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Mozilla Fixed a 14-Year-Old Bug In Firefox, Now Adblock Plus Uses Less Memory
An anonymous reader writes: Mozilla launched Firefox 41 yesterday. Today, Adblock Plus confirmed the update "massively improves" the memory usage of its Firefox add-on. This particular memory issue was brought up in May 2014 by Mozilla and by Adblock Plus. But one of the bugs that contributed to the problem was actually first reported on Bugzilla in April 2001 (bug 77999).
When you can use ublock Origin, which uses even less ram.
Now I can not only block the Kardashians but also Donald Trump and Taylor Swift.
fixed in a timely fashion I see.
When will they fix the bug that's slowly turning Firefox into a crappy clone of Chrome?
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
Using Firefox has become like that relationship that used to be perfect and then out of nowhere your partner starts cheating on you and each time swears its going to be the last time.
And you keep falling for it.
"I'm a humble person really,
I'm actually much greater than I think I am"
There was this woman I worked with who constantly complained of her computer locking up. For every page she looked at, she would open a new tab. After a couple of hours, she had a few dozen tabs open. Clicking on the close program icon wouldn't look like it was dining anything. It took several minutes to close the browser down.
And she kept doing it even after it was explained to her that she was causing her machine to hang!
To this day I have no idea why she insisted on doing it.
Firefox 41 also removed the New Tab URL preference (browser.newtab.url), telling people to use a third-party extension instead.
The reason? Malware can change the setting. Full stop. That's it. So, because someone's computer is already compromised, and that malware changed a Firefox preference (alongside doing things like, you know, running a keylogger), Mozilla decided to cause headache and grief for everyone else. And to top it all off, if you want to continue to configure the new tab URL, you should use an extension written by some random guy.
I just don't understand the mentality. Choosing the default URL for a new tab seems like such an obvious feature, yet it's getting ripped out too, like so many others that Gavin Sharp has pissed on. Fuck Mozilla.
"What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
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Ah. An AdBlock thread without APK is like a outhouse without the stink.
AFAICT it's not a bug, more of a feature request.
The problem was that style sheets were not being shared between pages, even if they were identical. So AdBlockPro had a copy of its style sheets shared in each tab. Apparently it uses a large style sheet?
So this change allowed for some de-duplication.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
There is hope yet for all the bugs I've submitted.
Who is this idiot that keeps spamming that crap?
I thought Firefox didn't have any memory issues? That was the party line from Mozilla for so long.
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
How do I block THIS ad?
On behalf of all other AC's I apologize for this piece of unintelligible tripe.
I realize we do not have a very good reputation, but this is below even our standards. And that includes goatse, GNAA and even DICE editing standards.
Again, on behalf of all AC's, our sincerest apologies.
I'm definitely all for reducing firefox's memory footprint. It's definitely a memory hog. But if you use your hosts file or DNS to do your adblocking, then it works with all browsers. Heck, if you control your router, and you put the blocking in DNS there, then you get it on all of your computers. Currently, I use unbound with https://github.com/jodrell/unb... on a cronjob to update the block list regularly, and all of my browsers are free of ads without having to figure out the best way to block ads in each browser - or having to worry about how it affects firefox's already ludicrous memory footprint.
Here comes Slashdot's resident spammer to tell us why browser extensions are bad, but some bullshit software he wrote (which just rides the coattails of other people) is good.
Notice he never addresses how advertising companies spin up new servers day in and day out, but no operating system's implementation of /etc/hosts will support wildcards on a domain. Blocking foo.adserver.com is useless when they create bar.adserver.com and baz.adserver.com an hour from now. Instead, he will ad-hominem attack anyone mentioning this.
Notice he never addresses the fact that advertising companies have begun serving their ads directly from IP addresses, bypassing DNS altogether. Instead, he will ad-hominem attack anyone mentioning this.
Notice he never addresses the fact that browser extensions can recognize and block certain DOM elements no matter where they come from, whereas a hosts file is completely incapable of assisting in this manner. Instead, he will ad-hominem attack anyone mentioning this.
At least it isn't as old as the "add extra row to textarea" bug reported in 2000, and still not fixed.
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=33654
There are work arounds, but there shouldn't need to be.
After my computer slowing to a crawl, inspecting the task manager, discovering FF was using 1.5G memory, restarting FF, and seeing that it only used 500M memory with the exact same windows open, what realistic alternatives are there?
Chrome, no. There's a new Opera coming out, but not anytime soon. IE, not in this lifetime. I've been out of the loop for a long time, what does the alternative browser market look like these days?
And throw in a replacement for Thunderbird as well, I'm tired of waiting 30 seconds for a "create a new message" window to appear on my system.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
Also, that is actually nonsensical as a DNS BL is something you are added to that the other person uses, you can't get by it by using a hosts file on either end (as a hosts file isn't anything like a DNS BL).
But that is ok, when you bring up problems with his hosts files, it is nothing but ad hominem and "I totally showed you up" when he did nothing of the sort.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
APK's host file program fixed this bug years ago, that is why he feels he is on topic with this post.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
I was having a bit of a rough day, one of our major sites was down because the backbone provider screwed up and everyone was pissed, and you managed to make me laugh out out for the first time today despite all of that. Thanks!
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Apparently I am dumb, as I actually know what a DNS black list is, and you don't.
http://www.dnsbl.info/
Blacklists are used by mail servers to automatically black hole messages from known spammers. They are not used by your web browser, so adding a BLed address to your hosts file would be 1. extraordinarily dumb, and 2. not do anything.
If you don't know what a term means, don't just assume that the name describes it, instead you should look it up and read about it.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
Um, did you even read any of that thread APK? I never admitted you were right at all, and the reply to yours had me falling out of my seat laughing.
APK Hosts file = Unsecure garbage software
You didn't even write the majority of it, you just steal other people's lists and combine them into yours. Please tell me more about all your security chops, and how you have no freaking clue what a DNS BL is.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
Make it three - unfortunately I have to work with Jira and it pretty much kills any other browser.
You like hosts, go use them and enjoy it. I think hosts have a use but it's not the only thing I use. I like my setup too, and I am enjoying it.
The difference is, I'm not an insecure little man with a desperate need to win converts. I don't really care what other people use. I wouldn't recommend anything to them unless they bring it up first. You remind me of a religious zealot on a mission to preach to the infidels.
APK, you know what "P.S." means, right? In case you don't, I'll offer this common definition:
A postscript (P.S.) is an afterthought, thought of occurring after the letter has been written and signed. The term comes from the Latin post scriptum, an expression meaning "written after" (which may be interpreted in the sense of "that which comes after the writing").
Now, why in the hell does your text after the P.S. contain 39% more text than the text before the P.S.? This is Slashdot, we know you can't edit your posts to add things after the fact, so instead of putting in one or more postscripts, just finish your thought man. And what's with the little "=>" symbol? Are you trying to point out that the postscript is that text just to the right of where you write "P.S."? Let me tell you brother, that's obvious. People trying to interpret the things that you type don't need additional random punctuation whose only purpose is to point out the obvious but instead just end up adding additional confusion. Things like separating sentences with a plus sign (we understand, the next thought is supposed to follow the previous thought), occasionally switching to an ampersand then back to a plus sign, beginning sentences that are not footnotes with an asterisk, etc.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
DNS Blocking isn't the same thing as DNS BL, stop backpedaling.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
Evade them? I can't even spell them!
Well, way to go Firefox! Right on top of things! But I thought Firefox has been saying for years it has no memory issues? So is this a 14 year old issue that really isn't an issue that now has been fixed? Got it.
After a few hours of use with, say, ~10 tabs open, Firefox 40.0.3 leaks memory until it's using 2.6G of RAM, at which point it randomly stops loading images, gets very, very laggy, and freezes for ~30 seconds at a time.
I hope this fixes that (I fail to see how it could make it any worse, frankly).
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
-1. I see a lot of angry /./FF fangurlz. If I had to make a guess, it's because they didn't come up with a post containing an in-depth analysis and screenshots first.
I actually ENJOY watching these troll worms flail all over, blowing all their modpoints (& I just run them dry of them eventually via my UNLIMITED posting abilities here, unlike other ac posters).
So you you put some effort into being a spammer (boast about it in fact) and you admit that you like disrupting the normal functioning of this site.
Did you ever ask yourself, "are these the actions of a happy, fulfilled person who has a meaningful life?" You're a pest and you like being a pest. The irony? You have done more to give your hosts program a bad name than anything anyone else could have possibly said.
FTFY - You're just another can't code himself critic with nothing to show for himself since if you really didn't give a shit you wouldn't even reply. Thanks for projecting that much that you do give a shit.
So ... are you going to respond to anything I said, or are you going to keep acting like a spoiled child?
Until hosts can be enabled/disabled for specific programs it is worthless as a security tool.
It also doesn't work on spammers not using a domain name, nor does it handle wildcards.
It does however, make you a giant tool.
Get on topic. Do something useful like apk has in his program. You can't prove his points on hosts wrong either. I suppose I for one expect too much from you slashdot trolls. You don't possess the skills to do either one, so go away troll, shoo. I think it's hilarious how apk makes you fools go nuts but you never ever prove him validly technically wrong. Not ever.
That's the amazing thing about APK and his bootlicking myrmidons (like you). You just can't actually respond to what someone is saying. You read what they said, but you lack the argumentation skill to actually rebut it. Being childish, that causes you to feel like you really don't like that person. Unable to meaingfully respond and filled with your vitriol, all you can do is hand-wave, call names, and change the subject.
If (for some strange reason) I wanted to, I could do that, too. What I couldn't do is act that way, and then convince myself that I am right and the other guy is a big dummy. That is a true masterwork of functional self-deception.
You're welcome. I think it's funny when apk makes trolls go nuts when they can't prove him wrong.
If by "go nuts" you mean laugh at how pathetic apk is, then yes, you've driven us stark raving mad. Of course "troll" is "anyone who doesn't agree with apk".
Why's Coren22 avoiding a simple question here http://tech.slashdot.org/comme... ?
APK and his myrmidons are the masters of never answering a simple question. While congratulating themselves for being such great debators. More like master debators the way they enjoy their little circle-jerk.
DNS Blocking isn't the same thing as DNS BL, stop backpedaling.
APK and his myrmidon supporters don't backpedal. Backpedaling when it's obvious you are wrong requires honesty, integrity, and a concern for what the truth is. It also requires the courage to admit fault and the grace to want to.
Expecting APK and his myrmidons to do that is like expecting a cockroach to appreciate opera. It's far beyond their reach.
Coren22 by ac, you still avoiding apk's question here http://tech.slashdot.org/comme... ? Yes.
The same way APK and his little fanboys are avoiding mine. And this one too. It's as though they realize that any honest answer would make them look bad.
Stay on topic. Explain how your hosts file gets around DNSBL
Sorry, I was trying to find the point of your post but I got distracted by all of the random punctuation and bolding. I'm sure you have a point there, but you definitely do like to bury it in sugary fluff. Consider focusing more on the content that you want to get across and less on trying to point out what that content is. Good writing doesn't need to point out the point. Bolding half your post has the side effect of making the un-bolded parts seem unimportant.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
APK has been owned over, and over, and over. Yet he still keeps repeating the same talking points as if this hasn't happened.
He must be a politician.
Does the hosts file allow me to very finely grainedly tune which servers are allowed or denied contact depending on the server I'm contacting that requested the contents?
Does it allow me to unblock ads on specific sites in which I [i]want[/i] ads to appear?
Does it allow me to block a specific visual area of a specific webpage only, and nothing else?
Does it allow me to block contents from a specific directory within a server, but not from other directories?
Does it allow me to completely unblock a server when I access it directly, but block it when I access it indirectly from other sources?
Does it allow me to make changes on the fly, without the need to manually refresh the OS's and/or browser's DNS cache?
Does it allow me to intercept the contents of specific servers and rewrite the HTML contents on the fly according automated rules I myself define?
If the answer to any of the above questions is "no", then your solution doesn't attend my needs, while uBlock Origin does.
Conservatism: (n.) love of the existing evils. Liberalism: (n.) desire to substitute new evils for the existing ones.
huh? Jira works fine (well, as fine as Jira can work) in Chrome, Safari, even Edge (well, shitty fonts aside).
Firefox is just so fucking slow all around.
It's not a program it's a hostfile.
Hosts files won't work in Windows 10
That's been squashed.
Use DD-WRT on your router, install auto daily blocklist update. Now no devices on network including mobile devices will never see any ads.
When I go to any bug, it renders the page then freezes the current tab for 30-40s. Agile board is completely impossible to use (do anything at all, browser again freezes for half a minute). The same problem with Chrome, Safari and IE. I generally use Chrome for everything, but still have to have firefox open just for damn jira.
And you are pretending to be someone else in defense of yourself, because you have no supporters. You're off topic and insane. I look forward to you stalking all my comments and replying to them with some banal, insane challenge you think is awesomely important but everyone else finds childish and, well, sad.
Do you really think we are so stupid to not know this is you? You have very apparent idiosyncrasies when you post as yourself, and you seem to have developed different (yet obvious) idiosyncrasies when posting as a sockpuppet-in-support. It's so patently obvious it's you, APK. It's so painfully obvious it's honestly sad. It's so sad that you have to pretend to be someone else in order to support your claims. It's as if you think the more people agree with a poor claim the less poor the claim is. Reality doesn't work like that, not that you seem to have a particularly good grasp of what "reality" means to most people.
The answer to each and every one of those is a resounding "no". APK will most likely ignore those, or issue a challenge (which ignores those points) and pretend that is the important thing. Oh, and expect him to stalk your comments and post comments purporting to be from other people asking why you are running away from the challenge. He's very predictable.
So the answer is "No - my HOSTS file solution can't block that".
Hell, your hosts solution can't tell the difference between:
http://content-provider.com/in...
and
http://content-provider.com/ho...
This is why people laugh at you.
JIRA works fine for me in Chrome...
Any idea why it took them so long?
bug specific to the version of jira you use or something? My previous company used jira with 500~ engineer/product people, and almost everyone used Chrome with it no problem... Current one uses the latest version of Jira, about 80 product/engineers, and i think only 2 people use firefox. No one has issues with it.
The worst is, his hosts tool is actually useful for those cases in which one does indeed want to locally block stuff outright while consuming minimum system resources. Too bad APK doesn't get that different people have different needs and there's no such thing as "one size fits all".
Conservatism: (n.) love of the existing evils. Liberalism: (n.) desire to substitute new evils for the existing ones.
If you send me an email, and my mail server is using a DNSBL, my server will get a response such as 127.0.0.5, this would indicate that you send spam (true...), and therefore my email server would drop the email you sent. Please explain how your hosts file will get around DNSBL now, as it isn't something under your control.
The last digit in the response usually corresponds to the reason that the mail server was blacklisted in some of the DNSBL providers. The RFC calls for the reason to be in a TXT field though.
If you don't believe me, do a Google search for DNSBL and see what it returns, it surely won't return what you are saying.
If Slashdot's mail server used a DNSBL, you would never even know your email was refused, it would not reach timothy, he wouldn't even know you had sent an email. Your hosts file will never get around it.
11.) Get you by dnsbl
This is a false statement. If you meant it to say DNS Blocking, than change it to that in your future spam.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rf...
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
NO. Read above under your original posting of this. I didn't respond as I was no longer reading Slashdot. I don't spend 16 hours a day on Slashdot.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
Does your software require elevation, of course it does, that was my point, not yours. I was making the point that elevation is a bad idea, and it is required to write to the hosts file because you shouldn't be writing to the hosts file. If you take that to mean that I am agreeing with you, you really do have an odd mind.
I am not agreeing with you, that was my original statement, and the whole basis of the argument. Ad Block Plus requires no elevation, it therefore cannot install trojans, it cannot hijack your DNS entry in networking to redirect it to another site possibly effecting a MiTM attack, it cannot change anything your standard user account can't access. Also, it can be installed to machines where you aren't an administrator, such as work computers.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
* ANSWER ="NO" to each above on ab+ doing it as well or @ ALL + hosts = already on every device natively.
All you said is true. However, I WANT Google Ads shown in three specific sites AND blocked in all other sites. Does "APK Hosts File Engine 9.0++ SR-2 32/64-bit" allow me to do this?
If I cannot unblock Google Ads in those three sites AND blocked in all others, if my only options with "APK Hosts File Engine 9.0++ SR-2 32/64-bit" is to block Google Ads in all sites or not block them in any site, then I won't be able to use it, no matter how good "APK Hosts File Engine 9.0++ SR-2 32/64-bit" is in everything else.
So, can "APK Hosts File Engine 9.0++ SR-2 32/64-bit" do what I need it to do? Is it flexible enough to do what I need it to do?
Conservatism: (n.) love of the existing evils. Liberalism: (n.) desire to substitute new evils for the existing ones.
If Slashdot's mail server is using a DNSBL, you WILL NOT be able to send them an email. Therefore, the answer is no. If you try to change the definition of DNSBL, you can make it pink instead of what it is, but that doesn't change what everyone else says DNSBL is.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Therefore, yes I agree you do fail, you are wrong, you should go home and pout.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
The answer to your questions is:
You said DNSBL in your list of items that your hosts file prevents/gets around.
DNSBL is not the same thing as DNS Blocking, they are totally different technologies.
I don't care what mythical scenario you come up with, hosts will never get you past DNSBL.
You can make your own personal definition of DNSBL be pink if you want, it doesn't change the rest of the world's definition of DNSBL.
So, the answer is NO, it will not stop being no just because of your wishful thinking. When you are willing to stop for a minute and read about what a DNSBL is, then maybe you will learn something, but until then you are just being a troll.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
Since when did these two things become the same thing?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... =/= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
You said DNSBL, not DNS blocking, they are different things used for different purposes.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
If you right click on the trayicon for the program IF you leave it resident (which doubly protects hosts vs. alteration by malware by the way, over WFP/SFP in Windows since it CAN be bypassed), it has an "enable/disable hosts" functionality, 1 click easy...
When I'm browsing I usually have 60 tabs opened at the same time. Five or so of those tabs are sites I want to see Google Ads in. The other 55 tabs are sites I don't want to see them. Also, among these 55 tabs a few are self-reloading tabs.
From your explanation, I understand that the "enable/disable hosts" button is global. It enables all protection, or it disables all protection. In other words, all the 60 tabs, particularly the self-reloading ones, will become unprotected and begin loading all scripts and all ads from all ad networks after as I press the "disable hosts" button. And all 60 tabs, including those I want to see Google Ads in, will become 100% protected and not load any ad at all after I press the "enable hosts" button. Is this interpretation of mine correct?
If I interpreted it correctly, this is not what I want.
I want to be able to disable the protection against Google Ads only in those 5 specific tabs. At the same time, I want Google Ads to be fully and completely blocked in all the other 55 tabs, including those tabs that self-reload every few seconds. Also, want all other ad networks and tracking scripts blocked in all 60 tabs. And I don't want to be obliged to remember to press a button in a tray icon to enable and disable ads at will, I want this process automated.
Can "APK Hosts File Engine 9.0++ SR-2 32/64-bit" provide this level of granularity, finely tunned controls, and automation, so that I can set it and forget it, having only those 5 tabs loading Google Ads while no other tab load Google Ads at all?
Why WOULD you WANT TO man?
Because there are a few sites that I like a lot that earn their living that way. That's how I pay for them.
Conservatism: (n.) love of the existing evils. Liberalism: (n.) desire to substitute new evils for the existing ones.
All or nothing across all apps multiplatform.
Then "APK Hosts File Engine 9.0++ SR-2 32/64-bit" isn't flexible enough for my needs. I guess I'll wait until you add the missing automation, granularity and fine tune controls then. Until then I'll keep using uBlock Origin, as it provides me with the features I need.
SO WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO PAY THEM FOR THAT WHEN THEY'RE ALREADY FUCKING YOU OVER ON NUMEROUS LEVELS?
I like their content, and I like the fact they earn enough from ads to be able to work full time in making this content and providing it.
Conservatism: (n.) love of the existing evils. Liberalism: (n.) desire to substitute new evils for the existing ones.
This is bullshit. Your settings basically turn off session restore. I might as well switch to links. What is the point of using a modern browser if I have to turn off it's modern features?
Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
I just want to say that all the 100 or so people at my previous office used Jira and Chrome with no problems whatsoever.
Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.