This is topic Fight the popup powers that be in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.


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Posted by Slash the Berzerker (Member # 556) on :
 
I swear, we have become a popup culture.

Of course, you can't go anywhere on the net without being barraged by popups. The popup blockers help, but it's an epidemic with no real cure.

Now, we have streaming movie advertisements playing on our AIM taskbars. They are sucking up my bandwidth, AND making my computer make noise, without any consent. I mean, the little pictures of ads were irritating, but largely ignorable. The streaming movies are freaking talking to me!

And now, the worst indignity. Popup ads on TV. The little station identifier in the corner was bad enough. But now they have large (sometimes 1/4 of the screen) ads for other shows popping up in the middle of the show your watching! What the hell?!

So I have made a promise to myself. I will never buy a product advertised in any popup ad ever (I have never used Orbitz for this reason, and never will). And now I will never watch a TV program that is advertised in a popup ad.

[Title edited to be more general]

Who's with me?

[ January 14, 2004, 08:58 PM: Message edited by: Slash the Berzerker ]
 

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Posted by Raia (Member # 4700) on :
 
*raises torch*
 

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Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :
 
iChat - it's the only way to go! All the AIM goodness, none of the Microsoft crap.
 

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Posted by Tstorm (Member # 1871) on :
 
No second thoughts necessary. I'm in.
 

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Posted by Slash the Berzerker (Member # 556) on :
 
Could someone donate web space for us to have an online petition people could sign about this? Something to let the marketeers know how much this actually pisses us off?

Something we could register with the search engines, so whenever someone searches for 'popup', our petition comes up? 'Sign this agreement to never use products or services advertised in popups.' Would it be possible to do that?
 

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Posted by Jexxster (Member # 5293) on :
 
Wow, I haven't logged into AIM in a while, and this is even more reason to avoid it.

Enter Trillian. Connects me to AIM, Yahoo, MSN, ICQ, and IRC all at the same time, and absolutely no popups. I love Trillian.

Edit: Linkage. Go for the free, basic one.

[ January 14, 2004, 08:49 PM: Message edited by: Jexxster ]
 

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Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :
 
I haven't seen any of the streaming ads . . . are they on the buddy list?

I definitely agree with you on the TV pop-ups. Sounds like a good idea. Heck yeah, I'm with you!
How about those ads that take up half of the screen while the end-credits are running? I think if I boycott those I might be boycotting a bunch of things. There are actually a few shows where I want to be able to see the end credits--guest stars on The Simpsons, writers on The Twilight Zone, gags in the Xena credits--and then there are the shows that keep the jokes coming during the end credits, like the out-takes on Fresh Prince and Home Improvement, but I can't hear 'em over the obnoxious commercial!

Are the ads on the AIM today window? If so, that might be why I don't see them. I have that turned off, along with the stock ticker.
 

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Posted by Raia (Member # 4700) on :
 
Well, my AIM doesn't give me popups... but I am against them in general! So, once again... *raises torch*
 

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Posted by saxon75 (Member # 4589) on :
 
1 and 1 Internet is giving away web space for the next 8 days. That might be a place to start.
 

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Posted by Mr.Funny (Member # 4467) on :
 
I think that the most effective way to circulate the petition would be in the form of a popup ad. Oh, the irony.
 

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Posted by Bokonon (Member # 480) on :
 
Use Mozilla or firebird as a browser:

http://www.mozilla.org/

Use trillian for IMing:

http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/

Turn of Microsoft Messenger in your windows processes (this is for Windows NT, 2000, and XP):

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/howto/communicate/stopspam.asp

Thus is your arsenal to fight popups, and fear not, you will succeed.

-Bok
 

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Posted by Derrell (Member # 6062) on :
 
*grabs another torch*

I'm in.
 

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Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
 
You don't SEE them, Ic, you HEAR them. (At least, that's how it works for me.) Scared the heck out of me the first few times.

*lights torch* Burn them!
 

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Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :
 
I do have pop-up preventers on my computers, maybe that's why I don't see 'em . . .


 

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Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
 
I have tried THREE different popup blockers; AIM gets around all of them. And Trillian just made me nuts . . . *sigh*
 

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Posted by Argèn†~ (Member # 4528) on :
 

quote:

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iChat - it's the only way to go! All the AIM goodness, none of the Microsoft crap.

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Since when did Microsoft run AOL? I think you are a little mixed up on who is doing what wrong to whom, here.
 

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Posted by blacwolve (Member # 2972) on :
 
I haven't gotten any popups since I downloaded the google toolbar. I didn't even get it to use as a popup blocker, but I loves it sooo much now.
 

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Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
 
Got me what MS has to do with AIM (I am a huge iChat fan, though).

Maybe she was referring to Messenger, somehow?
 

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Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
 
I love the Google-toolbar-and-blocker. But even it can't seem to block (doesn't seem to SEE) the popup that opens when I start AIM or the streaming audio ads it sporadically has.
 

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Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
 
You're right, it doesn't, because those aren't the sort of popups it deals with. From the sounds of them, they're either not IE popups, or they're caused by spyware or adware. Or both.
 

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Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
 
I've been using Spybot and Adaware to kill those. *lightbulb flashes* And I've only had ONE streaming sound thingy recently, and I think it may have been not long before my most recent purge-the-spyware blitz.

Actually, the one that opens with the AIM buddy window IS an IE window, but it seems to trick the blocker by opening with the buddy list. It's just one window each time -- I'll live.
 

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Posted by Nato (Member # 1448) on :
 
There's a program called DeadAIM that will get rid of these AIM ads and does a bunch of other stuff too, but it's $5.

I'm sure there are free products out there that do the same thing. I'm looking right now, but I can't seem to load Sourceforge at the moment.

I'm a Trillian user myself. I didn't really even want to let anything AOL touch my system.
 

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Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
 
I'm familiar with DeadAIM, and I have friends who use it. Paying NOT to have ads feels to me like extortion, so I won't do it.
 

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Posted by Nato (Member # 1448) on :
 
I read this somewhere on the Internet:

quote:

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Why download a program to get rid of ads when it is only going to slow down your system? Just get rid of the ads yourself. Delete advert.ocm and change the name of admin.ocm to advert.ocm in your AIM folder. This does it! Simple.

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If I had AIM, I'd give it a try.

Edit: also, http://www.observers.net/aimadfix.html

Edit2: these "fixes" may be outdated. They never listed which versions they work with. Good luck anyhow!

[ January 15, 2004, 01:43 AM: Message edited by: Nato ]
 

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Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
 
Thanks, Nato. I followed your first suggestion, and we'll see if it works.

The second one made me go , so for now I'll skip it. If the first one doesn't work, I'll likely get up the nerve to try the second.
 

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Posted by Julian Delphiki (Member # 2015) on :
 
Between the google taskbar, my AIM ad remover, and zone alarm, i have yet to see a popup in over a year.


 

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Posted by Slash the Berzerker (Member # 556) on :
 
Can't get the google task bar for your TV.
 

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Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
 
Yet.
 

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Posted by Rhaegar The Fool (Member # 5811) on :
 
I will fight with thee!

*Draws Sword*

Live strong, die well.
 

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Posted by Kama (Member # 3022) on :
 
I got the much advertised Trillian, and have a question. Is it normal to take hours until I get to the chatroom?
 

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Posted by Primal Curve (Member # 3587) on :
 
Microsoft crap in America OnLine Instant Messenger? Oh yeah.
 

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Posted by Bokonon (Member # 480) on :
 
Kama, no.

The trick is to add yourself as a buddy, then right-click and choose Send Chat Invitation, and then use 'Hatrack Chat' as the chat room.

-Bok
 

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Posted by Kama (Member # 3022) on :
 
Yeah, that's what I did. And it took at least 5 minutes before the chat opened. Both from work and from home. But I tried again this morning, and it opened very quickly. So maybe it was just me.
 

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Posted by Lime (Member # 1707) on :
 
Found this on another message board:

quote:

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WARNING: There is a chance that if the instructions are not followed correctly this could mess up your computer. By choosing to continue you are accepting the following agreement:

I (your name) agree that in the event that I mess something up with my computer I will NOT hold Ender responsible. I choose to follow this procedure on my own accord. By reading the procedure I agree to abide by this WARRANTY.

(Also it?s for XP Home cuz that?s what I have. It may be different for other OS's and Ver.)

Ok enough of that stuff here:

1. Start>Run>C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
2. Select "Select the Program from a list" click "OK"
3. Choose Notepad click "OK"

It should look something like this:

example wrote:
# Copyright (c) 1998 Microsoft Corp.
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP stack for Windows98
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
# For example:
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host
127.0.0.1 localhost

(Note your hosts file might not look exactly like this. don't panic its ok)

4. Now add the following info:

127.0.0.1 ar.atwola.com
127.0.0.1 empiremovies.com
127.0.0.1 xlonhcld.xlontech.net
127.0.0.1 VTOT.proxy.aol.com
127.0.0.1 ads.web.aol.com
127.0.0.1 ads.aol.com

Make sure its 2 lines after the 127.0.0.1 localhost entry.

the finished product MIGHT look like this (different OS ver. look a little diff.):

quote:
Example wrote:
# Copyright (c) 1998 Microsoft Corp.
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP stack for Windows98
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a '#' symbol.
# For example:
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host
127.0.0.1 localhost

127.0.0.1 ar.atwola.com
127.0.0.1 empiremovies.com
127.0.0.1 xlonhcld.xlontech.net
127.0.0.1 VTOT.proxy.aol.com
127.0.0.1 ads.web.aol.com
127.0.0.1 ads.aol.com

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