Caltrops - Rants





	[quote name="Senor Barborito"][quote name="Fullofkittens"]First, we had the annoying-but-unobtrusive "shock the monkey" type ads. Then they started to get slightly more annoying by making little noises (generally when they were offscreen, prompting me to wonder if I had some other application open). The first really obtrusive ad I saw was on mp3.com last year - to get to a page you have to sit through a 5-second ad that plays REALLY FUCKING LOUD (with mucho distortion and clipping) about a new movie. It really discourages you from looking at shit on that site (nowadays they've removed all their good content, so there's no reason to go there anyways). Then we started getting banner ads that yell at you, and the only way to shut them up is to hit "sound off." That's pretty fucking annoying, but hey. You can turn them off. Now, as of last week or so, the Absolut ads do their thing and there's no stopping them. They're going to shoot their cardboard chips at the bottle and that's that. The sound cannot be turned off. Very annoying. Now, as of yesterday, those mp3.com view-covering ads are in my goddamn Yahoo email. Not, mind you, as part of a message - they're getting served up by Yahoo as I go into the message, advertising ebay. Fuck! One can only assume that the next generation of ads will actually require you to play a video game before disappearing. Me: "Ladidah, checking my email" Ad: "BOINK! Howdy pardner! Rope a steer to save on airfare!" Me: "Aw fuck you, dude ranch. Where's the close btton on this thing?" Ad: "BOINK! Howdy pardner! Rope a steer to save on airfare!" Me: "Shit! How do I get this to close without clicking the ad?" Ad: "BOINK! Howdy pardner! Rope a steer to save on airfare!" Me: (Ropes steer, saves on airfare) Ad: "BOINK! Howdy pardner! Rope a steer to save on airfare!"[/quote] Grab Mozilla 1.3.1 for Windows <a href="http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla/releases/mozilla1.3.1/mozilla-win32-1.3.1-installer.exe">here</a>. Let install run it's course, make Mozilla your default browser, and you'll be greeted with the standard shitty-Netscape theme. Let's get rid of that first: 'View'->'Apply Theme'->'Modern' Muuuuch better. Next, kill the stupid sidebar tab (unless for some ungodly reason you like it). . . and on to the configuring . . . Next, to get rid of popups: Go to 'Edit'->'Preferences', all the following steps take place within the 'Preferences' window: 1. 'Privacy & Security'->'Popup Windows' make sure 'Block unrequested popup windows' is checkmarked ON. 2. 'Advanced'->'Scripts and Plugins' under the Javascript section, make sure the following the are checkmarked OFF: 'Move or resize existing windows', 'Raise or lower windows', 'Create or change cookies' Some customization tips: 3. 'Navigator'->'Tabbed Browsing' make sure 'Middle Click' is checkmarked ON - trust me, you will grow to love tabbed browsing (Ctrl+T for keyboard shortcut), it is almost impossible to go back to IE once you have it. 4. 'Navigator'->'History' set it to 99 days 5. 'Navigator'->'Internet Search' set to 'Google' 6. 'Privacy & Security'->'Passwords' make sure Password Manager's 'Remember passwords' is checkmarked OFF - it is the second most obnoxious thing in the history of the universe. 7. 'Privacy & Security'->'Forms' make sure Form Manager's 'save form data' is checkmarked OFF - it is the MOST goddamned obnoxious thing in the yada yada yada. . . . I know there's one other one I'm forgetting, so if something is annoying about Moz, lemme know there might be a quick option for it. Under 'Navigator' itself, I find it handy to click every one of the checkmarked options off. Finally, the big one: NEVER EVER EVER EVAR INSTALL SHOCKWAVE/FLASH FOR MOZILLA UNLESS YOU LIKE THOSE STUPID FUCKING ADVANCED ADS Save IE for what little legitimate shockwave crap is out on the web - <a href="http://www.brokensaints.com">Broken Saints</a> is the only thing that comes to mind. I haven't had one popup, sound, or otherwise intrusive advertisement since I started surfing using this split IE/Mozilla combo. --SB[/quote]