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I Dream of Silence From My Web Browser?
BRAINBUZ asks: "I'm finding more and more web-pages are blasting sound at me. Everyone who chooses to blast sound at me seems to manage to make their sound files much louder than what I was trying to listen to. I am finding this to be even more annoying than popups -- at least with pop-ups I could click the X and be done with it, pages with sound don't give an option to turn it off without closing the browser, or muting all sound. When I can, I avoid sites with sound, but just today I was checking my balance on one of my credit cards only to have some awful noise nearly blow out my speakers from one of their ads, for themselves.
Opera has a feature to turn off sound in web pages, which doesn't work on most noisy pages. Haven't been able to find a similar option in Firefox or IE. The next killer feature, what I really want from my browser, is the ability to shut every web site up. I get security warnings from my browsers all of the time, why can't I get a warning about every media file (whether it be audio, video, flash, ActiveX or Java based) on the page that wants to play and the option to play or not play them?"
FlashMute - cross-browser Flash muting.
...in this situation. Here I am reading the news/video game article/PC article when all of a sudden a car insurance ad BLASTS at me with a screeching car sound. You can substitute screeching car sound with any conceivable annoying sound in existance. My solution? Adblock the hell out of them.
I run with my speakers (including that stupid internal one) disconnected all the time, unless there's something I want to hear. That solves about 99% of the problem. Don't install Flash plugins--that's an additional help.
"Not an actor, but he plays one on TV."
Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
Firefox: Adblock (filterset.G), NoScript (set to block flash as well)
No sound from any webpages yet!
Many sites play sounds at whatever volume level they found the file recorded at, which can vary from file to file, and Windows normalizes nothing. Also Firefox will play sounds not in the currently active window (or maybe it's just another tab in the same window, I'm not for certain), so I've had to hunt it down. To make things even worse, Midi and waveform generating files get different volume settings and it's not always clear which one you're dealing with.
Use Firefox with https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php ?id=722&application=firefoxnoscript extension.
Noscript will block alle javascript, flash, and media files.
You can then choose which ones to enable.
Try it.
thomasdamgaard.dk.
If the reason you dont want sounds is because your say listening to music via another app you could get a 2nd sound output device (say a cheap usb 'soundcard') make that primary ound output and not plug anything into it. Then set your sound app to use the other soundcard that has speakers on it.
You shouldn't have to goto these lengths to do it, but it would work.
I've gone to both streaming and flash web sites lately, and I can't figure out what the webmaster is thinking.
It guarantees I will not return willingly.
You say you were checking your balance. I would assume that this is your bank. Have you considered writing/calling them and letting them exactly how annoying a full-blast sound is? I am sure they would not tolerate such loud sounds inside of their bank, so I really do not think they would approve of such loud sounds coming from their website. The website was likely designed by an external company with little oversight by the bank.
Of course, this only fixes one sight. Have you thought of writing a plug-in for Mozilla/Firefox similar to the wonderful flash-block plugin?
strike
"Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
Ok, this is a little bit of work, but on the Mac, I can use Audio Hijack (Pro) for this purpose -- hijack the browser, then hit the Mute button in Audio Hijack. I also find this useful when the browser's volume balance is out-of-whack with iTunes -- I can hijack the output volume and lower it. All in all, I've found Audio Hijack Pro very useful, for more than just these purposes.
...I think that Flash is one of the worst things to happen to the Web. Maybe it's just frustration, but do we really need to slowly fading buttons on a corporate website?
...in Soviet Russia, Flash mutes YOU!
Many of the myspace.com profiles have 1 of these 3 ways of emitting sound
1. flash
2. streamed wmv
3. bgsound src=
I can block flash, but has anyone figured out the others, especially if I could specifically target it at webpages form myspace.
greasemonkey script?
I use flashblock and ad block already, I will check out this no script thing. Anything else?
Go to Tools->Options->Advanced->Multimedia
I was unable to find any such options on Firefox, but maybe I missed it somehow. I looked for an extension on the Mozilla site as well, but I didn't have any luck.
Like Opera, however, the sound setting in Internet Explorer doesn't stop Flash Ads.
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=24418
if anyone wants to copy paste it. I'm voting for it.
Anyone know why the slahsdot referer is blocked?
noscript blocks javavascpipt, flash and java on a site by site basis witch should prevent sound from playing. noscript.net
I got so tired of unexpected sounds, I leave on mute. When I want to hear sounds, I unmute. Not very elegant, I grant you, but it works.
Kind of esoteric, and not extremely practical, but you can have one sound card (or even your voice modem's audio channel) as Windows' default sound playback device with no speakers attached, then play your desired program through the second card. This will only work with apps where you can specify where to send the output, but it's an option. I'm running on-board sound plus a mult-channel rackmount sound interface, and it'll do this.
One can always complain to the sites and the parent company of whatever is being advertised. If you take the time write up a polite but firm complaint, just copy and paste it and send it off to the contact addy. Something along these lines, obviously write your own. "Dear sir/madam: Your advertisement x at site y contains an intrusive flash animation and sound package that is quite startling and annoying. In a business situation, the last thing you would want to do is to annoy any potential customers. It "gets your attention" but in a most negative way, and accidently hitting it at work where it blares out it becomes disruptive and is very unprofessional sounding. Many research studies have proven it, a tasteful non animated and quiet ad is much preferred by most internet consumers, witness the success of Googles non audio and quiet text-ad based system."
DON'T send it to the webmaster at site y, they are the doofusses who make money off of faking out the company that they need some advanced macromedia crapware ad. Those guys will blow you off, do some looking and go directly to the company, find some relevant VPs to CC the complaint to, and not the marketing VPs either, they are in on it and are usually mesmerised by their own leet skills, useless talking to them. You send it to some operations manager at a company and the media relations people. Point out that consumers are switching in droves to ad blocking software precisely because ads have become so annoying that it is hard to even remain on a web page at some sites.
In short, right after SPAM, Flash is the most hideous part of the web, and it's spyware to boot. Macromedia doesn't get near the dissin' they deserve as e-vile. It's perfectly fine if you are going to a Flash site on purpose that uses Flash for some artsy fartsy content, but that is a tiny fraction of how Flash is used.
Neglecting to modprobe snd-pcm-oss seems to kill browser sound quite effectively on my ALSA-based system.
and stop using the fucking internet. dildos.
---- I was woken up this morning by a face full of fur. Damn cat thought my head made a good pillow.
If you're never going to use sound, why even have it installed in the browser? When I upgraded for firefox 1.5 I intentionally did not install mozplugger so now stuff can't play sound no matter what. Similarly I don't like my PC speaker, so I didn't compile support for it in the kernel. Settings may change and get reset, but if it's not supported it sure isn't going to be doing much :) Unfortunately I don't know much about the Windows builds other than I think they come with all that stuff enabled by default, and I'm not sure how to get rid of it..
Your internet dildos intrigue me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
So completly blocking flash or just disable all sound is not worth it to me.
So gee, what other option do I have to disable sound from ads. Hmmm. Though one.
Oh wait maybe I can block ads? Nah, I am not skilled enough for this and I am sure nobody else has bothered to code something like this.
What the fuck is this question about?Ads annoy me, what can I do about it? BLOCK THE FUCKING FUCKERS! Find the server for the offending ad and block it in whatever adblocker you have installed.
But blocking ads hurts sites who depend on them for their revenue. THOUGH SHIT! Nobody started out blocking ads. When the first few banners appeared people were more or less willing to accept them.
However ad companies faced a problem, sites with millions of visitors generated only a handfull of click throughs. Could it be that they had the wrong ads, that people just ain't all the intrested in what is being sold? That people period do not read ads? Remember that before with TV/radio and magazine ads there was no real way to measure how many people were affected by ads. With click throughs the total failure of ads to attract is very apparent.
Ad companies could of course have told their employers that consumers just ain't intrested in their products OR they can make the ads even more annoying and in your face because surely that is the way to get people intrested.
So static images became animated, animated images came to surround all the text, the text was chopped up to maximize the amount of ads displayed, content became hidden by ad pages that had to be viewed and now sound to make sure your attention is diverted.
Ads are totally out of control on the net as companies desperatly seek a way to get as many eyeballs to their product as possible. If your not intrested well then of course the only way to change that is by making the ad even more intrusive since nobody in the business can make money by simply accepting that you are not going to buy product X.
The only recourse you have is to block them. So do so. Yes some idiots will claim it is stealing, these are probably the same people that dutyfully examine each ad in the news paper and sit upright in their chair during the commericial break while us thieves are taking a toilet break or stocking up on snacks.
Ads are not in themselves offensive to me. But I grew up in holland where amazing as it may sound to americans we had NO ADS on sundays on tv. Now the ad blocks are 5 minutes and growing and frankly I have had enough. If you give the ad industry a finger they will rip of your arm and rape your ass with it. AND charge you for it.
Block them, it your only hope for sanity. Of course the ad industry response will be to make ads even more annoying for the poor people who don't block them but well, who gives a fuck.
All those who do not block ads, thank you for paying for my ad free internet. I appreciate it.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
If it's ads that contain these annoying sounds, just block the ads. Hit them where it hurts. I recommend Proxomitron because it runs as a proxy and hence covers all all your browsers simultaneously (but you can ad rules for individual browsers with header matching).
Alternatively, if you just use Firefox, you can try the Adblock extension but, personally, Proxo is alot more powerful. If you're comfortable with regex, willing to learn a few $commands()'s, it's the way to go.
Unfortunately it's Windows only, and no longer in development (sadly the author died and never released the source), but it's still widely used and has a quite a little community about it. If you need it, I'm sure someone else can point you to a Linux solution.
Here is a taster of what Engadget can look like after a few rules in Proxo.
P.S.
On the morality of blocking ads: nobody complains when you goto fetch a drink and take a jimmy riddle during the commercial break, now do they?
Yeah, I know it's a wait and I know it's Windows, but apparently you'll be able to control the volume of individual programs.
PocketGamer.org - For the gamer on the go!
You are posting this to the wrong place. This is a great idea and would make a fantastic addition to firefox other options. But you should really suggest this to the firefox team.
t =Firefox&format=guided
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/enter_bug.cgi?produc
You can enter the feature in bugzilla as a "Wishlist" item. You never know they too might think this is a great idea.
N.
Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
This is a phenomena that I wasn't even aware of :0
/. ?
But it does raise an interesting question :
How do you peons end up on
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
dear sir
all you need to do to subscribe to the wonderful world of internet dildos is send a regular mail containing all your banking details to the following address:
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---- I was woken up this morning by a face full of fur. Damn cat thought my head made a good pillow.
Just put linux on a cutting edge laptop - volia, no sound
This seems pretty straightforward to me...
:-) Granted, you'll break other things (I'm thinking movies - make those play by something with seperate volume control), but you won't get sound!
:)
If it's flash (as many claim), then you have your answer: no flash.
If it's not flash (doesn't *have* to be), then just disable the ability of the browser to play it automatically:
Tools->Options->Downloads->File Types box. Remove anything that makes sound
HTH and that I'm not missing anything
--LWM
Simple - use an older linux kernel with oss drivers and play whatever you want on xmms, maybe have a "silent" track that just repeats (but don't violate Cage's copyright on silence either now....) xmms will lock /dev/dsp, and nothing else will be able to play sound. Oh, and other things trying to play sound tend to lock up...
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
Is there an audio equivalent to the CSS "display:none" property that can zap specific page elements?
Firefox has no native sound-producing capabilities. All of the sound is produced by media or applets that invoke a plug-in (Windows Media, Quicktime, Flash, Java applets, etc.). This would be impossible to write into the Firefox code. The only reasonable way to adjust this is to use Downloads: View & Edit Actions and modify all audio types to save to disk. Someone mentioned something about a flash muter, which would then also take care of Flash animations. It is rather uncommon for Java applets to play sound as the applet API can only play 8-bit mono files of a specific format (AU, I believe).
Along with many annoying things showing up as Flash content, having the plugin enabled gives us one more place for potential security problems.
Known or not, vulnerabilities relating to images and Flash existed for a very long time. Considering that offsite content greatly increased the potential exposure of even a selective surfer, perhaps it's worth reconsidering very aggressive blocking/filtering and disabling non-essential plugins.
I haven't looked closely enough at the control offered by Firefox plugins. Is it possible to enable Flash and Javascript on a site by site basis while still blocking it for imbedded offsite-content?
It's cure rather than prevention but when I'm faced with these things (and animating ads that pull the eye away from whatever I'm trying to read) I use this nifty Zap Plugins bookmarklet which I keep within easy reach on my browser's toolbar. Apparently it works on IE, Firefox and Opera.
It's called volume control!
There is a Firefox Extension out there called media player connectivity. It detects many types of media. Real media, windows media, quicktime, playlists, mp3s, flash, wave/midi/au/aif, nullsoft video, shockwave, and authorware.
It gives you a link to open the media in the program that normally plays the media instead of hearing it embedded in the web page. There are a few other things you can configure with it, too. Not important as much as what you are trying to achieve here.
Most of the really good stuff was written before 1750, so the RIAA has no claim on it
You mean NMPA/Harry Fox/ASCAP/BMI has no claim on the underlying musical works. RIAA members, on the other hand, have state law copyright in sound recordings of those musical works, which isn't limited by any "limited Times" clause (because it isn't granted by the federal government) and which Congress has agreed to let continue until 2067.
You are posting this to the wrong place. This is a great idea and would make a fantastic addition to firefox other options. But you should really suggest this to the firefox team.
I thought the point was that we discuss it here before we discuss it on Bugzilla because we don't want to waste developers' time with dupes.
Naviscope is a web proxy that I have successfully used with IE, FF, and Opera, has programmable prefetch (can be set to delay on page load), DNS caching, and time sync and more. It has a default block setting and you then set altered settings for any sites for which you want different settings (it comes with a few already set so you have working examples, e.g. WindowsUpdate). You can block: ads (this doesn't work as well as in the past), backgrounds, blinking text, pop-ups while page is loading or entirely, system information (UserAgent), last page visited (Referrer), cookies, javascript, and those damned sounds. Now true, FF without or with extensions can do a lot of this now, but you can also cover your other browsers with the same settings and just forget about it.
One feature that I didn't list above that has proved invaluable as a web developer here is that you can monitor both incoming and outgoing traffic, i.e. header traffic and do pings and traceroute on them, in a decent graphical window. You can flip that on and off with a toggle. Very handy!
The one glitch I've seen in all these years is that if you increase the number of simultaneous connections above the normal OS default for the network connection, it will crash. I haven't found this that much of a problem.
It's installed on all my systems here and works on all versions of Windows, 95 to 2003, from personal experience here. For FF and Opera, set the normal port 80 traffic to point to 127.0.0.1 port 81. No idea about Vista but I doubt it given the changes to the TCP/IP stack.
Just a thought.
"[I]t is a wise man who admits the limits of his knowledge or skill, and that pretending either causes harm." --Terry Go
Everyone who chooses to blast sound at me seems to manage to make their sound files much louder than what I was trying to listen to
In other words, he listens to music at a reasonable volume, and then disruptive flash ads pop up with blaringly-loud noises/voices/etc. So unplugging the speakers is not a reasonable answer.
Personally, unplugging speakers would never be an answer. All OS's tend to have a "mute" option on audio out... so why would you reach around for speaker wires. Moreover, a better solution would be to disable/block the source of the annoyance, mainly the ads or perhaps flash in general. The flashblock plugins are useful... I remember there was one that showed a placeholder until you actually chose to click and therefore load the flash. Saves on bandwidth, saves on annoyance.
Get the free vmware player with browser (which has firefox as the browser) from
http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/vm/browserapp.html
and turn off sound on the virtual machine.
Not the idea. It definitely works.
It's pathetic that you would even think of it.
It's more pathetic that I understand what you're saying.
When I am running AIM (aol instant messanger) It sometimes runs noisy, annoying ads. I was wondering if there is anyway or removing the ads without having to get a mod that requires an earlier version of the program.