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A New Low for Web Advertisers: Pop-Up Downloads
rizzmanix writes: "I thougt it was strange that I had been getting a lot of pop-up download prompts for the Gator software as I browsed around the web in the recent days. Why were all these sites requiring this Gator thing I wondered?
Well I wonder no more... as apparently advertisers hit a new low by running 'pop-up downloads' instead of pop-up ads. Sneaky, underhanded, nasty and vile."
www.scumware.com
-Styopa
It's a complete disaster, waiting for applications to forcibly download when you're trying to surf. It has to be the most invasive form of advertising yet.
Is it actually legal to put something on a user's machine without permission? Sounds almost virus-like.
If I weren't nailed to the penis, I'd be pushing up the daisies!
Scares the hell out of me. Whoever does this should get their sites DoSsed immediately.
This is a major security issue, and clearly by default the only warning in MSIE is a dialog box, which you may already have set to just accept downloads automatically.
Yet another reason to use non-standard browsers and non Windows OS, so that you even if you end up with an executable it won't execute.
Conversion Rate Optimisation French / English consultant
I've noticed this myself, in recent weeks. I'm just grateful I still have the option to hit cancel. I'm kind of waiting for them to figure out how to force the download with no user interaction required. Then, will we be able to sue them? Or will M$ be required to put some type of security setting in IE that you can disable this function?
It's easy to stand out when the general level of competence is so low.
Gator managed to sneak it's way onto my PC with the latest DivX. Can't uninstall Gator without losing DivX. I found an easy workaround...find the gator.exe file (unsure of EXACT name of file), rename it to gator.old. No more Gator starting up with Windows. Bye bye spy. :)
What programs do this? I've never, ever seen a webbrowser that automatically installs stuff. At least not until you specifically specify for that site only (like MS Updates, or Station.Sony.com)
"But those horror stories are the exception. More typically, software makers are simply using the downloads to distribute legitimate products."
Legitimate products don't automatically download onto my computer without my concent.
Free Mac Mini
Since 0.9.4, mozilla users have had the ability to block onload and unload pop-ups/unders. I've had zero problems with this. It doesn't block pop-ups you request, just the ones you don't.
I've not seen a popup in months and months. It's fantastic.
In Soviet Russia...michael would be rotting in Siberia!
Pop-ups? What are pop-ups? I use Opera!
And its little "don't open new windows except in response to a mouse click" option all the more. I haven't seen a pop-up in a year!
I've seen this thing before on pr0n sites... once again they're leading the way on the web. I never thought that traditional advertisers would stoop this low, though. I wonder what's next?
-Russ
Ooh, wait. What I meant was my FRIENDS have seen stuff like this and told me about it. Wait, I don't have friends that look at pr0n either... umm. I read about this sort of thing, yeah. That's it...
Me
So most of the wimen rely
Please tell me that you don't really think "women" is spelled "wimen".
Yet another reason to browse with Mozilla or Opera with onLoad (or all) popups disabled.
Most of these advertising techniques either rely on browsers (or users) who don't or can't disable popups easily. (read: 90% of the internet explorer population.) Or they rely on Internet Explorer specific techniques, e.g. windowless flash animations (transparent backgrounds) for shoshkeles, etc.
I think it's time the antivirus companies step up to the plate for the average consumer, and add blocking/filtering to the AV clients. Maybe it's overkill, but if you could tag these popup downloads as a potential virus (or at least unauthorized use of your computer) the world would be a better place. Or, create some add-ons to mozilla which filter popups against a database (ala the defunct spamcop) popupcop?
When something is sold as "advertising" but is nothing less than an attempt to trick or confuse a person into purchasing, downloading or installing your software, that's misrepresentation and/or fraud. Regardless of any 2pt fine-print at the bottom, or "user agreement" on the page. Hard to stop them, though.
The PrOn world has already be doing this for awhile! I work for a free hosting company and we monitor our sites for PrOn all of the time. Atleast once a day I get hit with a download for a dialer (disconnects your system and redials via long distance so you can get your PrOn that way).
Just another example of how the mainstream world follows the PrOn world...:)
BWP
Yes, it's very annoying. But it's always funny seeing people complain about the quality of things that they get for free.
Maybe one day we'll all get sick of it enough to support useful solutions like micropayments for worthwhile content.
Why are you letting these clowns ruin our country?
Before we all go into full outrage mode, remember that the software can't install unless you click Yes. I'm sure if they could install without confirmation, they would, but they can't, so let's not have a fit about it. It's obnoxious, but not sleazy. Sleazy would be deceptive (kazaa-brilliant is sleazy). Obnoxious is just something that slows you down.
Robotiq.com is heavily tested on animals
What's interesting and revealing about Gator's approach is that the well-known Nimda worm spread by injecting popup download code into IIS-served web pages, exploiting a vulnerability in Internet Explorer that caused the user NOT to be prompted before the dowloaded program executed.
This happened last night I'm afraid...
I was completely shocked when the gator icon mysteriously appeared and greeted me. I removed the little bastard immediately. However, I let a long sigh as I realized it would come back shortly.
So last night I decided to go with mozilla and live with whatever problems it may bring.
The mozilla team should thank the gator software company and evil commie bastard marketing reps around the world.
"You should always go to other people's funerals; otherwise, they won't come to yours." -- Yogi Berra
Um, only if you're stupid enough to continue the download and install the software.
- A.P.
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
This kind of thing has been making headlines in Germany recently.
Many sites try to coerce users (especially kids) into installing
"high-speed" or "priority" internet dialers that in reality just change the default internet
connection to an extremely expensive number. By the time you
get the phone bill, it's often in the four-figures. The telco
doesn't want to be responsible since they just rent out the
numbers, and the companies that rent them are also mostly resellers with
with the final "customers" mostly being based outside Germany.
The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.
--Henry Kissinger
Does anybody actually like the software? I accidentally installed it once, before I had heard about "spyware" and "scumware" and I just found it completely annoying. Now that I think about it - I had to do a google search to find out how to remove it, and that's when I first learned about that sort of thing.
So my question is: Is there anyone who actually WANTS the software? Or are ALL copies there because someone accidentally downloaded it and doesn't know how to remove it.
God is real unless declared integer
For example, when visiting a site a person may receive a pop-up box that appears as a security warning with the message: "Do you accept this download?" If the consumer clicks "Yes," an application is automatically installed.
Had you read, you'd see you have to give it your 'concent' (sic). I can't believe this then went on to get modded up.
"There's no question that there (are) programs that are more aggressive. With this, there's some measure of permission," said [Gator's] Eagle."
Wow...he's actually doing people the favor of allowing them to decide whether they want the software or not, sorta...quick, someone give him the Nobel Peace Prize! "Some measure of permission"...sign me up for THAT!
For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
Does anyone know if these things are standard file downloads or those stupid activeX things that IE has? If it's installing automatically I would imagine the latter, in which case it's just another reason to wean yourself away from IE. I've been using Mozilla 0.9.9 a lot lately and it's fantastic. The ability to disable annoying popups (while leaving "good" popups enabled) is alone worth the download. Also you can disable javascript in the mail client, which I'm now using instead of Outlook Express. I wish there was an option to disable HTML mail entirely; I would rather look at HTML code than load tons of useless graphics and web-bugs from spammers.
If it is an ActiveX thing, then I assume it has to be signed before it can be installed. Who is the signer? Microsoft? Verisign?
rooooar
All this reminds me of the spam/counter-spam tactics of usenet. Is the web going to have the same fate?
Pretty soon we'll see pop-ups that say:
/tmp /tmp ./configure (For help with options, do ./configure --help)
Do you wish to install this file? YES / NO
If yes, please do the following:
- Download file and save to
- cd
- tar xvzf slashpopup.tar.gz
- cd slashpopup
-
- make
- su
- make install
....Finished!
how about the one that replace your default home page, replace your M$ dns errors (lop.com is the one that *infected* my machine) etc etc.. it's a virus, there is no uninstall there is no program in the menus or that add/remove programs dialogue, the only way to find it was to do a search for lop on my machine.. lopsearch and some cookies just jumped into the recycle bin
people like these need to be shut down even faster than just normal spammers..
The problem is the advertisers are shooting themselves in the foot. The more irritating their advertisements, the more numb the readers become. If they shout all the time, people will learn to ignore shouting. I already am so used to killing the popups on weather.com that i know when they pop up and kill the windows with a swift keystroke before the ad image even loads.
---
Play Six Pack Man. I
But those horror stories are the exception. More typically, software makers are simply using the downloads to distribute legitimate products.
Any company or software that uses this method is not selling a legitimate product IMO - which come to think of it, does Gator actually have ANY use to it whatsoever? Mozilla/IE remember passwords already, what kind of "product" is this?
Crap like this will get worse until we start to classify scumware as Trojans, and take appropriate steps to secure our networks. Fuck these guys.
I would think that this is partially illegal to install software on a person computer without that persons consent.
I would think that it's COMPLETELY illegal to do this. If the program that's getting installed were to wipe your hard drive, there'd be lawsuits galore and FBI people kicking down the doors of the company hosting the hostile download. Why exactly nobody's been able to convince a judge that this is the same thing is beyond me.
I got royally flamed in a mailing list for complaining about a site that tried to force gator on me. The admin's response was "it didn't try to install gator, it asked you first." My argument was "it only asked me because it tried, and my browser said 'no.'" Naturally, we got nowhere.
It's even worse if they find a way to install without prompting the user. Not only is that a wide-open door for serious viruses, but it ABSOLUTELY removes any semblance of authorization (and I'd argue that a user blindly clicking "yes" to simply make the damned download panel go away doesn't constitute informed consent, either).
...and a karma whoring followup link to Ad-Aware (recently updated to v. 5.7).
the most mysterious thing you'll see today
The Feds are more bothered about copyrights theives like you an me, who want to destroy americas entertainment industry. The popup ads are a minor nuicanse, after all if the govt turns its attention to mundane things like span, popup-downloads criminals like you and me will crack the internet and steal all movies and destroy the world economy.
My Aurora : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o91ZsGwJYyg
FB : https://www.facebook.com/TanveersPhotography
"Do you accept this download?" If the consumer clicks "Yes," an application is automatically installed.
This clutter has created a haven for pop-up downloads because consumers find it hard to determine the ad's origin.
Gator isn't the only software maker using this tactic to add consumers.
"Consumers want control of their PCs," Gator President Jeff McFadden said in a statement.
Why am I a consumer just because I am accessing the Internet? The problem here is not the pop-up technology, but the unwritten assumption (perpetuated by the author of the report) that we are all just mindless "consumers of product" that need to be targeted by ads.
Only when this mindset is abandoned will we see an end to attention grabbing and demographic gathering.
One of my friends is fond of the game Snood for Windows, and encouraged me to check it out. When I did, I found that it came with two annoying bits of software, both a copy of Gator, and links to Bonzai Buddy, that stick themselves in your Start menu and various other places. Yick! (And goodbye Gator, banzai Banzai, and so long Snood.)
As long as you're quoting the article you read, how about:
Why, gosh, the article you castigated the first poster for not reading says that sometimes you don't have to give your consent, just like the first poster said. So who didn't read the article?
Sig: What Happened To The Censorware Project (censorware.org)
About a week ago, I was greeted with a DL popup when accessing Yahoo!'s fantasy sports pages. "You are downloaing the file pop from media.fastclick.net" Needless to say, I hit "Cancel", and have been doing so for the past week when checking my hockey roster. Our league will definitely be moving elsewhere next year. :-P
... Ok... so I went to this site and it offered for me to download this software. Gator something or other. I generally am very smart about not doing this kind of stuff. But it seemed like it was part of the site and that I needed it as a new 'plugin' kind of thing to use a feature of the site.
When I saw new icons popping up on my start bar I got suspicious and worried. I uninstalled the program... found another one by a similar name and uninstalled it.
At least they behaved and uninstalled properly.
42 - So long and thanks for all the fish.
Yes, it's very annoying. But it's always funny seeing people complain about the quality of things that they get for free.
Oh, good Lord. Please take your libertarian Money Ueber Alles tripe and go home.
Installing unrequested and nonconsentual software onto someone's harddrive is deceptive and akin to vandalism at best, and outright destruction of property at worst (these scumware packages can and occasionally do have bugs that result in harm abov e and beyond pollution of the user's operating environment).
If someone shovelled raw sewage (shit) into your living room, would you still argue that "yes, it's very annoying. But it's always funny seeing people complain about the quality of things that they get for free"? I rather doubt it.
This is the digital equivelent, and people who do this should be going to jail for illegally hacking their customer's computers. I guarantee you if this was a snot-nosed kid doing this, rather than a corporate entity, they'd be doing time in jail. And rightly so.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
To go along with the Opera folks out there, I've got to chime in and say I absolutely love being able to filter unsolicited popups. God I love that feature. It makes browsing pron sites soo much better. Also disable the window resizing shit. No longer will popup bastards resize a window beyond your screensize!
I work at an helpdesk, and I see that all the agressive software and the related problems are
quite often too much for ordinary users.
If the trend continues, it might kill the feasability
of maintaining a windows installation computer with access to the internet for the non technicalusers.
The problems with firewalls, antiviruses, new.net and
other adware are increasingly getting problematic.
A lot of ISP and vendor helpdesk already have ten till fifty of percent of calls relating to this kind of software.
Why can I ONLY see a checkbox for "Always trust downloads from this company"
and NOT "Always MISTRUST downloads from this company" on the install dialog on IE?
----- Whats wrong with this picture? http://www.revoh.org:1234/whatswrong
And PPC Linux binaries are probably out of the question...
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
We're only as subject to bad advertising as our browsers want us to be. If Internet Explorer, Netscape, or Mozilla ever made it a major priority to make web browsing ad-free, we'd see the end of the horrible advertising methods that are starting to surface on the web. (Actually what would probably happen is a cat and mouse game, where advertisers would always be trying to get around the techniques that the browser employ to get rid of advertisements.)
Access retinal laser subsystem set laser_power==(laserpower*100); set boot_dialogue=="www.bigpenis.com - The natural way to male enhancement"; end
Asikaa
Come in, twenty-seventy-seventy, your time is up.
Something needs to be done about this garbage.
I'm sure I'm not the only one here in this boat, however I've seemingly noticed the web usability going to sh*t a hell of a lot faster then usual within the past 6 months.
I think there should be a serious push for legislation that attempts to prevent deceptive advertisement on the web. There are ways in which this could reasonably be done without intruding upon global boundaries and 1st amendment rights.
If car companies are not allowed to flash "YOU WON A PRIZE... come here to get it" on my TV, why should US companies be allowed to do this BS with web banners.
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
Seen as the only browser this really effects is IE on Win32, I suggest using the Proximitron to filter this sort of shit out. It checks all HTML recieved and strips out the offending content; you can set up a few filter rules to remove this sort of crap from the pages you visit.
:-)
The rest of us can just turn off popups in Mozilla/Opera
--jon
Cleanstick.org: Dumb weblog about nothing
Well, for those of us who are forced to deal with an Micro$oft environment, there is some good news. Remember Nimda? It operated in a similar way when it was spread through web-pages, by forcing a download. Internet Explorer had a weakness that allowed this to happen. Now, however, they have the fix in IE 5.5 SP2... might also want to get whatever critical updates there are from the Window$ update site. So if you have that, and the patch for Nimda you shouldn't be forced to do anything. Cancel should always be allowed.
And honestly, people, if you set yourself to automatically accept downloads, you're just asking for a trojan.
Now that you know the defense, let's talk about the offense. Some very respectable Hackers have already created programs designed to kill browser popups. Might I suggest as a new challenge for these ingenius few that a program be created that you can simply set an auto-cancel after a program asks you once to download it (like Gator)?
For those of us without that level of programming ability, I recommend giving these companies that do this a flood of email complaints, expressing just how much we detest the all-time low they have reached. Since so many of us are in the IT or helpdesk field, we're in a unique position in that people believe what we say. If Gator persists in these forced-downloads, then start letting every single one of your customers know that Gator stands a chance of royally screwing up their operating system and compromising their security. If they ask for specifics, look for any bug whatsoever that has been reported, or that you can find in the program, and exploit it like a cheap tabloid. If it crashed one persons system and made them reboot, then it -always- crashes systems... etc.
Of course, I myself would never result to any illegal means, but legal strongarm tactics are very effective when done in mass-quantity. If enough of us get together on this, and enough sand is thrown by enough people, advertisers will eventually get the hint.
Now who's with me?
-The Libra
"Maybe Lisa's right about America being the land of opportunity, and maybe Adil's got a point about the machinery of capitalism being oiled with the blood of the workers." - Homer Simpson
One ring to rule them all...the O in OpenBSD
I really like using Mozilla and Opera for thier built in ability to block pop ups, unfortunately I run into nothing but problems as a lot of websites are designed solely for IE and don't display correctly under other browsers. I dont feel I should have to install 3rd party ad blockers and pop up stoppers, that feature should be integrated into any better web browser, WHY NOT IE???
Just last week, we're running around taking that stupid gator off of machines, because of this very issue.
8 06.html?tag=upd,
This app, http://download.cnet.com/downloads/0-10106-108-63
seems to do a decent job of getting rid if it and others.
These components are frightening, especially when you see the number of registry entries that are nothing more than entries for Active X (or Active Ads) components.
This Gator software you speak of is probably related to the new Divx ;-) 5. If you download the standard version, there are no ads, no nothing. The pro version however, is either A) pay for it or B) gain_trickler. If Divx pro can't find the gain trickler it wont run. The trickler sits as an idle process, but when you browse the web it watches you and throws targeted advertising at you. My solution was to use ZoneAlarm to block the gain trickler from accessing the internet, this way I get divx 5 pro for free, and no ads. adaware is also quite helpful.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
I was getting a horror story from some folks in the West Palm Beach area. Apparently they'd set their kid up with a phone with no long distance service. At some point the number got slammed into long distance service and they never noticed on the bill. Then one day their kid installs software for a "free" internet provider. That happened to be located in Belgium (This was not immediately apparent from their home page. I checked.) Kid leaves the computer up 24x7, they get a $10,000 phone bill. Ouch.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Can somebody recommend good tools for IE 6.x that integrate well on the toolbar, sideband to prevent popUPs popUNDERS, spyware installers etc?
Not database based ones, ones that are intelligent enough to know that I DID NOT CLICK THIS LINK and then blocks it etc etc.
Thanks.
----- Whats wrong with this picture? http://www.revoh.org:1234/whatswrong
I just saw one of these today. I forget where, exactly. I got asked if I wanted to download something. I said no. Nothing got installed without my consent.
Thanks for playing, though.
I think we'll only be able to escape the constant bombardment of advertisments (And skript kiddie attacks and all the other comparatively recent crap) by establishing our own network on top of the internet. It's easy to do and we're technically capable of doing it.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
While many people find the software to be useful, Gator also has built in some more questionable features.
Who exactly finds Gator to be more useful than it is annoying? And does it provide any features (rembering passwords - !!wow!!) which aren't offered by Mozilla?
I accidentally got Gator piggybacked on audiogalaxy a while back, though at the time I didn't clue in that that was where it had come from. I half uninstalled it, but some of it yet remains. Perhaps I'll make a dummy gator.exe file like the other poster suggested.
...filters out pop-ups and banner adverts. http://www.flaaten.dk/prox/ It only runs on Windows though :-(
-- Wibble
Why isn't this being treated like a virus or a worm? Hello... unwanted and unrequested software is downloaded and installed on your computer. They will say, "They opted in by clicking the link" but if that's the case they should stop pursuing anyone who writes a virus like the I LOVE YOU virus as it can't be activated till someone "voluntarily" clicks on it.
I think this sort of thing should be taken on by the anti-virus industry AND the security industry in general.
LOG IN YOU BASTARDS
A simple way around this is to add www.gator.com to your restricted sites list, then disable any rights that "restricted sites" may have. Not the most up-front way of doing things, but it works.
-- dan.sherman
My big concern is normal users (my parents, brother, girlfriend, etc). How are they supposed to tell the difference between Flash 6 and something like gator?
Normal people may not have heard of gators nasty little activities, and unfortunate as it is someone of them will click yes.
Companies like this, and others listed on scumware (repeated from first post) really make me feel sick to the stomach with their exploitative nature.
(I think I'm some form of weird hippy that just wants people to be able to play on the internet safely, without there computer being clogged with steaming hell shite.)
People may also want to check out grc's optout or have a poke around on the internet for other anti spy ware (adaware and stuff, sure it's been mentioned in this discussion somewhere)
Jt
I'm spent.
My dad called to ask if I could come over and 'fix' his computer. I'm always willing to come down and see dad and untangle whatever mess exists on his PC.
His dial-up connection was slow, he said. Indeed, every site I visited in his favorites was really slow and now wonder... everysite seemed to launch a couple of pop-unders that were consuming bandwidth downloading ads.
"Yeah, I've been getting that ever since I installed 'gator'"
"gator is something I got from yahoo that helps me fill in forms or something"
That rat-bastard gator had put hooks everywere, was a real pain to uninstall ("please stop the gator program before proceeding" - except to the ordinary user the concept of stopping a taskbar icon isn't very obvious).
The uninstaller launched a browser and loaded a page telling you why you shouldn't uninstall. Geez, go away already!
Yeah, my dad is pretty clueless - I reminded him not to download and install stuff unless he is pretty clear on what he is getting.
This software seems to exploit that cluelessness, posing as some innocuous, helpful utility when it's real purpose is far more invasive and it is relatively complicated to get rid of.
Some Net users have complained of receiving downloads containing a virus that automatically redirects them to adult-related sites....
...But those horror stories are the exception. More typically, software makers are simply using the downloads to distribute legitimate products.
Wrong. They're all virii. No use trying to launder mud.
If you want this sort of thing to stop, make it unprofitable. And make sure your less technically literate friends know that the general rule of thumb is if the computer asks them something, they should always answer "No."
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
On the seedier side of the web, nothing new folks. Just now its spyware instead of trojans, thats all. (oh wait there is a difference. . . .)
A lot of japanese h-anime sites (the less artistic ones, yes there is artistic hentai, get over it and deal.) use a dial up program of some sorts that I am (assuming) dials some sort of toll number, but it only works if you have a dial up modem, negates the need for a credit card though.
Some of the seedier US web sites I have seen actualy attempt to automaticaly do this to you (ouch) luckily enough I have a cable modem and I uninstalled my regular ol' modem quite a while ago. ^_^
My Japanese Tutor actualy had a related problem, (didn't look at porn, damn thing managed to spread anyways, VERY annoying). One of these toll programs (one of the less respectable variety) got on the computer and refused to go away, hooked on to everything.
Nasty stuff.
Need help treating your acne? Come here!
Strangely enough, this is not surprising; just another way for these guys to get their hooks into unsuspecting users -- obviously, most of /. aren't going to be susceptible, but I would imagine the home version of tech support will become well used when Grandma's PC has this friggin' gator on it and she doesn't know what it is/how it got there/ wants it gone....
...we are from the government - we are here to help...
Much of the crap such as noted on this topic is based on Microsoft technology, which, as we all know, is quite invasive and unsecure.
With WINE, perhaps, something like this might work on a x86 box with Linux, but all that pop-up ads may do on a Mac OS system, perhaps, is ask if the item could be downloaded, and, once downloaded, sit unused, unrecognized--the Mac OS doesn't do ActiveX per se.
Of course, using a PC emulator such as Virtual PC removes such insulation.
Vos teneo officium eram periculosus ut vos recipero is.
I think I have a way of doing something like this that might work: have some stupid JavaScript that will display the download panel over and over until the ser clicks "yes". I'm not sure if that's possible, but it sure would be nasty.
Hey all,
In Windows I use Webwasher, a great program from Germany, to maintain complete control over what web servers are doing to my computer while surfing. It blocks that popup crap and gives you lots of controls to secure yourself against ads (malicious or not), webbugs, cookies, animations, etc. Also, once configured it can be easily clicked on or off from the system tray if it's giving you problems with a site.
I must've put it on about a half-dozen computers owned by friends & family, and each of them have been very happy with it.
The only tool you've got against psychosis is experience.
In three easy steps:
1) Goto mozilla.org and download latest release installer here.
2) Start up mozilla after installer completes
3) Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Scripts & Windows and uncheck "Open unrequested windows"
Couldn't be easier.
int func(int a);
func((b += 3, b));
The sickest part of the whole ball of wax is that in the story Gator claims to have 13 million users. So much the same as a spammer can be successful by blasting 1 million emails and have 1000 "suckers" reply with interest....So can gator be succesful when only a small percentage of people are savvy enough to click on "NO".
Thus to the scumbags that look on -- this is a very fruitful way of doing business. Hence, the internet has turned into a big pile of rubbish way beyond the traditional (high cost) damage of telemarketers and junk (snail)mailers. A low cost way to reach the vulnurable. At some point those with the intelect must stand tall and say "NO MORE". Those developers that work at companies that do business this way should find employment elseware or forever bear the burden that will smitten them to geek hell (an afterlife of no mountain dew and no simpsons reruns).
I only need to look up at the big flasy blue and white banner ad contrasting on the green and white
(+1 Funny) only if I laugh out loud.
I think someone did this to my computer minus my knowledge cause I all of a sudden, within the last few days have this new little "favorites" bar with stupid shite like "win an x box" links. how do I kill it? I can't find an uninstaller.
I'm too lame for sigs
we have software like this to deal with this crap.
This is what I do with gator.com. I have since added a number of sites to this file too. IMHO this is a great way to block these ads. You don't need any software, you completely block out whole sites, and in many cases you block popup ads overall (from the blocked sites).
But Gator is easily the worst offender out there and they annoyed me to much. Their IP to me is now 127.0.0.1.
RonB
It is human nature to take shortcuts in thinking.
everytime I see a computer with that little reptile icon by the clock.....I start pecking at the keyboard, removing all referances to it in registry, files ect worthless junk imho, should be added to Mcaffee et all's signature list
Reading this article makes me feel good that i use Opera instead of IE or anything else that lets popups through. Pop-Up filtering is built in and it catches *everything* (and yes i conced that sometimes you have to turn it off so that something that you want can popup). get it at www.opera.com
At least this new tactic isnt as bad as what porn sites are doing, offering free downloads of excecutables which supposedly show a movie or something but do this by dialing a 1-900 number with your modem. I almost killed my roomate when he asked me "why wont this program work?". It was giving an "Error no modem found" message. I am so glad I dont have a modem installed, because anyone foolish enough to install a program from an untrusted sourse or something you didn't try to download deserves what they get... ...unless they are using their roomates computer.
I like replies better than Karma, even if they are flames, because that tells me I got someone thinking.
Somethings I agree to seeing on the web. The download thing when you visit a page I have seen and it's wrong. Should never be done. My wife accidently installed that freakin gator thing one night. I freaked! Anyway, some parts of this article is just irresponsible.
Some Net users have complained of receiving downloads containing a virus that automatically redirects them to adult-related sites.
I have never seen this. At least I have never seen an antiviral program reporting this as a virus. This is irresponsible. Only way you can get some of these kinds of things is if your in a place you should not be (IMHO). Dosen't mean this can't happen. It sure as heck can.
Such downloads also have been known to install new dial-up programs replacing the existing accounts.
I have never seen this either, but it doesn't mean it can't happen. It may if you go to a porn site (dials the 1900 rather then have a credit card SSL server).
There is simply one thing that can be done about this...make Microsoft take that coud out. the types of things these browsers allow is idiotic. They make the user loose control of their computer via porn storms and other things even when some pages use it legitimately. Only one way to solve this...take out the Onload and Ext controls. Any program that unexpectedly opens up a window is bad. It makes the user feel like they loose control. It makes for a bad OOBE.
Gorkman
When something is sold as "advertising" but is nothing less than an attempt to trick or confuse a person into purchasing, downloading or installing your software, that's misrepresentation and/or fraud. Regardless of any 2pt fine-print at the bottom, or "user agreement" on the page. Hard to stop them, though.
I think you're on the right track there. Granted, IANAL, so I don't know the legal details of this. From my experience, what is needed is a sense of honesty in those who are planning, designing, and coding this stuff. Here's a definition that I've found to work really well for me:
There are some developers, somewhere, who actually are writing this code. Devising and implementing techniques that appear to be one thing but are actually something else. From the referenced article:
It sure looks to me that there is an intention to deceive! If these were being honest, the prompt would be more along the lines of:
I wonder how many users would click on "Yes" for that?
Unfortunately, there are people who are willing to follow this path. Not just advertising agencies lacking any moral scruples, either. What about struggling web sites that are just trying to meet the payroll for their employees after discovering they could not make a profit under their failed business plan? There's a desire to do what's right in getting paychecks to people who have families to support and bills to pay, and that pressure can lead people to step over the line of what they otherwise might do. It seems to me that as these practices becomes more widespread, there's less of an onus against them, leading to even even greater adoption of these techniques, which leads to even wider use, greater adoption, ... lather, rinse, repeat.
Where's the sense of ethics and professionalism here? I offer, as food for thought, the ACM(*) Code of Ethics. NOTE: I am not suggesting everyone should mind heedlessly to these. What I have found in my own experience, though, is that reading through these has given me insights and perspectives on things that I otherwise would not have even considered.
As long as someone can take some programming classes, gain some technical expertise, and hire out as a programmer... well I believe there's more to it than just writing code. Though I hope otherwise, I have a feeling that it is going to take a lot more of these "products" getting a public black eye before there is a groundswell of support for anything different -- things are likely to get worse until they get better. If the $billions lost on Code Red and other worms and viruses has not been enough, just what WILL it take for things to change?
(*)"The ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) is the world's oldest and largest educational and scientific computing society. Since 1947 ACM has provided a vital forum for the exchange of information, ideas, and discoveries."
Exactly the thing I would try out from a pop-up download. Pincodes and cardnumbers are so easy to forget.
I stumbled on this popup, I really wish that microsoft had the option to withdraw their security keys. The dialog begs you to accept the download. Anyone with shady plans should consider to buy the names of bancrupt companies and get trusted keys to make people download...
"New updated alladvangage software, get your earned $50 from the old software reactivated"
...to get a Mac. If you are too cheap, convert your x86 box to BSD because friends don't let friend use Linux. :P
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
I was just IM'ing with my Mom and she asked me why all these cookies were poping up all over the place. Well, me being a Mozilla user, had no idea what she was talking about. Now I do. I sure hope she didn't click "Yes" to anything. She's pretty good about that kind of stuff, but this is *really* sneaky!! :(
BTW: She mostly surfs "safe" sites like Yahoo! Are they using it?!?!
KangarooBox - We make IT simple!
I had this happen just this morning. Closed down the main IE window to find 3 pop-unders, one from Comet Cursors advertising a triil of their custom cursors. No close button, no right-click menu, just 'continue' and 'finish' buttons. Hitting finish closed the window and, without telling me, installed their software on my system (duly uninstalled about 2 minutes later when I spotted it's system tray icon).
She downloaded DIVX, which was supported by GAIN.
Her computer became so slow that she was unable to use it. GAIN was unable to call home, because her system is behind a firewall.
We uninstalled DIVX, which should, according to GAIN cause GAIN to uninstall. "It is the only GAIN supported application installed". They lied! One day later it was still chewing up her cycles. "No call home, no uninstall" Her computer was still so slow.
I was forced to do a manual uninstall of the GAIN.
I will not use, or purchase any software package that has any association with GAIN.
Get a free ipod.
Sounds like a Windows problem. Maybe a Mac problem, too. But I can't see this happening on Linux!
"Love is a familiar; Love is a devil: there is no evil angel but Love." --William Shakespeare ('Love's Labors Lost')
...There is software to stop the pop-up downloads, including the ones that don't ask but go ahead with the install. Actually there are a good number of them, Linux, Solaris, FeeBSD... ;)
Sorry obligatory joke.
I'm the big fish in the big pond bitch.
Posted by CmdrTaco on Mon April 08, 09:13 AM
from the tightening-our-belts dept.
In response to increased advertiser demand, we have decided that we will now host so-called Pop-Up Downloads. In keeping witht he slashdot tradition these will only be NON Microsoft Downloads, and will never do any harm to your system. We at slashdot would like to reming you that we have not sold out, and we will still keep providing the best the web has to offer.**
** Offer subject to a monthly service fee of $19.99 USD. All taxes ans licensing included. Offer void on any *nix System or non MS browser.
MessEdUp
#/var/www/v
First IANAL!
In the state of Texas (My home) There is the following
law
Comment: I would think that any software that installs
spy ware would fall under this! I am including some of the
definitions to make the meaning clear!
Texas Penal Code CHAPTER 33. COMPUTER CRIMES
33.01. Definitions
(1) "Access" means to approach, instruct, communicate with, store data in, retrieve or intercept data from, alter data or computer software in, or otherwise make use of any resource of a computer, computer network, computer program, or computer system.
(12) "Effective consent" includes consent by a person legally authorized to act for the owner. Consent is not effective if:
(A) induced by deception, as defined by Section 31.01, or induced by coercion;
(B) given by a person the actor knows is not legally authorized to act for the owner;
(C) given by a person who by reason of youth, mental disease or defect, or intoxication is known by the actor to be unable to make reasonable property dispositions;
(D) given solely to detect the commission of an offense; or
(E) used for a purpose other than that for which the consent was given.
33.02. Breach of Computer Security
(a) A person commits an offense if the person knowingly accesses a computer, computer network, or computer system without the effective consent of the owner.
(b) An offense under this section is a Class B misdemeanor unless in committing the offense the actor knowingly obtains a benefit, defrauds or harms another, or alters, damages, or deletes property, in which event the offense is:
(1) a Class A misdemeanor if the aggregate amount involved is less than $1,500;
(2) a state jail felony if:
(A) the aggregate amount involved is $1,500 or more but less than $20,000; or
(B) the aggregate amount involved is less than $1,500 and the defendant has been previously convicted two or more times of an offense under this chapter;
(3) a felony of the third degree if the aggregate amount involved is $20,000 or more but less than $100,000;
(4) a felony of the second degree if the aggregate amount involved is $100,000 or more but less than $200,000; or
(5) a felony of the first degree if the aggregate amount involved is $200,000 or more.
(c) (Blank).
(d) A person who his subject to prosecution under this section and any other section of this code may be prosecuted under either or both sections.
Added by Acts 1985, 69th Leg., ch. 600, 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1985. Amended by Acts 1989, 71st Leg., ch. 306, 2, eff. Sept. 1, 1989; Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 900, 1.01, eff. Sept. 1, 1994.
Amended by Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 306, 2, eff. Sept. 1, 1997.
33.03. Defenses
It is an affirmative defense to prosecution under Section 33.02 that the actor was an officer, employee, or agent of a communications common carrier or electric utility and committed the proscribed act or acts in the course of employment while engaged in an activity that is a necessary incident to the rendition of service or to the protection of the rights or property of the communications common carrier or electric utility.
...think again! Sure, a user has to click "Yes" to install the Gator crapware, but there are some of us out here that have, um, "less than clueful" family members that aren't tech-savvy enough to know better.
Plus, how many of you have passed old machines off to older family members so that they, too, can experience the Internet? Your mom could already be a Gator user!
Thank you for observing all safety precautions.
It's crap like this that will make sure my Girlfriend will always have her own computer to do any "unsafe" tasks like web-browsing .
She's smart, but she just doesn't care about stuff like this. I tried to explain the evils of Kazaa to her (and get her to use Kazaa Lite), but she simple doesn't give a rat's. She won't about this, either.
So, the no-using-my-computer-unless-I'm-watching rule is still in effect. Sad.
S
Is that programs like Pop-up Stopper Pro cannot stop these downloads because sites (like cracks.am) embed the EXE in OBJECT tags so no JavaScript calls are placed.
The new Mozilla had built in features that allow me to control this behavior.
Regards,
javajeff
You all should now by now that these people will do anything to show you their product! Hmmm I have not seen such problems, oh that?s because I don?t use a d/l manager written by a company that wants to make money. As bad as it sounds we should expect that these advertisement terrorists will try everything to get you to see their great product. We all have a choice of which software to use, so don?t complain to me.
This SIG pulled due to lack of funding. (This damn war is costing too much!)
The more the advertisers concentrate on less knowledgeable consumer, the longer I can get access to content for free.
Eventually even the questionable advertisers will figure out that it just doesn't work. People only have $x to spend a month.
I gave an in-law a computer to get on the internet about a year ago. I saw it the other day and WOW.. HD is full, desktop completely full of icons, task bar stretches the length of the screen, pop-ups,downs,overs,unders,arounds, computer automatically dials out at random and connects to casino and porn sites, junk email, even has active desktop enabled with random advertisements on the screen when he first gets into windows. All I wanted to do was to check my ISP's web mail, I decided not to after seeing all that.
It's truely sad and even scary that people accept these practices as a normal part of browsing the internet and using a computer.
Bad boys rape our young girls but Violet gives willingly.
It is. I've seen it done. One sleazy anti-virus company (don't remember the name. It's in France IIRC) uses it in their ads. Saw this months ago.
but I also do not accept the fact that the setup of Netscape 6.2 for Windows spread links to some domain all over the system and, without a single question, install that domain as trusted by Internet Explorer. Whatever they've planned to do being trusted seems to me a bit vulgar.
I personally feel that pop-ups, pop-unders, exit-pops, and back-button disabling are all immoral behavior that the web browser should stop by default. A pop-up in response to a click is acceptable, on-load is abusive.
However, if you block the banners or ads from the site itself, I feel that you have crossed a line. Receiving the ads is the price of visiting the site. While you are welcome to receive the site's content in any way that you want, blocking banners, etc., is essentially the same as shoplifting. You are taking what you want without paying the costs.
Justify it however you want, you've chosen to take the site's content without paying the cost.
However, I feel that the Javascript ads are abusive of the users. Web sites should stay in the browser that called them, no turning the web into "push" technology.
Alex
In MS Windows, there are a number of places that programs get started from on system startup.
s ion\Rune rsion\Run Oncei on\Run OnceEx
1) Start Menu\Programs\Startup
2) Control Panels -> Services (Windows NT etc)
3) Registry keys:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVer
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentV
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVers
You may be amazed at the trash that can accumulate there. Alternatively, check out the rather excellent freeware Startup Manager.
Perhaps this is just my paranoid fantasy, but this is what I predict we'll be complaining about this time next year.
...
This sort of technology married with something like Passport of PayPal or other private information store.
You innocently buy a book from the web and unknowingly register your credit card information with a service that will do you a favor and make it 'simple' to order things by simply clicking a link from a member site, etc. They'll sell it as secure, convenient, cutting edge goodness and you'll figure 'what the hell'.
From now on, they automatically send you merchandise you never asked for, but they think you'll be interested in. You opted in. This is YOUR problem, now. They send you books, CD's, new credit cards, address labels, elbow pads,
The burden is on you to remove yourself from their lists, now. But they have a policy that you didn't read - to opt out now, you owe them a fee for terminating the contact. You are embarrassed because you got yourself into this mess and just want it to end. You spend an hour or so a week returning goods that you never ordered. Just praying that they will credit your account. You'll later find that every return was 'lost' or received damaged. You can't prove that the goods were okay when you sent them back. And you didn't insure them because it didn't seem necessary for a $20 book that was being shipped on your dime.
If you are lucky, by the time it ends you are out about 200 bucks. Not much in the grand scheme of things. But the hassle was a GRAND pain. You briefly think about a lawsuit, but you are too embarrassed to admit your stupidity to a lawyer and judge, so you rack it up to a life lesson.
If you were to sue, you'd simply find that the criminals packed up shop. There are no phone numbers, no addresses. Any numbers you saw before were likely fakes.
So talk about writing new laws or shutting this shit down. You try that while I sit back and laugh as I get rich off your technically un-savvy aunts and uncles. As they stupidly march with blind trust straight forward. I'm fat and happy on caviar. Fucking lemmings. God bless you.
This isn't too restrictive. Big players, like Amazon, Yahoo Store, and the major search sites, all work under these restrictions. If your site doesn't, your site is broken.
I'm really surprised at the number of /. readers that are using windows.
What I hate is the borderless popups that I get every once in a while. I am pretty sure is IE only. If you have not gotten one of these, its a popup without any borders, not even the title bar with the close/minimize/max buttons. Its just a square ad. Usually they have there own close button hidden somewhere in the ad. You have to scan the add to find it! I did come across one with no way to close it, I have to kill IEEXPLORE.
I have started to use mozilla snapshots more and more lately, I really like the tabbed browsing, the alpha layered PNGs, and the being able to easily disable popups.
Not too sure if this has been said yet, but this is an amazing tool that will clean all the spyware from your system. You will be amazed at how much you have on there. It is called AdAware and can be downloaded free from the link below.
http://www.lavasoftusa.com
This adware/spyware stuff is almost always unwanted, and should be treated as such by virus protection software. I find it absolutely amazing that we have all this obnoxious stealth-spyware out there, and it's cheerfully ignored by the anti-virus programs.
At the very least, there should be a "Handle ad-ware as virus" option for virus protection programs. Obviously, the anti-virus people are afraid of lawsuits from the adware vendors, so they need a cute way of letting the end users designate adware for destruction while maintaining plausible deniability -- "Dear Mr. Gator, our anti-virus software does not disable your product's installation unless the user has specifically chosen to block adware. In such cases, the end user has specifically forbidden your access to his computer, so we just saved you from criminal and civil enforcement!"
Maybe we should all just copyright our IP addresses and DMCA the hell out of sites that misuse our copyrighted information for unauthorized purposes. If it accomplished nothing else, an avalanche of frivilous litigation would be its own reward.
:)
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Mozilla can get even more ad-free.
I've added this to my personal style sheet (automatically applied to every page):
object, embed {
display: none;
}
This keeps all Flash etc. invisible. On some platforms you can just uninstall the Flash plugin, but that doesn't work in the Linux Mozilla. (The ", embed" part is probably not necessary.)
The file to change is "userChrome.css", and can be found in the "chrome" directory wherever Mozilla keeps your personal settings, mail, etc.
And then, whenever you see an ad that is an ordinary image, you can right click on it, and check if it comes from some server that probably only serves ads. If so, right click again, and choose "Block images from this server".
Using all these tricks, you can get rid of a lot of ads and other annoying material.
Most of this should work in Netscape 6 as well.
Why?
Most importantly, no image file ever came with a security hole that allowed a third party to hijack the computer that downloaded it. I do not have the same confidence in software written by an ad agencies out to make a buck by hijacking my computer in the first place.
Sure, in a sense it's just another HTTP request, no different than the one that brought the HTML itself. But then again a bullet is just another projectile, no different than a tennis ball really.
There is a world of different between downloading simple data like text or images and downloading executable code. Clue yourself in.
Build stuff. Stuff that walks, stuff that rolls, whatever.
I'll bet money that IE is the only browser that will do terribly stupid things like install software without prompting.
It pisses me off companies are taking advantage of it, but at the same time MS sets things up by default to ALLOW being taken advantage of.
Screw the customer, right MS?
-- Note: If you don't agree with me, don't bother replying. I won't read it.
Comet Cursor was a popup download on many sites, most annoyingly doonesbury.com. I'm sorry to see that they didn't learn their lesson back then...
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
Interesting...when a corporate department does it, it's called "pop-up downloads" or "automatically downloaded advertising," but when someone who doesn't have a slaughterhouse full of lawyers backing them does it, it's called a virus...somehow, I smell another lawsuit coming from California's direction....
Why oh why aren't you and everyone else on /. using WebWasher?!?!? I haven't seen an ad, pop-up, pop-under or pop-download in months!
Contrary to popular belief, coding is not all free blow-jobs and beer. Those things cost MONEY!
just so I can see what happens when it attempts to install the software equivalent of genital warts on my Linux box.
Dude, you need to get gatorized everything I see is a clickable link to the dress barn or amazon.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
while true;do wget http://www.mp3yes.com/free_mp3_finder.exe -O /dev/null; done
;)
I am not suggesting anybody do this as it might be construed as a DoS attempt but if the article is correct that could cost Gator a good bit of money and make them possibly reconsider their software install tactics
Changing our desktop wallpaper? Enabling active desktop with their ads? Oh wait a moo, dont want to give them ideas now :D
----- Whats wrong with this picture? http://www.revoh.org:1234/whatswrong
Prompts were all in german, and it was for some dialer script. I had been on Tom's (on one particular page) for about a minute when it popped up.
Anyone else see it?
I just switched to moz and love love love it for this reason (and it's FAST on my os 9 mac, which NS4.7 was NOT). switch and be happy!
sulli
RTFJ.
and
Admuncher A 4k application (yes it's really small), Ad muncher rewrites the html before it reaches your browser. It's stopped 24 Megs of junk in the last month alone. Very useful when your on a crummy dialup.
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
That's the first option listed, chief. No need to go editing your preferences file.
Interested in open source engine management for your Subaru?
        Would this not be a form of opt-out?
        Glad I don't fall asleep with the T.V. on if opt-out is a valid option for advertisers.
In Galeon it's very easy to disable popup's. Click on the "Settings" menu and deselect "Allow Popups".
Note, this does not disable popup windows which open as a result of a mouse click. I have tested this in Galeon version 1.2.0.
For those who find Mozilla to be a bit heavy on the overhead, Galeon is a nice alternative. It has all the benifits of the Mozilla rendering engine, yet keeps a minimalist kind of interface. I love it.
(Galeon is based upon the Mozilla rendering engine)
DouglasK Do Justly. Love Mercy. Walk humbly with your God.
"The Internet is there for people to make money"
Um...Actually no.
The Internet was designed for educational purposes.
Once these cockbiters realize that the net is not the treasure chest of advertising and marketing glory they thought it was, we'll be a lot better off.
If I want a fucking shovel, I go to shovel.com (probably a pr0n site).
"troll," he added...
I gave myself to Jesus, but now he never calls
http://www.gator.com/contact/index.html
Simple web comments form. I informed them that I work for an ISP, and I inform almost every user of Gator, their advertising practices, and provide assistance to uninstall the software.
Also, keep in mind this isn't entirely Gator's fault. If you see a site that does this, I think the site needs to know as well.
A download manager may be able to catch these which would allow you to remove them from the download queue just like you delete spam -- what a waste of time --
If you run this, it modifies windows Explorer and Internet Explorer (maybe they're the same thing now?) to pop up porn ads every couple of minutes, and replaces all of your bookmarks and buttons. My friend got caught doing this. Luckily I use Opera (faster anyway).
-Cruz
Karma: pi (Mostly due to circular reasoning in posts).
What we should be doing is labelling Gator and auto-download software as hackerware - which is what it is. The only difference between Gator and white hat hacking is that Gator is produced by a commercial entity. The only thing saving Gator from legal prosecution is the dialog box - if the next version of IE does away with the automatic dialog boxes, then Gator would meet the definition of a virus, and the company that makes Gator could find itself liable to criminal prosecution.
For once, I'm actually glad that we have anti-hacking laws, because in this case, they are actually protecting us from corporate greed....
And yes, Gator installed itself on my system when my kid brother was surfing the web, and yes, it was a pain to remove. Fortunately, I have profiling software which enables me to undo filesystem and registry changes when an uninstall is unsuccessful.
The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
zone "gator.com" {
notify no;
type master;
file "pz/gator.com";
};
and then in pz/gator.com I have:
snip
localhost A 127.0.0.1
Fixes all those pesky downloads.
Sleep is just a poor substitute for caffeine, anyway. -Bob Lehmann
Consider what this means legally. Basically one person is trying to install software with a questionable purpose on a second person's computer, without asking for permission first.
If the first person is an actual human and the second is a corporation, this is considered a cybercrime and is typically punished by at the very least some sort of probation or community service, coupled with a court order forbidding ownership or use of computers for a fairly lengthy time period.
Now, what happens if these same penalties are applied to the corporations responsible for this?
Over at mcafee's website, this image leads to this site. I've seen these fake search windows on other sites, but mcafee is one of the main places people go to check out virus hoaxes etc. That site caters to the end user, as mcafee has another domain for the pros (nai.com or mcafeeb2b.com)I just think it's pretty shady to set up a site for users and then use tricky ads.
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Gator also has affiliate relationships with many sites, which it pays $1 every time a visitor downloads its software.
...70 or 80 times each to all of our machines.
I think it's great software, and we should all download it...
Nay, it's a virtual windfall when I make it their problem by keeping the items and refuting the credit card charges.
Regardless, there's a good point to make here--never give your credit card and/or mailing address information to anyone unless you (A) know and trust whom you're giving it to, and (B) you're making a purchase and know there are no strings attached.
!#@%*)anks for hanging up the phone, dear.
You could also use a non-standard web browser. Netscape does not respond to activeX in the same way as IE.
Unix is user friendly, it's just selective with what users it wants to be friendly with.
Try my host file project, i try to update it daily/weekly and makes just about every other hosts file redundant
blocks spyware
linux,bsd,mac,pc,*.nix
12,000 blocked hosts and i havent seen an advert in months
ps.
and if you already using a "hosts file" then you can upload yours so i can add it to the list.
The connotation of internet users to consumers is an intentional fallacy created a few years back when "Corporate America" discovered (assumed) they could make a quick, easy, buck or two via the net. Most of the dot-bombs fizzled into oblivion, some slither onward by dropping to this type of low. Their existence now rests in their ability to convince the marketing departments of other corps to use this slimeware.
I AM, therefore I THINK!
The state of Washington's computer crime laws specify that installing and running code on somebody's computer without their knowledge or consent is illegal.
This is no different from setting up a web page to insert a worm into the computers of unsuspecting visitors.
The problem here is that Web Browsers are too much a program that does the bidding of the website and not the user. I'd pay real Dollars for a quality browser that works for me. Features like: - Cookie auto-accept and delete - Auto-close pop-up and pop-behind windows - NEVER allow a site to disable or hide function buttons (ie...disabling BACK or displaying windows without any navigation controls. - Smarts to detect when mis-behaviors would break the site and pop a smart dialog giving the user the option to go elsewhere. - Lies (with a lie of my choice) when the site queries browser, OS or user info. I can think of MANY more things in a "browser that works for me". If such a tool were widely used, websites would be forced to stop doing nefarious activities.
But please mod this useful comment down. Slashdot is becomming more a community of Windows users than "nerds." In the past Junkbuster would have been the first comment to appear instead of all the whining and ain't it awful about the bad old advertising. Shit! Route around the damage and stop complaining!
You know, it really annoys me when some idiot makes a blanket statment, spewing doctrine about how sites should function. It depends upon the site's percieved audience! Or maybe you think javascript.com should work without Javascript, flash.com should work without flash and online shops should work without cookies (yeah you CAN do it, if you don't mind having to submit forms on every page, or huge ugly URLs that can't be bookmarked).
Funny how the jokers who spout this garbage always cite yahoo and amazon isn't it? Could it be because these sites are DESIGNED for dumb browsers; and have nothing more advanced than images and text.
I'm not saying that all sites need Flash, Javascript or any other technology - frankly most don't - but many sites attract visitors based on the fact they're exploiting a technology. Not all sites are shops.
In conclusion: anyone who subscribes to the OPs is either making very dull, generic sites, or needlessly handicapping themselves.
Code, Hardware, stuff like that.
Looks like Windows is getting off pretty lightly for a change - only one poster so far pointing out that ActiveX is fundamentally insecure.
.
It boils down to whether you'd rather have a run-time environment you can control (like the Java VM) or an unbounded set of parties you have to trust
I think we're seeing something fundamental going on here, where legitimate application providers, e.g. for B2B commerce, will gravitate towards Java Web Start (or possibly very "managed" Dotnet) as that will be the only kind of assurance worth having.
[blatent plug]
,dialers, sneakware, scumware ,p2p app advertising too
:)
Try my host file project remember.mine.nu, i try to update it daily/weekly and makes just about every other hosts file redundant
blocks spyware
linux,bsd,mac,pc,*.nix
12,000 blocked servers and i havent seen an advert or popup in months
ps.
and if you already using a "hosts file" then you can upload yours so i can add it to the list.
[/blatent plug]
I'm wondering, could I use this new method, to install a trojan on your machine, then check my site logs to see the IPs of who has downloaded my nasty program? Login: Guest. :)
Here is the list that I block. This list works for me on Opera 6.0 Beta 1 for Linux.
1 0.17.134
209.73.225.7
209.73.225.8
209.10.17.133
209.
212.150.169.154
X(7): A program for managing terminal windows. See also screen(1).
A bit OT, but banzai means something like "May you live 10,000 years" (Very loose translation there. The two words in the compund are ban (10,000. usually read "man") and sai (years-of-life. which gets voiced to zai)) I doubt you want Bonzi Buddy to last for 10,000 years, ne? :)
This feeling lasted until a few minutes ago when I downloaded what I thought was a nice piece of warez from the gnutella network. I had plenty of warning that it wasn't what I was looking for. First of all it was only about 160 KB, but to distract me from that obvious fault it had the words "full-downloader" in the title, implying that you just run the program and it connects to a magical server to get your warez. Still, stupid me plodded along, knuckles dragging on the floor, drool hanging from my lips, and spouting something about an "axis of evil." I installed the program.
The final clue to pass through my thick skull was when I launched it and it started running a casino program, attempting to connect to something. Panic set it. Virus scan was run. Nothing. Whew. Adaware was run to check for spyware. Nothing. Google search. Nothing. Usenet search: a two month old post from France. Apparently the program tries to call a sex line or something in Germany (at least if you're in France). It even asks you what country you're connecting from!
Moral of the story: it can happen to anyone; we all have moments of stupidity.
Moral 2: Stop pirating warez.
Buy a program like Ghost. Then after you have made a fresh install of windows (use a c partition which is not too large) with the tools that are needed. Then make an image of the drive, store it on another partition. Then re-ghost every month. You can put it in a batch file. Its quick and efficient and kicks all the crap out.
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
Fritz Hollings latest law: The Digital Advertising Protection Act, is designed to encourage growth in the online economy. With out it, citizens would see less advertising and therefore their lives would be dull, and they would not use the internet so much.
The Digital Advertising Protection or DAPA covers three main issues:
1) Protection of advertisers against censorship
2) Protection of advertisers against legal retaliation
3) Protection of advertisers against slander
Notable laws under DAPA:
* Advertisers have the right to run code remotely on a users computer without permission or knowledge of the user, as long as the code is solely for advertising purposes.
* Users may not install, run, create, or otherwise possess software which removes or blocks advertising ('ad-blockers') from their computer.
* It is illegal to not view advertising when viewing the associated web-site, film, game, television program or other form of media. For example, when watching Friends (on a _digital_ network) it is illegal to leave the room, close your eyes, or otherwise avoid watching the advertising during breaks. When viewing a website, you must view all advertising on that site
* Advertisers reserve the right to deny access to content, including content that has been paid for, if it is found that the viewer/user has not watched the associated advertising. For example, if you were to watch a film in the cinema, the advertisers may ask you questions before the film and require answers via a key-pad to prove you had watched the adverts/trailers. You may be removed from the cinema if it is found that you did not watch the adverts.
* The use of 'Time-shifting' devices is legal, but the advertisers retain the right to access the storage media to 'update' advertisements that may other wise be out of date.
* Purchasing products or services shown in an advertisement is non-compulsory, however, for tax purposes, you maybe required to answer questions about the advertising you have seen.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
It's nice to not have the Flash plugin installed in any browsers I use (IE6, Netscrape 6.1, Opera, Mozilla, Konqueror).
With IE6 I do keep having to click "No" many times when some lame site tries to make me install Flash.
With Tivo, you are still a viewer (which is what the station is paid for) and you still get the ads. Hell, I've "rewound" (ReplayTV, not Tivo though) to watch ads that looked funny.
The comparison would be to a television viewer that lies about what they watch to the Nielsons so that the shows they watch aren't compensated.
Realize that they are paid for airing the advertisement on television. The payment is based upon viewers. With banner ads, they are often paid by impression, don't download the image, no impression.
That's the difference.
Alex
Why does Slashdot run so many articles on News.com. I usually visit News.com before or after Slashdot anyway. I just seems like I often times see the same articles on both sites.
I know many of the articles on there make for a good debate, which is part of the fun of Slashdot, and I'm sure good articles are hard to find. But I would rather see some of the harder to find, equally good articles that are interested but of little know web sites. My $.02
[iCab] limits the javascript that a site can execute
Last time I ran iCab, it limited javascript execution by:
a) failing to support a simple, standard script properly
or b) crashing so frequently thet I had to turn off the scripting feature.
If you like that kind of control, my friend has a car for sale that you can't get a speeding ticket in! Of course it hasn't left her driveway since it was totalled...
t'nera semordnilap
Is why I use a mac and browse with Opera. Opera is good at keeping most funky things away (espesialy when combined with the Proximitron (PC only) which I believe is one of the best progs I've ever seen) and the mac doesn't accept, run or even recognize half of these ads and programs.
For everyone else though, I think that this definately needs to start being regulated. Unlike junk mail, TV Commercials and Bilboards, these ads and downloads waste my precious computer resources and time. And by forcing said programs on my computer they are invading my privacy. Just as no one has the right to come into your home and install microphones and cameras, companies should not have the right to come into my computer and install software.
T Money
World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
You could also try Adshield (http://www.adshield.org) ... it's free software, sits in the toolbar (and has a sidebar), blocks popups (including popups concealed in document.write()), cookies, images or pages from a list. The list supports substrings, so you can have entries like "/ad." or "/banner/" which will kill all ads on the less imaginatively-named servers out there.
My only gripe is that the block list file is in some stupid (read unnecessary) binary format and the only way to add to it is to right-click images or links in your browser and select "Add to block list." You can't edit it directly. But Adshield really does work quite well.
But to really browse ad-free in IE, you need to use a combination of a custom hosts file, web proxy, and something like this. You're really better off switching to Mozilla or Opera.
I suspect that if the techies did make their own private network over the interent and it became popular, the MPAA and RIAA would have it shut down for some trumped up charge. Maybe because people can use it to transfer "pirated" files, violates the DCMA in some obscure way, and/or infringes on a few letters from some trademark. Remember, the corps want us to be good little consumers, no matter if we think we are otherwise. We'll get spanked if we spit in their face. ;P
Any sufficiently advanced influence is indistinguishable from control.
All Javascript is evil.
I disagree. I've written many JavaScripts that enhance sites. For instance, an order form I created automatically validates your order in JavaScript before sending it to the back end. The back end does its own validation, but the JavaScript code means that my user won't have to wait for a page load just to turn the "!" in the quantity field into a "1" etc.
I've taught JavaScript at my local community college and I've always had at least one lectureon the ethical use of JavaScript. I teach my students how to use the language in general. I teach them how to enhance websites with it. I don't teach them how to abuse their users other than telling them how not to get into infinite loops, etc. IF they want to abuse their viewers, they can figure it out themselves.
JavaScript has its place, but like any technology, it can be abused.
t'nera semordnilap
A week or so ago my roommate was using my computer, and this happened to him. A pop up came up to install some program that connected to www.lop.com (he was at an unrelated website)...he was not paying attention and clicked it, and it changed all kinds of things on my computer. In changed my desktop to an active desktop...keeping my same background...but adding an swf file to the background that would load whenever my desktop refreshed. It also changed my IE favorites, my 404 error message, my search prefs...along with a bunch of other stuff. I was able to fix everything but the 404 message. Instead of getting the default message, or even the Microsoft error (yes I use IE...and I will burn in hell for it) that lets you fix what you type...it takes me to www.lop.com. For example if I type: "http://www.asdflkj.com" I go to http://www.lop.com/dnserror.cgi?s=http://www.asdfl kj.com/
I cannot figure out how to fix this. Could someone please tell me how to get rid of the setting. I have tried looking for lop in the registry, uninstalling with the add remove programs, I have even banned www.lop.com from messing with my computer with my firewall. This has killed their adds...but it still goes to their page when I type an internet addy incorrectly.
and 2 warnings to everyone.
1)Never let a roommate use your computer. 2)Never install any program that says www.lop.com on it.
Thank you
I like to support the sites I frequent. I don't mind "paying" a reasonable bandwidth cost for banner ads. But that doesn't mean I will pay any cost in the name of advertising.
The Web is not a broadcast medium. This still manages to escape many media outlets and advertising types. Still, the one thing they understand is cost. If an advertising campaign becomes costly, it will be dropped.
I don't mind ad banners. I do mind stupid java tricks, tracking cookies, and flash ads. In fact, flash ads have me using Junkbuster again. Abusive ads are blocked. Acceptable ads get a view.
Abusive ads become ineffecitve and costly. With luck, and many more users doing what I do, they will also cease to be used by advertisers.
I just wrote a bookmarklet that shows you the contents of password fields in web pages. It works with passwords remembered by Mozilla, and it works in IE6, so it probably works with passwords remembered by Gator. You'll have to run the bookmarklet on each site you've stored a password on, and you'll probably want a sheet of paper.
The shareholder is always right.
internet explorer didn't contuinally tell you "this page may not display as intended - click ok to continue" ...
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
dude if you properly set up a user account for your girlfriend on your Linux sector (your machine does have Linux right?) and never give her root level access she will not be able to fuck up your machine. Odds are if she is not very into tech she will not even realize that she is in a limited enviroment.
I did this and my girlfriend can browse as much as she likes with no worries on my side.
Nate
I used to have a cool sig, back when I cared
Haven't the stupid fucking cunts worked out yet that all they gain by using pop-up adds, hijacking the "back" button, full-screening the window and turning the titlebar off and trying to install random crap...
is a bunch of people who associate that company and their products with an all-consuming rage?
graspee
I suspect that the techies did make their own private network for clueful people only.
... and none of us were invited :-)
http://www.adsgone.com
VIVA1023.com | Political Fashion.
The software was something called eScorcher. They appear to be in Atlanta,GA. I did some digging, and I think the reason I thought it was from France was some of the original digging I did came up with primarily French web pages.
Go to www.gator.com
Notice the quote at the top of the page: "Customers love gator!!" -internetnews
Look up Gator on internetnews.
Find story with that quote.
Quote in story is actually from CEO of Gator.
So what's the technical term for that...."quote-laundering"???
Why do software companies do this? Do they think it will get people hooked on their product? I don't know....
I tried Gator out a few year ago (before their stealth-install tactics) because it sounded like an interesting plug-in, but it turned out to be a real pain in the ass, popping up a window every time you opened a page with a form.
Microsoft added auto-complete to forms in IE a short time after that, and well, it works just about like gator *should* have. I can either scroll down and pick a cached answer or I can ignore the thing and just type...but no pup-up dialogs, sheesh!
It kid of reminds me of those department stores that spray perfume in your face without asking...
Try as I might with Ad-Aware, I can't stop a C:\BDE folder from appearing on my WinXP box! Ad-Aware keeps deleting it, but even with AdWatch it always reappears.
:(
It's not just the alleged spyware that annoys me - it's also the fact that this directory is messing up my otherwise very neat root
It's any of us.....
Alright none of you gentlemen send e-cards but
opt in by deceit is alive and well at
http://www.funstun.com and http://www.flowgo.com
Here is how it works. You send an e-card or someone sends you one from this place. For some reason many of the ladies in my groups can't resist animated cards and they just click on the send this to someone else link.
What arrives in your mailbox (or the recipients mail box) is an innocent enough looking pick up letter. Commonly with e-card pickup letters you hit the top link (Unless you are an AOL subscriber). The second link is for AOL.
These cards however have a top link that says "to view this card and subscribe to our list click here...." My mother fell into this trap. I fell into it twice. There are now variations with three and four links and the link for viewing the card only either in the middle or at the bottom.
We are all creatures of habbit. It is VERY EASY to click the wrong thing accidentally. I just don't send cards from those two companies and I urge all my friends to avoid them.
I also dutifully zap any pop ups for anything that invade my screen. I do a lot of surfing personal web sites so I see a lot of pop ups. My 28.8 connection at the house helps in this regard because the pop ups are slow enough in coming that I can kill them before they open.
I don't say yes or no to the Gator. I say "goodbye."
Please visit ZOID CITY Community and Community Competition http://www.zc2zc3.st
Gator what? "Honey, have you installed anything on the computer lately?" "No." "Are you sure?" "I haven't done anything accept email for a week."
Hmmph. Now I'm getting mad. I take a look at this Gator "thing", somewhat neverous that my PC has a virus.
Then I find a website in the about section. I go there and find a feedback address. Then I write a message to the effect than neither my wife nor I downloaded their program but it had installed itself. Under the circumstances, it appeared that they had illegally cracked my computer and installed software and, that if I did not receive a satisfactory explaination in 3 days, I was going to contact law enforcement.
This happened on a Saturday and I received a response by 10:30 AM Monday. I received an apologetic message stating that they were sorry if it was installed unsolicited and that many different companies distribute software that installs their product and that it must have been one of them.
I replied that I did no such thing willfully and if they did not give prompt, successful instructions on how to remove "Gator" from my PC, I would carry through on my threat of contacting law enforcement.
I received a final response within a day of my reply, followed the instructions, and Gator is gone. But if it ever comes back...
science is a religion
Try my host file project [remember.mine.nu], i try to update it daily/weekly and makes just about every other hosts file redundant
Some of this poster's content was fairly apparently stolen from my two-year-old website. See my message about that here and here.
I've never posted a link to this message board about my website any of the times that hosts has been brought up, but I felt I must take a stand against this apparent plagiarism.
Also, for the record, anyone who has asked to link to my site or to copy text from it has been granted that permission. All you have to do is ask and respect other peoples' work. Sheeesh.
I work with some computer repair techs, and they have found that the program Bonzi Buddy (claims to be helpful & cute) makes your system degenerate over the course of a few months, causing any one of:
- random crashing
- can't dial up
- various other problems
Unfortunately, once the problem has started, uninstalling Bonzi Buddy does not remove the problem, and generally a reinstall is needed (however, if you catch it early, you can just remove it).
Anyway, I submitted a virus report to all the virus companies I could track down; one responded "We'll look into it", and the rest didn't respond at all. I was hoping that the Antivirus companies would have an option "Treat Bonzi Buddy, Comet Cursor, Gator, and other malware as viruses", turned on by default. But it doesn't look like they will.
These keys may have equivalents with "Run" replaced by "Run Services". Don't forget to check those, too.
it's green.
Justify it however you want, you've chosen to take the site's content without paying the cost.
But pop-ups are okay to block because they're annoying? What we have here is a double-standard. There is no click-through agreement to view any advertising and no social contract to render their page the way they want to ON MY PC. Toss in annoying blinking crap and web bugs designed to compromise your privacy, then you'll find lots of people not standing up for this kind of treatment. There are products to keep people who block ads out, but very few (if any) websites use this because they know their fraction of a penny ads are worthless compared to building an online presence/brand.
Obligatory ad blocking hosts file:
http://everythingisnt.com/hosts.html
Huh? Popups? What are popups?
ok then your [sic] infringing on my copyright! Could you as [sic] me next time before STEALING my comments for your own?