Slashdot Mirror


Why Your Pop-Up Blocker Doesn't Work Anymore

An anonymous reader writes "If you've noticed that pop-up ad windows seem to have made an unwelcome return into your life, it's because they're not using the same easily blockable technology as before. The Adimpact system uses DHTML to annoy you, and there's no immediate prospect of a solution."

653 comments

  1. Great article by Wonko+the+Sane · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Almost completely devoid of content.

    1. Re:Great article by Temkin · · Score: 1

      Agreed... There's no "why" there, just "who". Otherwise pointing out what we've all already discovered.

      Sadly Netflix seems to think they're grand. This makes me feel better about canceling my Netflix account.

    2. Re:Great article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And what it has is stupid "They just use DHTML". Well, DHTML is just a marketing term to group a few (JavaScript, CSS, HTML and DOM) things together. These things using DHTML isn't suprising or new and this doesn't tell anything at all... Spam article.

    3. Re:Great article by ByOhTek · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The simplest, and most reasonable content would be:

      If people are blocking popups, and you try to force upon them a popup advertisement, you are probably being counterproductive to your cause, and are a complete RETARD.

      --
      Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
    4. Re:Great article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is a cool!
      --
      http://www.sibecolog.ru/

    5. Re:Great article by orclevegam · · Score: 5, Informative

      FYI, I've yet to find one of these which I suspect is because in addition to running AdBlock Plus, I also regularly use NoScript. The combination of the two swats 99% of ads of all kinds, and completely kills any popups unless I specifically enable them on a site.

      --
      Curiosity was framed, Ignorance killed the cat.
    6. Re:Great article by Forge · · Score: 2, Insightful

      And likewise if you are reading content paid for by popup adds while useing an add blocker you are a thief and an information pirate.

      *me runs for cover as Home Depote suddenly sells all it's Pitchforks to SlashDot regulars.

      BTW: Where did the quote in your .sig come from?

      --
      --= Isn't it surprising how badly I spell ?
    7. Re:Great article by Skye16 · · Score: 5, Funny

      And likewise if your content is residing on my harddrive then you are squatting on my property and must pay me rent.

      (I wonder how much more surreal we can make this? ;D)

    8. Re:Great article by furby076 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Apparantly their metrics state the profits are positive; And as long as they are making profits the only retards are those who call them "retards" for continuing a profitable business venture. I hate pop-ups too, but if enough people buy stuff from pop-up links (and why not, not all of the products are viagra, porn, virus) they will continue to implement them.

      --

      I do not support "The Man". I also do not support your irrational stupidity
    9. Re:Great article by mcgrew · · Score: 1, Troll

      The only reason I haven't tried NetFlix is popups for their product. When they stop annoying me I may try their product.

      Popups are why I hesitate to go to weather.com

      Agreed, these people are retarded.

    10. Re:Great article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      does this block all CSS ADs that popup in front you?

    11. Re:Great article by An+ominous+Cow+art · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      I agree, that @#$%ing popup of "suggestions" after *every* *time* I add something to my queue is incredibly annoying.

    12. Re:Great article by PitaBred · · Score: 1

      I'm sure it's cheaper to leave trash lying around rather than picking it up and taking it to the dump, too. It'll save money!

    13. Re:Great article by steelcaress · · Score: 2, Informative

      I've never seen a pop-up for NetFlix. Oh, right, I forgot...

      I use Firefox. :P

    14. Re:Great article by blueZ3 · · Score: 1

      No, no, no...

      You throw your trash on the ground and not in the can in order to provide employment for those guys they hire to pick it up. Or to allow the justice system to work correctly, so all those weekend community service "volunteers" have something to do.

      --
      Interested in a Flash-based MAME front end? Visit mame.danzbb.com
    15. Re:Great article by Malevolyn · · Score: 1

      By reading my comment you are violating a inferred, personal NDA between your eyes and brain.

      Top that!

      --
      Your ad here.
    16. Re:Great article by BrokenHalo · · Score: 5, Informative

      FYI, I've yet to find one of these which I suspect is because in addition to running AdBlock Plus, I also regularly use NoScript.

      Adblock is great for fine-grained filtering of sites. I use it fairly sparingly, since I maintain a large hosts file to kill traffic with any server I find to be suspect. NoScript works, but I just find it too intrusive to be my weapon of choice. But my combo kills nearly all traffic I don't want to see...

    17. Re:Great article by Wicked+Zen · · Score: 1

      Really? I love it. Too bad it's not optional though.

    18. Re:Great article by Fred_A · · Score: 1

      The simplest, and most reasonable content would be:

      If people are blocking popups, and you try to force upon them a popup advertisement, you are probably being counterproductive to your cause, and are a complete RETARD.

      Or maybe you're just working in marketing :

      Advertisement FTW ! Ok, pass the doughnuts, I think we're done with the meeting here...

      --

      May contain traces of nut.
      Made from the freshest electrons.
    19. Re:Great article by Forge · · Score: 1

      "*me" was used to simulate the "user actions" available on IRC and Skype.

      PS: I finally got modded "troll". Guess somebody doesn't get the joke.

      --
      --= Isn't it surprising how badly I spell ?
    20. Re:Great article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I never realized weather.com had popups. I use privoxy and the basic popup blocking in mozilla seamonkey.

    21. Re:Great article by Klaus_1250 · · Score: 1

      I use AdMuncher and NoScript. The only times I see ads is when I fix computers or visits friends. I don't mind a few ads, but the amount of ads on some pages is borderline insane.

      --
      It only takes one man to change the Wisdom of the Crowd to Tyranny of the Masses.
    22. Re:Great article by GravityStar · · Score: 1

      Drugs is also a profitable business venture.

    23. Re:Great article by Kozar_The_Malignant · · Score: 4, Funny

      and are a complete RETARD.

      Or maybe you're just working in marketing

      I thought the second was a subset of the first.

      --
      Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
    24. Re:Great article by sdsucks · · Score: 0, Troll

      Insightful? Not really.

      It's called making a living, and believe me, forcing pops does indeed work.

    25. Re:Great article by mcgrew · · Score: 1

      If only I could use FireFox at work...

    26. Re:Great article by cjb658 · · Score: 1

      No, no, no...

      You throw your trash on the ground and not in the can in order to provide employment for those guys they hire to pick it up. Or to allow the justice system to work correctly, so all those weekend community service "volunteers" have something to do.

      People who were around in the 50s & 60s tell me they used to pick up cans on the side of the road to pay for their gas.

    27. Re:Great article by LandDolphin · · Score: 1

      I actually enjoy that feature. However, it would be nice if you could turn it off.

      --
      Spelling and Grammar errors have been added to this post for your enjoyment
    28. Re:Great article by The+MAZZTer · · Score: 1

      You must be using an adblocker.

    29. Re:Great article by computational+super · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I can't tell if you're trying to be sarcastic or not, but if not, I sort of agree with the sentiment as in - I don't see what the big deal is. I don't think you're "stealing" anything if you block or ignore the ad any more than you're stealing if you mute the commercials or get up to go to the bathroom when you're watching TV.

      Since there's absolutely no content whatsoever in the linked "article", I can't figure out for sure what they're talking about, but I think they're referring to those floating "window within a window" advertisements that show up entirely within a page's browser frame. If so, I'm not even sure calling them "pop-ups" is fair, since the page author is still respecting my "space". Pop-up windows were legitimately evil, because those windows would pop up more windows when you tried to close them and you would end up spending 10 minutes trying to shut the damned things off. If some website wants to pop up a "window" inside its own window and run an ad for a couple of seconds, I really don't see the problem; I sit through the things as a courtesy to whoever provided the content. If I don't like the ad, I can close the browser (or even just the tab), and it all goes away.

      --
      Proud neuron in the Slashdot hivemind since 2002.
    30. Re:Great article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not to mention spelling. I mean c'mon -- "Home Depote"? "useing" an "add" blocker?

    31. Re:Great article by stjobe · · Score: 1

      Huh. And here I thought you threw trash on the ground to help decrease entropy in the universe.

      I mean, when the guys they hire to pick it up picks it up, entropy decreases, right?

      C'mon people, let's stop entropy now!

      --
      "Total destruction the only solution" - Bob Marley
    32. Re:Great article by steelcaress · · Score: 1

      You got me there. I never understood why IE was the browser of choice in the Enterprise and Firefox was off limits. It was explained to me as "security reasons," and I told my IT guy that Firefox was widely known as a more secure browser. Then he told me that my company probably wants to blame Microsoft if anything goes wrong, and there's a ready-made cash cow if anything goes seriously south.

      Let's see: an unlikely pay-out and damaged credibility if there's a serious data breach, vs. taking real steps to make your network more secure. Hmm...which to choose...

    33. Re:Great article by samkass · · Score: 4, Funny

      Then how do you pay for the content? Do you send the site owner checks directly?

      --
      E pluribus unum
    34. Re:Great article by Hoi+Polloi · · Score: 1

      I think these advertisers learned their marketing skills when they were 5 years old.

      "Are we there yet?"
      "No"
      "Are we there yet?"
      "No"
      "Are we there yet?"
      "No"
      "Are we there yet?"
      "No" ...repeat ad nauseum

      --
      It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
    35. Re:Great article by Deagol · · Score: 5, Informative

      How is NoScript instrusive? You set it to block by default, and if you hit a site that doesn't work correctly, test it with the "Temporarily allow..." option for all the relevant parts of the site, then you can whitelist it permanently if you wish. Kudos to your hosts file -- different strokes for different folks, and all that jazz. However, I just can't see how NoScript can be called intrusive by anyone.

    36. Re:Great article by An+ominous+Cow+art · · Score: 1

      I'd be happy if there were a way to turn it off. I'm quite able to find stuff I'm interested in all by myself.

    37. Re:Great article by Bearhouse · · Score: 5, Informative

      To make NoScript less intrusive, try configuration options. For example, 'temp allow top-level sites by default' is good for seeing most of what you want, without seeing what you don't (ad content from another site). Of course, more risky for users blindly following pr0n links to sites where even the top level is dangerous.

      But then again, I'm sure you don't do that, eh?

      While we're on the subject, Redirect Remover is worth a look too...

    38. Re:Great article by Fross · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Just because they've chosen a flawed business model, doesn't mean they are entitled to protection to ensure it works.

    39. Re:Great article by xorsyst · · Score: 4, Interesting

      How is it not intrusive? I browse to a website I haven't been to before - something I do several times daily - and it doesn't work right unless I click that little S and allow it permission to run javascript.

      That pretty much defines intruding on my experience.

      I still use it though because I'm paranoid, but I wouldn't install it on my parents' computer.

      --
      Get free bitcoins: http://freebitco.in
    40. Re:Great article by Fear13ss · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I use only NoScript, and to be honest I love it. Most sites I go to can be viewed without scripting. For the few that I visit regularly (slashdot and others that require JS for login authentication), I set NoScript to always allow, it takes me about a week, but after that I find that I touch the status bar less. I will also mention from a security perspective, I have yet to find someone to argue that there is a more secure way to surf the internet (including random linked sites) then using Firefox with NoScript (on my home desktop I've even gone as far as cookie white-listing). I tested the demo link from Adimpact that was posted here in the comments, NoScript did a great job, looked just like Slashdot should with the addition of a few millimeter white bar at the top...

    41. Re:Great article by fprintf · · Score: 5, Interesting

      50's and 60's? As 4th graders in 1977 we collected cans by the side of the road to be melted down from all over town. I even found a set of baskets to bolt onto my bike - we had a magnet and on one side we would put the old steel cans and on the other side we'd put the new aluminum cans. Inevitably there'd be more aluminium cans as the summer wore on and we'd be upset because steel cans were worth a whole lot more than aluminum ones back then. You could also sometimes tell just by looking at the pull tab - this was before the pop top - they had different shapes. I earned a ton of money picking up cans to supplement my paper route.

      Kids these days have no idea - my kids want an allowance for emptying the friggin' dishwasher and walking the dog. Sheesh. I know as parents we don't make it easy for them, hell I was roaming a 10 mile radius of suburbia at that time, and I hardly ever lose sight of my kids today.

      Sorry. Can you please get off my lawn now?

      --
      This post brought to you by your friendly neighborhood MBA.
    42. Re:Great article by RabidMoose · · Score: 4, Funny

      Excuse me, but we disagree with you. Thanks, US Auto Industry US Airline Industry US Banking Industry

    43. Re:Great article by Galactic+Dominator · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You have to Cancel or Allow on every site...?

      I do realize that it learns what you tell it learn, but it's big internet out there.

      I suppose it's fairly good if you don't visit a large number of sites, but if you do RTFA consistently it's a real PITA.

      --
      brandelf -t FreeBSD /brain
    44. Re:Great article by mcgrew · · Score: 1

      I think the reason is decades old. In the '80s the mantra was "nobody ever got fired for buying IBM", today it's "nobody ever got fired for using Microsoft".

    45. Re:Great article by N1AK · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Of course he doesn't, and that is not meant as any slur against Klaus_1250. A very large group of /. readers belong to the "I won't follow adverts so blocking them is fine camp", you can try playing Devil's advocate all day but you're wasting your time.

      Personally I've taken the view with the sites I manage that either a user is benefiting the site or not. In the case of adblocking users this means that I either think that referrals from them justify allowing them anyway, or as in most cases I block them.

      I've had a couple of angry emails from users who were blocked for adblocking, but I just ignore them. I run sites as a hobby, and if someone visits my site it costs me money, if I put adverts up and a person doesn't want to view adverts then I don't want them using my bandwidth.

    46. Re:Great article by dontmakemethink · · Score: 2, Funny

      This user's comment about intrusiveness has been blocked. Please hit "allow" to view it.

      --

      War as we knew it was obsolete
      Nothing could beat complete denial
      - Emily Haines
    47. Re:Great article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've been to websites where no amount of "allow" privileges will get the darn thing to work.

      I believe one of them was my banks website.

      That's how I can call it intrusive.

    48. Re:Great article by Chabil+Ha' · · Score: 2, Informative

      You're assuming that I am a target for online advertising. Because the ads are irrelevant to me, they're better off saving bandwidth and showing them to someone else. Besides, your logic would dictate that because I press the mute button (or skip them all together!) during commercials, that I should now start having to pay for OTA transmissions.

      --
      We're all hypocrites. We all have hidden parts, it's the contrast between them that make us more a hypocrite than others
    49. Re:Great article by Plunky · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'd be happy if there were a way to turn it off. I'm quite able to find stuff I'm interested in all by myself.

      ^This^

      I try to tell everybody I know when I see them responding to an advert or pushy sales call to turn away and think. If they really want the item that is being pushed, then go and find it themselves. Just because somebody is in your face saying they are offering a great deal, that does not make it so. In fact, chances are it is quite the opposite. The benefit is all for the company doing the pushing.

      I'm kind of cynical though

    50. Re:Great article by Chabil+Ha' · · Score: 1

      Well, there's also no contract (implied or explicit) that in order to consume the content you have to look at an ad. NoScript is just a way of expressing 'No Solicitation' as bytes arrive at your door.

      --
      We're all hypocrites. We all have hidden parts, it's the contrast between them that make us more a hypocrite than others
    51. Re:Great article by dintech · · Score: 1

      I suppose it's fairly good if you don't visit a large number of sites

      Well then you probably wouldn't have much of a problem then. :)

    52. Re:Great article by yoasif · · Score: 1

      Sounds like YesScript is for you.

    53. Re:Great article by Plunky · · Score: 1

      I think these advertisers learned their marketing skills when they were 5 years old.

      "Are we there yet?"
      "No"
      "Are we there yet?"
      "No"
      "Are we there yet?"
      "No"
      "Are we there yet?"
      "No" ...repeat ad nauseum

      You forgot to mention that yes, eventually, we are there! Obviously, it works..

    54. Re:Great article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think what you meant to say was "Many web designers count on Javascript for BASIC functionality such as layout, menus, and following links these days. Turning off Javascript neuters almost every site you browse."

      Don't blame NoScript for that problem. Blame sloppy developers that use JavaScript for duties that they shouldn't.

    55. Re:Great article by Hork_Monkey · · Score: 1

      Can you configure the settings of Firefox with Group Policy? Nope.

      While Firefox is more secure for educated users, GPO's are often the easiest method for protecting users from themselves.

    56. Re:Great article by eat+here_get+gas · · Score: 0

      less "intrusive" = less "secure'

      i'd rather spend time white/black-listing scripts the re-installing my OS because a "non-intrusive" script had unprotected sex with my registry...

      --
      the significance of a signature is insignificant
    57. Re:Great article by pipboy9999 · · Score: 1

      While processing the comment in your brain, you violated the terms of Mother Nature's "Neural Pathway EULA" by not securing transmission permission first.

      --
      Yeah, I've got nothing...
    58. Re:Great article by ewhac · · Score: 5, Insightful

      How is it not intrusive? I browse to a website I haven't been to before - something I do several times daily - and it doesn't work right unless I click that little S and allow it permission to run javascript.

      That pretty much defines intruding on my experience.

      Uh, no. You have it backwards.

      If I browse to a Web site I haven't seen before and suddenly find my desktop (and other programs) covered by a barrage of pop-up ads, that is intruding on my experience. Injecting code into my browser in an attempt to get it to reject right-mouse clicks -- that is intruding on my experience.

      The computer is mine, not yours. It obeys my commands, not yours. If you want it to run some of your code, then you're first going to have to convince me to let you. And you do that by earning my trust and not treating my browser and desktop like your own private playground. NoScript lets me enforce this policy, and it clearly exposes the children who won't play by the rules. Google.com has earned my trust (Google-analytics.com, however, has not.)

      If your site doesn't work with JavaScript turned off, your site is broken. Period, end of chapter. This is not a secret, and it is not something new. This has always been the case. (AJAX-heavy sites complicate this only slightly -- you should clearly explain what's not working and why (I'm looking at you, OKCupid...).)

      And while we're about it -- Have you ever clicked on that little "S" in the corner to reveal a skyscraper of 15 different domains trying to execute JavaScript on your machine? Does this bother you even slightly? Why or why not?

      Schwab

    59. Re:Great article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      That's the exact definition of how viruses spread nowadays!
      1. Visit unknown website
      2. Let unknown website run a number of unknown scripts
      3. host of unknown scripts from website, third-party ad vendors, and whatever else is injected leaves a swath of cookies, trackers, and potential viruses on unsuspecting user

      Smart, real smart.

    60. Re:Great article by samkass · · Score: 0

      You're assuming that I am a target for online advertising. Because the ads are irrelevant to me, they're better off saving bandwidth and showing them to someone else.

      So you never spend money? Nor talk to anyone else about any product, ever? The very fact that NetFlix, for example, was cited by many folks in this discussion proves their advertising works. You may tell a friend, "I'd NEVER getting movies delivered via NetFlix because of their HORRIBLE advertising practices, even if I did live anywhere they delivered!" and your friend may say "Movies delivered? NetFlix? Hm!" Building brand familiarity is as important as click-throughs.

      Besides, your logic would dictate that because I press the mute button (or skip them all together!) during commercials, that I should now start having to pay for OTA transmissions.

      Bad analogy. You *can* click the "close" button on pop-ups, just like you can mute or fast-forward. I'd also argue that online sites should allow you to "close" banner ads manually. That would be a better analogy, because then you'd still be exposed to the branding. I suspect you really have no idea how many times a day some brand is imprinting itself on you.

      --
      E pluribus unum
    61. Re:Great article by Achromatic1978 · · Score: 1

      And yet you'd probably scream bloody murder if they developed a way in which you COULDN'T see the content unless they could be sure you'd VIEWED the ad (as opposed to downloaded and blocked it), right?

    62. Re:Great article by Tony+Hoyle · · Score: 1

      There's nothing to configure, it's a browser FFS.

      Anyway, I've both worked for and worked in a *lot* of companies and the number who actually use group policies I could count on one hand - and I don't count 'removing the requirement for ctrl/alt/del' as using a group policy.

    63. Re:Great article by Mr_eX9 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The websites that execute all of that stupid code on your computer are what's intrusive--not NoScript.

    64. Re:Great article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      1) By that logic firewalls are intrusive. In fact, all security devices and most physical tools would be considered intrusive, and at that point it ceases to be a useful comparison and turns into a nerd arguing semantics.

      2) I know lots of people who are batshit ignorant when it comes to PCs, but not many who can't figure out how to "click that little S and allow it permission to run javascript."

      FFS, it's two clicks. You could teach a pair of dogs to do it in a week with just a pc, a bell, and a can of dog food.

    65. Re:Great article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Well if by "experience" you mean cross site scripting attacks that can do anything from capture your bank account password and username to post an article posing as you...then I fully agree! NoScript is not just for blocking popups...there are a ton of holes in every browser and XSS seams to be relatively at issue regardless of what browser you use...so maybe you should be more paranoid?

    66. Re:Great article by orclevegam · · Score: 2, Insightful

      One of the things I've found is that disabling the popup banner makes for a cleaner less-intrusive experience. I tend to ignore NoScript unless a site isn't working properly in which case I'll go selectively enable things temporarily (or permanently if I trust them, like youtube.com). It's a minor thing but it does remove the distraction of that bar showing up on every other site.

      --
      Curiosity was framed, Ignorance killed the cat.
    67. Re:Great article by kenj0418 · · Score: 3, Informative

      You have to Cancel or Allow on every site...?

      I use Windows Vista, you insensitive clod! I've clicked cancel or allow so many times I can do it in my sleep now.

    68. Re:Great article by orclevegam · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Out of curiosity, how do you determine if someone is viewing your adverts? Do you host them yourself, or does your ad provider have some sort of service to let you know if someone is blocking ads?

      --
      Curiosity was framed, Ignorance killed the cat.
    69. Re:Great article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hear! Hear!

    70. Re:Great article by Lord+Bitman · · Score: 4, Informative

      Javascript IS basic functionality. Welcome to 1990.

      --
      -- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
    71. Re:Great article by The+Gaytriot · · Score: 1

      There is a lot to configure in the browser. In IE you can enforce privacy settings, connection settings, sound and video settings, security settings, etc with group policy. I know where I work they use GP to prevent people from setting up proxies in the browser and to keep scripts from running on websites as well as making sure the browser plays no sounds. Installing Firefox allows me to circumvent all this, so I could see it being an issue.

      --
      Srsly u guys. U guys, srsly.
    72. Re:Great article by LordSnooty · · Score: 4, Insightful

      test it with the "Temporarily allow..." option for all the relevant parts of the site,

      This is the problem I found - if I have to test it, what is the point of blocking it in the first place? OK, it can stop cross-site attacks in their tracks, but if the bad code is hosted on the server I chose to visit, it's game over anyway. I suppose there is more protection offered by NoScript around what can be run but ultimately if I can't sandbox the code that is about to fire, why am I bothering at all? I can take care by other means - most malware is still of the "Would you like to install this virus?" ilk. It's useful in specific situations like going to visit some known dodgy sites (but maybe do that in a VM anyway...) For everyday usage it quickly becomes tiresome.

    73. Re:Great article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      OKCupid

      Read: Can't get a girlfriend.

    74. Re:Great article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're not alone :-).

    75. Re:Great article by Deagol · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No, you must only "allow" for sites that don't work sufficiently with JavaScript disabled. There are plenty that render just fine w/o JavaScript. Then again, there are plenty of stinkers out there that use JavaScript to send you the page's CSS, which while horribly lame, is probably done to send a hacked page for IE and compliant CSS for most everyone else.

    76. Re:Great article by eison · · Score: 1

      Thanks for pointing me to that option, I didn't even realize it existed. The normal interface focuses so much on allowing you to whitelist things that whitelists were all I had used before.

      --
      is competition good, or is duplication of effort bad?
    77. Re:Great article by commodore64_love · · Score: 4, Insightful

      >>>How is NoScript instrusive? You set it to block by default, and if you hit a site that doesn't work correctly, test it with the "Temporarily allow..." option

      I call that intrusive, or at the very least, a pain in the ass. I'm constantly having to select "allow" for sites I visit, and I've grown tired of it. NoScript is now disabled on my browser, except for when I'm visiting porn sites which are often dangerous.

      As for pop-up ads, the alternative is that I'd have to pay $5 or $10 a month for accessing ad-free websites, and I can't afford ~$200/month worth of website subscriptions. I'd rather take the ads, and get my entertainment for free.

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
    78. Re:Great article by binarybum · · Score: 2, Funny

      Popups are why I hesitate to go to weather.com

        Is it going to rain this afternoon, oh dear, I could go to weather dot.com, but I might encounter a pop-up. Should I do it? "Hey Frank, is it supposed to rain this afternoon?" Crap. He doesn't know. Oh, me oh my, maybe I should just look. There are hundreds of other internet weather sources available to me, but I'm hooked on weather.com's unique lack of accuracy in their forecasting. But the pop-ups, what will I do if I encounter a pop-up! Maybe I should go have lunch - ruminate on it before just wildly clicking on my bookmark. Maybe Brenda will be at lunch, maybe she will know what the forecast is....

      sorry, but you had it coming.

      --
      ôó
    79. Re:Great article by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      I have a better solution to sites that display obnoxious ads. I add something to my user CSS that puts a warning after any links to that site. Then I never click on the links again. I don't block that ads, I just stop visiting the site. If the content is not valuable enough to put up with the ads, then the easiest solution is just to avoid the content.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    80. Re:Great article by Alejandro+Zalazar · · Score: 1

      and are a complete RETARD.

      Or maybe you're just working in marketing

      I thought the second was a subset of the first.

      Probably true, as well as they are the richest subset.

    81. Re:Great article by Reziac · · Score: 1

      Or similarly -- my time is billable at $2/minute. Your popups just used NN-minutes of my time. Pay up!!

      --
      ~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
    82. Re:Great article by Dogtanian · · Score: 1
      I agree with some of what you say- however...

      If your site doesn't work with JavaScript turned off, your site is broken. Period, end of chapter.

      That's a matter of opinion, not of fact, no matter how strongly you may suggest otherwise. Implying that there's no legroom for concession on this point is pretty silly when you immediately contradict yourself:-

      (AJAX-heavy sites complicate this only slightly --

      As you concede, some sites use and rely on AJAX so heavily that to omit it (or implement the same functionality by "plain vanilla" means) would render it meaningless and/or unusable.

      Of course, I agree that it's pretty brain damaged to *require* Javascript for things like links if it's not essential for anything else anyway. It's still quite feasible to retain plain <a> link behaviour for non-JS users while retaining the "enhanced" behaviour for those who *do* have it turned on.

      you should clearly explain what's not working and why

      That depends on what you'd consider "what's not working and why". If the functionality of the site is built around AJAX, then it's quite reasonable to say "we're sorry, but this site requires Javascript". The vast majority of people wouldn't want or need any more than that.

      --
      "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
    83. Re:Great article by Reziac · · Score: 2, Interesting

      A few sites have done that, including PCWorld. I notice it didn't last, probably because a lot of people go "who needs this shit" and leave, or with newbies, can't figure out how to proceed past it (if it doesn't automatically proceed, and some don't).

      --
      ~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
    84. Re:Great article by Dogtanian · · Score: 1

      I'm sure it's cheaper to leave trash lying around rather than picking it up and taking it to the dump, too. It'll save money!

      You missed the thrust of the guy's argument. He wasn't saying it was responsible or laudable behaviour, merely that those people's aim is to make money and if it's clear that their behaviour makes them money then it's incorrect (or retarded!) to call it "retarded", whether or not you like it.

      --
      "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
    85. Re:Great article by Klaus_1250 · · Score: 1

      The reason I block ads is not so much that I don't follow them (I don't, though I occasionally turn on adwords), but there are just too many sites with invasive and aggressive advertising. The ones that put content around the advertising so to speak.

      A while back I needed to install some applications on a friends PC and I found myself looking for the damn download-button. The ads where everywhere and I actually had to scroll down down to find it.

      And that was a completely legit site. Go down your average torrent-site and you're bombarded with AFF and pr0n-sites. It is fun the first time, but it gets tiring after a while.

      --
      It only takes one man to change the Wisdom of the Crowd to Tyranny of the Masses.
    86. Re:Great article by KiloByte · · Score: 1

      Retard: not always. Villain is the correct word.

      --
      The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
    87. Re:Great article by jcrousedotcom · · Score: 1

      I've gotten tons of NetFlix popups via FireFox, granted, FF is smart enough to not drop the over what I am doing but when I close FF I often have an extra window behind my main FF window with a NetFlix ad happily waiting for me to close it.

      --
      Illiterate? Write for free help!
    88. Re:Great article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Before your trip, go to google.maps and print out your route and give the to the brats(don't give them a real map, or it will never be folder properly again). Teach your kids to read a map and road signs.

      "I don't know. You tell me." is an amazingly effective answer.

    89. Re:Great article by tftp · · Score: 5, Insightful

      So you never spend money? Nor talk to anyone else about any product, ever?

      I don't quite see how it relates to allowing hordes of salesmen into your house and listening to their endless pitches (if we equate your desktop with your house.) I personally spend money, of course, and talk about products, but I do that when I want it, not when someone else decides that for me.

      I suspect you really have no idea how many times a day some brand is imprinting itself on you.

      I suspect the GP does have an idea, and that's why he blocks everything that deserves it. My mind belongs to me, not to advertisers, and I decide what I allow to imprint on it. In my browsers everything ad-related is blocked by default; it's a favor to advertisers too because my browsers don't download stuff that is useless to me.

      Besides, "brand imprinting" is harmful to your purchasing choices because you often decide not because the product is good but because it is made by a company that you recognize. This is unreasonable. Compare technical specs, read reviews - that's what you need to do, not to look for a brand name.

    90. Re:Great article by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      So they don't need to redo their intranet. Or support people who can't run the company wide active X control. Or opening windows enough to install the browser and handle updates...

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    91. Re:Great article by Bearhouse · · Score: 1

      My pleasure. I must admit I only found it recently, having used noscript for years!

    92. Re:Great article by Chabil+Ha' · · Score: 2, Interesting

      So you never spend money? Nor talk to anyone else about any product, ever?

      Maybe I needed to be a little more explicit, so I'll help you learn what's going on here. Here's a link to Push-Pull Marketing.

      I am very resistant to push marketing, at least online, because I typically buy things on a 'need-only' basis. I don't care if you want me to purchase the latest greatest thing. When I'm ready, I'll come seek you out, but don't spam me with messages trying to artificially create a need there. The other part of it is that because the ads are not well targeted to my needs, I have never clicked on (let alone purchased) anything because of an advertisement.

      So from my point of view, let's cut to the chase and remove the noise altogether. I don't have to see the ad, advertiser saves on bandwidth. Win-win.

      --
      We're all hypocrites. We all have hidden parts, it's the contrast between them that make us more a hypocrite than others
    93. Re:Great article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      By entering me into NDA with you, you agree to pay me 10,000,00 US dollars payable at the end of the week.

      There! Topped! :)

    94. Re:Great article by DMUTPeregrine · · Score: 1

      By creating the inferred license you are violating my fictional patent on the use of fictional inferred, personal NDAs.

      --
      Not a sentence!
    95. Re:Great article by Toonol · · Score: 1

      There'd be nothing wrong with that, as long as they didn't do it in some manner by installing malware, breaking my machine, or other evil techniques. I'll watch the ads in a HULU.com show, because they're short and difficult to skip. If there were too many ads, I would look for a way to skip them, or just not use HULU anymore.

      Ideally, advertising should be done with a little bit of mutual respect. That's why google text ads worked so well, and why everybody hates popups and other ads that don't respect the viewer.

    96. Re:Great article by Culture20 · · Score: 1

      Popups are why I hesitate to go to weather.com

      If you're in the US, use weather.gov It's where weather.com and local broadcasters get their weather data from anyway.

    97. Re:Great article by CodeArtisan · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Then how do you pay for the content? Do you send the site owner checks directly?

      About as often as I send checks to the TV networks when I skip their commercials.

    98. Re:Great article by dryeo · · Score: 1

      Quoting the AC above me as I've had the same results. Privoxy is very good and fairly light weight.

      I never realized weather.com had popups. I use privoxy and the basic popup blocking in mozilla seamonkey.

      --
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
    99. Re:Great article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How is it not intrusive? I browse to a website I haven't been to before - something I do several times daily - and it doesn't work right unless I click that little S and allow it permission to run javascript.

      Wait, let me get that straight - you install an extension the purpose of which is to block Javascript, and you then complain that it is - surprise surprise! - blocking Javascript?

      I'm sorry, but I'm really confused how you actually do expect NoScript to operate.

    100. Re:Great article by kelnos · · Score: 1

      Blame sloppy developers that use JavaScript for duties that they shouldn't.

      Why? It's an available and useful tool. Unfortunately it's also abused for ads and popups, but that doesn't make people who use Javascript for legitimate purposes "sloppy." Welcome to modern web development.

      --
      Xfce: Lighter than some, heavier than others. Just right.
    101. Re:Great article by KTheorem · · Score: 1

      Those damn Netflix ads are what made me finally turn on ad-blocking. Sorry rest of the web, but these ads are the bad apple that spoiled it for everyone.

    102. Re:Great article by kelnos · · Score: 3, Interesting

      If your site doesn't work with JavaScript turned off, your site is broken. Period, end of chapter.

      I don't know about that. Ten years ago, when Javascript implementations were spotty, buggy, and at times incompatible, I'd probably agree. But nowadays I'd consider having a working Javascript implementation just about as important in browser selection as standards-compliant HTML and CSS support.

      (On a side note, I'd also no longer consider a site that doesn't work properly without CSS to be broken. Lynx can bite me.)

      --
      Xfce: Lighter than some, heavier than others. Just right.
    103. Re:Great article by CKW · · Score: 1, Troll

      Welcome to development with inherently dangerous products and materials.

      Watch the rest of us take ten steps back from your explosively laden piles of shit, and go do other things in places where sane sensible people have built things properly.

      The only sites in the world I enable noscript on are the ones I trust very very much. All the rest either work, or they don't. Only one shit site a day doesn't work, and I don't care. It was obviously built by idiots, it couldn't have been any good.

      Good riddance.

    104. Re:Great article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      and are a complete RETARD.

      Or maybe you're just working in marketing

      I thought the second was a subset of the first.

      You have just asserted the following relationship:
      Google \subeq marketing \subeq RETARD
      Abort, Retry, Continue? _

    105. Re:Great article by Ed+Avis · · Score: 1

      Frontmotion Firefox is a specially crippled version of Firefox that enforces Group Policies.

      --
      -- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
    106. Re:Great article by sdsucks · · Score: 1

      Wow, troll? So calling people retards is not a troll, but that is? No doubt the person who modded this is of high intelligence.

    107. Re:Great article by ChristTrekker · · Score: 1

      I'm a couple years younger than you, and lived in a rural area where this wasn't so easy. But even in the early 80s it was worthwhile to stop the car to pick up cans you might see in a ditch. Gas was much cheaper, and not as many people recycled, so it worked.

    108. Re:Great article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But how can it be called "intrusive"? You have a choice, use it or don't use it. You choose to use it, thus it cannot be called "intrusive", annoying perhaps, but in no way has it intruded upon your browsing experience. You invited it into your browser!

      As for me, I won't use a browser without noscript, and I don't really have a problem with it. It's not annoying at all. In fact, you want to know what's annoying?? People who design their sites so poorly that they don't even come close to rendering properly with scripting turned off!! Now that annoys me! And once again, it's a choice. I choose if their crappy content is worth me allowing scripting or not.

    109. Re:Great article by Symbiot · · Score: 1

      Oh, I prefer not to pay for the content at all. I mean, I make charitable donations to open-source software projects sometimes, but I feel no obligation to pay for anything that is made public.

      Look at it this way: someone goes to the park and drops something on the ground. I walk by later and decide to pick it up. If it's valuable (like "content") then I keep it, if it isn't (like annoying advertising) then I put it in the trash. In both cases the original possessor of the object relinquished control as soon as they dropped it, and in both cases my reaction to it was perfectly reasonable and responsible. The way I see it, people who patronize businesses that display annoying advertising are subsidizing the pollution of what was once a much more attractive and useful resource, so I encourage everyone to obtain and install ad blockers.

      As for advertisers and content providers: the world is changing fast and you will have to work hard and be creative in order to keep up with it. It seems very likely that online content will become available more and more through subscription based aggregation services that will pay for a portion of content creation. Advertising is slowly becoming more targeted,less intrusive and more effective. I am eagerly awaiting the day when I turn off my ad blocker because it is filtering out opportunities that are interesting and valuable to me. Perhaps someday I will actually pay for access to the portion of the data contained in today's ads that is actually of interest to me.

    110. Re:Great article by camg188 · · Score: 1

      But is it so annoying that you would cancel your account, like the parent said? Temkin might as well cancel his ISP account if the that popup was his reason for Netflix cancelation.

    111. Re:Great article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Intrusive" isn't the right word. "Inconvenient" or "restrictive" would be better choices. It's inconvenient for the user, but restrictive for the people trying to run their code on your computer. Really, I'd rather have the inconvenience, and be notified of when someone is trying to run their stuff on *my* machine.

    112. Re:Great article by plover · · Score: 1

      Seconded. I turned on the "allow top-level sites by default" as soon as it became available, and my need to whitelist/blacklist has all but vanished. I know I'm taking a bit more of a risk, but it still stops the vast majority of ads and popups, and I suppose it's preventing XSS attacks too. (Although with NoScript I've never seen one, so how would I know what they look like? :-)

      If I had a slower machine, I'd probably go back and clean up my old white/black lists because they supposedly hurt performance to some degree. But as of right now, I sure don't notice anything but a rocket boost in page delivery when compared to IE, because Firefox isn't waiting to load all those crappy third party scripts or ads.

      I also run Flashblock, and whitelist only a select few sites with it. That way flash ads and intro pages even from the same domain are still suppressed.

      And if one more web weenie tells me "but you're missing the rich experience of the web" I'm going to stuff his browser into the orifice that his culture traditionally reserves for stuffing things.

      Now get off my lawn, you damn kids!

      --
      John
    113. Re:Great article by plover · · Score: 3, Informative

      Popups are why I hesitate to go to weather.com

      If you're in the US, use weather.gov It's where weather.com and local broadcasters get their weather data from anyway.

      No, they don't. Weather.com, the web presence of "The Weather Channel", has their own forecasters, and they're seldom as accurate as the NOAA. But at least they're not as bad as AccuWeather.com, which is one of the companies that sells forecasts to local TV stations.

      weather.gov may not be a pretty site, but it rocks in terms of usability and accuracy of the data. And I already paid for it from my taxes!

      --
      John
    114. Re:Great article by DarkOx · · Score: 1

      Don't forget even if people don't follow the link directly on the web add it does get your product noticed. Sometime that is all you need to do. That person might not be buying a wonderwidget today but when they do need on letter yours is the one they have seen somewhere before. The familiarity last s longer then the aggravation at being interrupted when the ad was seen for most people. It probably boosts sales that way too.

      --
      Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
    115. Re:Great article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Really? I have NoScript and AdblockPlus but that doesn't help with this site.
      I assume they are checking for JavaScript and showing up a layer (DIV) if it isn't detected. I've simply stopped going to this site.

    116. Re:Great article by DarkOx · · Score: 1

      I am sure the ad haters wont agree but I think HULU is doing it right. The have to make revenue to provide a good service, which must cost a fortune in bandwidth. Their advertisers want some reasonable assurance that users are seeing their ads, before the fork over the cache. Hulu so far has kept the total amount of adds and their length to what I find reasonable. I too hope they don't go over board.

      The most important thing though is their "security" relies on flash player which "I" not "they" put on my machine. They seem to be as platform agnostic as flashplayer will allow them to be as well; support all the major browser back ends and operating systems. They seem to be pretty respectful to their viewers and advertisers alike so far...

      --
      Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
    117. Re:Great article by Miseph · · Score: 1

      The only thing "intrusive" about NoScript is that my girlfriend occaisonally feels the need to bash around crappy websites on my computer and refuses to understand why she can't see 50% of every site out there or how to fix that "problem". On the plus side, she gets so frustrated every time she tries that she's almost given up.

      --
      Try not to take me more seriously than I take myself.
    118. Re:Great article by gullevek · · Score: 1

      Welcome to 1990 I would say. I don't understand why Javascript has still this tainted image of beeing bad.

      Nowadays browsers fight to have the fastest javascript engine, because it is so important.

      Yes, in 1990 you checked, and made sure it was plain pure HTML. Nowadays I actually expect that javascript works.

      --
      "Freiheit ist immer auch die Freiheit des Andersdenkenden" - Rosa Luxemburg, 1871 - 1919
    119. Re:Great article by gullevek · · Score: 1

      So true!

      --
      "Freiheit ist immer auch die Freiheit des Andersdenkenden" - Rosa Luxemburg, 1871 - 1919
    120. Re:Great article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You only need to Allow if the site is broken without JavaScript. You never need to Cancel.

    121. Re:Great article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In your FF profile there is a directory called chrome, and in that there is a file userContent.css (or just userContent-example.css, just copy it to userContent.css). Edit the file and add the line:
      #disablock { display:none !important}
      That will block any divs on any websites that are called disablock, and for this site will stop their nagging.

      HTH

    122. Re:Great article by LynxofCP · · Score: 1

      I say they're both intrusions on experience.

      Ideally, I have nothing against ads, some people really feel like they need them to keep their little corner of the internet online, so be it (doesn't mean I'll click on it...)

      But popups, popunders, poplefts and poptarts are the bane of the internet. The fact that I should even need to *consider* adding a javascript defeater/popup blocker is intrusive as far as I'm concerned, let alone what it does to a page.

      Oh, and just to be argumentative; I don't really agree that you're in control of your computer, not unless you programmed the thing from scratch yourself. Otherwise you're just relying on the fact that whoever programmed your application/system/hardware is doing whatever you wanted it to do and nothing else.

      I wouldn't have to put up with BSoDs because of dodgy nVidia hardware if that were true. I certainly wasn't my command to tell it to crash.

      --Steven

    123. Re:Great article by nametaken · · Score: 1

      Blame sloppy developers that use JavaScript for duties that they shouldn't.

      Seriously? Nobody has figured out a way to stop the obnoxious jerks from doing shitty things with javascript, therefore it's the regular developers we should be mad at?

    124. Re:Great article by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · · Score: 1

      Exactly. While it's cute to argue that all sites should degrade gracefully, it's simply not worth it for a lot of site operators to make everything work as best it can without Javascript, just to cater to a tiny part of the market who block JS. If those people choose to disable fundamental functionality, they get to suck up the consequences. Meanwhile, for most people visiting most sites and hoping for a good experience without irritations, NoScript isn't even close to an acceptable solution.

      --
      If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
    125. Re:Great article by Thinboy00 · · Score: 1

      Combine it with a safety indicator (McAfee has one called SiteAdvisor, search the addons site for it since I'm lazy) so you know whether it's a good idea or not.

      --
      $ make available
    126. Re:Great article by Thinboy00 · · Score: 1

      Someone needs to forward that to the *AAs -- they haven't heard.

      --
      $ make available
    127. Re:Great article by mysidia · · Score: 0

      The problem with NoScript is you can wind up in court, if you visit the wrong site, and they find out..

      Javascript is commonly used to protect sites against viewers right-clicking to download an image file, for example, since right-click disable is a copy protection system that effectively controls access to a work (the images),

      Because javascript code is used to implement the protection, finding a way to disable that code is a theoretically possible means of circumvention.

      In certain jurisdictions, there is a law called the DMCA, that makes it a felony to use or distribute a tool like NoScript that circumvents copy protection systems.

      Not just right-click prevention, but also printing prevention, copy+paste prevention, and other measures that serve to effectively prevent unauthorized copying.

    128. Re:Great article by Thinboy00 · · Score: 1

      If you're too egregious they'll (they==makers of AB+) just add a whitelist for whichever fake ad you're using as a test. (or they'll (they==users) just disable JScript if you're testing the ads themselves ;)

      Furthermore, AB+ itself doesn't apply to text ads (there is an element hider but AFAICT it isn't very popular) and if you're using banner ads they take up a lot of bandwidth (read:AB+ costs less in terms of bandwidth, so the bandwidth argument is just plain cheap). Finally, what do you do for people using lynx or something?

      --
      $ make available
    129. Re:Great article by Thinboy00 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The simple solution is to put a 1×1 GIF whose title contains the word "ad" or something, and test if it is present with JScript. Of course, people with noscript won't even know that you don't want them adblocking. Perhaps you should just put a polite note explaining that the site is advert supported and please don't block the ads? If you're polite about it and don't use abusive ads (read: flashing ads, ads that play sound in response to any stimulus (or none at all) short of a click, ads that pretend to not be ads, ads that obscure the site itself, and ads that collect personal information (doubleclick comes to mind)).

      --
      $ make available
    130. Re:Great article by Thinboy00 · · Score: 1

      If you're polite about it and don't use abusive ads (read: flashing ads, ads that play sound in response to any stimulus (or none at all) short of a click, ads that pretend to not be ads, ads that obscure the site itself, and ads that collect personal information (doubleclick comes to mind)).

      ...then the AB+ devs will be nicer to you.

      (Why did I hit the "submit" button? D'OH!)

      --
      $ make available
    131. Re:Great article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I suppose you didn't notice his signature.

    132. Re:Great article by Thinboy00 · · Score: 1

      I think he meant inclusive OR, not XOR. ~

      --
      $ make available
    133. Re:Great article by Thinboy00 · · Score: 1

      I don't recall my eyes suing my brain... WTF is an "inferred" NDA? (I know what a NDA is, tell me about the "inferred")

      --
      $ make available
    134. Re:Great article by Thinboy00 · · Score: 1

      I was under the impression that you can't do that without Trusted/Treacherous Computing, which is more commonly used for Digital Rights/Restrictions Management.

      --
      $ make available
    135. Re:Great article by bit01 · · Score: 1

      Hulu so far has kept the total amount of adds and their length to what I find reasonable.I too hope they don't go over board.

      You're living in a fantasy land. Over time, just like every other solely "ad supported" service in history, they will increase the ad's until the net value to the viewer is just marginally above zero. Sure, it's "worth it", just, to watch the video. Problem is, there is no significant value for the viewer, it's all going to hulu. And another broadcast television style wasteland develops.

      ---

      "Advertising supported" just means you're paying twice over, once in time to watch/avoid the ad and twice in the increased price of the product to pay for the ad.

    136. Re:Great article by Thinboy00 · · Score: 1

      So get a mod of Fx. Or install an addon globally (i.e. with root-analog permissions in the install directory so the user can't remove it directly, and probably not at all unless they have root-analog access, which would be stupid (but frequent reading of WTF reminds me that stupid != unusual) )

      --
      $ make available
    137. Re:Great article by Thinboy00 · · Score: 1

      The only reason I haven't tried NetFlix is popups for their product. When they stop annoying me I may try their product.

      Popups are why I hesitate to go to weather.com

      Agreed, these people are retarded.

      Who the fuck modded that troll?

      --
      $ make available
    138. Re:Great article by bit01 · · Score: 1

      retaining the "enhanced" behaviour

      Almost always, it's not "enhanced", it's braindead.

      Usually breaking all sorts of user interface guidelines such as interface predictability and breaking everything from mobile devices to blind screen readers to user style overrides such as font size to screen sizing to back buttons. It's usually a pretty strong sign of incompetence when a web designer does a web page (as distinct from a web application) in javascript/flash etc.

      ---

      Don't be a programmer-bureaucrat; someone who substitutes marketing buzzwords and software bloat for verifiable improvements.

    139. Re:Great article by bit01 · · Score: 1

      I'd rather take the ads, and get my entertainment for free.

      It's only free if your time and attention is worth nothing.

      ---

      An unobtrusive ad is a non-functional ad. It is a non-sustainable business model.

    140. Re:Great article by Alsee · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I wonder how much more surreal we can make this?

      http://timecube.com/

      Do I win?

      -

      --
      - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
    141. Re:Great article by Scrameustache · · Score: 1

      test it with the "Temporarily allow..." option for all the relevant parts of the site,

      This is the problem I found - if I have to test it, what is the point of blocking it in the first place? OK, it can stop cross-site attacks in their tracks, but if the bad code is hosted on the server I chose to visit, it's game over anyway.

      Why bother looking both ways before crossing the street? If someone suddenly decides to deliberately run you over, it's game over anyway.

      Why bother looking out before opening the door? If the person you decide to let in turns out to be a serial killer, it's game over anyway.

      Etc.

      Why? Because I don't see these pop-ups, I went to the demo site (linked in TFA) and nothing popped. Suck it, evil marketroids!
      If ever a site serves me one, on the blacklist it goes.

      --

      You can't take the sky from me...

    142. Re:Great article by Alsee · · Score: 1

      You're basically right about the Trusted Computing thing.

      They can never make it literally impossible to view the page ad-free, it's just a question of different levels of difficulty. A site using custom javascript or other techniques can make it "impossible" to view the site without viewing the ads, short of a programmer analyzing the technique and arranging to bypass it with GreaseMonkey or some other technique when the page is loaded.

      A site using Trusted Computing can make it "impossible" to view the site without viewing the ads, short of a doing hardware hack on top of a major project software Trusted Computing emulator.

      -

      --
      - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
    143. Re:Great article by Russellkhan · · Score: 1

      What does Redirect Remover do that NoScript doesn't? I know that NoScript does stop many redirects, but haven't looked too closely at that part of its functionality.

      --
      Information doesn't want to be anthropomorphized anymore.
    144. Re:Great article by Russellkhan · · Score: 1

      I've never seen one (Running same combination as GP).

      --
      Information doesn't want to be anthropomorphized anymore.
    145. Re:Great article by Russellkhan · · Score: 1

      What was I supposed to see there? I saw a fairly simple page with an iframe, no popups etc, a few minibanners in the friends section in the lower left.

      --
      Information doesn't want to be anthropomorphized anymore.
    146. Re:Great article by shbazjinkens · · Score: 1

      I know this is totally off-topic, but my parents also claim to have had huge roaming areas when they were kids, and they also restricted mine a lot. How come you do that, knowing that you did alright? Do you live in a high-crime area, or maybe are afraid of kidnappings?

      One of my other problems was that my dad was always trying to do things for me. I.E. not letting me use power tools. Even when I was as old as 18-19 he'd try to do stuff like that for me. I feel like a lot of it hurt my development as an independent.

    147. Re:Great article by TexVex · · Score: 1

      In the nineties, living in a ghetto for the cheap rent while going to college in a medium-size city, my roommates and I used to toss our aluminum beer cans out the open window (the place was too cheap for screens or air conditioning). Those who couldn't even afford to pay $150/mo in rent would come by in the night with their stolen supermarket shopping carts and pick the cans up to sell for recycling. It was a win/win -- we got to be lazy and they got a little cash.

      Ahh, those were the days. We spent more on beer and pot than we did on food or rent. Wouldn't care to go back, but I wouldn't erase the experience from my past either.

      --
      Fun with Anagarams! LADS HOST, SHALT DOS. HAS DOLTS. AD SLOTHS, HATS SOLD. ASS HO, LTD.
    148. Re:Great article by Drgnkght · · Score: 2, Informative

      Disabling right-clicks does not disable copy and paste. You see the menu at the top of your browser? Guess what is under "Edit" on just about every browser in existence. You can usually find View Page Source somewhere nearby as well.

      Disabling right-click is stupid and annoying. It serves no purpose.

    149. Re:Great article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The voices in my head demand pink slips at once!

      *** Out of Cheese Error ***

    150. Re:Great article by N1AK · · Score: 1

      Sorry for the delay in responding. I actually use a number of different methods, but that's just down to curiosity and because it gives me an excuse to code something different.

      I am going to keep the amount of technical detail low for brevity and because bluntly many of the methods could easily be avoided by someone who thought about it:
      1/ Providing articles as PDFs which include adverts (obvious issues integrating with most ad services).
      2/ Producing sites in Flash (and Silverlight)
      3/ Designing sites that are intentionally unusable without jscript, and where the jscript verifies content.
      4/ Including invisible images designed to appear as adverts and checking with script that they are present.
      5/ Include Jscript within your page that appears to be from an advertising service and detect when it is blocked.

    151. Re:Great article by N1AK · · Score: 1

      If you're too egregious they'll (they==makers of AB+) just add a whitelist for whichever fake ad you're using as a test. (or they'll (they==users) just disable JScript if you're testing the ads themselves ;)

      Well I doubt I get enough visitors for AB+ to start an arms race over my methods, however I'm wise enough to know that ultimately the party with complete control of the system has the advantage.

      read:AB+ costs less in terms of bandwidth, so the bandwidth argument is just plain cheap

      I've got the logs for the sites. I have over the last couple of years spent a sizeable amount of time analysing those logs, coding detection systems, compared them with views/clickthroughs etc. When I say that I decide if AdBlocking users are worthwhile or not, I don't mean I guess. I have the information and experience with which to make an informed decision. You might not think AdBlocking users are worth blocking on your site, in which case you are welcome to let them view your content freely.

      Finally, what do you do for people using lynx or something?

      Nothing. Which is a shame as I used to zealously code sites to be compatible, and then it became a trend to use the accessible version as an exploit.

    152. Re:Great article by MadMidnightBomber · · Score: 1

      1995 called - it said you fail history. "JavaScript was first introduced and deployed in the Netscape browser version 2.0B3 in December 1995." -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JavaScript

      It wasn't widely deployed for a while either, because I was still making sure websites worked with Mosaic, IE and lynx in '96/'97.

      --
      "It doesn't cost enough, and it makes too much sense."
    153. Re:Great article by BobPaul · · Score: 1

      The problem mentioned in the article is DHTML floaters, ie a clickable image floating over the website within the existing browser window/tab. Basic popup blocking within Firefox gets 99% of all unwanted popup ads. I have never been to a website within the past couple of years that was able to open popups all over my computer.

      I have a feeling you haven't browsed the web without noscript in quite a while. I have found I need nothing other than adblock to clean up my browsing experience, as that will usually get the DHTML floaters as well. adblock is almost completely non-intrusive, as it's a managed blacklist; I don't have to do anything and it works great. Noscript requires I manage my own blacklist, which is much less desirable, as I need to interact with it on nearly every website, not just the couple that adblock misses/false positives on.

      Regardless, Firefox on it's own prevents windows from opening, no noscript needed.

    154. Re:Great article by The_Laughing_God · · Score: 1
      "Had it coming?" Not really.

      He could just check a site that doesn't use unblockable advertising pop-ups, like Intellicast Local Weather or The Weather Underground. Indeed, I find Weather Underground to be much better than weather.com, with more realtime data options and user-customizable maps.

    155. Re:Great article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      STOP STEALING MY AIR

    156. Re:Great article by The_Laughing_God · · Score: 1

      Bah. I don't know why, but the second link got stripped. (Did it think there was a domain mismatch between wunderground.com and WeatherUnderground? Or does someone elsewhere just not like sites named for 60s domestic terror groups?]

    157. Re:Great article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      my wife hates using my computer because of noscript. i've gotten used to it and end up turning it off while she's surfing.

    158. Re:Great article by Walter+Carver · · Score: 1

      Javascript IS basic functionality. Welcome to 1990.

      And what's that supposed to mean? That we have to use it just because it's there? Have you seen a website using JS for links? For menus? Or even for layout?! It's horrible and it brakes. There are valid uses for JS but these three are not.

    159. Re:Great article by BrokenHalo · · Score: 1

      I've been to websites where no amount of "allow" privileges will get the darn thing to work.

      I believe one of them was my banks website.


      I've tried to stay out of the debate about NoScript so far, despite the post to which you're all replying...

      ...But where NoScript falls down is at the human interface. Sooner or later you have to inject a layer of trust into what you're doing if you want to get anything out of the internet at all. If you want to see anything on that webpage, you only find out whether or not it was worth it if you click that "S".

      But having the extension enabled while you are doing your banking is just silly. You more or less HAVE to trust your bank - otherwise go and find yourself a different one.

      This is why I don't use it. My combo of hosts file/adblock/flashblock knocks out almost all unwanted content with very little intervention.

    160. Re:Great article by GargamelSpaceman · · Score: 1

      I wonder if they could somehow combine this with web of trust. By default the site would allow scripts, but if it were gawd-awful it would earn blacklisting for the whole subscribing community.

      --
      ...
    161. Re:Great article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then again, there are plenty of stinkers out there that use JavaScript to send you the page's CSS, which while horribly lame, is probably done to send a hacked page for IE and compliant CSS for most

      Jesus wept! Sites actually do that!? I'm a webdeveloper, and even reading this, never mind seeing it in action, has left me picking chunks of vomit out of my keyboard.

    162. Re:Great article by orclevegam · · Score: 2, Insightful

      No offense, but those all sound like really scummy things to do and would cause me not to go to any site that did things like that. Of course I'm probably not your target audience anyway, so I probably wouldn't be going to the sites in the first place. Those first two in particular (also the most difficult to work around) would put me off almost immediately, as unless I need to get something specific (like tech support, driver downloads, or to order something) from a site if the first thing it does it popup a empty page with nothing but a big flash movie I never bother going back to that site. Requiring silverlight at all, even if I need something means I don't bother. I figure flash is bad enough, we really don't need MS flash as that's just asking for trouble. Absolute worst case scenario if I really need something from a site using silverlight, I'd just use one of the windows VM images I have, take a snapshot to restore to later, and then install silverlight.

      To be perfectly honest, I mostly block ads for two reasons, the most important of which is security. It's been shown on several occasions that ad providers can make excellent infection vectors. The second reason is mostly just to avoid the wasted screen space, and in the case of some of the DHTML ones, the browser lag caused by the ads. Back when /. just put banner ads at the top of the screen I didn't mind them so much and would often disable adblock on /., and even one time actually clicked one of the ads (thinkgeek ad for a interesting tool). This new thing however where ads are embedded inside the discussion threads has me re-enabling adblock as they now waste screen space when I'm trying to read the comments. The thing that pushed me to add NoScript to my regularly used extension list was those annoying IntelliTXT ads that at the time were causing my browser to slow to a crawl for a few seconds everytime I accidentally moused over one, and then further added insult to injury by obscuring the text under the ad I was trying to read.

      --
      Curiosity was framed, Ignorance killed the cat.
    163. Re:Great article by mcgrew · · Score: 1

      My guess is someone at NetFlix. We need a "-1, shill" moderation.

    164. Re:Great article by Deagol · · Score: 1

      That's just a silly concern. You *do* know that most (all?) browsers allow you to disable JavaScript altogether, right? And that some of the more minimal browsers (lynx, dillo, etc.) don't support it at all? Don't forget the "view source" option of browsers, and the functional equivalents of using wget, fetch, curl, or "lynx --dump --source". All of these things can allow you to peer into the site's "security" (obfuscation, is more like it) and manually input links to bypass stupid restrictions.

      While I'm sure some asshat lawyers (or, to be less inflammatory, the asshat *clients* of some lawyers) would take some poor shmuck to court for using a browser add-on such as NoScript, we certainly shouldn't be afraid to use such tools because such cases are silly and would rarely happen.

      Regardless of faulty legislation and misguided lawyers/judges, the stream of bytes that comes down *my* paid-for internet pipe, crosses *my* router/WAP/hub/etc. and into *my* PC is effectively mine to do with as I please. And that includes ignoring certain subsets of that byte-stream, such as JavaScript and advert banners.

      Banning such tools would be as sane and effective as trying to ban home cooking or gardening.

    165. Re:Great article by Snaller · · Score: 1

      Its intrusive because its breaks 99% of all sites. At least the sites I see. If you are only browsing sites from 1980 that's great for you.

      --
      If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
    166. Re:Great article by Snaller · · Score: 1

      Of course we have heard the opposite of this: If you are blocking our advertisements you are stealing our content.

      --
      If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
    167. Re:Great article by ByOhTek · · Score: 1

      My sig: There's a pen and paper RPG called Paranoia. It involves a computer, treason and lasers.

      --
      Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
    168. Re:Great article by jonadab · · Score: 1

      > I think what you meant to say was "Many web designers count on Javascript for BASIC functionality such as
      > layout, menus, and following links these days. Turning off Javascript neuters almost every site you browse."
      > Don't blame NoScript for that problem. Blame sloppy developers that use JavaScript for duties that they shouldn't.

      While this is true, it doesn't mean that a completely script-free web experience is enjoyable.

      Honestly, I don't see what all the fuss is about. This sort of thing is *exactly* the sort of problem capability policies were originally designed to solve, back in the nineties. With capability policies you can *allow* the scripts on sites to do the things you think it's okay for them to do (e.g., dynamically insert content into the page, which is actually a really nice feature in a lot of cases) and still prohibit websites from doing things you *don't* think it's okay for them to do, such as open additional windows, dork around with the status bar, etc. Are there really still slashdot readers who don't know about capability policies, after all these years?

      --
      Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
    169. Re:Great article by Tuoqui · · Score: 1

      Well brand names arent entirely bad... I mean if I look for a motherboard then I'm probably looking for an ASUS board because I know they're pretty solid in terms of performance and quality of materials (IE. No cheap capacitors, my motherboard is fine after 5-6 years of use). Although I do agree that it can be bad for someone who decides to say buy Dell because they recognize Dell rather than looking at other computer manufacturers.

      --
      09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688C0
      +2 Troll is Slashdot's way of saying groupthink is confused
    170. Re:Great article by jonadab · · Score: 1

      It's not about advertisements. I mean, yes, advertisements have a strong tendency to be associated with pop-ups, but for me the advertising isn't the issue. The issue is that how I choose to keep the windows arranged on my workstation is none of the website's $#@! business. Extra browser windows opening up that I did not expressly request is something I don't want to have happen, EVER, completely irrespective of whether the content that's popping up is an advertisement, the main content of the site, or whatever else it might be.

      It's not a Javascript issue, either. I don't mind Javascript, for the most part. Websites can use Javascript to do whatever they want with their own content. Change images when the mouse rolls over, alter the list of available choices in one drop-down box when the another one is changed, insert asynchronously-retrieved content into the page on the fly, whatever. The content belongs, after all, to the site. I'm just a viewer. I gave the site a certain amount of screen real estate on my system, and it can display in that space what it will. If I don't like it, I'll close the tab, but as long as I've got the site open, it's allowed to display what it likes in that space.

      But it's *not* okay for the scripts on sites to be able to do things *beyond* the bounds of the space they've been given. (I don't mean the part of the page that's scrolled out of view. That's still part of their space, even if it's not visible currently.) It's not okay for a website to change my wallpaper, for instance. (Yes, in some browsers, at one time, that was actually possible. Not lately, thank goodness.) It's not okay for a website to change my browser settings (e.g., change my start page, add itself to my bookmarks, hide portions of the browser chrome). And it's very much not okay for a website to start opening up additional browser windows (or tabs for that matter) beyond the one(s) I've given it.

      And that's why we have capability policies.

      --
      Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
    171. Re:Great article by jonadab · · Score: 1

      > And that's why we have capability policies.

      Although, frankly, window.open is a piece of DOM that never should have been introduced in the first place, and if it were just diked out of the codebase entirely, no significant harm would befall anyone, and sites would stop finding ways around the existing popup blocking (this is, what, the _third_ time that's happened). Popups shouldn't have to be blocked, because the capability to pop-up windows via the DOM just shouldn't exist in the first place.

      --
      Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
    172. Re:Great article by Aetrus · · Score: 1

      I used to use ad-block. But, I don't see anything wrong with ads that don't bother me. Adds that fit in the layout, that don't make annoying sounds, nor pop-up and block the content are okay, even good.

    173. Re:Great article by knorthern+knight · · Score: 1

      > my wife hates using my computer because of noscript. i've
      > gotten used to it and end up turning it off while she's surfing.

      Give her a separate account (Yes, Firefox allows multiple accounts). You can set one up for your wife and another one for your bank, etc.

      --

      I'm not repeating myself
      I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
    174. Re:Great article by WuphonsReach · · Score: 1

      I don't know about that. Ten years ago, when Javascript implementations were spotty, buggy, and at times incompatible, I'd probably agree. But nowadays I'd consider having a working Javascript implementation just about as important in browser selection as standards-compliant HTML and CSS support.

      Except for the little nasty issue called malware writers who abuse Javascript in order to infect your machine. Which is the primary reason that I run with Flashblock and NoScript.

      The other half of the issue is that too often, Javascript is abused to do things like pop-ups, pop-unders, or other user-hostile actions. Which is the secondary reason that I run Flashblock and NoScript. It's a nice technology, but it's too prone to abuse by bad actors.

      The web is a lot saner place when you block by default and only selectively whitelist sites. I switched a year or two ago to blocking it all and only allowing a few sites to run Javascript and will never go back.

      --
      Wolde you bothe eate your cake, and have your cake?
    175. Re:Great article by alexo · · Score: 1

      Weather.com, the web presence of "The Weather Channel", has their own forecasters, and they're seldom as accurate as the NOAA. But at least they're not as bad as AccuWeather.com, which is one of the companies that sells forecasts to local TV stations.

      weather.gov may not be a pretty site, but it rocks in terms of usability and accuracy of the data.

      Firefox has a couple of extensions that pull data from AccuWeather: ForecastFox and its derivative ForecastBar Enhanced.
      There are also a couple that pull data from weather.com: ForecastFox l10n and 1-click weather.
      I am not not aware of any that pull data from "official" American/Canadian sites.

    176. Re:Great article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's a shame someone came up with AJAX... I'd much rather go back to the days of flicker and waiting for an entire page to load just to get the weather to update.

    177. Re:Great article by Lord+Bitman · · Score: 1

      using javascript for links, menus, and layout, would be "not valid uses" if there were sane alternatives. There are not.
        - links have no soft "often preferred as a popup window" hint. Using a "floating div" tends to be a good way, but of course this means have a "javascript link"
        - buttons are so ugly that people overload anchors to act like buttons. Yes, buttons are probably the best element for the job in many cases, but they're ugly, so they won't be used.
        - CSS is a horrible hack which doesn't provide enough functionality to cover most basic uses without at least some tweaking. This covers both the "layout" and "menus" thing. CSS sucks. We only use it because there is no better alternative.

      In short: everything sucks, javascript is powerful enough to hold everything together just enough to give us basic functionality. Use javascript.

      --
      -- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
    178. Re:Great article by Lachlan+Hunt · · Score: 1

      Using AdBlock in Firefox, or Opera's built-in Content Blocker, or equivalent, ads are blocked based on URL pattern matching. For example, a URL for an ad image or script that matches the pattern "*/ads/*" will be blocked. Such filter lists often include filters that block scripts for advertising companies like Google Adsense or Doubleclick.

      This works because, in practice, a lot of sites use similar patterns for their URLs, and there are filter lists that have been created to catch the most common.

      NoScript works for blocking ads because a lot of ads depend on the use of JavaScript to be added to the page. By preventing JS from running, the ads are blocked as a result. However, the downside of using this is that some sites depend on JS for their basic functionality, and if you need to enable script for a particular site, this will no longer block any ads from that site. But usually, in these cases, filtering catches those anyway.

      It is possible for sites to get past both of those, which is why they're not 100% effective. If a site is using an image for an ad that isn't blocked by the filter list, and doesn't depend on JS for the ad being shown, then neither of those techniques will work. But they do still work in the majority of cases.

      --
      By reading this signature, you hereby agree with the content of the above comment.
  2. I tried to make a first post... by Kuroji · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...but I got so distracted with those shiny X10 pop-up ads.

  3. Annoying but expected by hattig · · Score: 1

    I'm just surprised it took this long to be honest.

    Nothing more annoying than getting a huge flash video animation splatted in front of the article you are reading, with no obvious [X] to click immediately.

    1. Re:Annoying but expected by smooth+wombat · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Nothing more annoying than getting a huge flash video animation splatted in front of the article you are reading,

      There is a solution to this "problem". Don't install Flash. Flash is evil. Flash must die.

      --
      We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
    2. Re:Annoying but expected by eln · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Flash is indeed evil, but it's also necessary to get anything out of an increasing number of sites. The choice is basically live with the occasional Flash abuse or cut yourself off from an ever-growing amount of content on the web. Whether that additional content is worth the annoyance of the occasional Flash ad is a personal decision.

    3. Re:Annoying but expected by tom17 · · Score: 1

      But I like watching youtube vids...

    4. Re:Annoying but expected by Ender_Stonebender · · Score: 4, Informative

      Or install Firefox and the Flashblock extension, which blocks ALL Flash content until explicitly allowed (which can either be once or always for a particular site). Which is better than AdBlock's version, that lets you block Flash but makes you explicitly block rather than blanket-block. (Blanket-block is better because 90% or more of Flash content encountered is ads.)

      --
      Loose things are easy to lose. You're getting your hair cut. They're going there to see their aunt.
    5. Re:Annoying but expected by MightyYar · · Score: 3, Informative

      Or install Firefox and the Flashblock extension

      No kidding... I was thinking "what popups?" when I read this. I run noscript, but same difference.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    6. Re:Annoying but expected by BlackSupra · · Score: 1

      FireFox add-on Flashblock 1.5.7.1 https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/433

    7. Re:Annoying but expected by smooth+wombat · · Score: 5, Insightful

      but it's also necessary to get anything out of an increasing number of sites.

      If a site relies on Flash to convey its message, I don't go to it. I was looking for a car repair shop after the latest moron hit me and one site was nearly unreachable because the front page was entirely Flash-based. Had it not been for a site map link, I would not have been able to see anything.

      Nor is this the first time this has happened. I have come across several sites, including restaurants, who have an entirely Flash-based site. I don't bother going to them either online or offline because of this nonsense.

      The ONLY exception I can see for using Flash is if you have a product which you want people to see all sides of and you have a short display of the product rotating.

      I have said it before and will continue to say it: There is no reason to have an entirely Flash-based site. None. If people want to come back to your site for a specific reason, they can no longer bookmark a page to do so. If someone has eyesight issues and uses a screen-reader, you've locked them out.

      As I said in my journal, Flash is the new blink tag.

      --
      We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
    8. Re:Annoying but expected by PitaBred · · Score: 2

      Yeah! Let's take the Internet back to it's Golden Age, back in 1993. When men were men, browsers were Mosaic, and HTML was v1.0!

      The problem with not installing flash is that there are a ton of great games out there using flash, and a bunch of nice content sites like Youtube that use flash. Throwing the baby out with the bathwater is not the solution.

    9. Re:Annoying but expected by DigiWood · · Score: 0, Redundant

      DHTML != Flash

      --


      Nothing is impossible. It just hasn't been figured out yet.
    10. Re:Annoying but expected by plague3106 · · Score: 0, Troll

      Well, that's just plain stupid. Flash is a lightweight way to make the content much more interesting. Everything on the web gets abused to advertise, singling out flash doesn't make any sense.

    11. Re:Annoying but expected by neithernet · · Score: 2, Insightful

      and news reports and... Flash is no more evil than guns or pencils. Flash doesn't create ads; people create ads.

    12. Re:Annoying but expected by default+luser · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Absolutely. Flashblock is a no-nonsense tool that is dead-simple to configure. I had everyone I know install it after a number of flash vulnerabilities started cropping up, and I've heard no complaints.

      I consider Flashblock + Firefox my "compromise" with the advertisers: I will submit to viewing ads to help them pay for content, so long as they are not Flash, and so long as they are not pop-up/under. Really, I do not find static images and text annoying at all, and if an advertiser makes an animated GIF that is too annoying, I can just press ESC.

      But if the advertisers insist on using this crap evervwhere and pushing an arms race, I won't hesitate to upgrade to noscript (and everyone I know) and shut the door entirely. I hope they won't force me to do that, because then they would get zero money from my page views.

      --

      Man is the animal that laughs.
      And occasionally whores for Karma.

    13. Re:Annoying but expected by Jeff+Hornby · · Score: 1

      Mosaic? Are you kidding?

      The only browser that should be allowed is Lynx!!

      --
      Why doesn't Slashdot ever get slashdotted?
    14. Re:Annoying but expected by pitje · · Score: 1

      I bet you hate those newfangled electricity-driven computers too

    15. Re:Annoying but expected by BrokenHalo · · Score: 2, Informative

      And a combo of hosts-file, Adblock and Flashblock is almost unbeatable. I often get comments from people who use my computers that the browser seems a lot less cluttered with ads than theirs. This is because I take steps not to see ANY advertisements unless I ask for them.

    16. Re:Annoying but expected by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Whitelist the Youtube.com domain?

    17. Re:Annoying but expected by poetmatt · · Score: 1

      It's pretty easy to block flash ads properly with noscript if you know what you're doing. Even if you use one of those subscription blocking lists, blanket-blocking is still worse. Especially for the average user and it only makes more sense for a slashie who is on 4chan or something.

      I mean average user+flashblock = "where's my youtube?"

    18. Re:Annoying but expected by SharpFang · · Score: 1

      There's one ugly problem with this solution:
      The website places a huge bigass DIV with the flash inside. If the article below has any links, you can't click them unless you close the DIV first. And the close button is embedded in the flash you blocked.

      --
      45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
    19. Re:Annoying but expected by BrokenHalo · · Score: 2, Informative

      The trouble with Flash is that it is usually a triumph of form over content. It encourages a policy of delivering content in bites easily digested by a sparrow, which I find less than admirable. It is more cumbersome to maintain, so it usually isn't maintained at all. Lots of glitzy display does not help communicate information. The best way to do this is to use basic HTML, which people can bookmark or copy/paste as required, on any machine, without swallowing up megabytes of bandwidth.

    20. Re:Annoying but expected by cjb658 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I don't think Flash is going away any time soon. As someone who knows several web developers, I can tell you they love Flash because they don't have to code the page differently for different browsers.

      The fact that it obfuscates your source code and animates things (makes them "flashy," if you will) are added bonuses that give the management and marketing departments a huge boner.

    21. Re:Annoying but expected by cjb658 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      But I like watching youtube vids...

      I do too but I'd like them even more if they weren't Flash-based. Flash runs too slow on old computers.

    22. Re:Annoying but expected by cjb658 · · Score: 1

      Lynx?

      I download sites with wget and view them with vi.

    23. Re:Annoying but expected by hottoh · · Score: 1

      Flash is indeed evil, but it's also necessary to get anything out of an increasing number of sites. The choice is basically live with the occasional Flash abuse or cut yourself off from an ever-growing amount of content on the web. Whether that additional content is worth the annoyance of the occasional Flash ad is a personal decision.

      Turn it on when you want.

      If you use IE, then visit http://www.flashswitch.com/

      If you use firefox, then read on. Other posted how to control flash in firefox.

    24. Re:Annoying but expected by genner · · Score: 1

      Mosaic? Are you kidding?

      The only browser that should be allowed is Lynx!!

      Luxury....in my day we had to use wget and parse the html with vi.

    25. Re:Annoying but expected by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The ONLY exception I can see for using Flash is if you have a product which you want people to see all sides of and you have a short display of the product rotating.

      You've apparently never used the Domino's Pizza Tracker. The finest use of Flash since... well, pretty much ever.

    26. Re:Annoying but expected by Canazza · · Score: 1

      oooh... someone's been pissing in your mind

      --
      It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for being subtle.
    27. Re:Annoying but expected by SQLGuru · · Score: 5, Funny

      Why not just telnet to port 80 and read the page as it streams across?

    28. Re:Annoying but expected by Jeff+Hornby · · Score: 2, Funny

      Right.

      I had to go to the website's ISP, get the webpage on paper tape, take it back to the computer room, type in the binary codes using only the 1's and 0's on a teletype machine and then read the content from the blinking lights on the front of a PDP-8/E. And when we were finished, the sysadmin would kill us and dance on our graves singing Hallelujah.

      --
      Why doesn't Slashdot ever get slashdotted?
    29. Re:Annoying but expected by ObsessiveMathsFreak · · Score: 4, Informative

      I can attest personally to the power and convenience of Flashblock. It's simply a great system.

      Upon installation (and a restart), Flashblock will replace all, ALL, flash components on every page with an empty, but clearly outlined box where the flash applet would have been. In this way, over all page layout is unaffected during the block.

      At the center of this empty block, Flashblock puts a recognizable stylized "F" icon, which when hovered over, turns into a standard "Play" symbol. Personally, I think it should always be a play symbol, but that's just nit picking. After this icon is clicked, the flash applet, and only THAT applet, loads and begins just as it would have insisted on doing when, or even before the page was finished loading.

      No more crazy ads. No more loud and obnoxious audio content. No more flash-bomb pages, slowing the system to a crawl, and/or crashing firefox. Admittedly, the crash problem still exists, but now you risk it only at your own behest. Normal use of flash, e.g. Youtube, is almost completely unaffected, and IMHO even improved by flashblock. The web page is cleanly and gracefully separated from the flash content, as it always should have been.

      Flashblock is the first extension I download on any new firefox install. I highly recommend it.

      --
      May the Maths Be with you!
    30. Re:Annoying but expected by OolimPhon · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Then I'll go somewhere else. Anyone who makes it that difficult for me to do business with them doesn't get my business.

    31. Re:Annoying but expected by imbaczek · · Score: 2, Insightful

      if a refresh doesn't help, i click on my huge bigass Ctrl+W and never come back in such cases.

    32. Re:Annoying but expected by Nerull · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Websites done in flash are useless. I have never seen an exception. I can't bookmark anything. I can't link to a specific page. I can't copy any text. I can't search. Navigation buttons don't work.

      All so some idiot can have spiffy transition effects between pages.

    33. Re:Annoying but expected by AndrewNeo · · Score: 3, Interesting

      they love Flash because they don't have to code the page differently for different browsers.

      So instead they use Flash, which is -guaranteed- not to work in all browsers, especially mobile ones?

    34. Re:Annoying but expected by scottschiller · · Score: 1

      AdBlock Plus has the benefit of blocking by URL including regexp-based patterns, and is not limited to SWF - it will block any kind of content (HTML/JS/CSS, etc.) The default block list is quite good. Last I checked it was the most-downloaded extension from addons.mozilla.org.

    35. Re:Annoying but expected by snspdaarf · · Score: 1

      I bet you hate those newfangled electricity-driven computers too

      Hey, my computer is diesel driven, you whatever!

      --
      Why, without your clothes, you're naked, Miss Dudley!
    36. Re:Annoying but expected by citylivin · · Score: 1

      Its kind of stupid to adopt this position. Its really hard to completely not use flash at all. If you are a student, the online coursewares all use flash. If you are a researcher, or you deal with any kind of multi media, flash is a part of your life. Its kind of like complaining about animated gifs in 1997. Luckily wonderful tools like flashblock exsist, so I can still let the wife and kids watch youtube without having to be deluged with ads.

      Yes flash is used where it shouldn't be roughly 70% of the time. Still, it has some nice features, and compared to the rest of the video streaming options (wmv, rm) it is relatively easy to implement and deal with, both as a developer and an end user.

      Flash is just not something worth ignoring a large part of the web to protest about. In your example, I would pick the mechanic based on his actual skill, not whether his website (coded by the cheapest laybour possible no doubt) was coded in flash. Thats kind of retarded and just serves to make your life miserable unnecessarily. Its generally not the autobody shops fault that they are using flash on their website. It was just coded to look "good".

      --
      As a potential lottery winner, I totally support tax cuts for the wealthy
    37. Re:Annoying but expected by fast+turtle · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Instead Bitch to the web master for failing to comply with either the U.S. ADA (americans with disabilities act)or the EU disabilities act if they're a commercial website. Works wonders and if they basically tell you to "Sod Off Sucker" then simply forward their reply to the appropriate authorities and prepare to inudate them with a federal/eu investigation.

      --
      Mod me up/Mod me down: I wont frown as I've no crown
    38. Re:Annoying but expected by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      NoScript allows you to enable flash on a limited basis, thus if there is flash that you are expecting and wish to view, just click it and enable it temporarily.

      Also, if the site you are visiting is YouTube or the like, where you want all flash from there allowed, you can white-list it.

      I find this solution to be quite elegant.

    39. Re:Annoying but expected by hattig · · Score: 1

      I must point out that I have been using Flashblock for years, it's just that you still get the div problem.

      And indeed, I don't revisit those sites, so the sites lose my repeat business. Just a shame for those one-off articles that seem interesting.

    40. Re:Annoying but expected by gknoy · · Score: 1

      You might get modded funny, but I have to agree. The Domino's pizza tracker is excellent in its iterface, and does a GREAT job informing you of progress. Sure, it could be some AJAX app or whatnot, but ... this works too. I have no complaints.

    41. Re:Annoying but expected by plover · · Score: 1

      I don't mind blocking ads myself, but I don't agree with the concept of a subscription to a blocking list. If I'm going to shut off my contribution to the revenue stream of a site, I do it deliberately only after they've offended me with annoying ads.

      And for the same reason, while I do push Firefox to non-techies, I don't push AdBlock to other people. I shouldn't make the decisions that unwittingly affect other peoples contributions to the financial well-being of a web site.

      Of course the real problem is the monopoly that is Doubleclick. I can't really block them from one site without blocking them from all sites. What I think would be useful is a Firefox extension that is an "Ad Diverter": it still downloads the ad, and gives them the impression that some eyeballs saw it, but in reality it ends up in the bit bucket instead of polluting my screen.

      --
      John
    42. Re:Annoying but expected by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

      and is not limited to SWF

      Why would you want to block Single White Females? If anything, I'd encourage them.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    43. Re:Annoying but expected by Genom · · Score: 1

      s/interesting/irritating/

      I don't generally find Flash interesting. I either find it entertaining (flash-based games, video sites like Youtube, Hulu, etc...), or irritating (flash-based ads, particularly those with sound or that overlay content, "splash pages", or "sites" that break my browser controls, forcing me into whatever nightmarish non-standard navigation method the designer thought up).

      FlashBlock in Firefox and ClickToFlash in Safari (Adblock for both as well) completely fix this. They allow the entertaining content to be reached, while preventing the irritating content from being forced upon me.

    44. Re:Annoying but expected by poetmatt · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Why give impressions? Nobody is paid off impressions for one, and also it would confuse the accuracy of advertising.

      Also plenty of people, like myself, do not want to see ads period. We are well past the generational concept from previous generations of "you can buy our eyeballs". Answer is, you can't. I don't care if it's an ad I would actually want to see. I want to browse the web to find what I want.

      Only type of "ad" I accept is browsing somethingawful's forums unregistered where they explicitly say Adbot. Also accepted are "click here to view our ads" ideas. However "PLEASE LOOK AT OUR SIGN IN CAPS" as a banner, does not deserve my eyes at all.

      The deceptiveness of advertising on the web does not make it more effective. It's the head fake, that gives people a reason to view things. 100% of ads could be taken off the web and many sites would do just fine. Even google and doubleclick have other ways to garner profits. This is something many websites haven't wrapped their heads around. People may be tolerant, but it's really a waste of cash/time.

      Google could truly help people make their own sites more relevant in comparison to what meta tags show up,etc aka: website consulting. I bet they already do this anyway. Ads as a market is something many of people are just waiting for it to become obsolete.

    45. Re:Annoying but expected by kabloom · · Score: 1

      I agree that CSS/DHTML windowless popups are annoying, but they're 10 times better than window-based popups, which float on top of unrelated programs, multiply like randy rabbits, and don't go away when you close the site that brought them into existance. So your popup-blocking software hasn't been rendered completely ineffective by these things.

    46. Re:Annoying but expected by Trifthen · · Score: 1

      That's because you've never visited Homestar Runner!

      But yeah, unless it's some kind of entertainment, a fully flash website is just silly.

      --
      Read: Rabbit Rue - Free serial nove
    47. Re:Annoying but expected by The+End+Of+Days · · Score: 1

      The ONLY exception I can see for using Flash is if you have a product which you want people to see all sides of and you have a short display of the product rotating.

      Don't blame technology for your shortcomings in creativity.

    48. Re:Annoying but expected by lupine · · Score: 2, Informative

      Use adblock plus element hiding helper to get rid of the floating div(you might also need to crush the background overlay div).
      Then you dont need to click close ever again.

      http://adblockplus.org/en/elemhidehelper

    49. Re:Annoying but expected by genner · · Score: 1

      Right.

      I had to go to the website's ISP, get the webpage on paper tape, take it back to the computer room, type in the binary codes using only the 1's and 0's on a teletype machine and then read the content from the blinking lights on the front of a PDP-8/E. And when we were finished, the sysadmin would kill us and dance on our graves singing Hallelujah.

      Luxury...in my day you never could find a sysadmin who could carry a tune, never mind dance. You had graves? We didn't have the money for fancy stone markers. You'd be lucky if they threw your corpse into an open pit. Mind you we we're happier back then.

    50. Re:Annoying but expected by orclevegam · · Score: 1

      BTW, not sure how you've got your hosts file configured, but if you redirect ad sites to localhost it helps to run a web server that does nothing but serve up a blank image file for any requests that way you don't get broken image links or have to wait for the requests to time out. Personally I run eDexter.

      --
      Curiosity was framed, Ignorance killed the cat.
    51. Re:Annoying but expected by Ingenium13 · · Score: 1

      It's also really helpful on Linux or OS X, where Flash performance is less than exceptional... Simple flash animations on these machines will use an absurd amount of CPU. If you have a few tabs open, each with a flash ad or other flash content, your computer quickly gets to 100% CPU usage. Flashblock keeps my system fast

    52. Re:Annoying but expected by orclevegam · · Score: 1

      BTW, it doesn't actually obfuscate the source (not in the traditional sense of the word anyway). I've personally decompiled flash files before and it's quite simple to figure out most of the content (exception being if you're trying to extract images, which depending on how they're actually stored or composited in the video could be very tricky).

      --
      Curiosity was framed, Ignorance killed the cat.
    53. Re:Annoying but expected by Voyager529 · · Score: 1

      I'm already off your lawn.

    54. Re:Annoying but expected by tom17 · · Score: 1

      I am aware of this but, if you noticed, I was replying to someone who said "Don't install Flash. Flash is evil."

      No amount of white-listing will let you watch a youtube vid if you don't have flash installed.

      Tom...

    55. Re:Annoying but expected by Dogtanian · · Score: 1

      if a refresh doesn't help, i click on my huge bigass Ctrl+W and never come back in such cases.

      A cynical, but perfectly plausible guess might be that the people who run profit-making, advertising-driven websites probably wouldn't care- and may be glad if bandwidth is a non-negligible proportion of the cost. It's the flipside of "I never click on ads so why bother showing them to me / there's nothing wrong with blocking them anyway" and "it's not my job to support their broken business model".

      The site owners may reasonably agree that they're not going to make any money off such people and say "good riddance".

      --
      "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
    56. Re:Annoying but expected by Dogtanian · · Score: 1

      Works wonders and if they basically tell you to "Sod Off Sucker" then simply forward their reply to the appropriate authorities and prepare to inudate them with a federal/eu investigation.

      Then they'll either learn to fob you off or craft a reply that lets them off the hook (or doesn't commit them) legally but contains an implicit "fuck you" anyway.

      --
      "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
    57. Re:Annoying but expected by HiThere · · Score: 1

      If I start being too bothered I'll take steps. So far I've just declined to install Flash, but I could install some of the other options. Adblock, noscript, etc.

      So far I've only encountered a very few intrusive ads, and I've declined to revisit such sites. But other steps are possible.

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    58. Re:Annoying but expected by plague3106 · · Score: 1

      That's your opinion. The example of restraunts is very humorous to me, becauce many of the higher end ones care very much about presentation, and HTML lacks the ability to provide that.

      In short.. you're an idiot. Just because YOU don't like Flash and think "all flash sites" are useless doesn't make it so. Don't like it, don't go to the sites.

      But also don't expect anyone to care about your opinion.

    59. Re:Annoying but expected by Toonol · · Score: 1

      Flashblock is great.

      I like Flash for lots of things; the problem isn't the language or the concept, the problem is in how it ended up being integrated into webpages. The whole idea that it should be auto-loaded and auto-executed was flawed. It shouldn't be handled like a photo, which can be automatically and passively displayed; it should have always been executable at the discretion of the viewer. That's what Flashblock does, and it makes browsing so much nicer.

    60. Re:Annoying but expected by genner · · Score: 2, Funny

      I'm already off your lawn.

      Lawns?...Luxury... in my day we didn't have lawns. A dead peice of grass sitting in a cracked pot was all you could expect.

    61. Re:Annoying but expected by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I actually email a URL from within emacs to a service that emails me back the web page I request, which I then view in emacs. ...and thus the absurdity comes full circle back to reality.

    62. Re:Annoying but expected by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      presentation...at the expense of being able to USE the information on the site.. you know, integrate it into your life? it would be nice to be able to copy/paste the restaurant's address/phone number into another app/contact list etc without having to type it manually. The previous poster is correct. flash destroys this fluent integration solely for the purpose of smearing alphablended fugliness over everything.

    63. Re:Annoying but expected by mjwx · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Nor is this the first time this has happened. I have come across several sites, including restaurants, who have an entirely Flash-based site. I don't bother going to them either online or offline because of this nonsense.

      Sad but true, the number of flash only sites are increasing. I planned a trip to SE Asia lately and was shocked to see how many hotels had flash only sites and most of them weren't using the latest version of flash. Some were so old that they still had the Macromeida logo when loading and they took their sweet time in doing so.

      I don't think its increasing due to many sites being remade into flash but due to the fact that new sites are made with flash due to the fact designers don't have a clue. Most people don't actually see their sites live from a remote location. My company has a marketing/corporate communications arm so I can say that most clients see their websites in carefully planned demonstrations not real world conditions and many remain blissful unaware of how poorly some sites perform. Realistically a demonstration should be made whilst VPN'ed into a remote box on a cheap domestic broadband connection, not the business grade fibre that we pay thousands per month for but using reality to demonstrate a point is the antithesis of marketing.

      Add to this the fact that most designers cant even write basic HTML. They would be lost without their WYSIWYG editors and Flash Dev tools that do the work for them. I've put designers and "web developers" in front of their own HTML code only to be faced with the most vapid and blank expressions as they clearly don't have a clue what they've written. Most designers don't understand the technology they are using, this is why we end up with all flash, bandwidth hogging sites.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    64. Re:Annoying but expected by imbaczek · · Score: 1

      sounds like a mutual agreement, then.

    65. Re:Annoying but expected by Mana+Mana · · Score: 1

      > blocks ALL Flash content until explicitly allowed (which can either be once or always for a particular site

      Don't you wish as I do that the Flashblock guys would steal the "temporarily allow example.com"?

      Otherwise, undoing is a longass process!!!

    66. Re:Annoying but expected by AaronLawrence · · Score: 1

      Example?
      Certainly, Flash can make cool animations. But when it comes to actually making a USEFUL website, what's an example?
      We can grant that Flash can be used to make some cute animations on the website to make it more visually interesting. How does that translate to improving the overall site?

      --
      For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert. - Arthur C. Clarke
    67. Re:Annoying but expected by AaronLawrence · · Score: 1

      Hear hear! Recently two sites that I use semi-regularly were remade entirely as Flash-based *applications* - not just using Flash for video or ads, but the whole thing.
      Apart from the fact that one of them was so broken it couldn't be used at all, they both were so annoying and difficult that I haven't been back since.
      Every time this comes up, Flash advocates love to point out that with the latest version of Flash designers *have the option* to fully support accessibility, searching, standard user interface conventions ...
      But this is irrelevant. A browser page *automatically, always* gets a huge bunch of features for free: URLs that are bookmarkable, selecting and copying for text and images, back and forward buttons, keyboard accelerators (tab and enter for links), text rendering that is customised to the hardware and resolution, viewing source for the advanced... the list goes on and on. A thousand little features that operating systems and browsers have been providing for years.
      If it's up to designers to put those in, none of it will happen for 99% of the implementations. The reality is that Flash designers invariably think they are smarter than everyone else and that their custom GUI is better than all that boring stuff on the desktop. So they *start* with the assumption that they know best.
      And Macromedia/Adobe plans to rebuild all of that in their own little sandboxed environment, and promise to never make any mistakes that result in security problems?

      --
      For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert. - Arthur C. Clarke
    68. Re:Annoying but expected by greyhueofdoubt · · Score: 1

      I use and downright require FB on my firefox installs, but one minor(?) problem with it pops up when you visit all-flash websites: You are greeted by a screen of empty white boxes with no clue what to do. You need to click each square one by one until you come across the menu item/gui element you were looking for.

      Not much to be done except avoid those sites, but that can be difficult.

      -b

      --
      No offense, but I've stopped responding to AC's.
    69. Re:Annoying but expected by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't install flash, but youtube videos are still accessible - I use keepvid.com to simply download the video and then can watch it in a video player of my choice.

    70. Re:Annoying but expected by Scrameustache · · Score: 1

      90% or more of Flash content encountered is ads.

      Adblock filter: *.swf?clickTag=*

      --

      You can't take the sky from me...

    71. Re:Annoying but expected by X0563511 · · Score: 1

      You can block all flash with adblock.

      Add a '*.swf' block, and then you use whitelisting on the files you want. (that's @@http://example.com/foobar.swf)

      It's not as easy, I'll grant you that, but it's certainly possible.

      --
      For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
    72. Re:Annoying but expected by X0563511 · · Score: 1

      Ah, but in my experience the DIVs are dynamically sized to the flash size. So, who cares if there is an empty 0x0 DIV?

      That said, adblock plus and the element hider extension can solve this problem for you.

      --
      For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
    73. Re:Annoying but expected by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 1

      Why give impressions? .... it would confuse the accuracy of advertising.

      You have answered your own question. Why should I help some advertising company improve the accuracy of its ads?

    74. Re:Annoying but expected by poetmatt · · Score: 1

      Did you read what I had replied to? The guy says he accepts ads to deliberately confuse the accuracy. My side was "why bother?". It's not like you're going to bring an ad company to its knees for confusing ads, even if society did it as a whole.

    75. Re:Annoying but expected by Ihmhi · · Score: 1

      I wonder if NoScript works the same way that adblock does in regards to loading stuff?

      Adblock still loads the ads, it just hides them, so you visiting still counts as a pageview. What about NoScript, though?

    76. Re:Annoying but expected by Ihmhi · · Score: 1

      I guess there's a downside to broadband proliferation.

      "What?!" exclaim the people in the crowd...

      10 years ago most sites that had fancy Flash crap had two options for loading pages: Hi Bandwidth and Low Bandwidth. Low Bandwidth had no Flash whatsoever. None! Even the ads were less annoying on many of these sites.

      But now companies think everyone at least has DSL and use that as their standard... so there you go.

    77. Re:Annoying but expected by BrokenHalo · · Score: 1

      ...but if you redirect ad sites to localhost it helps to run a web server that does nothing but serve up a blank image file for any requests...

      Not necessary: such requests don't time out, they are rejected immediately. If you run Firefox, it immediately notifies you that:

      "Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at dodgywebsite.biz
      Though the site seems valid, the browser was unable to establish a connection.
      * Could the site be temporarily unavailable? Try again later.
      * Are you unable to browse other sites? Check the computer's network connection.
      * Is your computer or network protected by a firewall or proxy? Incorrect settings can interfere with Web browsing."


      Thus, if you see this, you can be pretty sure that it is you blocking it.

    78. Re:Annoying but expected by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      NoScript blocks flash in a similar fashion, but is more useful. AdBlock plus and NoScript makes a perfect combination for an hassle free web experience.

    79. Re:Annoying but expected by Nesman64 · · Score: 1

      I have an older laptop and Flashblock has really sped it up by freeing cycles being wasted on ads and other garbage. Also, the Flash plugin for Linux seems to be the source of most crashes for Firefox.

      --
      coffee | nose > keyboard
    80. Re:Annoying but expected by Repossessed · · Score: 1

      I may have to try this, I generally resisted the adblock trend (though the plugin is nice for blocking other things), but the perpetual crashes that started after flash 10 came out, and advertisers failed to do any bugfixing, finally forced my hand. (Not to mention flash adds that would eat the whole processor, though kernel level fixes managed to (mostly) keep them from doing that).

      --
      Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite (TM)
    81. Re:Annoying but expected by Peeteriz · · Score: 1

      If it adds presentation without hampering functionality, then hey, Flash is great!

      But the fact about (un)ability to bookmark/copy/email links to specific places is a big issue that just means that people will not bookmark that info or your site, and will not e-mail links to your information to their friends.

  4. Won't be long by LurkingOnSlashdot · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Won't be long before the anti-popup firefox plugins can detect css-based popup and allow you to disable them as well. Only problem is they can't be disabled across the board because it would break a lot of the "web2.0" functionality of websites.

    1. Re:Won't be long by xtracto · · Score: 1

      My thought was, isn't it trivial to write an AdBlock filter that will just block all the unwanted content from AdImpact servers?

      --
      Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
    2. Re:Won't be long by kabloom · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Or just block adimpact.com in your /etc/hosts file (if you're smart enough). They want to sell it as a "hosted web application" and therein lies its vulnerability.

    3. Re:Won't be long by Derblet · · Score: 3, Informative

      It's in this (useful, but long) one:
      http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

    4. Re:Won't be long by furby076 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Go to your /etc/hosts file. (sample location: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\etc\HOSTS )
      Open it in notepad (or other basic text editor like EditPlus)
      Under the line "127.0.0.1 localhost" add your own line that will be
      127.0.0.1 porn.spam.com

      Basically each new line will start with 127.0.0.1 and then tab and include the place you are want to block.

      Recommendation 1: Backup the file before editing it.
      Recommendation 2: Go line and look for hosts files people have put available on the web. Copy it and save it. I once had a hosts file that was about 2 megs in size. Considering it is plain text that was a LOT of sites it blocked. It was my own little slice of heaven...though I had to becareful, it blocked sites that I enjoyed (e.g. Netflix).

      --

      I do not support "The Man". I also do not support your irrational stupidity
    5. Re:Won't be long by jythie · · Score: 1

      I did something similiar to that years ago when I got fed up with doubleclick. I just installed a DNS server on my box and changed where their domain pointed ^_^

    6. Re:Won't be long by MorderVonAllem · · Score: 1

      Wouldn't it be better to use 0.0.0.0 instead of 127.0.0.1? The latter attempts to connect while the former doesn't bother. And it helps when you're running a local server :)

    7. Re:Won't be long by ericspinder · · Score: 4, Informative

      Wouldn't it be better to use 0.0.0.0 instead of 127.0.0.1? The latter attempts to connect while the former doesn't bother.

      No:

      0.0.0.0/8 - Addresses in this block refer to source hosts on "this" network. Address 0.0.0.0/32 may be used as a source address for this host on this network; other addresses within 0.0.0.0/8 may be used to refer to specified hosts on this network [RFC1700, page 4].

      While you are correct that using localhost for 'ad diversion' would hit a locally running web server, but at least you'd could have a log of your results. Just thinking of it, but wouldn't it be cool to see your own personal pictures/content instead of ads?

      --
      The grass is only greener, if you don't take care of your own lawn.
    8. Re:Won't be long by Reapman · · Score: 1

      I remember a long long time ago there was a plugin for Firefox that would make all popup's open in a TAB as apposed to another window.. was great, but can't seem to find it anymore, anyone know if that's still around? Is it a feature built into Firefox (I looked but couldn't find)

    9. Re:Won't be long by Thinboy00 · · Score: 1

      Tab Mix Plus has that functionality, and a whole lot more.

      --
      $ make available
    10. Re:Won't be long by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thanks!

      (try this again, getting posted too soon errors for some reason)

    11. Re:Won't be long by thejynxed · · Score: 1

      Tools > Options > Tabs > New Pages Should Be Opened: > Check: "In A New Tab". > Hit Ok.

      It works for quite a few "pop-up" type events.

      This has been an option in Firefox now for awhile (version 2.x at least).

      --
      @Mindless Drivel: 100% of Twitter posts ever Tweeted.
    12. Re:Won't be long by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ya got that set, still have popups.. gonna try the other suggestion of the addon tho

    13. Re:Won't be long by thejynxed · · Score: 1

      Tab Mix Plus also causes memory leaks in Firefox. Has for years. Especially noticable if you run Flashblock, AdBlock or AdBlock+. Uninstalling TMP reverts Firefox back to "normal" memory usage. No idea why.

      --
      @Mindless Drivel: 100% of Twitter posts ever Tweeted.
    14. Re:Won't be long by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      your.bank.com my,ip.add.ress

    15. Re:Won't be long by vic-traill · · Score: 1

      Wouldn't it be better to use 0.0.0.0 instead of 127.0.0.1? The latter attempts to connect while the former doesn't bother. And it helps when you're running a local server :)

      People will tell you to not do it - it can cause problems - but I replace 127.0.0.1 with 0.0.0.0 for every address in the hosts file *except* localhost, which remains 127.0.0.1. Functionally, I encounter no issues, and you're correct, page loading is quicker because you're not waiting for the connection.

      YMMV, but that's my experience.

      --
      [17] Leary, T., White, C., Wood, P. R., Bhabha, W. D., and Wirth, N. Lambda calculus considered harmful. In Proceedings
    16. Re:Won't be long by Nesman64 · · Score: 1

      Go to your /etc/hosts file. (sample location: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\etc\HOSTS )

      I can't find this. Should it be between /boot and /dev ?

      --
      coffee | nose > keyboard
    17. Re:Won't be long by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      While you are correct that using localhost for 'ad diversion' would hit a locally running web server, but at least you'd could have a log of your results. Just thinking of it, but wouldn't it be cool to see your own personal pictures/content instead of ads?

      Been there...done that. All you get is tons of failed requests in your apache error log, on the one side, and in your webpages, mysterious spaces that instead of ads have giant "The page cannot be displayed" apache messages, since your own non-existing content now fills up stuff in different ad-sized boxes on your screen.

      Some adblock css files actually remove the boxes from the screen altogether. But hostfiles get huge and slow down Win2k startups (3 minute loading versus 1/2) when they get past 100k, even with 1GB of RAM. I'm sure some small multiple of that will be needed before slowdowns affect current XP and vista users that think a hostfile workaround will fix all trouble.

  5. That's why Adblock plus exists ! by menegator · · Score: 4, Informative

    Adblock plus, problem solved!

    1. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by Peter+Simpson · · Score: 4, Informative

      Ubuntu, NoScript and ABP. I went to the Adimpact website, no pop-up visible.

      "Unblockable"...like the Titanic was unsinkable.

    2. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by gfxguy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Been using always... one of the first things I do when I install a new Firefox is get Adblock Plus and NoScript (which is really annoying in and of itself, but that's another story).

      So when I saw this thread I was like "I didn't notice anything lately."

      --
      Stupid sexy Flanders.
    3. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by RoCKeTKaT · · Score: 0

      I agree 100%, I would not want to surf the web if these two extensions did not exist ... maybe I should consider donating ...

      Either way, no a single popup gets through ... ever, unless I allow it to willingly.

    4. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by !coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Thank god!!

      For a minute there I thought I was the only one. All this stuff about "everyone has been affected by now" or "blockers don't work anymore" and I kept thinking "hell, are we talking about the same web here?"

      I mean, I highly doubt some of the sites I visit don't have aggressive ads (in fact, I'm reminded of it everytime I'm forced to use IE -- luckily that only happens every once in a while), and I can't remember the last time my FF has given me any pains when it comes to annoying ads.

      Most of the time I don't even use NoScript (need it disabled for a number of reasons).

      So what's the problem, again? There IS a solution, it's called AdBlockPlus.. Ohh, you mean the somewhat lame, built-in pop-up blockers in (mostly) IE. Well then, I think you've got more serious things to worry about than this. >:)

    5. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by zappepcs · · Score: 1

      I'm with you. I have read this whole thread to try to figure out WTF people are seeing. I don't get pop-ups and crap. What is wrong with my setup that I am not being plagued by this new method? I guess it turns out to be FUD article and people that have not used the tools that have been provided to them.

      Flashblock is a good addon too. I had autoloading media. It's nice that I can push the button to play or ignore it safely if I feel like it.

    6. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The best thing in Adblockplus is the element hiding helper - filter stuff by CSS selector. I only wish Adblockplus were smarter wrt Flash - commercials prepended to movies and such. But that's really tricky.

    7. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by Chrisq · · Score: 3, Interesting
    8. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by swb · · Score: 2, Informative

      No popup for me, but I don't allow Slashdot to run scripts!

    9. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by Seth+Kriticos · · Score: 1

      True. I visited the site that supposed to have this "unblockable" popups, but they failed to pop up on my Firefox. Adblock plus is a wonderful plugin.

    10. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful
    11. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by Vectronic · · Score: 1

      Yer right, I had a beautiful blue ball, until I clicked "Block Content" then clicked on the ball, followed by "Done"...

      Opera took it upon itself to add "http://www.adimpact.com/webapp/*" into its blocked list, that's the last I'll see of the "blue balls"...

    12. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by menegator · · Score: 1

      I just tried it. No popup!

    13. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by Zantetsuken · · Score: 1

      I do, and hell, it still did nothing - because it was proxy-cached on their server, and then resent to you. So /. wasn't even on the list of blockable noscript items, only their site. Further, even if /. really had that, it'd probly just reference the code on the ad-server, ala google-ads, thus allowing to block the ads, but not /. scripts...

    14. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by Rude+Turnip · · Score: 1

      Looks perfectly acceptable to me. Technically, that's not a pop-up. I think of pop-ups as entirely separate windows...that is built into the page and is no different than someone just having really bad ideas about the layout of their content.

    15. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by chrysrobyn · · Score: 1

      Thanks for the NoScript ammunition! I leave it on "accept all" and then only shut off annoying popups or popovers.

    16. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by PhoenixFlare · · Score: 1

      Same here, worked fine using AdBlock Plus and Firefox.

    17. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      using opera's "block content" feature i was able to block it.

    18. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by gnick · · Score: 1

      No pop-up for me! Just a "Blocked by Websense" page that says:

      This website violates ******** Computing Use Policy.
      Reason: The Websense category "Proxy Avoidance" is filtered.
      URL: http://www.adimpact.com/cgi-bin/webapp/nph-demo.cgi/000000A/http/slashdot.org/
      Options: If you think this should not be blocked, report it to Cyber Security for review

      Maybe I shouldn't try to click through to sites that I'm not familiar with that I know attempt to run scripts while I'm at work... Oops.

      --
      He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
    19. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or just use Operas built in Block Content. It blocks popup DHTML code nicely. In conjunction with Operas regular popup blocker, I never see popups, VibrantMedia floating crap or flash adverts.

      Best bit, no addons to install, and the configuration can be rolled out easilly to all my PC's with Opera.

    20. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thanks for posting that testpage. Following it and seeing the same old slashdot page makes me appriciate the spam-filter I currently have al the more. :-)

    21. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And what was anyone supposed to see here? Noscript and Adblock keep the content but block everything else. Maybe you should be updating yours before trying to make a point.

    22. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      What? I see nothing but Slashdot.

      FF + NS + ABP = :-D

    23. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Been using always... one of the first things I do when I install a new Firefox is get Adblock Plus and NoScript (which is really annoying in and of itself, but that's another story).

      So when I saw this thread I was like "I didn't notice anything lately."

      I just run NoScript. I don't really care that much about imbedded ads, and am kind of lazy.

      Despite people whining about noscript being "a pain", rarely do I find webpages that need more than ONE of the sites unblocked to restore full functionality.

      I don't think I've seen a popup ad in several years.

    24. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by SharpFang · · Score: 1

      Other than the triangle by article tags broken, no effect.

      --
      45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
    25. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by GravityStar · · Score: 1

      No. Boycott the sites that annoy you. Flashblock, Noscript, etc is there to stop annoying sites from taking over the browser (Why don't browser work more on doing this out of the box?). The close button is there for me to get rid of annoying sites altogether.

      I wish I could quickly block sites in my browser and even integrate that with my Google results so that sites that really, truly, /vex/ me, wouldn't even show up in the search results.

    26. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nothing unusual here. I guess its not that bad of an exploit.

    27. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      > Try this URL http://www.adimpact.com/cgi-bin/webapp/nph-demo.cgi/000000A/http/slashdot.org/

      When I clicked this link, the F-Secure Client Security 8.00 protection suite gave me a pop-up window, alerting that active network traffic is trying to modify the Firefox thread running on my computer and asking the end user for a block/allow decision. I clicked Deny.

    28. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by Vornzog · · Score: 1

      Uh no. Try this URL http://www.adimpact.com/cgi-bin/webapp/nph-demo.cgi/000000A/http/slashdot.org/

      Windows XP, Firefox 3.0.5, Adblock Plus. I have to imagine that this is a pretty standard configuration for a bunch of Slashdoters. I don't even use NoScript.

      I visited your link, saw the Slashdot main page, and no pop up. What was I supposed to see, again?

      My pop up blocker seems to be working just fine. What is this story even supposed to be about?

      --

      -V-

      Who can decide a priori? Nobody.
      -Sartre

    29. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by First+Circle · · Score: 1

      Ditto. Had blue balls, right clicked, let ABP do it's thing. No more balls.

    30. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If the ads are being served from a url different than the original page, just post the domain it's coming from, along with the ip address. We'll just block them in our hosts file. I've got a 10,000+ line hosts file blocking ads and malware sites, and I never see ads, popups, redirects, or anything similar. I only have to add an occasional line to my hosts file once a month or so to block a new ad server, other than that, my surfing is peaceful, non-distracting and much lower in bandwidth use.

      example:

      An error occurred while loading http://www.adimpact.com/cgi-bin/webapp/nph-demo.cgi/000000A/http/slashdot.org/:
      Could not connect to host www.adimpact.com

      Was already in my hosts file, can't even remember putting it in there.

    31. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by Vornzog · · Score: 1

      Uh no. Try this URL http://www.adimpact.com/cgi-bin/webapp/nph-demo.cgi/000000A/http/slashdot.org/

      Windows XP, Firefox 3.0.5, Adblock Plus. I have to imagine that this is a pretty standard configuration for a bunch of Slashdoters. I don't even use NoScript.

      I visited your link, saw the Slashdot main page, and no pop up. What was I supposed to see, again?

      My pop up blocker seems to be working just fine. What is this story even supposed to be about?

      --

      -V-

      Who can decide a priori? Nobody.
      -Sartre

    32. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by OolimPhon · · Score: 2, Funny

      You had blue balls?

    33. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by imbaczek · · Score: 1

      not a single ad here, sorry. noscript+adblock plus.

    34. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by First+Circle · · Score: 1

      Well, just one, not that there's anything wrong with that.

    35. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...Uh, yes.

      Using plain jane adblock, simply adding *adimpact.com* as a filter lets me directly click on your provided link. It shows the regular page with no ads.

    36. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I went to it. No popups or ads, but it did slow the hell out of /.

    37. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I tried that, as I guess many are doing. It was slow!

      Anyway, nothing popped up, under, nor sideways... What was I supposed to see?

      (Using Firefox/OS X/Adblock Plus.)

    38. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No pop-up for me. Same config as parent.

      But I also have the single window mode enabled. Clicking on your link opens a new tab as expected. No pop-ups.

      What was it supposed to do?

    39. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by Oidhche · · Score: 1

      This is gonna be modded redundant, judging by other replies, but no pop-up for me (Firefox, Adblock Plus, NoScript).

    40. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Uh no.
      Try this URL

      http://www.adimpact.com/cgi-bin/webapp/nph-demo.cgi/000000A/http/slashdot.org/

      adimpact.com now marked as "untrusted" thanks to NoScript.

      Thanks!

    41. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Chrisq,

      It's working for me, as in no popups here from that url.
      I'm running WinXp, ff 305, abp 1.0.1 and noscript1.9.

      Configuration problem?

    42. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Funny. Firefox + Adblock+noscript=no popups.

    43. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by jgtg32a · · Score: 1

      Ubuntu doesn't do anything that will help with pop-ups. Unless you are talking about virus induced pop-ups but that isn't really the same problem.

    44. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'll see your bet and raise you:
      http://bacolicio.us/http://www.slashdot.org

    45. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The pop-up is just as blockable as any image with adblbock. I don't see your point.

    46. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Uh no.
      Try this URL

      http://www.adimpact.com/cgi-bin/webapp/nph-demo.cgi/000000A/http/slashdot.org/

      /me adds "*adimpact.com*" filter to Adblock Plus and clicks link

      Nope, pretty sure this is nothing to lose sleep about.

    47. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      With Noscript the ad didn't appear until I chose to allow adimpact to run scripts on this site. So Adblock can block it, if you add the adimpact site to the blocked list, but it doesn't do it by default. That's why I run NoScript and Adblock because the two work well together at blocking this type of ad insertion technology.

    48. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ABP - New filter:

      http://www.adimpact.com/*

      GG

    49. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Using Firefox with AdBlock Plus and NoScript on Windows XP, the Adimpact pop-ups don't appear on my computer. I tried your link and tried the adimpact homepage sample, neither presented me with a pop-up.

    50. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by PremiumCarrion · · Score: 1

      AdBlockPlus 1.0.1, Noscript 1.9 and Flashblock 1.5.7.1 along with AVG Safesearch 8.0 here; I can't really say which of them is my tiger rock, but I didn't see any popups.

    51. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You all are missing the point. Adimpact is not a popup that advertises 3rd party products. It is solely meant to "Announce" events or promotions one ones own site...period!

      And the DEMO on the front page is there just to show a user what the popup could look like on their website.

    52. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by SydShamino · · Score: 1

      No pop up, no adds. I'm not sure what you thought I'd see.

      --
      It doesn't hurt to be nice.
    53. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by qwertyatwork · · Score: 1

      I tried it and got a 404. So I went up the tree, and kept getting 404's until I hit the root. Then it brought up my httpd. I use a hosts file, Im guessing thats why. Weird though, I use 0.0.0.0 and not 127.0.0.1.

    54. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by McDutchie · · Score: 3, Funny

      Went 404 as of two minutes ago.

    55. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow, is that a free anonymous proxy?

      Not anymore:

      Not Found

      The requested document was not found on this server.

      Web Server at adimpact.com

    56. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by PPNSteve · · Score: 0

      Not Found
      The requested document was not found on this server.

      Web Server at adimpact.com

      Uh huh.. sure works well here.

      --
      PPN
    57. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Blocked by WebSense"
      Maybe that's why WebSense exists too? o.O

    58. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by pfleming · · Score: 1

      I can't read games pages on /. or mailing lists announcing the recent *BSD release due to Websense... it's dorky.

    59. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Looks like they closed the proxy now...

    60. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by Vitriolix · · Score: 1

      seriously, I recently tried uninstalling it to give ad revenue to sites i visit, but as soon as I started hitting abusive ads (flashing, misleading fake dialogs, video with sound, popunder) the adblock went back on. I've whitelisted a few of the more trustworthy ad networks like google adwords because they don't abuse the users.

    61. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      The comment of "There's no immediate prospect of a solution" is dubious. The obvious solution is for browsers to remove all source code that allows popping up a second window. The users can live without it.

    62. Re:That's why Adblock plus exists ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No pop ups. (404 Not Found)

  6. Popups? by ppz003 · · Score: 5, Informative

    What popups?

    This mostly popup free browsing experience brought to you by the makers of Firefox and NoScript.

    1. Re:Popups? by FredFredrickson · · Score: 5, Informative

      I use opera and I haven't gotten a popup in years. No need for "no script." Just plainly no popups.

      --
      Belief? Hope? Preference?The Existential Vortex
    2. Re:Popups? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      If no script is too restrictive for you,, (and it can very easily break sensitive transactions that port you from one domain to another,) then I suggest you also try yesscript. It's a blacklist script blocker rather than a whitelist.

    3. Re:Popups? by FredFredrickson · · Score: 4, Informative

      I know you're trolling, but just to help remove the FUD, opera works fine with gmail, doesn't crash, and was one of the first browsers to pass the acid test.

      --
      Belief? Hope? Preference?The Existential Vortex
    4. Re:Popups? by Fri13 · · Score: 1

      I use Konqueror and only webpage what brings pop-up is bt-torrent or similar site what you can access from eztv dot it site when downloading a torrent. I was watching what my friend was doing on my computer when I notices fullscreen pop-up.

      Those are very annoying on these days when I do not see them at all. I do not like to use Opera or Mozilla Firefox, but still konqueror manages to remove all unwated pop-ups.

      I had now that adimpact site on tab and suddenly something popped up... but it was just a notification from konsole that it has got silence... so wrong alarm. Still nothing from that site... I think they are soon out of business...

    5. Re:Popups? by Don_dumb · · Score: 1

      I thought that too.
      "I haven't noticed an increase". . . "but then I use noscript and ABP".

      The winner in the browser wars is Firefox but not because of itself, because of Noscript and ABP.

      --
      If this were really happening, what would you think?
    6. Re:Popups? by socsoc · · Score: 1
      I know you're being a fanboi, but just to help remove the FUD, Opera isn't on their supported browser list, except for the most basic HTML experience.

      http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=6557

    7. Re:Popups? by swarsron · · Score: 1

      http://www.adimpact.com/cgi-bin/webapp/nph-demo.cgi/000000A/http/slashdot.org as provided by Chrisq (894406) works fine here on opera + privoxy.

    8. Re:Popups? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But if you tell Gmail to use the normal version it all works fine anyway.

    9. Re:Popups? by fermion · · Score: 1

      Camino with no add ons seems to work very well as well. No pop ups. Flash on demand only. The only thing it can't do is sync bookmarks to a server. I know there are really fancy things it can't do, but for my use, it does all I need. Thanks again for the good work.

      --
      "She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
    10. Re:Popups? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I also use Opera. Version 10 alpha on OS X even. Works with pretty much every website except my company's SharePoint ones, but then MS tries to make those break outside of IE. It also has this lovely "Block Content" feature, which works like Adblock, except manually, so you only block ads that annoy you. I just added *adimpact* as a filter, and hey, their popups no longer work!

    11. Re:Popups? by Superken7 · · Score: 1

      Whenever i hear someone say opera works just fine with gmail i shut down firefox, download the latest opera release and try it out.

      Unfortunately, i always keep coming back to firefox, since it simply doesn't. At least for me, dunno why it should be different for someone else...

      - There are issues when minimizing chat windows, the background does not get repainted properly.

      Also, from time to time the textedit inputs start behaving strangely:

      - Suddenly i can't middleclick-paste (the browser interprets i want to go to another page, which is something very annoying since it keeps disconnecting me from gmail)

      - other times it writes two newlines instead of just one whenever i press enter. (but this does not only happen with gmail)

      Unfortunately, its offen all those issues combined, and in the end i just shut it down and go back to firefox, although i wish gmail just worked flawlessly.

      And yes, gmail works fine, its mostly the new and shiny interface combined with web-based gtalk where opera does not deliver. And being my most often used webapp i simply can't ignore that :-(

    12. Re:Popups? by arose · · Score: 1

      The other solution is to use a different Firefox profile for sensitive transactions.

      --
      Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
    13. Re:Popups? by AmberBlackCat · · Score: 1

      I had Opera as my default browser until about a month ago when I chose to clear my history list and all my bookmarks disappeared with the history. This is after an update of Opera earlier that seemed to get rid of my history list. I don't know if this is an isolated incident or not, but it was enough to send me back to Firefox even though I hate their ideology.

    14. Re:Popups? by Molf · · Score: 1

      Huh. I had no idea. Gmail works perfectly in Opera in normal mode. It's exactly the same as Firefox except for less random slowdown in extremely long threads (in fairness FF3.0 did improve matters there somewhat, but Opera is still marginally better for Gmail). For some reason, it's never redirected me to the basic HTML version...

    15. Re:Popups? by instarx · · Score: 1

      I use opera and I haven't gotten a popup in years. No need for "no script." Just plainly no popups.

      I use Opera too, and I HAVE noticed a few pop-ups starting to get through its filters. In fact, its why I read this article. Normally I just skip all pop-up articles because pop-ups weren't something I ever got. No longer.

  7. There is no problem. by ivan256 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    DHTML popups are no big deal at all. They don't open a new window. They don't "pop under". They don't re-open when you try to close them...

    The solution to them is simple and already implemented. Close the tab, and never return to that site again. Ever.

    Problem solved.

    1. Re:There is no problem. by berend+botje · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It would be useful if, instead of just closing the tab, there was a button that increments a counter at the site for the marketers to see, blocks the site completely and irrevocably for all eternity and thencloses the tab.

      That way there is a running total of customers lost due to stupid marketing.

    2. Re:There is no problem. by FredFredrickson · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I agree with this one. If you're so insensitive to your customer/reader base that you don't mind putting offensive ads into your content (Time.com I'm looking at you), then you don't get my business at all.

      Why companies think they can do whatever they want with no consequences.. I have no idea.

      --
      Belief? Hope? Preference?The Existential Vortex
    3. Re:There is no problem. by Arancaytar · · Score: 1

      I prefer Adblock Plus/NoScript. It's so funny when the site owner goes ballistic about "content thieves" and tries to implement Javascript DRM. :)

    4. Re:There is no problem. by pbhj · · Score: 1

      I used to be quite an active member of a site called ParentDish. They turned to posts which were basically just flamebait, often untrue and contradicting factually the linked sources they gave. I didn't leave, just visited less.

      They turned to ads that flashed pink + yellow and told you you'd "definitely won". I quit and never went back. (ok I visited once in the last couple of months).

      I use adblock and on some systems noscript but unblock sites that I use.

    5. Re:There is no problem. by fulldecent · · Score: 1

      Make sure you hit minus on the Google Search Wiki link that took you to that site.

      --

      -- I was raised on the command line, bitch

    6. Re:There is no problem. by ivan256 · · Score: 1

      NoScript is more intrusive than the ads though. Dynamic content is simply too pervasive.

      I don't take enough pleasure in blocking "the man" (none at all, really) to justify dealing with NoScript's annoyances.

    7. Re:There is no problem. by Jeff+Hornby · · Score: 1

      They turned to posts which were basically just flamebait, often untrue and contradicting factually the linked sources they gave. I didn't leave, just visited less.

      So if you left that site becuase of the above reasons, what are you doing within 100 miles of Slashdot?

      --
      Why doesn't Slashdot ever get slashdotted?
    8. Re:There is no problem. by Vexorian · · Score: 1
      Yes, I mean these popups seem to just be banners that pretend to be a window...

      I try http://www.adimpact.com/ and I don't notice anything, the samples page is not working either (slashdotted?) or maybe noscript is too much for them. Even though their popups are not annoying, I'll encourage my friends to block them in their hosts file because the way they are advertising them as "unblockable popups" sounds way too anti-user to me.

      --

      Copyright infringement is "piracy" in the same way DRM is "consumer rape"
    9. Re:There is no problem. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      DHTML popups are no big deal at all. They don't open a new window. They don't "pop under". They don't re-open when you try to close them...

      The solution to them is simple and already implemented. Close the tab, and never return to that site again. Ever.

      Problem solved.

      This is the only reason I activated NetNanny - When I run into a DHTML pop up I copy the URL, close the tab and add the URL to NetNanny so if I forget I don't get sucker back to the site!

    10. Re:There is no problem. by Phrogman · · Score: 1

      What we need is a utility that detects these scripts, uploads them to a common website and generates a new host file that is downloadable by users to block all those sites. The website can make a running list of all the websites so blocked and the number of times users have NOT seen their content due to the advertising methods they have chosen. That way users get a regularly updated hosts file that prevents them from seeing the annoying ads and the website owners have a place they can go to that lets them see the thousands of users who are no longer visiting their website.

      The only way to make technology like this impractical is to let those who use it see that they are losing revenue as well. Its easy to identify when you made a new sale, and match that to a new ad campaign, its harder to tell when people are turning away in droves and not buying something.

      Of course the average user is probably a sheep and just endures the ads without realizing their are any options at all.

      --
      "The first time I got drunk, I got married. The second time I bought a chimpanzee, after that I stayed sober" Arian Seid
    11. Re:There is no problem. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      1) Put annoying popups on your page so users don't come to your site.
      2) Complain that the recession is hurting your revenue.
      3) Get government bailout
      4) Profit!!!!

      Finally:

      5) Give yourself and $18bn bonus for doing such a good job!

    12. Re:There is no problem. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What makes you think Time.com gives a rat's ass about you, much less what you think. You are product - nothing more, nothing less. Their business is getting advertising dollars, and they sell the eyes and (pre-programmed buy the latest toys) minds to these vultures.

      Your not a demographic, a customer, a reader, a citizen, a human being, or even an afterthought. You are less than nothing. Their only interest in you (as an abstract component of the 'masses') is to ensure you stay apathetic and compliant to the wishes (agendas) of your betters.

    13. Re:There is no problem. by WNight · · Score: 1

      They're still stuck in the mindset of magazine sellers. You paid for the book and aren't going anywhere - they own you. But when they're a click away from everything else they don't get that advantage.

    14. Re:There is no problem. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It would be useful if, instead of just closing the tab, there was a button that increments a counter at the site for the marketers to see, blocks the site completely and irrevocably for all eternity and thencloses the tab.

      Sounds like the perfect idea for a Firefox plugin, or a feature in the next Firefox/Opera.

      All you need is a site to host the results.

    15. Re:There is no problem. by CBravo · · Score: 1

      It would even be nicer if you could register this fact on another website. That way, their competitors can laugh too.

      --
      nosig today
    16. Re:There is no problem. by silent_artichoke · · Score: 1

      The difference between +1, Funny and +1, Insightful grows ever smaller...

    17. Re:There is no problem. by nametaken · · Score: 1

      I get the impression you don't work for one of these sites? I did, and generally speaking, they didn't care. If 1 in 5,000 people decide to never return because of the intrusiveness of an ad... they more-or-less said, "screw em". The money speaks louder than the very, very small dent you'd see from an obnoxious ad.

      They only cared that we had content worth having people show up at the site for. To overquote a movie, "if you build it, they will come".

    18. Re:There is no problem. by Scrameustache · · Score: 1

      Why companies think they can do whatever they want with no consequences.. I have no idea.

      Force of habit.
      They've been getting away with murder. What's a little harassment compared to that?

      --

      You can't take the sky from me...

    19. Re:There is no problem. by pbhj · · Score: 1

      +1 humormative

    20. Re:There is no problem. by pbhj · · Score: 1

      Your melting my brain here .. err .. I think it's partly because flamebait and factually weak stories here are still interesting; perhaps because the stories here whilst occasionally astroturf-y are generally tech focussed rather than politcally or morally focussed.

      Perhaps I've just fallen for the FUD ....

  8. "Unblockable" by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "The Dynamic Popup Generator can create pressure pop-ups, unblockable DHTML pop-ups, PictoPop-ups, conditional popups, instant opt-in pop-ups, and rotating pop-ups"."

    Wait, I have the answer...keep Javascript disabled for websites that do not really need it! Right now, I have Javascript enabled for...3 websites, all of which are trusted sites from either my job or my school. Popup free browsing, and incidentally, pages use less CPU time.

    Seriously, why do we need Javascript to read articles or blogs? If your web apps are abusing Javascript to display ads, maybe it is time to consider not using web apps, or finding "friendlier" companies.

    --
    Palm trees and 8
    1. Re:"Unblockable" by meist3r · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Seriously, why do we need Javascript to read articles or blogs? If your web apps are abusing Javascript to display ads, maybe it is time to consider not using web apps, or finding "friendlier" companies.

      WE (as in users) don't need Javascript. I've been following the trends on more and more script code on websites for years now. If you really look at it most of the code is used to a) gather data about the user or b) display messages and ads to the user. There is a smaller category c) running useful code (like flash video players, online apps etc.).

      The reality is that many companies base their revenue streams on these ad systems which include addthis, google-analytics and so forth. By simply blocking these you'll have a hassle free surfing experience but will have to occasionally activate some stuff to make your site work (which at times can be quite tedious finding out which one of the fifteen cryptic script hosters is responsible for the video player itself).

      I sometimes worry if I deprive my sites of their ad revenue by blocking these shitty ads but then again I never voluntarily clicked, let alone bought something from, a banner or popup ad. As long as there are blinking, sound playing, window resizing, non-closable, code-executing messages that want to bum some attention I will block them. Firefox, Noscript. No more problems. I hate surfing on machines without those installed.

    2. Re:"Unblockable" by Skye16 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You don't need Javascript. I want to provide a more feature rich interface than HTML by itself provides. If you're not interested, then I am not angry with you. You can ignore what I have to offer, and I can accept that you're just not interested. I really don't care whether you look at it or not; in the long run, you're such an infinitesimal minority who is part of the unique overlap of a: having the technical knowledge to be able to equate the misuse of DHTML on other sites to the usage of JavaScript within browsers in general and b: having the personal distaste for such misuse to such a degree that you would eschew the primary building block (JS) altogether except for a few very specific instances.

      To whit: I'm not going to cry about 0.00001% lost traffic, and more surprisingly, neither are my customers when I explain to them the pitfalls of making "web applications" with JavaScript. When I tell them they may lose a few geeks who are ideologically opposed to the use of JS in their "webapp", they basically just laugh and call you a retard.

      (Note: I don't feel you're a retard; I get fired up over stuff like this too, usually. For me, this isn't a hot button issue, but I have other ones and I'm sure people call me a retard for feeling that way also).

      Long story short: people want an application delivery mechanism that doesn't require a software install, update management, etc, and they're trying to make browsers be that mechanism. If you are really that against it, find a way of distributing that mechanism to every computer currently using the web, and then I can try convincing people that they should use that rather than fitting it into a browser. But until your mechanism reaches every computer a browser currently reaches, they aren't going to bite. And at the end of the day, I'm working to support my family, so if the customer really wants a "rich, dynamic Web Application Experience", then I'm going to give that to them.

      Sorry :(

    3. Re:"Unblockable" by PitaBred · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Yeah. Those google maps and such are all useless. Why would I want the ability to interactively scroll around on the map? If I didn't find the right place the first time, I'd rather click a button and reload the whole page!

    4. Re:"Unblockable" by GravityStar · · Score: 1

      I don't know about you, but I like the new Slashdot discussion system. Yes, it requires javascript, but works great: neither annoying, nor surprising.

    5. Re:"Unblockable" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      I find that for example Slashdot has made big improvements thanks to it's newer JavaScript user interface. Now that I can fetch a hidden comment without having to reload the whole page, it really really improves my experience. Before I wouldn't bother reading them because I had to wait for the whole page to reload again, then once more when I hit back.
      There are a lot of websites out there which make good use of Javascript, and a lot of crappy sites who seem to make up for their lack of content with Javascript eye candy and split page articles and the likes... that won't change and has not much to do with Javascript itself, if it wasn't for javascript and dhtml they'd bother you with animating gifs or flashs or whatever.

    6. Re:"Unblockable" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This may have been true around the time that Ballmer was still crowing that Microsoft would _always_ have 90+% of the browser market, but it ain't true today. In the last few days I've been seeing stats on news tech sites showing MS IE falling below 80% in the US and below 70% in some countries in the EU, Ireland and other countries. That in and of itself has changed the dynamic of whether a web designer ignores standards and continues to write to IE only, or not, and now thanks to the popularity of Firefox and it's plugin feature, the wildly popular adblockplus and noscript plugins, along with the shift to smart phones will fix your ass soon if it hasn't already.

    7. Re:"Unblockable" by Skye16 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm sorry, I didn't realize that in your world JavaScript, CSS2, and XHTML Strict were "ignoring standards".

      Web Application does not necessarily require ActiveX, you know.

      The smart phone platform presents some very interesting problems of its own. In my opinion, your web application as a whole should not be tailored to the phone; the cost of making your entire application readable and usable for a touch screen phone would cost more than just reproducing the front-end for a smart-phone-only audience.

      A significant problem with smart phones are the differences between touch screen and non-touch-screen user interfaces, and trying to take advantage of the ways each works. The advent of the iPhone really brought a different (from traditional web/desktop) way of looking at UI development for smart phones, and people have been doing some very impressive things as a result. I don't think you try to have your "rich, dynamic Web Application Experience" (whatever that means) work the same on both a smart phone and a PC. This seems to be too diverse of UI domains to use the same View code for each without falling into the "jack of all trades, master of none" situation.

      I'm not entirely sure about the rest of your post, as it doesn't seem like you understand in the slightest what a "web application" currently means. It's simply a web page that offers application-like functionality to its users. If you can add UI enhancements with JavaScript and DHTML, you can make a better usability experience for the vast majority of people. If your a significant portion of your target audience would be accessing it via a Smart Phone, you need to write two sets of presentation logic and associated views while maintaining the core business logic as being the same for either. But this diatribe about IE is simply you not having a fucking clue about what I am even talking about. You apparently hear "web application" and think an ActiveX nightmare, eschewing all standards at every moment.

      I validate each and every page, thanks. I test in 5 different browsers; Safari, Firefox 2, Firefox 3, IE 7, and IE6. I will soon be adding IE 8 to the mix. I have to write my own share of IE hax, and I, too, am fucking sick of it. I wouldn't piss on the developers of IE 6 (and 7) if they were on fire, though I'd uncork on the IE 8 development team. They still have a long fucking way to go before I don't despise their very existence, too.

      But none of that changes a single bit of what I said.

      In conclusion, you don't know what you're talking about, you threw up a strawman and shot it down, and I dub thee Lord High Asshat of Douchebaggia.

      (It's a rockin' title. Wear it with pride.)

    8. Re:"Unblockable" by Tumbleweed · · Score: 1

      All the js code I use on my sites is to add Ajax features and fix browser bugs (DD_roundies, etc.). Block that and enjoy your browsing experience. *shrug*

    9. Re:"Unblockable" by WNight · · Score: 1

      You seem to be incapable of understanding the difference between rich-content delivery systems and ad-spam. Explain to your customers that one geek who dislikes their presentation can write a Greasemonkey script to totally rework your site. I'd bet that less than 2% of the JS you use is actually beneficial to the users....

      Amusingly, that's how users view things like NoScript... They think webdevs who use JS to hurt their users (force ads) and expect users to stay and keep JS on are retards. Unfortunately, they're far from 0.00001% percent of the sites.

      When all you offer your users is a more difficult experience in order to force ad-views don't be surprised when your content shows up on Piratebay.

    10. Re:"Unblockable" by WNight · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yeah, because we're incapable of telling an actually helpful UI in a situation like that from every other ad-laden flash-riddled piece of crap site.

      So few sites actually do anything (that I'd want done) with JS that defaulting to having it off DOES improve the average web browsing experience.

      And anything that breaks so completely without JS that it can't even offer an error message and a reason to enable JS is programmed so badly it should be ignored.

    11. Re:"Unblockable" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Most of the time it's very easy to find the correct domains to enable a video. If you have Adblock Plus then when you allow the top level domain the video will often show as a blockable object and when you mouse over it the url of the video shows in the status bar.

      (I've used this technique to steal flash games to put on my thumb drive so I can goof off at work)

    12. Re:"Unblockable" by Skye16 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Strawman after strawman, and complete lack of comprehension on your part as to the point.

      The point, my arrogant friend, is that JavaScript is used for more than simply popping up advertisements. As a contractor, many of my clients wish to give their web pages more of an "application" feel to them. For the sorts of features they explicitly request, the vast majority of them require the use of, at minimum, JavaScript, if not some other plugin. As I'm not a fan of Flash or ActionScript, I focus most of my efforts on JavaScript. If I can get away with some sort of visual hoopajoop with CSS, believe me, I use CSS. JS is to be used minimally.

      Your basic argument is that, because JavaScript is in some cases used for evil, no one should ever attempt to use it for any other purpose, much like knives, guns, cars, drugs, alcohol, roller coasters, sex, marriage, or brownies. My argument is that that makes you a fucking retard for not realizing that all of those can be used in a completely legitimate way if the time and the space require it.

      I further went on to say that if the use of these bothers you so much, you can block them (in the case of JavaScript), or walk away (in the others). Neither I nor my customers care about that minimal loss when weighed against their perception of gain.

      Now, if my client said "don't use JavaScript, Flash, Quicktime, and don't you dare write a single IE specific CSS hack - this has to be 100% standards compliant!", then believe me, I'd be fine with that too.

      The point I'm making is that if JS is so offensive to you, block it. We don't fucking care. We're going to continue using it, and continue requiring it, and if you don't like it you can leave, because, as I reiterate, we don't fucking care.

    13. Re:"Unblockable" by reginaldo · · Score: 1

      The problem with blocking ads for sites that you visit is that you are depriving them of the revenue they need to continue. It doesn't matter if you click on the advertisements or not. Many websites now make money off of ad 'views' as opposed to clicks.

      I suppose you could argue that businesses need to change their business model away from using ads to generate revenue, but inevitably that would lead to website subscriptions as opposed to free browsing.

    14. Re:"Unblockable" by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      Wait, I have the answer...keep Javascript disabled for websites that do not really need it!

      It's quite possible to do the kind of popups that are described in TFA without any JS at all, simply by injecting a complete DIV in rendered HTML, and making it visible by default. It would still have use JS to close itself, but you'd see it even if you disable JS completely - you'd just not be able to close it...

    15. Re:"Unblockable" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you are really that against it, find a way of distributing that mechanism to every computer currently using the web, and then I can try convincing people that they should use that rather than fitting it into a browser

      Java Web Start. Please. I understand this very much depends on the exact task you're trying to accomplish, but if it's seriously app-worthy then give it a thought. If it's not, then consider how much you're gaining over simpler and machine-parseable static HTML+CSS.

      At the very least let your app degrade gracefully for those of us who run with a minimal subset of JS (if any) enabled.

    16. Re:"Unblockable" by Skye16 · · Score: 1

      Not really my app, it's the client's app. Also, JWS requires that Java (from Sun) be installed. That isn't as pervasive as you might think, with a lot of people running off of Microsoft's VM instead (just think about how many people are still running IE6 at home).

      It is close, though, and I have used it for a few clients. Their biggest complaint was how incredibly long it took to load, which is more indicative of the time it takes for windows to launch the JVM than it was anything else.

    17. Re:"Unblockable" by meist3r · · Score: 1

      That's why I mentioned category c) in which your site obviously belongs. Thanks for the precise insight and proof that you've read my post...

    18. Re:"Unblockable" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you being serious?

      99% of my web usage is application based - without Javascript that is a backward step.

    19. Re:"Unblockable" by WNight · · Score: 0

      Strawman after strawman

      Your inability to follow doesn't mean there isn't a point.

      I'm not going to cry about 0.00001% lost traffic [...] neither are my customers [...] I tell them they may lose a few geeks [...] laugh and call you a retard.

      You say that your customers decide upon the use of Javascript because they find it useful and find the (as presented by your) ideological refusal to use it silly and beneath them because they have enough other users not to care.

      However, you are incompetent at your job - from your brief description. When you say they'll "lose a few geeks to ideological reaons" you totally ignore that 98% of the people in this thread oppose needless use of JS for technological reasons, not ideological. If you were talking about Flash you might be right.

      Your lack of understanding of the motives of your potential users and your arrogant laugh-and-call-them-retards style has means you've recommended your customers do probably the worst thing they could - laugh at and marginalize the technologically adept.

      It's not a matter of losing the 1% of people who use NoScript-type tools, it's the possibility of finding one day that someone has written a Greasemonkey script and the other 99% of your users can access your content without your eye-manacles. Or that someone just ripped everything you have and offered it for download. And you're recommending your customers ignore and trivialize these concerns.

      Your basic argument is that, because JavaScript is in some cases used for evil, [...] My argument is that that makes you a fucking retard

      No, you're a fucking retard for assuming that's my argument. You're to much of an asshole to check your assumptions.

      I'll repeat the key parts of what I said, and explain in smaller words.

      You seem to be incapable of understanding the difference between rich-content delivery systems and ad-spam [...] I'd bet that less than 2% of the JS you use is actually beneficial to the users....

      I acknowledge the existence of "JS ... actually beneficial to the users". I just question if you could recognize and implement such a thing.

      Everything you've said here has been about client demands, nothing about user friendliness or disabled-friendly access. I doubt you're any good at (if you ever tried) figuring out what a user would actually enjoy doing. As a consequence I don't think you could tell the difference between helping the user, so-called "content delivery", and hurting them with spam/phishing.

      Neither I nor my customers care ... perception of gain. ... We don't fucking care. ... if you don't like it you can leave, because, as I reiterate, we don't fucking care.

      I'm sensing a slight lack of concern for the feelings of others. However, rather then being wrong for some sappy moralistic reason it's simply a bad idea to be such a bonehead because you'll never be able to predict people.

      I'm more than happy to ignore anything you've ever touched (please send me a list so I can add it to the blacklist.) However I've written a few web scrapers and configured de-crappifying gateways at the request of less technical users. They may want or need something you've hidden behind the layer of incompatible and non-standard UI, or broken in their, no-doubt laughable, retard-browser (like Firefox). They don't have any political motives, they merely want their content.

      I'm not going to fix your buggy UI, or rip out the minimum cruft necessary to use. I'm just going to spider the whole thing and be done with it. I'm sure you've already seen the email from the people I help, as they ask you for changes. Perhaps they simply say JS sucks because that's all they know. But when you brush them off they come to me or one o

    20. Re:"Unblockable" by Waccoon · · Score: 1

      My biggest problem with JavaScript is that browsers will download code from any 3rd party web site and run that code as if it was from a 1st party web site. 3rd party sites can't read domain-specific cookies, so why can they run scripting code?

      What is this, 1980?

      Sorry, we live in an age where if you buy a USB memory stick and plug it into your computer, it will automatically try to install encryption software on your system without permission. Companies don't care, and not enough of the sheep complain. If you really think that any off-site advertising service isn't going to slip in some kind of leeching code now and then, you're naive.

      JavaScript, and the whole philosophy of security in "modern" web browsers, has a HELL of a long way to go (hint: JavaScript can still wipe out your navigation bar if it wants to. Why that is allowed is anyone's guess).

    21. Re:"Unblockable" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Good post, I just felt the need to:

      1) point out that your browser testing may not be as comprehensive as you think (unlikely as you obviously have a clue, but still)

      2) rant about fscking IE

      I was doing a website for my wife. No javascript, just HTML and CSS2. I wanted to do a fancy menu (right aligned, popup) which isn't as straightforward as more traditional layouts but I got it to work even though I'm no web developer. Then I got to testing... The main problem was the horizontal/vertical offsets for the submenu items. A difference between Konqueror and FireFox was expected, but I *was* surprised by the amount of deviation. Then I got to testing cross platform. FireFox rendered the page differently on linux, OS X and Windows. Why? Its just a number of pixels offset. Surely the rendering engine is stable in that sense? Nope.

      Of course, what killed the whole thing was IE. I managed to work around most of IE's bugs, but it would display the submenu so low it practically went off the page. Fscking Microsoft and their broken, non-compliant browser...

      Lesson learned: if Windows users matter then test IE early. If you actually care in detail about the rendering, test the same browser on different platforms.

    22. Re:"Unblockable" by meist3r · · Score: 1

      My problem with that argument is that if I don't "view" an ad (because I rarely pay attention to annoying crap) the whole purpose of ads is gambling. Basically advertisement IS gambling. You pay someone a wad of cash to have them show your ads around and HOPE (there's nothing more) that someone will fall for it and actually look at your stuff and eventually buy something. There is no guaranteed revenue from that. If every user ignores the add and just continues browsing you have basically paid for nothing. But that's completely OK because I had to do the filtering in my head and not with software on a browser level. That's retarded. You're basically betting this guy that he won't be able to give you more customers. To me, that's a ridiculously flawed system from the beginning and expecting me to take part in that is more than insulting -especially since most ads aren't actual product advertisements anymore, they're emotionally laden propaganda manipulation attempts that try to trick my brain into preferring certain brands. I hate that.

  9. Ummm no? by bonkeydcow · · Score: 1

    Between ABP and firefox... I forget the internet even has adds.

  10. Blocking it by Todd+Knarr · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I found it much less intrusive once every host in the adimpact.com domain started serving up 404 Not Found for all pages.

    DNS is your friend, especially when your nameserver is declared a master for that domain and the zonefile contains a wildcard record pointing all names to the IP address of your own dedicated nothing-there Web server.

    1. Re:Blocking it by houghi · · Score: 1
      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    2. Re:Blocking it by whoever57 · · Score: 1

      DNS is your friend, especially when your nameserver is declared a master for that domain and the zonefile contains a wildcard record pointing all names to the IP address of your own dedicated nothing-there Web server.

      Squid is another option. Actually it is a better option, since you can configure it to read a file of regex patterns and reject URLs based on those patterns. This allow you to block URLs based on the directory/file name as well as the domain name. In addition, you can block other information leaks such as the Referrer header.

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    3. Re:Blocking it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why point it to your own IP? I used to do this with my host file, but got tired of seeing my own start page (http://localhost/) inside advertising frames.

      When the DNS solution occured to me, I created a zone file with only a SOA and NS record. No A records at all.

      NXDOMAIN ftw.

  11. Isn't there a solution.... by Piksou · · Score: 0, Redundant

    ... Adblock Plus ?

  12. I hadn't noticed by SirGarlon · · Score: 3, Informative

    I use Firefox with the AdBlock Plus, NoScript, and FlashBlock add-ons installed. I haven't noticed any pop-up ads.

    --
    [Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
    1. Re:I hadn't noticed by bradgoodman · · Score: 1

      Ditto....seriously....I hadn't noticed. The article is too long to sustain my attention, so I didn't read it, but they aren't using AdBlock Plus, are they?

    2. Re:I hadn't noticed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm getting quite tired of the deluge of self-satisfied Adblock and NoScript "Me Too!" posts here whenever a story mentions online advertising. It's news for nerds. Everybody knows already.

    3. Re:I hadn't noticed by wvmarle · · Score: 1

      Really the first thing I thought reading this article was "I didn't know pop-ups are still being used". It's been so long since I've seen any!

      I don't use AdBlock on my main PC, only on the EEE because that one often connects over a slow 3G connection. Only FlashBlock, and that does wonders against irritating floaters and flashing banners.

      The rest of the advertising is generally non-intrusive so I don't care about it. I don't even realise the difference between /. browsing with and without ads.

    4. Re:I hadn't noticed by Samschnooks · · Score: 1
      Do you look at any mainstream websites? Most of the video sites use Flash and scripts up the wazzoo.

      I had all three installed and I ended up spending most of my time temporarily enabling scripts and Flash for most sites I visit.

      Which really annoys the piss out of me! WTF do web designers have to use Flash for every stupid little thing!

    5. Re:I hadn't noticed by Fri13 · · Score: 1

      I just use konqueror from KDE desktop environment. I do not need AdBlock Plus, NoScript. I just use Internet sites as they were meant to be used when World Wide Web was designed... (unless they designed those pop-ups and other things, what I still do not see).

    6. Re:I hadn't noticed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Does FlashBlock provide any additional capabilities over NoScript? I use just AdBlock Plus and NoScript, so unless I explicitly allow a website to use script I won't see any Flash. I guess I don't see the benefit of using FlashBlock on top of NoScript.

    7. Re:I hadn't noticed by nine-times · · Score: 1

      Here's what kind of annoys me, though: why should I have to install add-ons to remove functionality that I don't ever really want?

      Honestly, there might be one or two websites that I use that use pop-up windows for valid reasons, but I'm sure that if that avenue were shut to them, they could easily make the page work without pop-ups. Why can't browsers just not allow a web page to open a new window? Or if you must, make it so new windows can only be opened in response to an actual click, only allow one window to be opened by that click, and make it so that one click can't also change the contents of the existing window in addition to opening a new window.

      I just don't see lots of valid uses for letting scripts open windows in the first place.

    8. Re:I hadn't noticed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      I use Firefox with the AdBlock Plus, NoScript, and FlashBlock add-ons installed. I haven't noticed any pop-up ads.

      Damn, do you see any content?

    9. Re:I hadn't noticed by SirGarlon · · Score: 1

      Damn, do you see any content?

      You're missing the point! I don't see any ads! ;-)

      Seriously, most things I use the Web for -- shopping, reading news, message boards, even Facebook -- work fine. All it takes is a couple of extra mouse clicks to set the NoScript permissions.

      --
      [Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
    10. Re:I hadn't noticed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do you also wear suspenders AND a belt? FlashBlock is useless in your case, since NoScript also blocks Flash content. You click on the stuff you want to play, just like FlashBlock.

    11. Re:I hadn't noticed by Abcd1234 · · Score: 1

      It does indeed. It replaces the video with a clickable icon, so that you can interactively re-enable flash videos easily. Much better than having to go add exceptions in NoScript, IMHO (and I use both).

    12. Re:I hadn't noticed by Sir_Real · · Score: 1

      Have you noticed any degraded usability?

    13. Re:I hadn't noticed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      NoScript also replaces the Flash animation (often a video, sometimes a game, never an ad since they're caught by AdBlock beforehand) with a clickable icon. With NoScript, FlashBlock is redundant. I used to have both, disabled FlashBlock just to see how NoScript dealt with Flash, noticed it did the same thing, and promptly uninstalled FlashBlock.

    14. Re:I hadn't noticed by dlcarrol · · Score: 1

      That seems a bit backwards.

      If 'everybody knows', why do we keep getting stupid articles about "why are the internets all pop-ups 'n' stuff?"

  13. There is a way to block them w/ disabling script by foniksonik · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Unfortunately it would be an arms race of sorts, similar to virus definitions... requiring dom scripting to identify a particular class or id or attribute or some other unique element in the ad (possibly the image src which means it could piggy back on ad-blockers already in use)...

    The idea is to use the DOM to walk back up from the unique Ad element to the containing div or divs, then turn them off or delete them.

    Another way would be to identify the offending function in the script and set it to return false or something similar.

    Someone could play around with greasemonkey or YUI anywhere and create a sample distribution...

    I don't personally go to enough sites that do this to make the effort, so I'll leave it as an exercise for the class.

    --
    A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
  14. Articles like this ... by utnapistim · · Score: 4, Informative

    ... are like free endorsements for Firefox + adblock plus + NoScript + ... some other extensions.

    The more they keep annoying users, the more popular the solution becomes.

    --
    Tie two birds together: although they have four wings, they cannot fly. (The blind man)
    1. Re:Articles like this ... by drspliff · · Score: 1

      Personally I prefer Privoxy to do filtering before my browser has a chance to render it, as an added bonus I get the same crap filtering with every browser I have (IE, Opera, Firefox, Dillo, Konqueror etc.)

      And the geek in me goes & writes specific filters for sites which particuarly piss me off.

  15. The arms race by spydabyte · · Score: 1

    As with all spam/issues there will eventually be a solution/fix, and then another way to get around the solution, then another solution, and then...

    Need I go on?

    See: Red Queen Effect

  16. What's the big deal ? by baomike · · Score: 4, Informative

    Use flash blocker.
    Also Opera has a facility to easily block a feed. Right click, click on the offending item, click done. you're done.
    How many sources does this company have? Unless they have a lot, their adds are gone.

    I don't know if FF has this or not ...

  17. News Flash by MyLongNickName · · Score: 4, Funny

    It has subtracts too!

    --
    See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
    1. Re:News Flash by bonkeydcow · · Score: 1

      Nice catch. lol. Too much WoW I guess.

  18. Sorta related: Yahoo mail got worse by hoggoth · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Just this week Yahoo mail started serving up ads that pop up an annoying window every time your mouse passes over it. I hope Yahoo loses a lot of market share over this. I know it was the impetus I needed to switch over to Google mail. Of course Yahoo doesn't offer mail forwarding so you lose your email address. Serves me right for ever using a provider that doesn't make it possible to migrate away.

    --
    - For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat /dev/random (may take some time)
    1. Re:Sorta related: Yahoo mail got worse by bearfx · · Score: 2, Informative
      I used to use hotmail religiously. I joined them shortly after the opened the service for the public (back when their was a 2 MB limit on email!).

      Then Microsoft bought them, and I thought "Mayne it won't be too bad".

      "Lost" e-mails, loads of spam, unreliable delivery and receipt. These things pushed me to look at other services, but the final straw was the ads. The large, glaring, annoying, brightly colored/blinking/moving ads. It was like trying to read a book while someone points a flashlight into your eyes.

      So I moved to GMail. Their are ads, but they are unobtrusive. I see them at the top of the page, and I have even clicked on a few, but they don't interfere with what I came to do - read my e-mail.

      I recognize that sites need advertising dollars to support themselves, and I hate resorting to ad-blockers for this reason - but the advertising has gone too far. When half the page is flashing/moving you can't focus on the content, and content is what it is all about.

      I don't know that I have a point to this message, except maybe to get MY perspective on this issue out there, but I am with you. I hope that the service providers lost enough users to come to their senses.

      I do use adblock, but try to keep the bloklist to only the most annoying ads. I also use NoScript, and think it is one of the best extensions out there. Between the to, I rarely see popups. When one does sneak in there, I will usually take steps to keep it from happening again.

    2. Re:Sorta related: Yahoo mail got worse by couchslug · · Score: 1

      "Just this week Yahoo mail started serving up ads that pop up an annoying window every time your mouse passes over it."

      I don't get those with the old Yahoo interface.

      Are you running Firefox fully locked down with all available extensions?

      --
      "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
    3. Re:Sorta related: Yahoo mail got worse by mathletics · · Score: 1

      Get your Yahoo mail in gmail with POP. You can even set a custom "From" address so that you can send and receive as your Yahoo account.

    4. Re:Sorta related: Yahoo mail got worse by hoggoth · · Score: 1

      > Are you running Firefox fully locked down with all available extensions?

      Now I am.

      --
      - For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat /dev/random (may take some time)
    5. Re:Sorta related: Yahoo mail got worse by hoggoth · · Score: 1

      Yahoo doesn't allow you to POP your mail off unless you pay them for the privilege.

      --
      - For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat /dev/random (may take some time)
  19. But is 404 the best answer? by nietsch · · Score: 1

    wouldn't it be a better solution to serve a 1 pixel image to every pixel-like request, or just an empty page?

    --
    This space is intentionally staring blankly at you
    1. Re:But is 404 the best answer? by Todd+Knarr · · Score: 1

      Probably, but that'd be more work. I'd have to write a custom program to parse the requested path looking for things that looked like image requests, and it'd probably miss a lot of them because nothing requires an image request to be for a file ending in .gif/.jpg/etc.. And 404 Not Found works just fine to trigger the browser's broken-image placeholder, so doing better's IMO more effort than it's worth.

  20. I Hadn't Noticed by Gallenod · · Score: 0, Redundant

    I haven't noticed any new pop-ups lately, but that could be because I use Firefox with NoScript set to allow only those scripts I explicitly approve.

    Yes, it's an anal-retentive control freak approach. But it keeps most ad crap from cluttering up my browser and has the added bonus of probably annoying many of the people who might try to use Web scripts to monitor my Web browsing. If I find I need to use a script on a page for functionality, I give it temporary permission that goes away once I close the browser.

    I browse this way because they really are out to get me.

    --

    TLR

    A man no more knows his destiny than a tea leaf knows the history of the East India Company
  21. NoScript makes the web useless. by Samschnooks · · Score: 3, Insightful

    NoScript (which is really annoying in and of itself, but that's another story).

    You got that right! I removed 'NoScript'. Every, and I mean every, stinking website I went to had most of their content dependent on scripts. So, I had to constantly click on allow for this time, or for this page, etc... And many times, even after enabling scripts for that page, they still wouldn't run. Very few websites didn't have that problem. Scripts are just too ubiquitous to block.

    1. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by Beyond_GoodandEvil · · Score: 1

      You got that right! I removed 'NoScript'. Every, and I mean every, stinking website I went to had most of their content dependent on scripts.
      Shouldn't that be poor website design + NoScript makes the web useless?

      --
      I laughed at the weak who considered themselves good because they lacked claws.
    2. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by geckipede · · Score: 1

      What I really want from noscript is the option to just block flash. I've got flashblock, and it works, but it doesn't work in quite the same way that noscript does. Flashblock fails occasionally, it seems to let flash load for a fraction of a second and then kill it and replace it, which is not always helpful.

    3. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by gfxguy · · Score: 5, Informative

      Why was he moderated "FlameBait?"

      I think we need more meta-moderation, and people that get unmodded ought to get fewer mod privileges (if that's not already how it works). Unbelievable.

      Anyway, I don't disable it... what annoys me is every few days there's an "update" whose sole purpose, IMO, is to keep NoScript at the top of the popularity list, and then when you do upgrade, it automatically loads the NoScript page in Firefox when it finally starts up. I often just click to skip installing the upgrade, but that gets tedious, too.

      I very rarely encounter pages where it's not obvious which script I need to allow, although it certainly does happen.

      --
      Stupid sexy Flanders.
    4. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by Phantom+of+the+Opera · · Score: 1

      Why was he moderated "FlameBait?"

      My bet is a guilty web designer modded him that out.

    5. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What I really want from noscript is the option to just block flash. I've got flashblock, and it works, but it doesn't work in quite the same way that noscript does. Flashblock fails occasionally, it seems to let flash load for a fraction of a second and then kill it and replace it, which is not always helpful.

      Easy, click on the NoScript logo, go into Options -> Plugins and unclick everything except Flash. I think that'll still block Javascript, but this can be resolved by checking "Apply These Restrictions To Trusted Sites Too" and then switching to blacklist mode

    6. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by nickruiz · · Score: 1

      You got that right! I removed 'NoScript'. Every, and I mean every, stinking website I went to had most of their content dependent on scripts.

      NoScript wouldn't be so bad if it included social whitelisting functionality. Perhaps you could propose it as a feature request. I personally would prefer to subscribe to a whitelisting server that covers most of the websites I frequently visit and leaves me the opportunity to recommend sites that should be whitelisted.

    7. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by TerranFury · · Score: 1

      Shouldn't that be poor website design + NoScript makes the web useless?

      Our own beloved Slashdot now relies on an Ajaxy, script-dependent forum system...

    8. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Use ABP's block button.

    9. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by Paradise+Pete · · Score: 1

      Shouldn't that be poor website design + NoScript makes the web useless?

      Poor design isn't going away any time soon. There are zillions of sites. The majority built by either someone dabbling at home or someone under time and budget constraints. Making a site that works well both with and without scripts is hard and time consuming.

    10. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by tepples · · Score: 1

      Every, and I mean every, stinking website I went to had most of their content dependent on scripts.

      Shouldn't that be poor website design + NoScript makes the web useless?

      You appear to imply that AJAX is inherently "poor website design". If a web site has, say, a private message system that simulates Gmail, how would you use that with NoScript? There are things that can't be done on the web, or at least can't be done in Windows Internet Explorer, without the use of script.

    11. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If every site you visit needs (or even uses) flash, I don't want you on my internet anyway.

    12. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I had this problem, but later found out that you can switch NoScript to allow script globally, and only block untrusted sites. This way you do not need to explicitly allow every website you visit to run javascript.

    13. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by SirGarlon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Scripts are just too ubiquitous to block.

      Here's a little parable. When I was a child, I lived in the country and my family never locked the front door of our house. Now I live in a multi-family home in the city and every time I go out, I lock both the door to my home and the door to the building. Man, I tell you, it is a pain in the neck to have to fumble for my keys every time I want to go inside my home. I still think it beats leaving the door open.

      It boils down to whether you think anything bad will happen if you leave your door open. I consider a popup ad to be "something bad," and I am well aware there are also far worse things a script can do to you.

      --
      [Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
    14. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by IHateEverybody · · Score: 1

      Our own beloved Slashdot now relies on an Ajaxy, script-dependent forum system...

      But you don't have to use it. Just use the classic Slashdot forum system (which I happen to prefer BTW) and you don't need to enable scripting for Slashdot. As far as I can tell, the only thing on Slashdot that is so scripting dependent that it is unusable with scripting turned off is the metamoderation system. I'd say that Slashdot is a pretty good example of how you can use scripting for enhancing your content but leaving it all available and usable for people who turn scripting off.

      --
      Does this .sig make my butt look big?
    15. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by The+MAZZTer · · Score: 2, Informative

      I disagree. At first you will have to allow sites all the time, but once you set it up for the sites you commonly visit, you won't have much of a problem. Usually it's just a matter of checking the noscript button when a new site doesn't work, then enabling one or two domains once, and then never again for the site.

      Don't enable per-page, that IS more annoying than it's worth. Unless you're on geocities or some other large hosting provider... but AFAIK most of those at least give you a subdomain now (googlepages) or people get their own domain names... so it's not a big problem anymore.

      I also disable the notification bar, since I find it annoying, and keep NoScript confined to the status bar.

    16. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by IHateEverybody · · Score: 1

      You appear to imply that AJAX is inherently "poor website design". If a web site has, say, a private message system that simulates Gmail, how would you use that with NoScript? There are things that can't be done on the web, or at least can't be done in Windows Internet Explorer, without the use of script.

      Use NoScript to turn the useful message system on permanently while leaving the slower (and often third-party dependent) ad system turned off? While it is true that some things require scripting, a lot of things could be better accomplished through clever use of DHTML and CSS and scripting them just makes your site slower. And a lot of scripting is just a way to shove ads in your face. Now, I don't mind looking at ads but it slows down the website I'm looking at, I get a lot less sympathetic.

      --
      Does this .sig make my butt look big?
    17. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by frodo+from+middle+ea · · Score: 3, Informative

      Actually these days NoScript has an option to automatically grant temporary permissions to the 2nd level domain. It works perfectly for your case, sites which require scripts to run, usually host them on the same domain as the pages, so temporary permission to the 2nd level domain does the trick for them. Any ad related contents they host are usually on different hosts than their own, so these get blocked by noscript conveniently. Win-Win

      --
      for the last time people, I am "frodo from middle eaRTH", not "middle eaST".
    18. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by IHateEverybody · · Score: 1

      NoScript wouldn't be so bad if it included social whitelisting functionality. Perhaps you could propose it as a feature request. I personally would prefer to subscribe to a whitelisting server that covers most of the websites I frequently visit and leaves me the opportunity to recommend sites that should be whitelisted.

      Or you could just click on the NoScript button in the status bar, select Options, and access NoScript's own Whitelisting facility. Or just click on the NoScript button to permanently whitelist your websites as you visit them. Does every single feature in our web browsers have to have a social component now?

      --
      Does this .sig make my butt look big?
    19. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      NoScript feels more like locking the door when you take out the garbage or check the mail.

    20. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by krelian · · Score: 1

      I don't use NoScript but I do use FlashGot which is made by the same company. The frequent updates really smell fishy and are getting quite annoying. I'll probably simply uninstall it the next time they update.

    21. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by Hatta · · Score: 1

      Oh, that's not true. Most sites you can see their content just fine without scripts. And for the (admittedly significant) minority that truly do need a script you can whitelist them with 2 clicks.

      Clicking a menu twice a couple times a day is really not that much hassle, compared to your browser stalling out because of a shitty script several times a day. Noscript is worth having just to avoid the crappy tag formatting script on /., that stalls my browser for several seconds every time I reload the front page.

      Also, you only have to do it once for each site. Given that most people tend to visit the same sites most of the time, that means after a break in period, you'll have a well populated whitelist with almost all of the sites you're likely to visit on it. It really is a lot nicer having a well behaved browser, but you have to put a little (tiny) bit of effort into training it. It pays off greatly.

      --
      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    22. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by MightyYar · · Score: 0, Troll

      FYI, NoScript has a "blacklist" mode which works in the opposite way. You can leave JavaScript on all the time and selectively disable it when a site annoys you. I think this has only been around for a year or so... maybe it wasn't there when you last played with it.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    23. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by Bearhouse · · Score: 1

      Try reloading the page. Also, next time you visit the site, NoScript will remember your choice. Finally, as per my post above, configuring noscript to allow 'top level' domains is a great balance between security and functionality IMHO.

    24. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by tepples · · Score: 1

      Use NoScript to turn the useful message system on permanently while leaving the slower (and often third-party dependent) ad system turned off?

      Then watch web developers obfuscate their script URLs so that NoScript has trouble distinguishing useful message systems from the ad systems that pay their salaries.

      While it is true that some things require scripting, a lot of things could be better accomplished through clever use of DHTML

      Then perhaps one of us misunderstands what "DHTML" means. I always thought it meant scripted manipulation of the CSS and HTML DOM, and Wikipedia appears to agree: "DHTML allows scripting languages to change variables in a web page's definition language".

      and CSS

      Unless the web developer has to use script to simulate things that are broken or missing in Windows Internet Explorer's implementation of HTML and CSS. Remember the "IE7" script by Dean Edwards that made IE 6's support for CSS more robust?

    25. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by maskedbishounen · · Score: 1

      Have you tried YesScript? It's about the opposite -- a blacklist for sites that you do not want executing JavaScript.

      --
      "An infinite number of monkeys typing into GNU emacs would never make a good program."
    26. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Such is the nature of browsing the "wild wild west." Trust no one.

      The reason it is a good thing is that once you whitelist your favorite sites,(very carefully) it is saved in a configuration file and you can take it with you.

      The piece of mind is well worth it. i.e. you can browse to any porn site without fear of malware finding its way into your machine.

    27. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You must visit the wrong sites. I can get all the info I need from plain HTML websites.

    28. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by tknd · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Stop browsing for porn and your pop-up issues will go away...

    29. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by gknoy · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I think we need more meta-moderation, and people that get unmodded ought to get fewer mod privileges (if that's not already how it works). Unbelievable.

      You're right ... and when you are eligible, the front page even asks you to do so. However, when meta-modding, you really only see a few posts, and a single moderation for them. In contrast, the moderation system itself is mostly self-correcting: Many people (I suspect MORE people) see the post in-context, and will moderate up or down as appropriate. The trouble is, many people while moderating (including me) do not often want to sift the -1's, and so end up modding things that are ALREADY above a threshold. If more of us moderated "properly" (looking at -1's, and such), we would get more corrections of mistaken-downmods.

      (This is off-topic, I expect; sorry about that.)

    30. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So do you enter and exit your house every 5 minutes?

      No?

      Thought so...

    31. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by WNight · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Then watch people rip that content and place it on the Piratebay. When DRM gets so bad you can't use the content, rip and fix it.

    32. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by The+End+Of+Days · · Score: 1

      Poor design and using scripts are not synonymous, despite the Luddite opinion that anything in computing after 1973 is evil.

    33. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      when you do upgrade, it automatically loads the NoScript page in Firefox when it finally starts up

      about:config -> noscript.firstRunRedirection -> set to false

    34. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      interesting websites you visit ....

      you did recognise that you can permanently allow domains in noscript?

    35. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I guess we go different places on the web, I often see the blocked messages but can usually get all the info/content I need.
      The only real exceptions being the sketchy sites with videos. The reputable ones I just let script, the iffy ones I just go look for the content on youtube it's usually there anyway.

    36. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by goodmanj · · Score: 4, Insightful

      In the case of your house, the hassle of locking up every day is small compared to the hassle of having everything you own stolen.

      In the case of ads vs Noscript, many people feel the cure is almost as much of a hassle as the disease.

    37. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, because it's much more convinient to fire up a torrent client, wait for it to connect, download and then use your browser(or whatever) to view the content - than to click allow on NoScript...

    38. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by swordfishBob · · Score: 1

      I haven't tested this, but I'd say 2LD is a bit short-sighted. What about somedomain.com.au, and every other country that is assumed not to own the internet?

      --
      -- All your bass are below two Hz
    39. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You only have to lock the door the first time you go to check the mail or take out the garbage. After that it happens automatically.

    40. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You appear to imply that AJAX is inherently "poor website design".

      I think it pretty clearly is and am surprised anyone could think otherwise.

    41. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by klui · · Score: 1

      Some sites won't work without scripts, that's true. For instance, web boards that have hide tags that are shown using js. So for those, I issue temporary permissions. Slashdot is another example that doesn't work without scripts if you don't login. But I login and have my preferences set at minimal and it works. Most sites display properly for the most part but some can't display video or flash without permissions. A little annoying, but it's something I put up with even though some sites will never display properly.

    42. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by snowwrestler · · Score: 1

      Noscript is like putting a lock on every cabinet, doorknob, drawer, and shelf. You're constantly needing your keys for every little thing.

      --
      Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
    43. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by MightyYar · · Score: 1

      Troll? LOL.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    44. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In this case, you're right, but your suggested changes sound more like digg. I think it's ok if we leave /. to behave like /., and digg to behave like digg.

    45. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by bit01 · · Score: 1

      ... every few days there's an "update" ...

      Do it when you want, not when they want: Select Edit/Preferences/Advanced/Update/Automatically check for updates to:/Installed Add-ons unticked. Do an update: Select Tools/Add-ons/Extensions/Find Updates. Works for me.

      ---

      Adopt an astroturfer. Make their life hell.

    46. Re:NoScript makes the web useless. by frodo+from+middle+ea · · Score: 1

      Actually you have 3 options
      1) full address i.e. http://www.host.com/
      2) full host i.e. www.host.com
      3) 2nd level doamin host.com
      But you are right they need to take in to consideration, non US sites , may be you can raise a support request with Noscript's author.

      --
      for the last time people, I am "frodo from middle eaRTH", not "middle eaST".
  22. Opera browsing is painless browsing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Opera + no javascript = No bullshit.

    1. Re:Opera browsing is painless browsing by PitaBred · · Score: 1

      No features, either. Oh well... the web was perfected in 1993. We should ignore any changes since then, as they're simply useless.

    2. Re:Opera browsing is painless browsing by Rockoon · · Score: 1

      No features? ehehe.. thats funny... ever run it?

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
    3. Re:Opera browsing is painless browsing by PitaBred · · Score: 1

      I use Opera on my phone all the time. It's a great browser. But I don't disable Javascript on it.

    4. Re:Opera browsing is painless browsing by Rockoon · · Score: 1

      So you are comparing the mobile version of opera with the desktop version of firefox then?

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
    5. Re:Opera browsing is painless browsing by PitaBred · · Score: 1

      No. I'm saying completely disabling Javascript is stupid on the current web, it doesn't matter WHAT browser you use.

      Fanboy much?

  23. I tried Google Chrome last week... by Joce640k · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Bloody hell", I thought, is that what the web looks like?

    Then I went back to Firefox with AdBlock/NoScript.

    Do not want.

    --
    No sig today...
    1. Re:I tried Google Chrome last week... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What's Firefox got that wget lacks?

    2. Re:I tried Google Chrome last week... by Ark+Ku+Mon · · Score: 5, Funny

      Blackjack and hookers.

    3. Re:I tried Google Chrome last week... by stg · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I have felt this way too at first, but after going back to Firefox and being annoyed at the slow speed, I just started using Chrome with Privoxy... It's not as good as Adblock, but covers most ads.

    4. Re:I tried Google Chrome last week... by magpie · · Score: 1

      Or telnetting to port 80 and mentally parsing the output? Then again my rendering engine is a bit slow and buggy of late.

    5. Re:I tried Google Chrome last week... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Indeed, and I fail to see how Google Chrome could ever suceed in light of such.

      If I may just wander off-topic for a moment though on a semi-related note. Is anyone aware of a Firefox extension akin to what could appropriately be called 'No-Offsite'? This is the only avenue I find particularly lacking from the afore mentioned essential addons; the ability to restrict browsing to a specific domain and/or associated subdomains navigated to, than as a consequence of visiting such domain having the browser touch other domains, many off which I find being unecessary aside from their obvious uses to third-party interests such as in user tracking/profiling; statistics gathering; advertising... and so on.

      A prime example: Slashdot.org, of which use of also utilises doubleclick.net, google-analytics.com, and jobthread.com... all of which I'm not interested in.

  24. What did you expect? by Joce640k · · Score: 1

    Yahoo's business model is based on installing unwanted toolbars and hijacking people's home pages.

    I refuse to have anything to do with them.

    --
    No sig today...
  25. Basics of DHTML popups by Spyder · · Score: 5, Informative

    Check out http://dhtmlpopups.webarticles.org/ for a quick set of examples of these.

    It looks like a bit of experimentation could yeild a reasonably reliable greasemonkey script to kill these when not click initated.

    --
    Spyder
  26. HOSTS file FTW! by cyberjock1980 · · Score: 5, Informative

    I've been using a hosts file since around 2003. It blocks out all those ads, popups, spyware,adware, stops alot of virii from calling home, you name it. I scan my computer about once a month, and I haven't had any of the 'serious outbreaks' of adware like all my friends. They all swear by their software programs to block it(ultimately, they always end up reformatting when they cant quite get rid of them all) but my solution uses no resources and doesn't require 'scanning' for them regularly.

    I use it on my parent's computer and only update it once a year at Christmas. Even with only updating once a year they haven't gotten any adware/spyware yet, and it's been 3 years.

    I highly recommend it. Give it a try, there's nothing to lose but the crapware.

    http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

    1. Re:HOSTS file FTW! by gad_zuki! · · Score: 3, Insightful

      This really is the best method. Its cross-platform and no matter what strategies the ad people try, I'm still blocking their server. Not to mention ad servers are a security risk. Most "Antivirus 2009" infections are from compromised ad servers delivering fake ads for the malware. These malware ads look a lot more legitimate when served up by forbes.com.

      Just block them wholesale. Perhaps they will learn that we dont want overlays and popups. A simple ad that targets me really is a lot more effective than these tricks.

    2. Re:HOSTS file FTW! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Everyone uses hosts files... you simply made your excessively large.

    3. Re:HOSTS file FTW! by MadKeithV · · Score: 2, Informative

      The plural of virus is viruses, not virii.

    4. Re:HOSTS file FTW! by scottschiller · · Score: 1

      I used to use DNSKong on my WinXP machine, it's an excellent dynamic hosts-type DNS proxy/filtering program which can blacklist (ie., IP resolves to 127.0.0.1) or whitelist by domain pattern. There is also OpenDNS, a more managed service of this type.

    5. Re:HOSTS file FTW! by jgtg32a · · Score: 2, Informative

      Hosts file is a bit too slow it wasn't designed for so many records. Just use protowall or peerguardian, they have malware lists to use.

      Note, I haven't used either of those programs in about 3 years, I have no idea if they still exist.

    6. Re:HOSTS file FTW! by greed · · Score: 1

      Nah, hosts files are for wimps who can't run their own DNS.

      zone "0stats.com" IN { type master; file "master.d/null"; }; ...
      zone "zedo.com" IN { type master; file "master.d/null"; };

      The 'null' zone contains an SOA record and an NS record.

      Everyone who uses my LAN gets the same host not found errors. And all the dedicated boxes that don't have hosts files. And I only have one node to update.

      Of course, at that point, you might as well set up proper hostnames for your LAN and get DHCP assigning static addresses for Certain MAC Addys....

    7. Re:HOSTS file FTW! by Wildclaw · · Score: 1

      It is either. Languages involve, and there is now a decent amount of people who likes to use virii to symbolize multiple computer viruses. If it is used and understood, it is part of the language. At the very least as a dialect word.

      And don't point to some dictionary or something like that. Dictionaries are out of date from the moment they are printed. That doesn't mean that they are useless. They just never contain the whole current language as it is currently used.

      If you want to be a language nazi, focus on real mistakes instead like confusing "they're" with "their".

    8. Re:HOSTS file FTW! by dargaud · · Score: 2, Informative

      I rely on the hostfile as my first barrier of entry, but I'm not sure 17000 entries is not 'uses no resources'. And a lot of crapware rely in direct IP addresses on which the hostfile has no effect.

      --
      Non-Linux Penguins ?
    9. Re:HOSTS file FTW! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The plural of faggot is faggii

    10. Re:HOSTS file FTW! by MadKeithV · · Score: 1

      You mean like using "involve" instead of "evolve"?

    11. Re:HOSTS file FTW! by Wildclaw · · Score: 1

      Yes, that is a perfect example of being a "good" grammar nazi. I made a direct mistake confusing two different words. Funny thing is that I know very well how evolve is spelled.

  27. Block Everything ! by Fenax · · Score: 1

    Block all DHTML, problem solved ! Also I think I am fairly well protected against those things, Thank you addblock plus and noscript.

  28. Geez, I thought it was me! by karlandtanya · · Score: 1

    Installed Ad-Aware again, didn't find anything interesting, then booted from a microSD reloaded an image from 3 weeks ago.

    Oh, well--at least I proved the image was good!

    --
    "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, it doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
  29. Simply don't use such stupid websites! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Simply don't use such stupid and annoying websites!

    1. Re:Simply don't use such stupid websites! by mcgrew · · Score: 1

      That would mean I'd have to subscribe to a dozen dead-tree newspapers instead of using the web. I haven't seen a single newspaper site that isn't annoying as hell with its damned ads and popups and popunders.

  30. to those who don't use javascript or flash: by circletimessquare · · Score: 5, Insightful

    this "solution" to the return of pop ups is of course akin to curing your hangnail by cutting off your foot

    are you familiar with the phenomenon of the guy who doesn't own a television, and must remind every stranger he meets of this fact, constantly? if you look at the comments here, this article seems to have brought out the similarly quirky "look at me! i don't use javascript! i don't use flash!" brigade

    ok, so you are proud of your bare html existence. good for you

    but you might have noticed that the internet has evolved since 1994, and technologies, such as AJAX, are transforming the web browsing experience in GOOD ways, such as google maps. javascript is not merely cruft to make your anchor links animate. likewise, can you argue with the success and value of a site like youtube? which, by the way, works in flash?

    javascript and flash are not in any way absolute negatives for the internet experience. they are merely useful tools whose usage is evolving, in good and bad ways. to disavow that obvious observation and just flat out block them does not make you wiser, it makes you an odd appendix of history. trumpeting your monklike ascetic internet existence doesn't add anything of value to the conversation, because, no, blocking javascript and flash is most definitely not the solution, really

    when you announce that you don't use these technologies, all you show us is that you are indulging in some sort of odd attention-seeking disorder with a strange misplaced pride

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
    1. Re:to those who don't use javascript or flash: by whyloginwhysubscribe · · Score: 5, Informative

      The firefox noscript extension doesn't permanently block javascript - it informs you when a site is trying to use javascript and gives you the choice to allow it temporarily or trust it completely.

      It is actually quite interesting to see the number of cross site scripts that are called in lots of websites. So you have complete control over that. It is not flat blocking it out...

    2. Re:to those who don't use javascript or flash: by jonaskoelker · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Likewise, can you argue with the success and value of a site like youtube? which, by the way, works in flash?

      I want a plugin for firefox that detects "hmm, this is flash... Oh, this is flash video! Remove flash, download *.flv in the background, insert embedded mplayer."

      Then I'd dump flash faster than you can count to e^{i \pi} + 1.

    3. Re:to those who don't use javascript or flash: by pandrijeczko · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Here, first let me correct that for you:

      are you familiar with the phenomenon of the guy who owns an iMac/iPhone/[Insert Apple Product Here], and must remind every stranger he meets of this fact, constantly?

      To which question, the answer is yes.

      --
      Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
    4. Re:to those who don't use javascript or flash: by zoney_ie · · Score: 4, Informative

      Well, for some of us it's not a case of not using Flash or Javascript, but rather *us* deciding when and where we choose to allow it. I'll happily put up with the occasional ill-loaded page requiring Javascript/Flash enabling and reload (click on noscript icon in the status area and click on the servers I wish to allow, or allow all temporarily), rather than have to put up with the hideous clutter and tracking all over the web.

      I have Javascript whitelisted for a quite a number of sites I regularly visit who put it to good use. I can also put up with letting certain semi-trusted organisations have information on what I'm doing on the site as well.

      Having NoScript is perfectly sensible - particularly when performing a search on Google for example, and visiting random websites who could not only have malicious Javascript code, but could indeed just have slow-loading broken code.

      Most websites load a lot faster (no matter how fast your system/net connection) without having to wait for scripts to load from random third-party ad sites.

      --
      -- *~()____) This message will self-destruct in 5 seconds...
    5. Re:to those who don't use javascript or flash: by Vexorian · · Score: 1
      Right now, I have noscript with an option to block plugins... I also have downloadhelper. So what happens is that when I open a youtube link, all it has is a yellow block in the part where the video goes, but also download helper's icon begins to get color and all, I use download helper to... download the video, and done!

      Of course, grandparent is missing a detail, thanks to noscript I can enable javascript and flash in youtube, while they are disallowed in sites using intrusive code like the one we are talking about.

      --

      Copyright infringement is "piracy" in the same way DRM is "consumer rape"
    6. Re:to those who don't use javascript or flash: by SharpFang · · Score: 1

      I don't use NoScript. Too many sites depend on Javascript.

      I use Adblock and Flashblock and they do the job adequately enough - blocking off almost all the ad content, except of some most cleverly placed. Flash content is in 90% ads, and in the remaining 10% I don't want it to load without my consent in background (say, I open 10 diferent flash movies, I don't want them to start playing all at once), so it's a feature, not a problem for me.

      I also use TabMixPlus, set to open ALL new windows in tabs. So, from time to time, a site manages to trick me into opening their popup, but I close it without ever looking - I just see a redundant tab appear on my tab bar and middle-click it = close.

      So:
      AJAX/JS: yes. There are no real pure JS ads worth speaking of. At least nothing Adblock can't handle.
      Flash: on request. Way too high noise:content ratio, also autostarting flash is annoying.
      Sites that intercept your clicks / bypass adblocking - tab mix plus, they manage to open their popup, but they never get me to see it.

      --
      45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
    7. Re:to those who don't use javascript or flash: by sjames · · Score: 1

      So that's why there's a smug alert today!

    8. Re:to those who don't use javascript or flash: by The+MAZZTer · · Score: 1

      That would be complicated as, for example, blocking programs that are games from employee computers.

      How do you determine this? Well you can see if it uses DirectX or OpenGL dlls... but some apps that aren't games will use these (and Vista uses DX for everything!) plus plenty of games (pre-Vista Solitaire, Minesweeper) just use plain GDI. It's like playing whack-a-mole, especially since flash movie viewer SWF creators would try and outwit any such tool to keep it from working (especially places like Hulu), although with my example it could get really ugly, such as rootkit techniques to make any program that tries to scan my game redirected to scan notepad.exe.

      However there ARE Firefox extensions that try to solve this problem for a list of specific websites (IE if you're on a youtube video page the script will figure out where youtube is holding the FLV file, but it won't actually try to parse the SWF AFAIK). So go to addons.mozilla.org and find one and try it out. :) I believe FlashGot, a pass-downloads-to-an-external-download-manager extension, does this too but I've never used it.

    9. Re:to those who don't use javascript or flash: by Al+Dimond · · Score: 1

      First, neither Javascript nor Flash has a security record to brag about. If you're just dealing with HTML security is simple: watch your buffers and encrypt any communication that you want secret. Define a few ways that the browser can access your filesystem, and a way for websites to store persistant data in a limited way if they have to. Securing a code execution environment, especially if you want to have fast graphics, is harder. The types of cross-site scripting attacks that have been devised make my head spin. I think the position of not running any Javascript or Flash is more reasonable than just letting both run on whatever shady-ass site you happen to get linked to.

      Furthermore, Flash (this used to be a problem with Java) is increasingly used to build site navigation buttons and contain the text of a page. This makes it hard to search text and hard to know where you're being linked. It means you can't use the basic functionality of some websites with essentially textual content unless you're on an Adobe-sanctioned platform. The more pages unnecessarily rely on Flash the more we become beholden to Adobe. You know, the company responsible for the fact that in 2009 we can't have 64-bit browsers. If the web is only cross-platform only to the extent that Adobe is willing and able to deliver a build, it's not really very cross-platform at all, is it? People that understand this are in the minority and I think it's the responsible thing for us to remind web developers of the real promises and demands of their medium.

      For what it's worth I haven't disabled Javascript and have the Flash plugin installed. I do use the Flashblock plugin. Some websites (CNN, for one) detect Flashblock and won't let me view any of their Flash content. The feedback page is the last request I'll make to their servers. It's true, JS and Flash can be used for good and bad. I am a Google Maps addict... and, honestly, Flash isn't a terrible video platform (except for the CPU usage I guess). But I don't just let everyone do bad stuff to me with them just because others do good stuff. This is Slashdot, so a bad analogy is in order: the statement, "Force has legitimate uses," is not an invitition to hit me; if you try, I'll certainly try to evade.

    10. Re:to those who don't use javascript or flash: by imroy · · Score: 1

      I want a plugin for firefox that detects "hmm, this is flash... Oh, this is flash video! Remove flash, download *.flv in the background, insert embedded mplayer."

      Then I'd dump flash faster than you can count to e^{i \pi} + 1.

      I'd download that extension in a flash (no pun intended). I'm still using a somewhat old computer as my primary workstation (Athlon XP 2600+). It can play 720p HD content fine with Mplayer. But Flash still has trouble playing a measly 320x240 video without occasional skips and jumps. Why is it so difficult for Flash to play video? Is it just the Linux plugin?

    11. Re:to those who don't use javascript or flash: by davidvinge · · Score: 1

      Yes the Internet has evolved since 1994 but as a rule you should not build sites that are dependent on Flash, JavaScript or Java for the user experience. Enhancement yes but not dependence. This is not only being sensitive to the people who turn these off but to those people with other accessibility issues. Not to mention the all important googlebot.

    12. Re:to those who don't use javascript or flash: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You must be one of those annoying Apple bigots who, without provocation, take any opportunity to boast about how much they hate Apple. I'm not sure what's worse, you, the no TV guy, or the Apple zealot. You're probably all about equal.

    13. Re:to those who don't use javascript or flash: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      blocking javascript and flash is most definitely not the solution, really

      Blocking javascript and flash that takes up my time and bandwidth with useless advertisements is most definitely the solution. Really.

      If a site shows me that they can use javascript/flash responsibly, they get whitelisted in NoScript. Simple as that.

    14. Re:to those who don't use javascript or flash: by ion.simon.c · · Score: 1

      Continuing to converse with circletimesquare is generally a waste of time. (FYI)

    15. Re:to those who don't use javascript or flash: by ion.simon.c · · Score: 1

      Hey, circletimesqueare!
      I use NoScript and AdBlock.
      I've also gotten really sick of Adobe's Flash plugin and have switched to Gnash. About 50% of the Flash on the web doesn't work any more, but -since the switch- I've never walked up to my computer to find Firefox hopelessly wedged.

      Just thought I'd let you know how I was doing these days. :)
      How are you?

    16. Re:to those who don't use javascript or flash: by Reziac · · Score: 1

      I dislike large flash files loading in the browser, so I download the FLVs and play 'em in a utility viewer... some play fine, some skip, a few stall entirely. Methinks it may be some variation in the compression scheme, as I've seen similar issues with MPEGs.

      --
      ~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
    17. Re:to those who don't use javascript or flash: by goodmanj · · Score: 1

      I just downloaded Flashblock add-on for Firefox while reading this thread.
      0 sec: Download Flashblock.
      5 sec: Reboot Firefox.
      15 sec: Visit Youtube. Yep, it blocks Flash. Hmm, that'd be annoying for Youtube specifically...
      25 sec: Find "White List" in Flashblock preferences.
      30 sec: Youtube works fine.

      Unlike Javascript, whitelists work great for Flash, because Flash is rarely used except for pure goodness or pure evil.

    18. Re:to those who don't use javascript or flash: by kindbud · · Score: 1

      when you announce that you don't use these technologies, all you show us is that you are indulging in some sort of odd attention-seeking disorder with a strange misplaced pride

      Whereas those who announce they are not "one of those people" have no such infantile motivations.

      --
      Edith Keeler Must Die
    19. Re:to those who don't use javascript or flash: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Posting as AC so I can't be accused of attention-whoring: I don't watch TV! I just download TV shows, avoiding shitty adverts and watching the content entirely on my own terms. Similarly, I don't let sites run Javascript, Flash, etc, or throw popups my way, unless I actually want to access specific content. Otherwise browsing to a new site brings all sorts of crap with it, unfailingly.

      Why you think that would be tolerable is none of my business, but for me browsing the web 'naked' or without basic protection from useless, intrusive content seems incredibly stupid and wasteful.

      I see it as being along the same lines as having a whitelist for my email inbox. It's the only way to guarantee spam doesn't clutter it up. I'd rather maintain a whitelist than deal with constant, useless clutter, when looking at my emails, when browsing the net; basically wherever I can avoid the content I don't want, I will.

    20. Re:to those who don't use javascript or flash: by pi_rules · · Score: 1

      Why is it so difficult for Flash to play video?

      Because it has to do it entirely in user space.

      Well, that's not true. It doesn't have to, but you'd be crazy if you thought people were going to install a flash plugin that had direct access to the video card.

    21. Re:to those who don't use javascript or flash: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I belong to the group your post attacks. But to clarify: I am not proud of my asceticism so much as disgusted that it has become necessary.

      People in my camp are the ones that believe the costs have become too great and the benefits too marginal to justify any further use javascript, flash, and all of that.

      Of course you believe you are in control. Of course you believe my kind are luddites and we just need to loosen up a little. But these arguments have been heard (and discredited) before on other topics. (Children playing with fire, teenagers having unprotected sex, and so on...)

      You say my kind's cautious behavior is not an example of wisdom. I say: how can you be so sure? You are being dangerously cavalier.

    22. Re:to those who don't use javascript or flash: by phillipsjk256 · · Score: 1

      I actually rethought my position after seeing google maps. I still don't like it.

      I think most things can be handled using "helper applications" like telnet, Java runtime, Video player, File transfer application, etc.

      The point is the whole concept of "not having to install" software is ludicrous. Why should I let any random website "push" software out to my machine?

    23. Re:to those who don't use javascript or flash: by hottoh · · Score: 1

      when you announce that you don't use these technologies, all you show us is that you are indulging in some sort of odd attention-seeking disorder with a strange misplaced pride

      What you are saying is people should be ashamed of controlling what they view.

      If someone likes the way things are, you are cool with it, but if they say they do not like it they are 'indulging in some sort of odd attention-seeking disorder with a strange misplaced pride.'

      It is funny you take the high position of just accepting what is newer than '1994', and the rest of the population is wrong because they do not accept java scripts or flash.

      Bottom line--
      Taking what you want is the right choice, taking what what someone else wants you to have is the wrong one.

    24. Re: to those who don't use javascript or flash: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hey, you are just as sanctimonious as anyone, and touchier to boot. You complain about people mentioning NoScript and AdBlock in an appropriate place. WTF?

      And hey, all those nasty exploits that use Javascript and/or Flash? If you block by default, your chance of getting hit by them goes nearly to zero.

  31. Re:There is a way to block them w/ disabling scrip by Skye16 · · Score: 1

    I think a more interesting feature would be for browsers to allow you to limit iframe src, js src, and css src to HAVE to refer to the same domain of the page that you are on (similar to the current restrictions on cross-domain scripting (as in, scripts talking to scripts)). In this case, we just apply it to the HTML and CSS in general.

    That way people like me can use JS to our heart's content on the same site we're currently on, and others are screwed.

    Just put it in as an optional feature in the popup blocker on your browsers and let users enable or disable that as they see fit. Then you won't necessarily need ABP + NoScript + FlashBlock all installed or else doom for them!

  32. Solution by mcgrew · · Score: 1

    Use an old browser that doesn't support DHTML, or recode Firefox or other FOSS

    1. Re:Solution by prshaw · · Score: 1

      And when was that?

    2. Re:Solution by nurb432 · · Score: 1

      Apparently before your time..

      Get off my lawn! :)

      --
      ---- Booth was a patriot ----
  33. This is bumming me out by mandark1967 · · Score: 1

    I hate pop ups with a passion so if these DHTML pop up scripts are implemented on a large scale I'm gonna be hella-peeved.

    Is there any sort of registry setting that can be tweaked to disable dhtml?

    Or maybe a registry setting to limit the rendering of pages to a certain HTML Standard?

    --
    Sig Follows: "Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself." -- Mark Twain
    1. Re:This is bumming me out by Ash-Fox · · Score: 1

      Is there any sort of registry setting that can be tweaked to disable dhtml?

      Disable javascript.

      --
      Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
  34. F5 by KevMar · · Score: 1

    Something that I started to do when I see those popups within the page is to imediatly hit F5 to refresh. Most places will only show you that add once so they set a cookie to track if you saw that or not.

    So by hitting F5 it you viewing the page again for the 2nd time.

    --
    Im a gamer, not a grammer major. This post is full of spelling and grammer mistakes.
    1. Re:F5 by NudeAvenger · · Score: 1

      actually it depends on the technology provider - sometimes they will only cookie you after the ad finishes playing

      --
      for(b=(a=0)+1;;b+=(a+=b))print(a+"\n"+b+"\n");
    2. Re:F5 by Reziac · · Score: 1

      Good tip, except Mozilla/Seamonkey tends to ignore everything else while it's parsing JS.

      But when it works... as a side benefit, perhaps cost them a little bandwidth... serves 'em right.

      I don't mind clean relevant ads. I just don't want to be poked in the eyeballs with 'em when I didn't ask to be.

      --
      ~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
  35. where is the news? by NudeAvenger · · Score: 3, Insightful

    DHTML overlays have been around for years - I know, I've been working in the industry for years *ducks* and they've been around longer than I have. Where is the story here? http://www.adopstools.net/index.asp?page=richmedia&section=layer go on - make your own.

    --
    for(b=(a=0)+1;;b+=(a+=b))print(a+"\n"+b+"\n");
  36. still not the solution by circletimessquare · · Score: 3, Insightful

    are you familiar with the idiotic windows vista practice of asking you to approve every executeable before it runs? after awhile, the average user just mindlessly clicks "approve" and doesn't even read the warning. and this is perfectly appropriate behavior: its the boy who cried wolf. an alert at every false positive leads people to completely ignore the alert

    likewise, noscript is a wonderful extension... for the odd power user who likes such finetuned control over the minutiae of his browsing experience, and is keenly mindful and thoughtful about every site he visits and how he wants to profile his javascript footprint there

    this describes perhaps 0.001% of web users

    a real solution to the pop up problem is not to push the issue out to the end user and make them manage and fine tune their javascript footprint. in fact, as a solution, noscript represents a worse burden in terms of time and mental effort on the end user than simply closing pop ups when they open

    and no, this doesn't mean the average end user is stupid simply because he doesn't want to exert the mental effort. a highly intelligent end user shouldn't have to work hard at his browsing experience, he just wants to browse with abandon, and that's a perfectly appropriate instinct. the end user, from the dumbest to the brightest, should not be expected to consider every click he makes on the web equivalent to the mental effort required to make a move in a game of chess

    no, the real solution is to fine tune the browser's intelligence about how to handle pop ups. the advertising parasites are getting smarter, so the browser needs to get smarter. that's the real solution. an arms race between browser code and pop up code

    but, no, i'm sorry: the end user must not be harassed even further, and that's what your noscript "solution" represents

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
    1. Re:still not the solution by The+MAZZTer · · Score: 1

      NoScript doesn't pop up annoying "Approve/Decline" dialogs. If I want to approve a site, I have to decide beforehand that I want to (instead of being forced to make a decision by the app) and then I can tell NoScript to approve it via it's statusbar icon.

      If you're referring to the sound and notification bar, I turn those off.

    2. Re:still not the solution by kindbud · · Score: 1

      a highly intelligent end user shouldn't have to work hard at his browsing experience, he just wants to browse with abandon, and that's a perfectly appropriate instinct. the end user, from the dumbest to the brightest,

      NoScript doesn't make me work hard. Most sites I surf into from a Google search result page load just fine with scripts blocked. I do browse with abandon, because I'm confident I won't be jumped from behind by a random website.

      --
      Edith Keeler Must Die
    3. Re:still not the solution by Molf · · Score: 1

      are you familiar with the idiotic windows vista practice of asking you to approve every executeable before it runs?

      No, because I've *actually used* Vista, unlike those people who make these ridiculous claims based on their first ten minutes, which they spent running application installers.

    4. Re:still not the solution by somenickname · · Score: 1

      It sounds to me as if you've never used NoScript. With 10 seconds of configuration, you can make it non-intrusive and blocking all but the top level site. That basically makes all but externally hosted flash apps work fine.

  37. I tried their samples in Lynx by mario_grgic · · Score: 1

    and nothing happened. I feel so felt out and disappointed now.

    --
    As the island of our knowledge grows, so does the shore of our ignorance.
  38. Best part of the article by MWoody · · Score: 1

    Along the right-hand side, presumably crippled by NoScript: "Please enable javascript to view the most popular posts list."

    The irony makes my head hurt.

  39. Just curious... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Where did you get your shift-key blocker?

  40. no, no, no by circletimessquare · · Score: 1, Insightful

    no one should be expected to micromanage their browsing experience like this. i'm glad you do. but your behavior represents perhaps 0.001% of web browsers. you're mental effort is noble, but not ideal

    no, really, your behavior is not ideal. because i should not have to consider every click i make on the web in the same way i would consider a chess move in a game of chess. i should, as a rule, click with abandon, and the browser should be intelligent enough to manage the cruft and parasites for me

    you fix the problems we are talking about here, like pop ups, by improving the browser code. you don't shove the problem out to the end user such as with noscript, because, in a way, your exemplary but tedious micromanaging web browsing style is a WORSE burden than the occasional pop up and annoying flash ads

    i repeat: your micromanaging web browsing style, to me, and i would confidently say according the majority of web users, is more of a burden than the javascript and flash cruft we encounter on the web

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  41. Where are these alleged unstoppable pop-ups? by macraig · · Score: 1

    I haven't seen one. Nevertheless, if there's (D)HTML involved, I'll wager that even the venerable old Proxomitron and Privoxy can deal with them (if they are capable of virtually rewriting pages to spec, then hell yeah). Perhaps the reason I haven't seen one is because the AdBlock Plus Firefox extension deals with them, too.

    1. Re:Where are these alleged unstoppable pop-ups? by macraig · · Score: 1

      I just tried the AdImage site demo, using Slashdot filtered through it as suggested by someone else, and what I saw wasn't really anything new, per se. It also wasn't Flash, rather merely an image, so all you idiots proclaiming Flashblock etc. as solutions sound more like salesmen and pundits than experts.

      It's like I said, though: EXISTING technologies can easily deal with these, with perhaps the limitation of a bit of site specific customization. How many people use the Element Hiding Helper adjunct to AdBlock Plus? That was able to remove the AdImage demo after a few seconds of filter creation.

      That's the trick, here: it's the GENERALIZED solutions, like Element Hiding Helper, AdBlock Plus, Proxomitron, and Privoxy, that are going to be able to handle these in stride. They can adapt to deal with anything based in HTML (or that is wrapped in an HTML element). Sure, you might have to spend a few seconds or even minutes creating these filters, but then you're done (if you did it right).

      And there's always the Final Solution, as suggested by someone else: just simply don't revisit sites that employ this disrespectful technique. They'll get the message eventually when their page hits decline precipitously.

  42. HTML, DHTML, etc... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There are so many languages to write pages in...so...why not create a converter that converts DHTML to HTML or XHTML or some other Markup Language?
    This would, effectively, solve the problem.
    Anything that tries to "pop-up" would be converted into something else, and your pop-up blocker would work...or just have it filtered out...
    I think I will go work on this...
    --Copyright--2009
    Gonna go call my patent lawyer...

    1. Re:HTML, DHTML, etc... by AndrewNeo · · Score: 1

      I think the dynamic part of DHTML would get in the way of converting it to static content.

  43. Seriously.. what popups? by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 1

    I'm using Firefox with adblock and noscript and I wasn't even aware this was an issue since I never get pop-ups.

    I guess either adblock or noscript is killing them.

    My total set of plugins is
    Adblock
    Adblock Filterset.G Updater (I think something may have replaced this so I'm behind there)
    Flashblock
    Image Zoom
    McAfee SiteAdvisor (Not sure where this came from to be honest)
    No Squint (LOVE THIS)
    NoScript
    And WhoIsThisPerson (which I use so infrequently, I should probably drop).

    At home, add DownloadHelper.

    Any suggestions for plugins that I might love?

    --
    She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
    1. Re:Seriously.. what popups? by Todd+Knarr · · Score: 1

      AdBlock Plus, the replacement for Adblock. It includes automatic updates (disableable) of the filter list.

    2. Re:Seriously.. what popups? by thePowerOfGrayskull · · Score: 1

      NoSquint: Firefox 3 actually remembers zoom per-site; zooming in is as simple as Ctrl-plus key, or Ctrl+Mousewheel.

    3. Re:Seriously.. what popups? by thePowerOfGrayskull · · Score: 1

      Forgot to add: PTTL is pretty damned useful, it lets you select text and open it as a link (among other things). Great for those annoying situations where you come across a plain-text URL, such as in blog comments (or /. )

  44. Browsers are evil by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I've come to the conclusion that the invention of the browser was, essentially, a deal with the devil.

    We're stuck in a never-ending war of technology against those who think that they own your eyeballs and, by extension, your soul.

    So long as we are dependent upon software that allows code written by who knows who to run on our machines, we will continue to be subjected to all sorts of abuse. I have no alternative. After all it's so damned shiny and useful. Too bad about the price, however...

  45. And they wonder why Ad revenue is down? by Terwin · · Score: 1

    Advertisers do their best to be visible(read: annoying) and users have a means to stop them.

    And people wonder why online Ad revenue is going down.

  46. But /. doesnt have popups by insnprsn · · Score: 1

    Why worry about pop-ups, i get just about all my news from /. I dont need to click on the articles, i read the synopsis and then read the comments for the people who qoute "TFA" and I get everything I needed to know :)

  47. There is a problem by Dystopian+Rebel · · Score: 1

    The solution is to edit the computer's hosts file to block anything you don't like. It works, it's free, and there's no way around it for these companies.

    --
    Rich And Stupid is not so bad as Working For Rich And Stupid.
  48. Firefox + No Scripts + Ad Block Plus by suraj.sun · · Score: 1

    As many have said before, use Firefox + No Scripts + Ad Block Plus and 'allow' only the originating site in No Script.

    I have NOT seen pop-ups on my PC in many YEARS.

  49. Re:That's why HOSTS files exist by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Unblockable AdBanners?

    Place www.adimpact.com &/or adimpact.com into a CUSTOM HOSTS FILE w/ a blocking IP of 0 (fastest & smallest 'blocking IP address' possible), 0.0.0.0 (next smallest & fastest), or 127.0.0.1 (largest & slowest of the 3 by the by)??

    You'll not see their popups odds are.

    APK

  50. Custom HOSTS files do the job, & no add-ons by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Unblockable AdBanners?

    Place www.adimpact.com &/or adimpact.com into a CUSTOM HOSTS FILE w/ a blocking IP of 0 (fastest & smallest 'blocking IP address' possible), 0.0.0.0 (next smallest & fastest), or 127.0.0.1 (largest & slowest of the 3 by the by), by placing these lines into your %WinDir%\system32\Drivers\etc located HOSTS file using notepad.exe, like so:

    0 adimpact.com
    0 www.adimpact.com

    Do THAT simple task?

    You'll not see their popups and problem solved (& no 3rd party addons to browsers OR the OS required)

    APK

  51. Yup by Slashdot+Parent · · Score: 1

    but you might have noticed that the internet has evolved since 1994, and technologies, such as AJAX, are transforming the web browsing experience in GOOD ways, such as google maps.

    Yup. That's why AdBlock Plus is your friend. It only blocks the ad content, and leaves the rest of the page alone.

    --
    They don't grade fathers, but if your daughter's a stripper, you fucked up. --Chris Rock
  52. Yes there is. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    there's no immediate prospect of a solution.

    Dear $VENDOR:

    Because you have chosen to force intrusive advertising down my throat, I will never buy any product sold by your company again. Ever. I will encourage as many people as I can to do the same.

    Regards, $CUSTOMER

  53. No immediate prospect of a solution? by Xest · · Score: 1

    Your browser has to call your OS to open a god damn Window, how hard is it to intercept such a call based on the URL of the content to be loaded into the Window really?

    It's not like there's even any need to parse the markup or script or is this article talking about CSS style popups that just popup as part of the page rather than in a new window? There didn't seem to be any real information on that. If it's just popups on page rather than on your desktop in the form of a new Window I could honestly care less anyway, I just wont bother with that page if it's too annoying to use, it's not like I have to close a thousand external Windows, I just drop the tab in the browser.

  54. Much easier solution... by AVonGauss · · Score: 1

    I know this is Slashdot, but there is really a much easier solution... When you a find a site that does this, stop going to the site - simple. When their traffic tanks maybe they'll remember its actually the visitors that bring life to the site, not advertisers. Advertisers that use this technique, don't buy their products. Why make this more complicated than it needs to be - stop taking their crap.

    1. Re:Much easier solution... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you conservatives with your one sided logic. EVERY site does this now. so basically you're telling us to stop using sites.. fuck that. we're not here to make you money. if you don't like the fact that people block your garbage ads, then take your ball and go home. take your site offline.

    2. Re:Much easier solution... by AVonGauss · · Score: 1

      Nice post, except for I'm not the one placing ads, nice try though. If I go to a site and start getting popup ads, I simply no longer go to that site. Problem solved. Strangely, most sites that I frequent do not use popup ads - so I guess not EVERY site does. In essence, stop bitching and complaining and expecting somebody else to do something about your problem. In this case, the site runs on ads, no visitors, no more ads and no more site.

    3. Re:Much easier solution... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Even if you're not, most are, so my point stands. I'm not expecting anyone to do anything about my problem. I hate ads, so I block/bypass them whenever I can and it doesn't take much effort. The problem is solved to the best of my ability. It's the site ops who are doing most of the whining, disguised in the form of self-righteous moralistic soap-boxing. Why should readers tolerate ads/invasive scripting of their property for the 'right' of access to others'? By placing the content out there in the first place, the siteop already such a right. Other than stating his wishes in code, he's got no right to dictate how that content is consumed in the user's domain. That treads on the users's rights to his own space, which are NOT put up for public control just because the op's site was accessed. If the op puts desirable content up in an undesirable way such that the former can be separated from the latter, then someone will find a way to script his own space accordingly. The op is welcome to take his site offline if he doesn't like this reality. If his content was worth anyone's interest, something else will replace it on short order. Let people like him go back to television. At least the aging consumers of that medium are used to being fed whatever the advertisers wish to spoon.

  55. Vigliante justice by Thaelon · · Score: 4, Funny

    Sounds like someone is in need of a few extra visitors.

    Perhaps in the form of a distributed set of requests - that really shouldn't be denied - for service, but we surely shouldn't attack them.

    --

    Question everything

    1. Re:Vigliante justice by wdsci · · Score: 1

      Slashdot effect? ;-)

  56. Re:There is a way to block them w/ disabling scrip by AndrewNeo · · Score: 1

    Unfortunately, as good an idea as that is, a lot of sites legitimately put their scripts on other domains. I know a few big ones that serve their static content from services like Akamai, that are on Akamai's domains instead of remapping it to a subdomain. Also it would impact services like Google's AJAX provider (they host the APIs of scripts like jQuery to save you bandwidth), or even site-integrated Google Maps for that matter, which are both hosted on Google's servers.

  57. don't know... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    but i can't get these shiny pop-ups you are talking about to work in w3m (my favorite browser). i also tried it with lynx without success.. what the hell is wrong???

  58. NoScript and Social Whitelisting by nickruiz · · Score: 1

    Does every single feature in our web browsers have to have a social component now?

    Only where social components make sense. NoScript is a tool that is useful for savvy people like ourselves. Its current model of whitelisting will never become widely accepted unless it becomes easier to use; namely, through whitelist suggestions. Social whitelisting becomes the next logical step, because people would generally not want one source dictating which sites are safe and which are not.

  59. Yup, they're not nearly as annoying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yup, since they can't take over your desktop, or drain your system resources easily, they're not nearly as annoying. Also, the designers of the page have to make sure that you can close them, because otherwise you can't read the content, and will never return to the page. And as you mentioned, close the browser window and they're gone gone gone and there's nothing they can do about it.
    Oh, and I've disabled Flash and sound for my main browser, IE6. I only have Flash enabled in another browser, which I use for YouTube and such sillyness. Disabling Flash is a must, otherwise you can't browse the Web anymore without getting your eardrums blown to pieces by an obnoxious banner ad.

  60. HOSTS files do the job, no addons needed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Unblockable AdBanners?

    Place www.adimpact.com &/or adimpact.com into a CUSTOM HOSTS FILE w/ a blocking IP of 0 (fastest & smallest 'blocking IP address' possible), 0.0.0.0 (next smallest & fastest), or 127.0.0.1 (largest & slowest of the 3 by the by), by placing these lines into your %WinDir%\system32\Drivers\etc located HOSTS file using notepad.exe, like so:

    for Windows 2000/XP/Server 2003

    0 adimpact.com
    0 www.adimpact.com

    OR, for Windows VISTA &/or Server 2008

    0.0.0.0 adimpact.com
    0.0.0.0 www.adimpact.com

    IF you can do THAT simple task?

    You'll not see their popups and problem solved (& no 3rd party addons to browsers OR the OS required)

    APK

  61. You answer your own question by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    How is NoScript instrusive? You set it to block by default, and if you hit a site that doesn't work correctly, test it with the "Temporarily allow..." option for all the relevant parts of the site, then you can whitelist it permanently if you wish.

    Come on, how is that not intrusive. For every site you visit you have to take extra actions...

    Furthermore, it doesn't even help. There are a number of sites I go to that have these damn click to pop ads, I'd still like to visit the site but without the ads. If I have to turn off NoScript anyway, it's gained me nothing.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:You answer your own question by orclevegam · · Score: 3, Insightful

      There are a number of sites I go to that have these damn click to pop ads, I'd still like to visit the site but without the ads. If I have to turn off NoScript anyway, it's gained me nothing.

      Most sites don't host the script for their own ads, rather they use a third party script to do so. In most cases you can unblock a site, but still leave the ad providers site blocked. One of the replies to my original comment also reminded me of the fact that a while ago I modified my hosts file to black-hole all of the worst offenders with regards to ads/malware, and I run eDexter to serve up blank image files in their place.

      Just as an example, right now I've got slashdot.org allowed, but doubleclick.net and google-analytics.com blocked, which allows me to use the comments and such on /., but blocks all the ads.

      --
      Curiosity was framed, Ignorance killed the cat.
    2. Re:You answer your own question by Deagol · · Score: 1

      "Come on, how is that not intrusive. For every site you visit you have to take extra actions..."

      I don't even whitelist Slashdot under NoScript, and it's perfectly usable (not to mention faster without that damned floating box on the left following me as as I scroll down the page). Certainly, NoScript will break 99% of all media-based sites (Youtube, Pandora, etc.). But when you're surfing for text content, defaulting to disabling JavaScript doesn't harm the experience at most sites.

      I made the faulty assumption that most people use the web for gathering information, as opposed to multimedia entertainment.

    3. Re:You answer your own question by somenickname · · Score: 2, Funny

      Slashdot has ads?

  62. Greasemonkey? by ThinkTiM · · Score: 1

    Why can't a solution like Greasemonkey work?

    1. Re:Greasemonkey? by supervillain · · Score: 1

      It can work, it just has to be written for every website and updated any time the website changes their ad scripts.

  63. There is an easy solution. by Touvan · · Score: 1

    Don't go to websites that annoy you.

    Problem solved.

  64. HOSTS FILES DO THE JOB, & NO ADDONS NEEDED by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    HOSTS files native to your OS can stop these "unblockable AdBanners": No 3rd party addons required (for WebBrowsers (or the OS)) either.

    DIRECTIONS/HOW TO:

    Place www.adimpact.com &/or adimpact.com into a CUSTOM HOSTS FILE w/ a leading blocking IP of 0 (fastest & smallest 'blocking IP address' possible), or 0.0.0.0 (next smallest & fastest), OR 127.0.0.1 (largest & slowest of the 3 by the by), by placing these lines into your %WinDir%\system32\Drivers\etc located HOSTS file using notepad.exe, like so:

    ====

    HOSTS Files Entries Examples (For Windows 2000/XP/Server 2003):

    0 adimpact.com
    0 www.adimpact.com

    ----

    OR,

    ----

    HOSTS Files Entries Examples (For Windows VISTA &/or Server 2008):

    0.0.0.0 adimpact.com
    0.0.0.0 www.adimpact.com

    ====

    IF you can do THAT simple task, using notepad.exe (or any text editor)?

    You'll not see their popups and problem solved (& no 3rd party addons to browsers OR the OS required)

    APK

    P.S.=> "NoScript &/or FlashBlock need not apply", as they're largely useless addons in this case that take up CPU cycles needlessly, vs. what a HOSTS file can do, & "NO CHARGE" & is already a native feature to your Tcp/IP stack in your Operating System, AND, that extends itself to not only a SINGLE BROWSER (as noscript & flashblock/adblock do for FireFox, & Opera's FILTER.INI/URLFILTER.INI files can do only for them), but, also to EVERY WEBBOUND PROGRAM YOU HAVE ALSO! Bonus...

    Thus, a SINGLE POINT OF CONTROL, only...apk

  65. uh, yes. You don't know what you're doing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    OpenDNS kills it dead, dead, dead. And haven't you heard of the hosts file?

    127.0.01 adimpact.com, org, net, us, info

    2 cures so simple even a social worker can implement.

    Learn it, live it, love it.

  66. Greasemonkey + userscripts.org by lupine · · Score: 2, Informative

    Netflix Ajax Remover
    This script removes the ajax handlers from all of the netflix add to queue links.
    http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/4055

    1. Re:Greasemonkey + userscripts.org by An+ominous+Cow+art · · Score: 1

      Thanks very much, I'll give that a try.

  67. Tough! by Fuzzypig · · Score: 1

    I can live with limited content. FF goes on, closely followed by FlashBlock and ABPlus. I have a handful of sites I trust. The rest? Tough luck!

    When I want one of your stupid products I will come looking for you. I am not going to buy some shite, overpriced product just because I saw a stupid little advert pop-up!

    Please if you are in marketing, just do humanity a favour and FOAD!

    --
    Windows guys please stop pissing on everyone and the Linux guys stop pissing in the wind, hoping to hit Windows guys!
  68. Flash and popups: FUCK THAT SHIT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "no immediate solution"

    I don't know much about browsers, but why is this sort of thing supported anyway?

    "Hey let's make a function to resize windows and spawn new ones"
    "shit, popups"
    "Let's make something else to block it but not really"
    "shit, popups again"

    As for Flash, ideally it would be replaced with a regular open-source video stream [like ogg or dirac] and then mangled and left to die. alone.

  69. How about a little dns middleman? by kiehlster · · Score: 1

    I don't know about any of you, but I have very few popups. My trick is to run my own dns server and cacher. I just write myself in as the authoritative name server for folks like doubleclick and every other annoying ad service. Every time I find a new one, I just replace it. On top of that, I set up opendns on my servers and it filters out anything I missed. In addition, I point all the ad servers to a web server which does a few checks on the url and responds with a blank image or html page to fill in any gaps in the web site that the ad may have left. The strange park about it all is that the popups dont come up with my customized ad-block image/page. They don't come up hardly at all. Moral of the story: block it at its roots, block the dns.

    Funny thing about ad-replacing web servers. I set up my web server to respond to any website and assume it was an ad request. The result was some script kidiots thought they found an open proxy and requested themselves over 9 million pages containing a "This ad was blocked" message instead of the expected yahoo account hacking and so forth. I got myself a list of commonly used yahoo password guesses (and I righteously blocked millions of crack attempts) and they got themselves a waste of their freaking time.

  70. Use Opera by Nicolay77 · · Score: 1

    Press F12
    Uncheck Enable JavaScript.

    (you can then enable it on a per-site basis.)

    No plugins required.

    --
    We are Turing O-Machines. The Oracle is out there.
  71. This is not about opening up a new window by Skapare · · Score: 1

    Instead, it is about using DHTML to create a floating object within the same window. Have a look here.

    --
    now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
    1. Re:This is not about opening up a new window by Xest · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I don't really see that as a problem if that's all it is, it's not too much of a hassle to drop a tab and that's what'll happen if sites use this sort of thing. It's not like the days of old where you had to actually shut every single individual window.

    2. Re:This is not about opening up a new window by Skapare · · Score: 1

      Right. It depends on the level of abuse. Some people consider any ad that appears over things to be an abuse. And in some cases it can be abused (lack of "X" button to remove ad). But this is not like those "new window" popups that keep popping new ones when you close them, necessitating killing the browser or something.

      --
      now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
  72. No Popups here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I have used Chrome since it came out and I have yet to have a single popup since.

  73. The end of Javascript by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Pop-ups are bugs that are enabled due to the inherently buggy Javascript language.

    I believe Javascript will be coming to an end within a year or two, and a flood of unblockable pop-ups would only hasten the finale.

    If you really need "something only Javascript can do" then you need to either get a new HTML tag added, such as through WHATWG, or rethink why you are on the web in the first place.

  74. Missing the point! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Everyone is missing the point of this service. It is not an advertising proform that tries to get browsers to go to a 3rd party site. It is solely a tool for the webmaster to announce promotions, shipping specials, etc. It can also be used to collect opt-in emails. They are generally displayed off to the side of the website, and can be closed.

  75. Similar to your not capitalising properly? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "when you announce that you don't use these technologies, all you show us is that you are indulging in some sort of odd attention-seeking disorder with a strange misplaced pride"

    You don't see your refusal to capitalise properly as being somewhat ironic in the context of your criticism?

    Ha! Just noticed that my "-ise" instead of "-ize" could be criticised in the same way (although at least it has some linguistic justification. ;)

    Also just noticed that I has to enable Javascript and "display images" to post this!

  76. When pop-ups are required by fuego451 · · Score: 1

    I've yet to visit a web page that could get a pop-up past iceweasel's blocker, AdblockPlus or NoScript. What bugs me are important sites, such as my medical provider, requiring pop-ups to make full use of their information.

  77. In Their Defense by Voyager529 · · Score: 1

    I've thought similarly as well. While Netflix is the most legit business who have obtrusive ads, several others do as well. The thing is though that Netflix isn't necessarily doing this themselves. Odds are they have a graphic designer create an ad, and then give it to another firm whose job it is to serve those ads. That middleman firm is the one who is responsible for getting the ad in banners, popups, and adware titles all over the internet. It's not necessarily Netflix's fault, though I would hope that they would choose a more respectable firm who uses less dubious means to serve the ads.

    1. Re:In Their Defense by mcgrew · · Score: 1

      It's not necessarily Netflix's fault

      Netflix hired them, Netflix is responsible. If I were Netflix' owner and I saw a Netflix popup that firm would be fired as fast as I could fire them. Your employees' behavior on the job is your responsibility.

  78. Solution by nurb432 · · Score: 1

    Go back to earlier and more sane HTML standards.

    --
    ---- Booth was a patriot ----
  79. sure there's a way to block these poop-ups by swschrad · · Score: 1

    got the street address for their servers? give 'em a little Vitamin D-14. Caterpillar construction equipment, sanitizing the net

    --
    if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
  80. Don't see the popup by Lord+Lode · · Score: 1

    The site http://www.adimpact.com/ tells me "did you see the popup? refresh to see it again". Well, I don't see it. There is no popup. And Adblock marks nothing in red on that site, so the popup just doesn't work. This in SeaMonkey browser.

    1. Re:Don't see the popup by Lord+Lode · · Score: 1

      EDIT: Ok, so I DID see the popup. I just thought popup meant a new browser window, not some dynamic thing floating on the same page. So yeah, I see them. Nothing adblock can't handle.

    2. Re:Don't see the popup by mjwx · · Score: 1

      The site http://www.adimpact.com/ tells me "did you see the popup? refresh to see it again". Well, I don't see it. There is no popup. And Adblock marks nothing in red on that site, so the popup just doesn't work. This in SeaMonkey browser.

      Same in Vanila Firefox 3.06 with Adblock Plus and Flashblock installed.

      Even refreshed the page a few times to see their "unblockable popup".
      Fail.

      But then again, I've worked with marketing people and that page oozed the kind of BS that is used to appeal to PHB's, weather it works or not is unimportant as long as the managers and marketers are sufficiently impressed with the website.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
  81. It doesn't matter what it is by argent · · Score: 1

    It's not the content of popups that is the problem. It's the popups themselves.

    And in any case... it doesn't seem to be working for Firefox 3.0.6.

  82. Block Method by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Any reason this wont work?

    Adimpact writes to several global vars upon init.
    One of them seems to be a boolean called dom_7489573282. Why not just have a firefox plugin have create a setter for 'dom_7489573282' that, when fired, would immediately destroy/close the DHTML popup...

  83. incorrect by aepervius · · Score: 1

    Javascript / Ajax and whatever scripting language is more akin to a french kiss : you don't mingle corporal fluids with any women/men you meet in the street, or if you do, you don't complain when you get ill/herpes or whatever. What you are telling us is in essence is "you are missing out on French kissing/new web functionality" what we are telling you is in essence "sorry but I kiss/enable script on only trusted women/men-web site I trust a bit ad not random stranger/web site".

    --
    C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
    visit randi.org
  84. devoid by scientus · · Score: 1

    you can just turn off popups completely, just go to about:config and change dom.popup_allowed_events

  85. White list? by Honest+Man · · Score: 1

    Why not just have a simple white list requiring you to approve every website (temp/perm/block) that attempts to open? Yeah its annoying but its less annoying than pop up spam.

  86. I know how they do by C0vardeAn0nim0 · · Score: 1

    And I just installed greasemonkey.

    will start coding something to clean up the mess.

    basicaly, the hide their shit in a self.document.write() function. since this function is actually usefull, I won't clean all instances of it, only instances that try to write:

    - A style sheet
    - More javascript

    a page that uses self.document.write() for legitimate purposes only don't have to re-write the style sheet nor add more javascript using this method. they can put it in the clear instead of using self.document.write() to obfuscate the code.

    --
    What ? Me, worry ?
  87. PLEASE LOOK AT OUR SIGN IN CAPS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
  88. Not Blocking DHTML ? by Stan92057 · · Score: 0

    My pop up blocker isn't working?? thats news to me lol. And the stats say its blocking DHTML pop ups just fine. Maybe the poster needs to update his pop up blocker and it just might work lol.

    --
    Jack of all trades,master of none
  89. Mine works fine... by richtaur · · Score: 1

    but thanks for the heads up?

  90. Re:Basics of HOSTS files by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    HOSTS files native to your OS can stop these "unblockable AdBanners": No 3rd party addons required (for WebBrowsers (or the OS)) either.

    DIRECTIONS/HOW TO:

    Place www.adimpact.com &/or adimpact.com into a CUSTOM HOSTS FILE w/ a leading blocking IP of 0 (fastest & smallest 'blocking IP address' possible), or 0.0.0.0 (next smallest & fastest), OR 127.0.0.1 (largest & slowest of the 3 by the by), by placing these lines into your %WinDir%\system32\Drivers\etc located HOSTS file using notepad.exe, like so:

    ====

    HOSTS Files Entries Examples (For Windows 2000/XP/Server 2003):

    0 adimpact.com
    0 www.adimpact.com

    ----

    OR,

    ----

    HOSTS Files Entries Examples (For Windows VISTA &/or Server 2008):

    0.0.0.0 adimpact.com
    0.0.0.0 www.adimpact.com

    ====

    IF you can do THAT simple task, using notepad.exe (or any text editor)?

    You'll not see their popups and problem solved (& no 3rd party addons to browsers OR the OS required), & for ALL webbound programs, not just browsers (or single webbrowsers via addons or their own uniquely native features).

    APK

    P.S.=> "NoScript &/or FlashBlock need not apply", as they're largely useless addons in this case that take up CPU cycles needlessly, vs. what a HOSTS file can do, & "NO CHARGE" & is already a native feature to your Tcp/IP stack in your Operating System, AND, that extends itself to not only a SINGLE BROWSER (as noscript & flashblock/adblock do for FireFox, & Opera's FILTER.INI/URLFILTER.INI files can do only for them), but, also to EVERY WEBBOUND PROGRAM YOU HAVE ALSO! Bonus...

    Thus, a SINGLE POINT OF CONTROL, only...apk

  91. Sting much? by Fantastic+Lad · · Score: 1

    "Appendix of history"? --Are you kidding me?

    Man, that's one dead scarecrow!

    Everybody on Slashdot uses some form of proxy software to prevent annoying ads, yet amazingly I think you'd be hard pressed to find a single one of them who hasn't figured out how to watch an internet video when they feel like it. You're yelling at nothing. Why?

    when you announce that you don't use these technologies, all you show us is that you are indulging in some sort of odd attention-seeking disorder with a strange misplaced pride

    Ah. I See.

    Translation: "I feel threatened by people with strong opinions and decisive behavior."

    If you want to watch TV or surf the web in whatever manner best suits you, then go right ahead. Nobody cares. --However, feeling the need to have popular consensus on your side while you do so is garden variety cowardice.

    -FL

  92. Re:Basics of HOSTS files by Spyder · · Score: 1

    Hostfiles are a point solution, a DHTML pop-in block script works even if the source domain is different, without any further analysis.

    I find Flashblock works pretty well for me. I agree about NoScript, but Flashblock is a must have for me.

    --
    Spyder
  93. Re:Popups? With HOSTS files, no popups by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    HOSTS files native to your OS can stop these "unblockable AdBanners": No 3rd party addons required (for WebBrowsers (or the OS)) either.

    HOW TO DO HOSTS FILES EDITS:

    Using notepad.exe (or, any text editor), open %WinDir%\system32\drivers\etc & the file named HOSTS there (it has no extension), & place:

    www.adimpact.com

    &

    adimpact.com

    Into a the HOSTS FILE w/ a leading blocking IP of 0 (fastest & smallest 'blocking IP address' possible), or 0.0.0.0 (next smallest & fastest), OR 127.0.0.1 (largest & slowest of the 3 by the by)!

    Simply by placing these lines into your %WinDir%\system32\Drivers\etc located HOSTS file using notepad.exe, like so:

    ====

    HOSTS Files Entries Examples (For Windows 2000/XP/Server 2003):

    0 adimpact.com
    0 www.adimpact.com

    ----

    OR,

    ----

    HOSTS Files Entries Examples (For Windows VISTA &/or Server 2008):

    0.0.0.0 adimpact.com
    0.0.0.0 www.adimpact.com

    ====

    So, IF you can do THAT simple task, using notepad.exe (or any text editor)?

    You'll not see their popups and problem solved (& no 3rd party addons to browsers OR the OS required), & for ALL webbound programs, not just browsers (or single webbrowsers via addons or their own uniquely native features).

    APK

    P.S.=> "NoScript &/or FlashBlock need not apply"!

    (As they're largely useless addons in this case that take up CPU cycles & RAM, needlessly, vs. what a HOSTS file can do)

    Hosts Files come native to your OS & operate @ "NO CHARGE" as part of your Tcp/IP stack in your Operating System!

    AND

    That extends itself to not only a SINGLE BROWSER (as noscript & flashblock/adblock do for FireFox, & Opera's FILTER.INI/URLFILTER.INI files can do only for them), but, also to EVERY WEBBOUND PROGRAM YOU HAVE ALSO! Bonus...

    Thus, a SINGLE POINT OF CONTROL, only, for ALL webbound programs, is what a HOSTS file gives you vs. other solutions noted here on /. (slashdot)...apk

  94. Want to disable this crap easily?? Use PROXOMITRON by Aklarr · · Score: 1

    Use Proxomitron and Sidki filter set from Jan 2009 here http://prxbx.com/forums/index.php

  95. 0 is better than 0.0.0.0, & better than 127.0. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Wouldn't it be better to use 0.0.0.0 instead of 127.0.0.1? The latter attempts to connect while the former doesn't bother." - by MorderVonAllem (931645) on Thursday February 05, @11:21AM (#26738797)

    Yes, you're correct...

    Plain 0 (1 byte) is even better than 0.0.0.0 = 7 bytes (or 127.0.0.1 = 9 bytes, even) for blocking, because it occupies less RAM, per EACH hosts file entry you make using it for blocking out bad sites or bad adbanner servers, etc et al...

    (&, a local DNS cache flush (via ipconfig /flushdns) will show that much easily... & flush FASTER, via the usage of said 0 as the blocking IP address)!

    AND, @ least, prior to 12/09/2009's patches for monthly hotfixes, you could use 0 even on VISTA &/or Server 2008...

    NOW THOUGH, for SOME stupid reason (because it is STUPID that MS has taken it away with no good reasons offered I know of), you cannot use plain 0 anymore on VISTA &/or Server 2008...

    HOWEVER, you can still use "0" (plain 0, vs. 0.0.0.0 or 127.0.0.1) as the blocking IP Address in a HOSTS file, on Windows 2000/XP/Server 2003, no problems!

    ----

    HOSTS files native to your OS can stop these "unblockable AdBanners": No 3rd party addons required (for WebBrowsers (or the OS)) either.

    HOW TO DO HOSTS FILES EDITS:

    Using notepad.exe (or, any text editor), open %WinDir%\system32\drivers\etc & the file named HOSTS there (it has no extension), & place these lines into your %WinDir%\system32\Drivers\etc located HOSTS file using notepad.exe, like so:

    ====

    HOSTS Files Entries Examples (For Windows 2000/XP/Server 2003):

    0 adimpact.com
    0 www.adimpact.com

    ----

    OR,

    ----

    HOSTS Files Entries Examples (For Windows VISTA &/or Server 2008):

    0.0.0.0 adimpact.com
    0.0.0.0 www.adimpact.com

    ====

    Into a the HOSTS FILE w/ a leading blocking IP of 0 (fastest & smallest 'blocking IP address' possible), or 0.0.0.0 (next smallest & fastest), OR 127.0.0.1 (largest & slowest of the 3 by the by)!

    So, IF you can do THAT simple task, using notepad.exe (or any text editor)?

    You'll not see their popups and problem solved (& no 3rd party addons to browsers OR the OS required), & for ALL webbound programs, not just browsers (or single webbrowsers via addons or their own uniquely native features).

    APK

    P.S.=> "NoScript &/or FlashBlock need not apply"!

    (As they're largely useless addons in this case that take up CPU cycles & RAM, needlessly, vs. what a HOSTS file can do)

    Hosts Files come native to your OS & operate @ "NO CHARGE" as part of your Tcp/IP stack in your Operating System!

    AND

    That extends itself to not only a SINGLE BROWSER (as noscript & flashblock/adblock do for FireFox, & Opera's FILTER.INI/URLFILTER.INI files can do only for them), but, also to EVERY WEBBOUND PROGRAM YOU HAVE ALSO!

    Bonus!

    Thus, a SINGLE POINT OF CONTROL, only, for ALL webbound programs, is what a HOSTS file gives you vs. other solutions noted here on /. (slashdot)...apk

  96. It's easy to block these... by Talaria · · Score: 1

    ..if they are simply spawning windows that are opening new URLs. CasaleMedia and YieldManager are notorious for this. But all you need do is run a URL blocking program or extension (we love LeechBlock extension for Firefox) and plug in their domains. Here are two articles on how we do this: http://www.theinternetpatrol.com/companies-that-end-run-pop-up-blocking-to-shove-their-advertising-down-your-throat-and-how-to-stop-them http://www.theinternetpatrol.com/new-free-pop-up-blocker-for-a-new-breed-of-pop-ups

  97. the tao of noscript by Mana+Mana · · Score: 1

    > blocks ALL Flash content until explicitly allowed (which can either be once or always for a particular site

    Don't you wish as I do that the Flashblock guys would steal the "temporarily allow example.com" from noscript?

    Otherwise, undoing flashblock pass quick is a longass process!!!

  98. don't blinkor you'll miss it by Mana+Mana · · Score: 1

    > the new blink tag

    about:config
    browser.blink_allowed;false

  99. Guess what? I've already installed a flash blocker by rinoid · · Score: 1

    I can just as well use my web browser with javascript turned off. Sure I won't be able to log into most sites or do much with Google Apps or anything else in the cloud, but, I'll still be able to get basic information.

    I love running around with no-flash, it's like free-balling except I can click and the flash runs when I want it to!

  100. There's no immediate prospect of a solution? by Mac_8100_g3 · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Yes there is. Blacklist the sites that are infested with this type of advertising. Stop visiting them. Find alternatives.

    --
    My peace of mind does not depend on /. karma
  101. Opera, Firefox+ABP, and website n00bs by Geminii · · Score: 1
    Testing... OK. Opera doesn't block DHTML popups, but AFAICT they're contained within the original page and simply count as "Website is screwing up access to its own content, leave and don't come back." FF3 with ABP kills the DHTML popups dead.

    Regarding ads in general, my personal approach is that I'm never, ever going to buy anything off the internet as the result of an ad, so there's no good reason to clog my limited bandwidth with them.

    Anyone demanding I read their ads is going to be ignored. Anyone attempting to use various tech to force me to read their ads will either have it quietly subverted or else I simply won't be reading or recommending anything at all from that site. Maybe they can build a business when they're deliberately turning people away, maybe they can't. Either way, not my problem - I'm already off reading what their competitors' sites have to say instead.

    The basic expectation of the internet is that publically accessible data will be free, easy to access, and not buried in crap. This is because billions of sites have already learned that if they don't conform to this expectation, they're automatically cutting their own throats unless they have something that no other site on the web can offer and that no other site will ever spring up to supply.

    That's a VERY limited set of possibilities.

    Personally, I'm all for the existence of DHTML ads, in the same way that I have no problem with stores selling seven-foot spoilers to n00b street racers. Sometimes, people just have to make their own dumb, costly decisions for a while before they cotton on to the whole "basic logic" thing.

  102. Adblock rule to break examples on adimpact site by Boris_SDC · · Score: 1

    #img(src*=adimpact)

    Yawn...

  103. Social engineering? by fugue · · Score: 1

    Any time a site throws a popup at you, send them an email explaining that you are boycotting their site until they fix it?

    Just silently boycotting is not enough--they will never know the difference.

    --
    "The biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place."
  104. Yes - but it's usually far easier than that by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yup spot on - but in 99% of cases you can beat these things FAR easier than that. Generally the show/hide of the offending div (or whatever) is going to be done via some .js - so you just adblock that file (or entire domain, if it's coming from an adserving site, not the site you're on). Occasionally though they are right little shits and use inline <script> so you do have go DOM fishing.

  105. Re:Basics of HOSTS files by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Hostfiles are a point solution" - by Spyder (15137) on Thursday February 05, @05:55PM (#26745435)

    That work, no questions asked. HOSTS files work, & work across each & every application that accesses the internet - period (unlike FlashBlock, which only works on 1 browser family, the Mozilla FireFox brand).

  106. I hate ads by chacha102 · · Score: 1

    Honestly, I avoid all ads in general. None of them really interest me and all of my friends find the ads that might, remotely, interest me. Why sift through all the junk when you can have your friends who actually read the stuff do it for you.

  107. HOSTS file scalability? by gr8dude · · Score: 1

    Will there be a problem when the hosts file gets large? Each time a connection is established the system will have to see if the name is in the list or not.

    The network stack (or whatever it is that tries o find the match) is not a DBMS, how does it deal with a list that keeps growing all the time?