rewriting engine...something like privoxy...

PS - why the _HELL_ is Slashdot having an applet in the ads? It freezes up my browser in Windows for a while. It's getting to be a pain. At the very least, provide some way of turning off Applet ads.

Take a look at http://www.privoxy.org. Good tool, and effective.

It is very easy to filter ads these days, and without working too much. Just download privoxy and configure your browser to use it as a proxy server. If you have to use any cache server such as squid, just chain privoxy to the other server. It works on Windows and Linux and it uses quite a lot of filtering criterias: image size, urls, javascript, window popup blocking, etc. In its default install catches almost any advertising, even if it's not hosted on a previous, known, advertising domain.

I can't use Proxomitron because that's windows only, but I checked the Privoxy manual and indeed, it can be done: http://www.privoxy.org/user-manual/actions-file.ht ml#HIDE-REFERRER
thanks for the advice! now it's time to set up this privoxy thingy :)
I still wonder if it's possible to write a firefox extension for forged referrers.

This is where Privoxy (http://www.privoxy.org/) comes in; they don't even see those snappy ads!

You may try to filter/block with squid. Try this sites:

http://www.squid-cache.org/related-software.html

http://sites.inka.de/sites/bigred/devel/squid-filt er.html

There is a proxy called Privoxy with some advanced filtering capabilities.

> switch to 'light' mode in your user preferences... you wont get bothered by colorschemes at all ;)

This is not an ideal solution. The REAL solution is to better engineer /. to use modern technologies, like CSS layout and styling. This will allow anyone to provide his own stylesheet to display the site exactly the way they want it. Those who really want a ``lite mode'' will have the option to remove stylesheets altogether. Another tech site where I dwell already uses that method, and I appreciate it (although they unfortunately do not offer alternative stylesheets by default).

In fact, such a move has already been advocated. I don't know how Slashcode works (maybe the business logic is too much intertwined with the presentation layer, this is a common error I've seen in countless CMSes), but I really think that sites preaching standards and interoperability all day long should put their money where their words are and be standards-compliant, interoperable, and accessible. I very much hope the next Slashdot iteration will go in that direction. In the meanwhile, you can always use some filtering proxy to mangle Slashdot's code and avoid the colour scheme (hint : you just need to put a filter like s|(a href="http://)[^\.]*\.(slashdot.org)|$1$2|g in the filters file and call it for .*slashdot.org)

At least an ad embedded into an article is something you can identify clearly as an ad. Not that I see them thanks to Privoxy (you can allow ads at sites you want to support [/.] if you'd like).

In my opinion, the worst offense are ads that are disguised as articles. The local major news paper is made up of at least 25% ads disguised as articles, which is part of the reason why I refuse to subscribe. This has not been as prevelant online as in print, but I expect that it will get that way as more of us switch to digital news.

I do think it would be better if it were possible to change the UID string for specific sites, and perhaps even to make it impossible to change it for all sites.

You can do this quite easily with Privoxy. Just add a custom rule that changes your browser ID to that of IE, or whatever, and add the sites that you need to.

Not all websites are fooled by this. For instance, Expedia refuses to allow disgused Opera users.

Just don't use windows or IE. I don't. The extent of executable code that runs in my browser is javascript. I have privoxy configured to specifically block every ad site using tracking cookies as well.

Camino would be much better if it had adblocking. I'll just stick to Safari and PithHelmet I guess.

Save the right button, install this once and forget what ads are. Works for IE too :-)

I use http://www.privoxy.org/ on all of my computers along with a user.action file that I have spent a lot of time working on and fine-tuning.

I had to use a Windows box the other day (for the first time in a few years -- yes, I lead a sheltered life) and was shocked by the amount of ad content on the Internet. Even on a high-speed DSL connection, the response is much more sluggish without privoxy (or similar) in place. And stuff is much easier to read without all of that flashing stuff, bouncing monkeys and whatnot getting in the way of the content.

http://www.privoxy.org/

www.privoxy.org

An open-source "privacy proxy" for Linux, Windows, MacOS X and others. Can be used with the browser of your choice and can be configured from within the browser with handy bookmarks.

I have made very good experiences with its "medium" default action setting: Removes almost all ads, makes all cookies "session only", screws up click tracking, spoofs the referrer (so nobody can block "deep" direct links), keeps javascript navigation and layout intact, but removes all annoyances (blinking, marquees, window title screw-ups...) and lots of other goodies. The action and filter files are updated regularly to keep ahead of the new tricks that web advertisers and click trackers come up with.

Exceptions can be made for the few webpages which need slightly less aggressive settings to work properly (or for a comics page which actually has funny animated GIFs). Furthermore you have the full power of perl regular expressions at your fingertips to modify annoying parts of often visited sites. (Hint to web authors: When I want to quickly look up the day's menu of our cafeteria, I don't want to wait for a java applet with scrolling advertisements to be loaded...)

Why nobody even mentions privoxy? It's a filtering proxy that eliminates 99% of ads and banners, with almost no effort involved in configuring. Privoxy runs on Linux and Windows and together with Proxy+ (free for 2 users) or squid can make a sweet setup for a local network... Those are the first things I install on any network I configure...

I agree. Luckly Prixovy saved me the ads. Where is the old good "Printer friendly" button? Or was just the purpouse of the article to make us get them?

Privoxy is an excellent web proxy enforces session-cookies-only by default and has a lot of cool add-blocking features as well.

That said, I usually disable session-cookies-only first thing.. I'm spoiled and like my persistent logins :)

i loved proxomitron and i'm getting to love privoxy.

http://www.privoxy.org/

This popped up six windows which installed both the default-homepage-network hijacker and also some nasty stuff [...]

This crashed Windows Media Player and then it was overwritten with a small windows executable (I have it if you want it) - this was called wmplayer.exe and was in the Windows Media Player folder. The real Windows Media Player had been deleted. [...]

The next time a WMP media file was accessed the new wmplayer.exe file ran and installed lots of adware, junkware, spyware etc, etc. [...]

AVG free edition sygate personal firewall and Spybot seach and destroy (site down) will complete your collection nicely. Might want to have a look at Hijack this and this tutorial as well.

Yes, this is a lot of work for the price of keeping windows running. Some people don't have a choice... Me, as soon as my favourite IDE gets ported to Linux, I'll swap ;-)

Seriously though, if there are any other tools you guys use to try and keep windows secure, please share.

Besides using privoxy will save you the trouble of going through your cookies, as it filters almost all of them.
Forget pop-up ads, it even filters in-line ads

And for us lowdown filthy open-source heathens, there's Privoxy. I use it alongside Mozilla w/Adblock, because it allows inline substitutions. My favorite use is letting me have a "killfile" for my webforums. :)

Along those lines, I would also suggest Privoxy. I have it set up on my home network for the family (on the family Linux-based file server) and run a local copy on my Windows workstation at work (when not disabling it and playing with the Adblock extension for Mozilla). Works like a charm.

The problem I've had with a few popup blockers is that they are not particularly intelligent. Some of them can't even tell the difference between a popup and when you create a new instance of your browser. Beating advertisers requires intelligent filtering at the HTTP stream level, and I've found that the Proxomitron is an excellent proxy that does this. Unfortunately, the writer burned out and it's no longer supported. As such, I've heard really good things about Provoxy, but I can't make a recommendation since I've never used it.

As far as Proxomitron goes, it makes my surfing much more pleasurable. Annoying Flash ads that pop up and make noise and block what you're reading? Gone. Pop-up mouse traps? I laugh in their face. Sidebar/banner ads? What are those? Sometimes, however, the Proxomitron DOES munge some sites due to its filtering, but all you have to do is double click its taskbar icon, punch the "Bypass" button, and reload your browser. A small price to pay compared to punching your monitor in because an ad just took over your browser.

For fighting spam, popups and malware in general, I find Cexx to be a good site. They have a decent list of anti spyware/adware apps, and lenghthy and informative analyses of the various spyware running around.

ads? what ads?

Never noticed that effect before. I knew Tom's split articles up into too many pages, but I've never seen the ads.

Try looking at it my way: with Privoxy (Cross-platform, Open Source) or Proxomitron (Windows only, freeware).

Sure you can, you can get a Mac.
(sorry, I hadn't seen anyone say it, and there is a quota, you know :))

It's amazing how much of a pain in the a** this stuff is. Now, not only do you have to run AntiVirus SW, you now have to run AntiMalware (Spybot S&D has my vote currently)

Mind, you I just finally snapped after seeing one VONAGE(May they rot in hell) ad too many and installed Privoxy.

I'd been using the Ad blocker Pith Helmet for the Safari browser, and the built-in ad blocking in OmniWeb, but Privoxy is really nice. Win/Lin/Mac versions, too. Beats the hell out or writing all those RegEx blockers myself.

Clearly, you've never seen Proxomitron or Privoxy.

No! I have not watched television in over 5 years. Back then I only watched reruns of my favorite shows.

I refuse to support cable TV or satellite TV. So I'll only buy DSL, for example.

Today, watching TV is more disgusting than any pornography, and worse than seeing real Iraq war photos. It is so infantilizing, shallow, banal, transparent, and scripted.

There's so little time left, why waste it on TV. /. has more technical information than all TV networks combined.

But to get back on topic, I use Privoxy with great success. It already downloads images before filtering them sometimes (depending on filter rule), and so ad banners which attempt to detect whether they are being blocked don't know they're being blocked. I'm sure it can be extended to popups too. If the practice of "detecting" blocking becomes common, the Privoxy team will defeat it on the next release.

I've seen some sites get so ad-crazy that they use browser-specific (read: IE) techniques which break pages on other browsers, or which do not display right when filtered. I just move on to another site when this happens. There's almost always another available for the same purpose, with fewer ads.

But how many web surfers are aware of Privoxy or similar tools? Not many (this forum excepted of course), which is why advertising works.

"TV is like spraying black paint in your eye" --
Bill Hicks

Privoxy can already block these with a couple judicious regexps, and it shouldn't be any trouble at all for Mozilla to block these as well. If you want to block floaters in advance of this tech being adopted by every unscrupulous marketeer in existence, try going to Kompas (Indonesian news site). They're filled with them, but a few rules should clean 'em up.

Marketroids have to learn that you catch a lot more flies with honey than with vinegar. At this point, nstead of being in any way interested in the product, the user just gets annoyed and tries to find a way to make the advertisement go away...or goes to a different site.

blocking ads by domains through Hosts file is the dumbest thing one can do, especially when you're on Windows. It's a resource hog and doesn't accomplish half of what can be done with Privoxy or Proxomitron.

Don't touch the Hosts file.