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IE To Block Pop-Ups
smd4985 writes "Next year MS will release a XP service pack that enables IE to block pop-up ads. Only a few years late. Maybe Mozilla.org/Opera should patent the technology to make it hard for Bill 'embrace and extend' Gates to kill those XCam ads...."
99% of off the shelf shopping cart systems now rely on this behaviour. This will surely alienate even more corporate customers, where the hell are Microsoft going?
What's the point? Among others, Proxomitron is free, takes 5 minutes to set up, and is massively configurable for popup/banner/script/etc. blocking.
The strange thing here for me is why Microsoft would do this from a business perspective. I would think they're drawing a fair amount of income from their MSN portal advertising. Maybe it doesn't work for MSN? Or they're only blocking popups because the don't plan on having them on a MSN linked site anyway?
~ Whence do you come, slayer of men, or where are you going, conqueror of space?
And maybe in a couple more years we'll get mouse gestures too!
fp
Everybody dies frustrated and sad and that is beautiful
Or they'll just exploit one of IE's 40 billion security holes to get the pop-ups through and everyone else will be just fine.
Wow, adding a feature that Mozilla/Netscape has had for ever. Good job, Microsoft
Shameless plug:
Blogzine
Soon pop-up ad companies will be hiring lawyers to attack Microsoft for blocking ads...
Who do we cheer for then? (grin)
Davak
Ahh, Internet Explorer is finally getting pop-up blocking. This should be interesting (and a shame for Pop-Up Stopper and other companies like it that will be out of business). How long before you think they catch on to real browser innovation, like mouse gestures and tabbed browsing?
I've got $20 on "sometime before the heat death of the universe".
Auto-reply to ACs: "Truly, you have a dizzying intellect."
I don't agree with the double standard put forth by the poster of this article. Why do many people complain when patents are enforced, however, it's fine for Mozilla people to go ahead and create a patent.
Besides, think about the fact that Mozilla was probably behind the decision to eliminate pop-up ads in IE. That's something truly achieved in itself.
IE To Block Pop-Ups; Slashdot to not post dupes; Hell to freeze over
Can I get my $5 back? I cant believe I paid for this shit
If Microsoft was patenting this technology, most /. users would call it evil, right? But, you claim Mozilla/Opera should patent it, and that would be good, right? Somehow I don't quite follow the logic here.
where will i download smiley emoticons and locate old school mates from?
~~
I never have a problem shopping online while blocking pop-ups.
Anyway, the companies that use shopping carts relying on pop-ups will just have to adapt or die. They need our money, right? Not the otehr way around.
This is a good sign, i hope this is just the beginning of many improvements to microsoft operating systems :)
slowly but surely microsoft are improving their products
vs.net is a tabbed browser for us developers that want it.. there is always avantbrowser too..
Fortunately you can't sue for implementing a a feature from another product.
isn't x-10 bankrupt?
Mozilla should sue Microsoft for theft of intellectual property.
Right. Sue them for the idea they took from Opera.
But better late than never. Good to know that microsoft has realized that "maybe users really DON'T want to collect their prize for being the 1239023948th visitor to the site"
IE is necessary for a lot of sites that aren't really HTML/CSS compliant and use tricks in IE to make themselves look good in it, but render them useless if you view it with another browser that doesn't know about this little trick. It's the state of the internet now that you can't browse without a pop-up blocking browser, or else you get bombarded.
I wonder if they'll support 2k Professional/Advanced Server however in this endeavour.
- Sherman
I suppose Mozilla should go sue Google too, right?
No, they can't do that, because you can't spell Google with a dollar sign like you can with "Micro$oft", and you just wouldn't get the same laughs from the Slashdot crowd.
evil adrian
Why would an intellectual property suit against Microsoft be OK? Just because Microsoft is loathesome doesn't make intellectual property suits right.
Stand up for what you believe in and don't make exceptions.
I'm so sick of hearing about Mozilla. Mozilla didn't invent the pop-up blocker either. I use IE with the Google Toolbar and before that I used Norton's pop-up blocker. I haven't seen a pop-up in two years. So what's the problem? I will agree that no matter what browser you use, if you don't know how to stop pop-ups then you're pretty much useless anyway.
Support the First Amendment. Read at -1
My favorite pop-up blocker is google's toolbar.,
If I'm going to have some stupid something sitting my windows toolbar section, it might as well do some useful stuff--search google, block pop-ups, and give me pagerank.
I love free software.
Davak
...is that they plan to have Clippy jump up and say 'It blocked a popup window for you. It looks like they were trying to sell you Viagra.' every time a popup is blocked.
it wouldn't be the first time microsoft stole a feature... i hear longhorn is gonna have virtual desktops...linux has had it for years... a lot of their interface is...shall we say...Mac Inspired (ex. the trash can)...
Get the Google toolbar for IE. It beats the hell out of any pop-up blocker that I've seen and it's pretty cheap too.
Does your dick leave a mark when you park? What color? Black, brown, green, or colorless clear... you need Leak Stopperzz.
Now it they could only stop spyware and crap that integrated with aps in nasty ways you can't remove.
Bloody registry entries..
-
ping -f 255.255.255.255 # if only
A buffer overrun exploit was found in IE's new popup blocking. Aparantly, instead of popping the window up to the user's desktop, it attempts to execute it. A virus dubbed the Popper worm is rapidly spreading through computers blocking popups. As a workaround, please reenable popups immediatly.
This is REALLY bad news for the rest of the world. This means that since most people will be able to block popups, the popup companies will resort to new methods of spawing, such as java windows, automaticaly executed ActiveX controls, and hijacking the browser window through their ads. While the middle wouldnt be a problem for anyone other than IE users, the other two could pose a serious threat to my abiltiy to use the web.
When life gives you crap, Make Crapade.
Sluggy Freelance.
Why the heck are people still using Internet Exploder... errr..explorer.. iv been using Galeon for a year now and have had the option to block popups for a while now.
But hey.. to each thier own.
Mozilla and Opera block automatic popups.
The shopping carts you describe prompted by the user clicking somewhere.
And in case you are afraid of false-positives, Mozilla alerts you whenever it blocks a popup (small icon at the left of the browser status bar) and you can unblock it.
Treehugger? Treehugger... Treehugger!
"Fortunately you can't sue for implementing a a feature from another product."
No but you can sue someone implementing your idea in their product, charging a whole whack of money for it in side-profits (like operating systems), and attracting away your business.
For example. Say you started selling soup. Maybe I wanted to sell soup too, so I copied your recepie, and used it in my restaurant, and said that my restaurant had better food, and service than you.
You could sue me because it was underhanded of me to try and usurp your soup!
I'm wondering if we can expect some lawsuits to follow this move. First of all, companies that rely on popup ads, are likely to be pissed. Second of all, companies who sell popup blocking software are going to be screwed. I wonder if Microsoft's move could get killed under anti-trust oversight.
This sig has been temporarily disconnected or is no longer in service
Just disable JavaScript and marvel at ill-designed websites made by professionals. Hm.. Wait a second.. What am I complaining about? You get paid for doing it all wrong? These people are far more intelligent than I may ever be, I see that now. (Yes. The rant is over. Resume your life.)
BTW: I'm pretty sure you can't patent anything that has been made public anyway, jokingly or not.
My memory is no doubt shorter than it should be (probably da weed) but I don't remember Microsoft EVER having a go at someone over a patent issue. As far as I know they use patents only defensively. I would be genuinely interested if anyone could come up with a counterexample. Anyone?
n/t
~Chris Hammond
Yay! for the USPTO, I'm sure they are bound to grant someone a patent on pop-up ad blocking, lord knows there is nothing out there to stop anyone from filing for that patent.
YOU'RE WINNER !
Another lame blog
Wow! You must be proud! You're finally getting popup blocking!
What worries me is, Anti-Leech have already put together a rather sneaky anti-anti-popup system that takes some serious acrobatics to get around, so pop-up blocking is likely to become uber-moot quicker than ever.
Bow, nigger. h
Maybe Mozilla.org/Opera should patent the technology to make it hard for Bill 'embrace and extend' Gates to kill those XCam ads....
I mean really, why is it necessary to make such an unproductive comment? The only thing that sort of comment accomplishes is making Open Source advocates look bad.
Nothing pisses me off more then watching porn in a wmv format and having f'in pops open because MS created the ability to put popups in a video format running on Windows Media Player. *spit*
I hope the anti trust judges are reading this. Isn't this enough proof of the whole browser vs. OS thing?
Maybe they'll make that spiffy search assistant start spewing out ad blurbs between file searches. "Hey, have you tried the new Vanilla Pepsi?"
The campaign will use pop-under windows as the core of their advertising campaign. Utilizing a little-known bypass for their banner pop-up blocker mechanism in upcoming versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft will take 100% of the available pop-up banner impressions available for users. "This is a great day for Microsoft," said Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates. "Finally, our users will be able to view only those ads that our company sees fit to display to users."
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software -- any time, any place and on any device.
if they do damned if they dont.
If you paid for windows, then it cost you the same way. If you run linux, then although you didn't pay, you also didn't get this app, so you can't claim that mac users pay while you didn't...
If I have *one* person tell me, upon downloading this, "Hey, did you know that they can block popups now??", I think I *WILL* kill them.
A Minesweeper clone that doesn't suck
Privoxy is an open-source web proxy that blocks ads of all kinds, and is highly customizable. It'll run on Linux, Windows, OS X, and god-knows-what-else, and will block all those annoying banners with a high degree of effectiveness. Better yet, it's been available since 2001; once again Microsoft is offering too little, too late.
I made a PHP/MySQL library that prevents SQL injection & makes coding easier!
Aren't they the nicest people? Always thinking about the user! They'll probably add this to the fluffy-clouds-and-baby-chicks-MS-family-o'crap, as PA was nice enough to tell us about!
Cozinha para as massas (e para geeks)
lol.
If I only had mod points.
There are so many reasons to avoid IE and just install Mozilla. Pop-ups are annoying, yes, but not nearly as annoying as network administrators that think they can limit the Web sites employees visit by customizing IE.
For example, my wife and I just started jobs at companies that customize IE to limit access (and in the case of my job, limit browser incompatibility). Now my wife is in sales, yet her laptop, which she often uses off of the corporate network, has IE configured to limit access to Web sites that provide anonymous e-mail. So, she can't go to Yahoo.com, msn.com, hotmail, etc. She often uses these sites for content other than Web e-mail.
So I installed Mozilla. Thank you Mozilla for the oral credits!
-=- Many seek good nights and lose good days.
Seeing as the entire world uses internet explorer, virtually nobody will be using pop up ads, right? Well I don't really expect those comapanies to rest on their laurels. I would only imagine companies will find their ways around it and this time around Mozilla and friends may not be immune.
Either that or web pages will be 50% banner ads, inducing mass epileptic fits.
Look it's a joke about my sig IN MY SIG! LOL!
This is just the sort of example of Microsoft's history of innovation that should be shown to Judge Kollar Kottely to back up their case.
Erm, OK then, probably not.
Hmmmmmm..... Deep fried and look like Squirrel.
Some on-click popups are still controlled through javascript, which Mozilla (I dunno about Opera) will often still block.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
All right, XP is getting pop-up blocking! But wait, I am using Win2k... As much as I hate Microsoft I would like them to put out a Win2k version, and a version for other Windowses wouldn't be bad.
CHEERS
--RoadkillBunny
Cheers,
RoadkillBunny
pop up ads are nothing. i haven't had to deal with pop ups on my own computer for years. the real trick is to get a really good multi ad blocker. (damn that flickering serverbeach ad at the top of this page!)
The pop-up ad companies suing Microsoft for killing their business model...
OR
THe pop-up-blocker companies accusing Microsoft of using their monopoly powers(tm) to kill competition by including features in Windows designed to drive them out of business?
Remember - that's what the Netscape case was about.
Mmmm.. Donuts
Last year called, they want their technology back.
--
Will work for bandwidth.
The ideas are there outside the frame of time. We are enchained to our ergonomic chairs and perceive only their reflections on our screens. What we regard as our inventions are just the distant and blurry memories from the time we watched them undistorted, before our birth.
But try to explain this to the man from the patent office.
i hear longhorn is gonna have virtual desktops...linux has had it for years
Third parties offered virtual desktops for Windows 3.1 before Linux even existed, pinhead.
This means that all the slimey advertisers looking for ways to circumvent pop-up blocking software will spend 99.99% of their time trying to break Microsoft's scheme, leaving Moz users such as myself alone.
On the other hand, I'm willing to bet that Microsoft will end up breaking two or three scripting languages in the process of implementing this...
This looks like a move MS was forced to make because like always, it has to copy its competitors ideas if it wants to keep market share. Better remove the code that opens pop-up at msn.com as well, Bill! It surprised me that a website that's affiliated with them would do that. No the popups didn't come from Gator/Claria or friends.
It's a surprising move, I'd thought hell would break loose when MS started blocking ads. Maybe Mozilla/Opera should come with Proxomitron bundled. Or the next wave of Linux Distros should ship with Privoxy running (but with enough warning on how to use it, when a user opens a browser window they should have a "welcome!" page with a link that tells them how to enable it.)..
Then again, there are websites with killer content that need a way of financing themselves.
What time is it/will be over there? Check with my iPhone app!
Or even worse, the alternative to popups, where Clippy jumps up and says "it appears you have a sexual disfunction, can I help you with that?"
No, I'm New Here
Well, Mozilla would have a hard time demonstrating that they are somehow harmed by IE using this technology. Besides, since there's not a patent on popup blocking (that would suck if there was one), so Mozilla would really have no grounds by which to sue. There is no intellectual property theft here, unless Microsoft stole the actual code Mozilla uses to block popups. Somehow I doubt they'll do that. So, it couldn't happen.
You spend 2 years creating a product. You sell it and have other companies play catch up. After a few years your product is released for free on the platform your developing for (that isn't linux it's M$).
As long as M$ is an OS company and a software company; they deserve the title. There seems no other alternative to the Microsoft monopoly other then split up the company. The @home and Professional releases of xp are a joke against their clients.
---So long as there's a free alternative, M$ cannot help but cheat it's customers---
Maybe Mozilla.org/Opera should patent the [popup blocking] technology
"Method for not opening a new browser window when asked to"?
Prior art: Every browser before Netscape 2 did this, very effectively!
Trees can't go dancing
So do them a big favor
Pretend dancing stinks!
What about those of us who haven't "upgraded" from 2000 to XP??
for porn's sake, mod parent up!
Great, knowing how well MS did with "The most Secure OS ever" (WinXP) I can rest assured that their solution to block ads will be better than Mozilla's ;)
Now where's my WinXP messenger spam script....hmmmm...
That won't stop them from claiming they invented it.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
I think the point is that MS sees that pop-up killing is quickly become a killer app. I don't think that they are worried about third party apps like Proxomitron because only a small subset of users can/will install them anyway. You could argue that this is being done partly to prevent a drift towards alternate browsers, especially Mozilla, but again only a relatively small audience have the knowhow or desire to change from IE.
Personally I think this is more about reigning in the power of Google, specifically the Google Toolbar which can block popups. Joe User knows Google (they do not know Proxomitron) and the Toolbar is easy to install and it is very popular. I bet the Google Toolbar is installed all over Microsoft's campus.
Google used to be just a search engine, now it does much more, including supplying software to Microsoft's end users. Have any of you checked out the new Google Deskbar. Think about it: this is an application which bypasses the browser.
I think Microsoft is very afraid of Google and thats why they made an offer to buy them. They were turned down, so now watch what happens, on Longhorn there will already be a "MSN Search Deskbar" on bootup. This is an opening salvo in a Microsoft war on Google.
OS to block I.E. Nice thought.
Of course, you'll see a few sites become accessible only through those gimmicks, but they'll be quickly deserted.
Heck, there isn't even any reason to keep Flash turned on all the time...
What I want is a simple control panel applet for Javascript. Something which allows the handful of useful applications through but blocks things which 'animate' windows by resizing them, etc. I suspect Proxomitron can handle most of this already... it just needs to be a little more friendly to config.
ML, images (not even animations) and a little JS are all I need.
Ph-nglui mglw'nafh Gates M'dna wgah'nagl fhtagn.
If you want popup blocking in IE you can do it already using the Avant browser. It uses the IE engine to render pages, but provides its own front-end with tabbed browsing and popup blocking.
I've been using it at work since they changed out work proxy so that Mozilla wouldn't work here anymore.
So now they just lack tabbed browsing, type ahead/fast search, better text zooming on fixed-size text, real PNG support and the rest of the "to-do list".
--
Will work for bandwidth.
MSIE is "too late to the party". I've been using the ultimate pop-up blocker for about two years now.
Its called "Opera".
I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
Clippy jokes were funny about six years ago when Office 97 came out.
Life in Orange County
I think people need to realise that large publications on the web are not free. Such as gamespot.com, Ars Technica...etc. I enjoy reading these sites. But I also know that the bandwidth to host the site needs to be payed for along with the editors keeping the page up to date. If you thought the web was slimming down in good (my opinion) content in this post dot.bomb, I can only imagine it getting worse as people are stripped for methods of generating revenue.
Life is not for the lazy.
I subscribe to MS technet, which contains a shitload of content, indexed on a CD. The interface used to navigate the index is nothing more than a front for IE (all of the index content is pretty standard HTML stuff). One thing I just noticed the other day is that if I open more than one item, it opens them a tabbed interface. Perhaps this is a special function of the interface, but like I said, it really isn't anything more than a framework for IE, so if they can do it there, why not in mainstream IE? Hell, for all I know, us technet subscribers are beta testing the tabs!
Geek used to be a four letter word. Now it's a six-figure one.
You know, where the phone companies sell their (home) customers services to block telemarketers, and then turn around and sell the telemarketers methods on how to get around those blocks?
Perhaps Microsoft will sell Pop-up advertisers a way to get around the new IE pop-up blocking software.
Hey, it's just another revenue stream!!
Perhaps Microsoft is doing this so ad companies will pay it to not have their pop ups blocked? Most users will not know (or care) how to turn off this pop up blocker. (I'm sure most of them don't want pop ups anyways.. I know I don't.) So an ad company would basically have to pay Microsoft to survive.
hey!
they're going to disable popups because they interfere with their FULLSCREEN VIDEO ADVERTS that come on every 15 mins(and "help pay for the websites" and "the internet relies on them, there is no free lunch"). /joke
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Outlook Web Access may not work with this pop up blocking!!
Support nightmare of users trying to figure out why their OWA doesnt work and having to walk them through diabling the pop up block for the site.
blocks popup ads too, as well as always being handy for things like......searching......if you use IE of course.
From my understanding, folks who shop at Verified by VISA enabled merchants will a get pop-up window at check out in which they enter their VISA card password to complete the transaction.
Verified by VISA is flawed in my view for many reasons, and pop-up blocking isn't exactly going to help customers nor merchants - both will have problems...customers getting declined and merchants losing sales.
Ron
It's already getting bad with insane amounts of flash advertising. I now browse with flash disabled. It's not worth the hastle.
MSN.com and the related Microsoft web content sites are known senders of pop-up and pop-under ads. Is Microsoft going to give up this practice too, or will they block some of their own sponsors?
MYIE2 is a 3.3 MB download addon to Internet Explorer that adds pop-up blocking, tabbed browsing, mouse gestures, super drag and drop, customized searches from the address bar, aliases, and is highly customizable, so in a way, you already can get those things in IE.
I understand that it doesn't fix CSS or any of the security flaws, but it is a nice option for the hopelessly addicted IE user. Oh, and its free.
Whoaaaaa.
What a perspective.
The amazing thing is that an industry that insists on heavy metrics of stability out of everyone and everything else simply accepts Microsoft's brand new "stable" thingies.
Now that IE will have popup blocking next year, I wonder when they will 'legitimize' tabbed browsing?
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
Hahaha, IE blocking popups? What about all those MS popups I see every day.......
Blocking the main revenue stream for most internet based websites seems like a bad idea in general... i do say that it has become a bit out of hand but I think that it will even itself out into the future.....
Anyways, EbD out
Excuse me, I don't mean to impose, but I am the ocean
If they can block google adwords and adsense adds, it will cripple google's income stream. This will make it much easier for MS to overtake google in the search business -- or just take them over at an affordable price, since thier sales will drop off a cliff.
Surprised nobody at slashdot has made this connection so far.
Only one person so far has commented that this is only for XP.
But it's not just that... why should I have to get an entire OS SERVICE PACK just to add pop-up blocking to my browser? That's rediculous. I haven't even installed SP1 yet, because of problems I've had in the past with old Win2k service packs (ie: SP3 or later of Win2k causes the OS to crash if I use any 3dsmax files made on a machine with an earlier service pack installed).
And again, what about those who aren't even using XP? What about those who still use Win9X? Maybe this is one more way for Microsoft to force people into upgrading...
I can see it now...
MS: Hey everyone, this is Microsoft. I know those cooky Opera and Mozilla folks are telling you to just install their web browser, but that's HARD. They could DESTROY YOUR COMPUTER. Instead, why don't you spend $179 and upgrade your OS to WinXP? Then you can just use our latest bloated service pack and get the same thing!
Humanity: Do I get mouse gestures, too?
MS: WHAT THE HELL, WHO DO YOU THINK WE ARE, GOD?!
Why is this a part of a service pack? This should be released NOW, not delayed like it is a big reason to download SP2 whenever that finally comes out.
Screw 'em...Firebird/Mozilla and Opera have done it for longer and therefore have done it better...IE will continue to sit on my system for last ditch surfing of poorly made websites that fail to work on anything except IE.
IE is a popup!
OH THE SHAME I fell off the wagon and use sigs again!
The content on the sites you visit is not free. Someone has to go find the content you are looking at, prepare it to sell, etc.
I have disabled pop-ups, and I have adjusted my hosts file to block most major ad servers I also added a default style sheet to catch a bunch more ads.
Finally, if I go to a site that routinely annoys me with too much advertising that gets around my various quick fixes. Then i stop going there.
Advertising is a necessary annoyance of a supposed free medium. However, I am also free to disable it as I see fit. If it bothers you so much, do something about it. If not, quit bitching.
PS- I did not write the style sheet, and I would love to give credit/thank who ever did, but i can not find the original source in my bookmarks.
If you are one in a million, then there are six thousand people who are just like you.
M$ is trying a new PR campaign to clean up it's image through advertisers and revellers.
The fundamental changes they need to make in order to attract and keep it's customers will be the same thing which destroy's the company. (Something else). M$ loves to devalue software for profit (xp home and professional additions-plain stupid spending more time and effort disabling features is just simply insulting). The usefullness of xp has acted as a devaluation on their OS as a whole.
Longhorn will need to include their office utilities, web server, and a limited programming suite in order to remain competative. But the M$ psychology is one of aristocracy and a continuously marginalized customer base (incase you can't tell, I'm making funnier faces at you).
Looks like the boys at microsoft took a look at linux and decided they'll have some real competition within a few short years. Thanks to linux their pricing model has been thrown out temporarily. A M$ model of "pay as you go, or we'll shut you down" deriving unnecessary "value" from what is free and taken for granted today. The same train of thought leads to an "if you want to reach our customers, you'll have to go through us" which will likely have some foreshadow in the longhorn release.
The value of a linux distro in M$ money totals 6,300 US greenbacks for about 500 dollars over a 5 year period. Perfect for startups and dusty closet servers.
When is Microsoft going to add tabbed browsing to IE? thats just about as important IMHO as popup blocking.
Only a few years late. Maybe Mozilla.org/Opera should patent the technology to make it hard for Bill 'embrace and extend' Gates to kill those XCam ads....
Late? I believe pop up ads are still around. Why not be glad that surfing the web will be better for many people instead of throwing out some suggestion to block the implementation? Childish...
This is interesting--I know that when I turn on "block pop-up windows" in Safari, that my company's webmail front-end to Exchange no longer works correctly. I presume that other pop-up blockers would have the same effect. I wonder how Microsoft will avoid blocking the OWA part of exchange?
--
$tar -xvf
"About 88 percent of broadband users and 87 percent of dial-up users in North America find that pop-ups interfere with their Web surfing experience"
Who are those 12% and 13% of users that like the popups? I would like to break their fingers for making the popups viable.
END COMMUNICATION
If you want to add real functions to IE, like pop up blocking, flash blocking, tab browsing, etc, then try Avant browser.
It's small and free. Enjoy.
Only a few years late. Maybe Mozilla.org/Opera should patent the technology to make it hard for Bill 'embrace and extend' Gates to kill those XCam ads...."
Little OT, but I've been thinking, while we know that most opensource project of this kind will not take every single piece of their work to patent office because it'd only harm the community as a whole, but can we at least get some kind of prior art protection against hostile patent take-over activities?
Or is there any way to 'submit' something that'd be put into piror art database in USPTO? (provided that such a database exists and there's any intelligent living being in there at all)
I really hope they don't limit this to XP only, as the article states.
I can already hear my friends telling me in the future that MS created popup blocking and Opera/Netscape/Mozilla copied their idea.
*Sigh*
If most people have browsers with popup blocking, can you imagine the number of banners we will see when visiting websites?!
Thank God Outlook doesn't have spam detection.
You have got to be joking. Are you seriously telling me that the latest version of IE does not render transparent PNGs? Freaking unbelievable!
Liberal (adj.): Free from bigotry; open to progress; tolerant of others.
It's because we want to delay Micro$oft's taking over of the world as long as possible.
~Chris Hammond
Next they'll have tabbed browsing... oh wait...
Keep your eyes to the sky.
Won't this have somewhat of a reverse effect on the advertising industry? Since Internet Explorer is the most widely used browser, if it doesn't allow popup ads, that should motivate advertisers to look for different methods of annoying us, and the new ads would almost certainly be more intrusive than what we have now.
Look at history. First, there were simple banner ads that simply linked to a page. People didn't like the idea of being tracked, so they just copied the URL and put it in the address bar; bam, no referrer ID. Then, advertisers wised up and linked the ads to a CGI script, but the arguments were still plaintext, so people would just view the source of the page and get the URL from that. Now, advertisers once again have gotten around that by using IFRAMES for banner ads, so it's not nearly as easy to look at the source. Popup ads were immediately closed by the user, so advertisers developed popdown (or popunder, but popdown seems more antonymic) ads. Now, since popunder ads (and popup ads, as well) will be completely bypassed by anyone who uses Internet Explorer, advertisers will simply evolve as always and find the next way to pitch penis enlargement to us.
Later,
Patrick
What if IE could only block some popups but not others. For example it could block all popups except those that come from MS servers. Maybe it will block all ads except where the advertiser paid MS. IE could automatically download an encrypted list of popups to allow.
War is necrophilia.
MS is using its monopoly power to put pop up advertisement companies out of business. Typical!
...that nifty "Block Images from this server" joy in Mozilla? Is this in MSIE now? You think they'll add it and say it came from their hardworking R&D department?
Ever since I switched to Mozilla, I've totally forgotten those popup ads were even out there.
Maybe their next amazing development will be to build in a nice Bayesian (sp?) filtering system like Mozilla Mail has into Outlook.
It'd turn "Bayesian" into a buzzword.
s'wut i sed.
Maybe now there will be some big money put out that's going to prove that MS is a monopoly. This action is going to piss off the advertisers royally, and they are going to sue MS with some big money. Since IE is a monopoly on the browser market, this will be the last thing that kills pop ups once and for all, and the advertisers don't like that.
This is true. The slimeballs are faking user requested popups now. I can't see any way to block thise without killing popups alltogether.
And yet they will click 'yes' ten times to install spyware/adware that purports to block popups. 'Average users' are truly a special breed. My policy is to totally lock them down, even the home users who install spyware (clients for my freelancing). If they need to install something they can call me up and I'll do it for them via VNC and it'll be done right.
"Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
"Goosle" is pretty amusing though.
This should be welcome news to loyal IE fans who continue to torture themselves with their use of it.
Keep the movement going, increase those Mozilla usage numbers. Give Mozilla Firebird or plain ol' Mozilla Seamonkey to everyone you know, get 'em converted! Need help finding reasons to convince them? We've got em!
download the IE Google add-on and have popup blocking now, with convient google searching (just like Mozilla! just without the l33tist I'm a Mozilla user so I naturally have better web br0ws3ring skillz attitude)
The good innovate,
but the best immitate.
Or..
Why spend money on work when you can let others prove your point.
You can whine all you want about how everyone and their dog had this first.. but everyone out there is still using IE... and this feature came before there was enough feature gap to get people to start switching in droves. A week after this is out, the history won't matter, IE will do popup blocking, and people will still use IE, and the fact that mozilla also supports it will be irrelevant.
From a marketing point of view, it makes perfect sense.
in the big picture of things, they are all losing money from me anyway because even if I click on an ad, I still don't spend cash there.
I do occasionally make donations to a few websites i care about, though. (Got tons of spare cash after I quit tobacco products.) But they don't reallly count because the sites that I donate to are operating at a loss in the first place.
using my dad's computer (mac os 9 with only ie installed) i get a pop under ad when i use the back button to get back to slashdot.
time to upgrade this to os x and install safari.
Yeah, and then sue Opera as well for taking ideas from the game Black and White.
http://www.crazybrowser.com/
its a small download, it runs on top of IE, you get tabbed browsing and it blocks pop ups. I like it better than mozilla.
Uhm, who needs microsoft?
Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with CrazyBrowser- I just think its the jam, and that its way better than mozilla.
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
While normally I like when IE catches up feature-wise to the rest of the world, this time I'm concerned.
For example, if IE decided to implement CSS1 (like they advertised that IE6 supported), people could develop web sites that used more CSS, and life would be good for developers and users.
However, if IE blocks pop-ups, now advertisers get no bang for their buck with the pop-up medium. So they move to Flash ads that take up half the screen and then roll up out of the way after they're done (see ads on ZDNet). If that's blocked, something else will be used. It's an arms race--if you make a better missile defense system, they'll just make a better missile. Obnoxious ads are with us forever.
Even though IE is years behind the rest of the web browsing world on all fronts, this does remove a lot of the advantage of "alternative" browsers. Pop-up blocking will soon be an irrelevant feature, because no web sites will have pop-ups. This hurts Mozilla worse than it hurts IE.
Does this also block the "application crashed - send error report to microsoft" popups?
42 + 1 = 42
...in 2012...
They'll still be able to make Notepad Popups
Didn't that bell sound get annoying?
I miss the Google Toolbar highlight and search features when I go home to Galeon. Is there a google toolbar for any of the non-ie browsers?
"I'm not impatient. I just hate waiting." - My Dad
In terms of stopping annoying advertising, Nuke Anything is the most useful Firebird extension I've ever seen. It sets the display CSS property for the object you've selected to none. Don't like the obnoxious flash ad that's making the text of the page squish into the left 10% of the screen? *ZAP* Gone. And It re-flows the layout. I use it all the time, especially on that obnoxious new /. frontpage ad.
My username does not make me Apathetic. It's irony, get it?
To all the skeptics, this is further proof that the courts made the right decision in allowing Microsoft to continue to innovate!!
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
Keep in mind that Microsoft has had built-in internet searching via the Windows Shell through the Start Menu's "Search..." function for a few years now, so I don't think this is a huge surprise for anybody.
I also don't think it takes an incredible leap of imagination to think they might put an "Internet Search" control on the new Longhorn Sidebar. Claiming that by doing this they're trying to defeat Google's impending grasp on the desktop is a bit paranoid.
I mean, what else would they put on the new sidebar? A big clock? :-)
This isn't going to solve anything, it'll just force pop-up vendors to move to DHTML for their popups. If you've never seen one in action, the once at tek-tips.com comes to mind. It's a pretty reasonable "please sign up" type popup that occurs once per visit, until you register and let the cookie do it's thing. Mozilla doesn't block this, and it might be a long time before it ever does. I doubt that it's as easy to recognize these as advertising algorithmically as it is with JavaScript popups.
OK, I blew the link.Tek-tips. I'll preview this time, I promise...
A marching band at 10000% volume liquefies your internal organs in surround sound. Yes, another Flash ad leaps up to cover the article you're trying to read.
Gott in Himmel, time to install Mozilla on the Win32 fragging partition.
Anybody notice that this will only be offered with SP2 for XP?
Looks like a not very subtle shove toward XP on Microsoft's part. "Upgrade to XP, and get pop-up blocking!" Or keep your current OS and use Mozilla.
On a related note, I thought I heard that Office 2003 only runs on 2000 and XP. I see a trend here. Soon the only software Microsoft will offer will be Windows XP and Office.
Well this is a nice first step against sleeze.
Now if MS could stop all those "Do you wish to run and install X" X being whatever bull these ad/spyware people like to put on people's PC's then my life would be a whole lot easier.
In Soviet Russia, Trojan exploits YOU!
Half the pages with flash say that I have no flash player installed when I visit them with Safari. Although, that's only half...
"The problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money" - Thatcher.
Well, at least those don't create new windows/tabs all over the place; they're on the level of interstials for irritation.
First of all, why even bother waste the effort on their part coding this "new" feature? IE is so insecure that i have no doubt there will be multiple ways to get around the pop-up blocker.
Second: MS has yet to release a second service pack (for XP) and none have been released when they said they will. Hopeful IE users may have to wait for another year or two for this "great" new feature.
Third: If Gates attempts to block X10 ads (which I assume was a jest on the part of the Slashdot author) he is a moron... X10 went bankrupt as I recall.
Next year MS will release a XP service pack that enables IE to block pop-up ads. Only a few years late.
Cry me a fucking river. Even when MS finally does something right you can't admit, let alone applaud them for it. Flame on.
You need a FREE iPod Nano
oh wait, I use Safari ...
Tabbed browsing is awful!
It makes no sense. You go through all this effort to have, effectively, multiple windows inside your browser space (just like multi-window browsing does). You do this at the cost of valuable desktop real estate. You can't even alt+tab through browser windows!
I have an idea. If you're using windows, just leave your taskbar popped up.
For linux, well, heck, now I know why you guys are so crazy about multiple desktops. You fill up every desktop you have with all these browser tabs.
I want to block my sites from lame-ass whiny visitors who are blocking popups.
Now that M$oft is finally catching on to one of the top three concepts or ideas that the "competition" has had for awhile now....(and believe it or not -- the single reason why I have got a few people around me to switch to a real OS....People that were not "in tune" enough to realize that yes you could install Opera/Mozilla on Windows....But were in tune enough to realize that a few rough edges in a desktop experience was a small price to pay to get rid of pop ups)
Now I guess it is time to dig deeper into trying to INVENT rather than RE-INVENT. It is a lot easier to sell cool never done before features rather than playing second fiddle to ideosyncrosies that have been in place in MS Land since 3.11.
(+1 Funny) only if I laugh out loud.
No popup here with proxomitron :)
Considering that Proxomitron is no longer being developed, it won't be quick to respond to anything.
From the official site: "I regret to say the Proxomitron web filter is well and truly dead."
More moderators on crack.
War is necrophilia.
With the delay in longhorn, why can't microsoft just wait to announce features till they are actually close? Say 3 months ahead of the release?
I'm so sick of hearing about new MS features for this or that only to find that they won't be available till 2006.
Yeah, yeah, real geeks don't use IE.
int rant()
{
Some of us poor souls have to use it at work because it's the only browser that works with NTLM 2 authentication through a Win2k server.
If you suffer from this malady, you might be happy to know that you don't have to install programs that break functionality to block pop-ups. You can just use the built-in functionality in Internet Explorer! *gasp*
Seriously, though... security zones are your friends. And they work well. In IE, all you have to do is go into Tools>Internet Options..., click the Security tab (yeah, yeah, M$ security, blah blah) and set the Internet Zone to a custom level with the most restrictive settings possible. Then set the Trusted Sites zone to Low security. Then add some sites to the Trusted Sites list.
Yeah, it takes real brains to figure *that* out. For the love of god, people, learn to use the friggin' tools before you bitch that you can't get the job done!
return 0;
}
Oh, and can someone make a browser with NTLM 2? Please?
Already done. X-10 filed for bankruptcy
Mmmm, not yet. Maybe next wednesday, not here and not now. I'll head over to some gaming forum and open some eyes to the light.
Fuckwad.
Your statement is untrue. While the main application itself is currently not being updated, it is not the main program that is important, believe it or not.
:)
What makes Proxomitron great is the third party filter sets. Proxomitron by itself is pretty good as a popup killer etc. I used it this way for a long time. Then one day someone pointed me to this site:
http://www.jd5000.net/
Can you say BEST FILTER SET EVER? I thought you could
JD's filters are absolutely fantastic. He continually refines them, and if you find a problem with them (or someone invents a new type of popup etc) just email him and he'll implement a fix. If he can't do it, go here:
http://asp.flaaten.dk/proxo/
That's the Proxomitron Forum (unofficial). There's a bunch of other developers who either write their own filters or work with each other to combine resources.
Lastly, you can write your own filters! I myself have taken JD's filter set and added a couple of customised filter options I prefer but which were not in his set.
THAT is the beauty of Proxomitron. The main program itself is simply a proxy using a set of rules based on a specific intruction set. You don't NEED to have constant updates of the main program. As long as you or I can write a filter set, it will live on forever.
Quizo69
Visceral Psyche Films
You go through all this effort to have, effectively, multiple windows inside your browser space (just like multi-window browsing does).
It depends on how you browse. Usually I don't want to wait for things to load, so I can click on a series of links (from Google or Slashdot or whatever) and have them all load in the background. Then I kill off each tab with a hotkey when I finish the page. You never have to deal with multiple windows. It's a handy feature to sort through competing information quickly. Needless to say, while it is absent from IE, it will remain one of the most overhyped features in alternative browsers.
In Soviet America the banks rob you!
That's what we have been waiting for, right? Stupid home users don't have to worry about freakin' pop-ups anymore. There's no point in saying that it was done before.
Anyone interested in this product is a fool, and here at slash-dot a hypocrite.
I think all these advertiser shenanigans are leading to one thing: a comprehensive "permissions" system for all websites (on the client side of course). We already have this to some extent; blocking popups for all but a set of "allowed" sites is just the most obvious example. What I propose -- or rather, what I think is coming whether or not anyone wants it to -- is something far more universal: websites would all start with the same low, default level of "permissions" (e.g. show text, images, and maybe a few other things), and you would grant websites additional priviliges as needed; for example, site X needs Flash, Java, popups, or whatever to function, so enable site X to use them. Ideally we would even have the ability to enable specific uses of a given permission within a website.
The flaw in this plan is, of course, that website designers will integrate the more annoying advertisements into the content of their websites in such a way as to make it difficult for the browser to distinguish the two. Well, that's the immediate flaw, anyway; if ad-blocking ever becomes totally successful, we would have a bigger issue: the total collapse of the "free" (ad-supported) internet. Whether you consider this a "problem" or not is up to you, but realize that this WILL HAPPEN if and when enough of the population can block enough of the ads.
What about that CD tray opener?
That f-ed up my CDRW drive bigtime....
Anyone have a link to that garbage?
Screw them when they do the right thing, screw them when they do the wrong thing. After all, this is Slashdot !
> You can actually download a *powertoy* from Microsoft...
:)
Try Virtual Dimension instead. It's GPL'ed and it's quite spiffy.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
You seem to be confusing the popup handling with mouse gesture handling.
If Mozilla and Opera don't advertise their superior features, Microsoft will still have all the consumer on their side by 2004!
The users need to know that there are already better browsers out there or they will again think Microsoft invented something new like built-in popup-blockers and go with IE.
Support PNG and W3C!
"... since IE's idiot customer base ..."
According to M-W the word idiot means "feebleminded person having a mental age not exceeding three years and requiring complete custodial care"
Thanks a lot dude. I'm using IE at work and still able to post without custodial care.
Though, with IE blocking pop-ups, the advertisers will be forced to find new, more invasive ways of cluttering up web browsing. I've already been subjected to a few Flash ads here and there.
> Tabbed browsing is awful!
...
Tabbed browsing is a *choice*
>It makes no sense. You go through all this effort to have, effectively, multiple windows inside your browser space (just like multi-window browsing does). You do this at the cost of valuable desktop real estate. You can't even alt+tab through browser windows!
huh?
yes, it's the same as multiple windows, with less screwying around. in fact it takes LESS real estate than a window banner. esp if each window has a set of back/forward/home/etc buttons on it.
and just because you don't know some keyboard shortcuts, doesn't mean they don't exist. or can't be made. If you don't like it, change it. You have The Source.
>I have an idea. If you're using windows, just leave your taskbar popped up.
and fill my taskbar will all the droll websites I visit?
>For linux, well, heck, now I know why you guys are so crazy about multiple desktops. You fill up every desktop you have with all these browser tabs.
er.. ?
how can you fill up a desktop with browser tabs? it's just that... a tab. they take up as much room as the window they're in?
did you forget to engage your brain before posting? oh wait I forgot - this is slashdot.
You do this at the cost of valuable desktop real estate.
Um, no. Tabbed browsing *saves* desktop real estate. Think about it.
What are pop-ups and why can't Mozilla show them? Am I missing something?? Will the next version of Mozilla finally be able to show these pop-ups??? Will Mozilla ever catch up with IE????
Blocks pop-ups, has built in Google search, auto-fill for forms...lots of good stuff.
Get it here
-ted
Why wait for IE next year when Google Toolbar has excellent pop-up blocking built-in? Even Yahoo's toolbar is beginning to feature pop-up blocking. Anyway, I use Google ToolBar for IE 6 -- Google has made IE useful where it was impossible to put up with before. Microsoft should be very grateful to Google.
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
And in other news, IE will include tabbed browsing in a service pack to be released in 2007 with much fanfare of how it will revolutionize browsing the web!
THE MAGIC WORDS ARE SQUEAMISH OSSIFRAGE
a link that works: www.tek-tips.com
No worries, folks. This isn't about pop-up ads per-se. This is just a cat and mouse game with advertisers. Even if advertisers move to another annoying method after poop-up ads, our nimble Free/Open Source browsers will always be ahead of the game, while IE will still lag painfully behind the ad game.
Nothing to see here. Move along folks.
Gee, Microsoft is a bit late getting into the game of blocking pop-up ads.
EarthLink since the advent of their TotalAccess 2003 software has offered an add-on for IE 5.01 SP1 and later that blocks pop-up ads automatically; the latest TotalAccess 2004 software includes an improved pop-up blocker that also blocks Macromedia Flash ads, too! =)
No, even Microsoft eventually figured out that MDI was a bad idea. If every app had its own crippled window manager, how would this be better than using one window manager that doesn't suck?
If Mozilla/(other FREE browzers) dont patent it M$ will patent it.... its in their genes to do it.. :|
Of course you have to deal with multiple windows, they're just brain-damaged (like MDI if you were required to maximize everything). If Mozilla could open new windows in the background, I'd never use tabs again.
FingerWorks has keyboards that allow mouse jestering if you cant wait for your *ahem*beloved IE to get features that have been in other browsers for ages (go Safari!). (I dont know about mouse gesters though. The concept looks cool..
Too few articles mention all three and articles mostly fall into one of two categories: Usually the articles praise Mozilla and Opera for features, usability, flexibility, support of standards, stability, security and multi-plaform support. Or they go on about the problems specific to MSIE, while implying that MSIE is the alpha and omega of web browsers, and finish by giving the bad advice to sit still and obediently wait to buy the next upgrade, service pack, bug fix for MSIE. At the same time, users and administrators tied to MSIE are prevented from learning unresolved problems. There are also further costs if company data, such as customer lists, are compromised as a result.
Clearly censorship is not the optimal long term nor even short term solution. IT staff can save time and money now by migrating their users to Mozilla and Opera.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
more of those crappy Flash animations that take over the WHOLE SCREEN. So how do you disable Flash?
When I am king, you will be first against the wall.
And how have you proven you are not an idiot?
you cheer the ad companies because those that are smart would use mozilla or any other competing browser to help fight against microsoft and block ads in the meantime. as for the lawsuit, i think it'd be funny if microsoft lost.
FYI -- Microsoft had this feature up and running in the initial internal builds of MSIE 6. They took it out when their "partners" found out about the damn thing. (Former MS Product Support Services (PSS) Research Engineer - Win9x project, outsource, Keane - Tucson, AZ)
C1icXs h3re t0 ge7 teh ch3@Pe5t Wind0ze XP upgr@De with no pr0n popupz.
Wh47 d1d j00 541, 31337 15n't t3h r0xor5 ne m0r3???
because you can't spell Google with a dollar sign like you can with "Micro$oft"
What's with the America-centricism of Slashdot? Why not use the Euro sign like Googl[insert Euro sign here*]?
*) Seems like it is not possible to insert a Euro sign in slashdot posts. Again American-centricism? Both using HTML entities and pasting it don't work.
-- The Internet is a too slow way of doing things, you'd never do without it.
Huh. well I used windows today. And it never told me anything about "administrator" or that my one account on the system is Admin. It just goes merrily on its way. "laddeeedeeda." no password required, or even suggested. and hey, it's XP "pro". Pro- now thats a laugh.
Who is this Anonymous Coward character, how does he post so much, and why is he always such a whore?
Next, Microsoft will add Tabbed browsing!!(I wouldn't know if they have it now because I'm a diehard Mozilla user)
....
They have already! Just consider the usual task bar as "tab bar". You can switch IE windows by clicking on these "tabs". Of course, Mozilla has used this technology once as well
I Agree!
I always have the bad luck of accidently closing my browser with 20-30 tabs open when wanting to close just a single tab..
I think its absolutely hilarious that its taken microsoft so long to do this. It just shows what a forward thinking and innovative company they are.
I really am surprised that IE hasnt got this facility already.
Anyhow, doesnt windows have the equivalent of a hosts file ? I stick all the offending domains in there and point em to localhost.
Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
In Mexico we have a saying: that who burns himself with boiling milk will ve weary even of icecream.
To be vigilant and simply cynical about a company known to use illegal practices does look bad only in the eyes of people that have short term memory problems.
Then MS will come, attempt to patent this or other obvious already perfected innovation and the OS advocate that suppossedly looked bad then will look damn insigthful.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Who cares!
The google toolbar has been blocking popups in my IE for a few months now.
Sindri Traustason.
You will pay in years to come by being restricted to a "standard" that forces you to use the Internet in only one sanctioned way, using technology provided for only one company.
Well that is if people like me throw the towell, which will not be anytime soon.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
I guess Microsoft must be planning on getting into the micropayments business?
http://cryptome.org/pk-radio-data.htm
Most products would advertise this feature as one line in a change-log. Microsoft has to make it a big revolutionisng bloody deal. They couldnt even add it as a windows-update fix they had to wait for half a year to put it in the service pack! and what about windows 2000? No doubt they will screw this feature up too.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
Ok, everybody on the Microsoft side of the room, in unison now, let's hear a loud and heartfelt:
"Thanks for the prod that competition brings!"
My parents upgraded to MSN 8 recently, which brags endlessly about how it blocks popups. Well, Ok. After the initial installation, with screen after screen bragging about how much the user will love this new version and how it effectly stops this, the first thing it does is give you about 3 popups to places like Expedia and Microsoft. Yeah sure, they'll block popups, as long as they're not Microsoft's! Also, the new web page to get mail from, is so loaded with advertisments and banners, that it takes forever for a modem user to load the page - how annoying for those on dialup!
I don't think MS gets it. XP in point, those stupid information balloons that popup from the taskbar everytime you log on. 'Make a wallet account now', 'Unused Icons on your desktop', 'Update now' (even when Update is turned off and a SUS server is in use for updates). Sometimes they popup twice each before going away. Using sysprep doesn't work, because on the ghost - it put's them all back! Including the Media Player shortcut that was on the desktop that was deleted before sysprep! Group policy also doesn't work well in getting rid of these little buggers. (We have the educational OS)
I'm using IE 5.5 sp2 and have clicked all three links posted in this thread. Not a single cookie, popup or any other nefarious actions were allowed by my properly configured browser. http://www.staff.uiuc.edu/~ehowes/resource6.htm Learn how to configure IE and you won't have these problems either. Only sites that I have added to my trusted sites list under security settings are allowed to place cookies on my machine or use scripts etc.
Use Opera. Ctrl-Tab or right mouse button + scroll wheel to change tabs. If you accidentally close a tab, just go to the menu Window->closed and open it again. If you close the entire browser, just start it up again and choose "continue from last time" from the startup screen.
If so, it should disable itself. That way nobody gets hurt.
Why not just get Google's popup blocker? Simple install for IE and very unobtrusive. Just a thought...
but its faster than mozilla. PNG support: in a perfect world, my toaster oven would have OGG support. But this being the internet, I haven't noticed the lack of PNG support in YEARS.
The HTML is indeed questionable, but that's what those web-coders get paid for- to code around IE.
So those rationalizations (valid ones, too!), combined with the fact that mozilla runs like a rickety old grandma on my 1.1 gig machine, leads me to believe I currently have the best of all worlds (given that I am forced to run XP)
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
Maybe they can finally support PNG images properly... they've only been an Internet standard for seven years.
Throw in built-in SVG support, too, so we can actually start using them (Internet standard for two years now). Maybe then Mozilla/Firebird, etc. will sort our their library licensing issues and support SVG out of the box, too.
- chrish
That's already happening. Scrupleless companies are exploiting holes in IE to install software and 'shortcuts' on peoples desktops.
See this video demonstration.
Note that this works on FULLY PATCHED IE! It is reported that a clean install of XP, updated as far as it goes on Windows Update is still vulnerable. Only by disabling "Navigate Sub-frames over different domains" in Security Settings can you stop it and that probably only works because the crap is loaded from a different server in this case!
Belief is the currency of delusion.
I've been using JunkBusters and now Privoxy for so long I don't even know what ads you all complain about are.
I highly recommend Privoxy as you can configure it to allow ads at sites you want to support while suppressing ads for everything else.
You can lose something that is loose, so tighten the loose item so you don't lose it.
When will all this innovation stop? Oh yea, when Microsoft finishes running over the competition and have no one to pull any new ideas from.
Michael Merry
Merryworks
I've got a popup blocker installed, and now some sites are popping a bit of flash on the page.
IT'S REALLY PISSING ME OFF.
I used to visit the Times newspaper (www.thetimes.co.uk), but now I get this bloody flash popup that seems to get triggered at random.
Result, I don't go there anymore.
Include ads on pages...fine. I've clicked through a few on /. that have interested me. These popups just drive me away.
I was trying for Goog£e, but that also fails in preview.
I do remember a comment submission about SCO a few months back that had $¢0 (Dollars,Cents,Nothing), so it was possible (at one point) to include these extended chars in comments.
You hard core slashdoters kill me. You talk about how software patents are evil out of one side of your mouth and then out of the other, you suggest that someone should patent technology that Microsoft is going to use to make our browsing life better. Get over yourself. If MS is going to do something to get rid of pop up ads, let them do it and be quiet.
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
It makes no sense. You go through all this effort to have, effectively, multiple windows inside your browser space
Yes, that's what it effectively is. And that's exactly why it does make sense for people who tend to have lots web pages open.
You can't even alt+tab through browser windows!
I don't WANT to alt-tab trough them, because then I'd have to cycle trough all the OTHER bazillion windows in addition to browser ones, to get into the one I want (and the same otherway, it I'd want into some other program all those browser windows would slow it). Now I can ctrl-tab or ctrl-pgup/down to cycle trough only browser tabs instead of all the other clutter and alt-tab quickly if I want to change between browser and non-browser windows.
Another damn use is sorting things, I can keep slashdot article and it's comments on one window and its tabs, and something else on other. If each page was in a separate window, they would be cluttered instead of in neat order.
If you have 2 pages open at time, you're right, tabbed browsing is useless. If you have twenty, it's a life-saver.
For linux, well, heck, now I know why you guys are so crazy about multiple desktops. You fill up every desktop you have with all these browser tabs.
I can't figure out how anyone can "fill up" even one damn small, not to mention several, desktops with that is about 20px tall, care to elaborate that stupid claim? It doesn't take any more space than "leaving your taskpar popped up".
For the original poster, this technology couldn't be patented because prior art exists. I wrote a popup blocker while the current mozilla codebase was in its infancy for IE. All one has to do is create and register a BHO that sinks to the DWebBrowserEvents2::NewWindow connection point and passes VARIANT_TRUE as the output parameter. It's not rocket science. Microsoft need only add the code before such an event is raised since they can modify the original source.
Besides, just because it's Microsoft Internet Explorer, you want to burden the users with popup windows? And let's not forget about all the other commercial (including free) popup blockers that do just what I mentioned. Patenting this wouldn't be hurting Microsoft even close the amount it would be hurting the users.
So typical of M$ to wait a few years after someone else maked the technology and then "borrows" it. Micro$oft are just a bunch of un-innovative thieves.
Great, maybe now there is hope for Outlook express getting spam filters in the (distant) future.
Lucky you. I've looked at Xcam ads for years before hearing about Mozilla.
I used these both, then I noticed that they are still using IE, still allowing horrible drive-by downloads of adware/spyware, and still letting me suffer for IE's many security vulnerabilities.
At which point I realized IE is fundamentally broken and no front end for it is going to change that fact.
OT (On topic): I don't think they have to know how the thing they are trying to use works. I'd rather
say the thing they are trying to use must how the user works or would like to work.
OT (Off topic): You provably don't know how to grow the very crops that you eat everyday, you don't know how to build a working version of a car, you don't know how the account deparments process your salary so that they are fine with the law requirements. Even if you know some of these, you provably don't, and can't know, even a mere 1% of how things work, but other people know.
Your point is very centric assuming everyone has to know the one field you think it's the base and final goal of human life. If you relax the asumption, you'd know your just being pedantic.
"Don't care to learn? that would make you an idiot."
Look at how many things you don't know, and I am pretty sure you'll have a slight perspective on how idiotic everyone is.
(note: I don't care if you care. I just want to clarify your point, that is a very common)
unfinished: (adj.)
Does anyone know if this service pack release is related to the Eolas
lawsuit? I was under the impression that IE will be required to change the way it handles embedded media. Will this new service pack implement those changes, and if so, is this popup blocking issue just a way to get people to install yet another service pack? I know I wouldn't bother to install a service pack unless it offered me something new or fixed a problem. "Now with popup blocking!" sounds a lot better than "Now more irritating in order to fulfill the terms set in a recent lawsuit!"
I wish that my inferiority complex were as good as yours.
-RenderHead
IE is that ancient browser developed by Microsoft, right? I forgot that still existed.
VMS was the ancestor of NT, which was certainly around in the 80s... whilst this doesn't neccesarily mean that the code hasn't been completely rewritten, only Microsoft know The Truth(TM), so don't blow this guy off so quickly.
The idea that a non-Linux system can only be Microsoft-based is entirely your own invention. Don't read into things so much.
__CmdrTHAC0__
In Soviet Russia, Spanish Inquisition doesn't expect YOU!!
We could all just stop visiting sites that use these unwanted forms of advertising. People always seem to forget the fact that, if the advertising isn't working, companies won't use it. With spam, if NOONE bought things that were advertised from spam, noone would send it. The same goes for popups! But, since people are idiots, I'll keep using Mozilla's popup blocker anyway...
You raise an excellent point, AC. See how Microsoft's loathsome reputation corrupts even the most staunch defenders of the good path? (ie: I said that because the devil made me do it)
I feel ashamed for even bringing this up.
Also forgot,
It feels GOOD to pay for good software. I donate $10 to mozilla.org for every client I 'convert', and LimeWire is a great product at a great price. I also donate to the EFF, Gentoo, FSF, and NPR when they do something I appreciate.
I usually just 'balance out' my checking account via paypal, and donate the leftovers after they accrue. For Instance, my checking has $211.34 in it right now, I'll dump the $11.34 into paypal and donate what's there after a month.
It feels good. It's the right thing to do, and it's the least I could do and still sleep soundly.
"Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
This is only good if its done right! The software should 1)block all popups, 2)allow easy (and I mean simple two click max) to get to the blocked popup, 3)allow sites to be added to a whitelist. A vast majority fail at the 2nd (even google:)), and assuming all popups are bad, which is narrow minded and just stupid. http://www.endpopups.com/ is the only popup manger that I've found that does both of these easily.
----- I refuse to have an argument with an unarmed person
It sure is funny, M$ finally adopts yet another open source option. But why wait when you can have it now?
For some reason, that little pop-ups blocked counter gives me such satisfaction...
No Inflation Taxation without Representation
http://www.ultimatepopupkiller.com
Popup killer, check. Lets requested popups through, check. Works on Win95 and later, check. Free, check.
This post made with the Dvorak layout.
"Friends don't let friends use QWERTY"
Just a thought...
Opera Watch - An Opera browser blog.