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pseydtonneHeck, it's almost like the first time I ever used a cable modem all over again. I found a solution that works on older and newer machines, that doesn't care which browser you use, and speeds up access times instead of slowing them down.
It's almost magical to visit popular web sites, watch them load in a couple seconds, and see white space where banner ads should be. Online magazines look a lot more like they're printed on paper this way, which comfortable spaces around things. Even the imperial wizard of advertisements, about.com, is easily visited and parsed.
Magic? Bull? No!
Let us suppose you wanted to surf the Web... and oh hey, you are right now. Now let's suppose you wanted to dodge all the fscking ads that infest your browser. What could you do?
You could install Greasemonkey if you're running Firefox. This is a javascript interface that lets you add scripts to the parsing of web pages. I'd been using Greasemonkey to solve several other problems, such as changing the colors of text-based web pages.
I have a pained hatred of black text on a white background when the white is simply bright fscking light aimed directly at my eyeballs. I would like to continue using my eyes for many decades to come, whether some page designer agrees with me or not. Unfortunately, just changing the default colors in the web browser doesn't work in these days of heavy CSS. Thus I use a simple javascript that finds colors I hate and turns them down or flips them over. That suits me.
Yeah, I'm fastidious about my computers. I've just made sure that solutions to my anxieties can be replicated readily. That way I can come to a new computer, grab a couple things either online or from a USB stick, and then get back to work. Then I can remove said material when I leave. No one else need be inconvenienced by my OCD.
(Watch me steer back to the original topic while integrating the tangents... I hope.)
Context ads also trigger my OCD, or really my need to stab things. I find these mostly at tech web sites, where random words will get double underlined in green. If I wave my mouse over a double underlined word, a pop-up will give me an ad for something related to that word. The pop-up sticks around way too long and makes reading very difficult. Thus I added a Greasemonkey script called Disable Text Ads and all that crap from Kontera goes away.
I wanted a little more protection from Google Ads and sundry when I learned of a revelation my rooomie had: it's faster to block the content at the door than it is to wait for it to load and then scrape it off. He had built a super-list of advertiser domains from various sources and his own hard work. Then he slapped them into a text file and set them to resolve falsely to the local machine in his hosts file.
What's a hosts file? It's a file on a computer that says which IP address matches which domain name. When you type "livejournal.com" into a browser, the browser checks this file first to see whether it knows the 1.2.3.4 IP address of LJ. When it doesn't find an answer there (and usually it won't), it then asks a domain name server out on the Internet for the answer. There are plenty of technical depths to this but the important part is: a computer looking for a domain name's location will look on itself first, then it'll look to the outside.
Using this edited hosts file, I change the result. Let's say a web page calls a link to "annoyingadverts.biz". The default behavior for a domain name resolution is to look on the hosts file in the The hosts file will look up that domain name on its local file and not find it, then go outside. If I've already got annoyingadverts.biz to resolve as 127.0.0.1 (the local home IP) in my local hosts file, then it will look locally... and find nothing. So it puts up an error or nothing at all and gets back to parsing the web page.
Oh yeah, this rocks immensely. However, my roomie put a huge amount of effort into this file and is not interested in giving it out. Thus I am respecting his wishes and not making it available. It's not like you couldn't get your own copy of the file elsewhere or even download an installable version.
Oh man, the signal to noise ratio is dramatically improved. Thank you, geekdom, for letting me thrive in your bosom!
-that and finding PG Tips DCaf in Woburn, Ps/d
It's almost magical to visit popular web sites, watch them load in a couple seconds, and see white space where banner ads should be. Online magazines look a lot more like they're printed on paper this way, which comfortable spaces around things. Even the imperial wizard of advertisements, about.com, is easily visited and parsed.
Magic? Bull? No!
Let us suppose you wanted to surf the Web... and oh hey, you are right now. Now let's suppose you wanted to dodge all the fscking ads that infest your browser. What could you do?
You could install Greasemonkey if you're running Firefox. This is a javascript interface that lets you add scripts to the parsing of web pages. I'd been using Greasemonkey to solve several other problems, such as changing the colors of text-based web pages.
I have a pained hatred of black text on a white background when the white is simply bright fscking light aimed directly at my eyeballs. I would like to continue using my eyes for many decades to come, whether some page designer agrees with me or not. Unfortunately, just changing the default colors in the web browser doesn't work in these days of heavy CSS. Thus I use a simple javascript that finds colors I hate and turns them down or flips them over. That suits me.
Yeah, I'm fastidious about my computers. I've just made sure that solutions to my anxieties can be replicated readily. That way I can come to a new computer, grab a couple things either online or from a USB stick, and then get back to work. Then I can remove said material when I leave. No one else need be inconvenienced by my OCD.
(Watch me steer back to the original topic while integrating the tangents... I hope.)
Context ads also trigger my OCD, or really my need to stab things. I find these mostly at tech web sites, where random words will get double underlined in green. If I wave my mouse over a double underlined word, a pop-up will give me an ad for something related to that word. The pop-up sticks around way too long and makes reading very difficult. Thus I added a Greasemonkey script called Disable Text Ads and all that crap from Kontera goes away.
I wanted a little more protection from Google Ads and sundry when I learned of a revelation my rooomie had: it's faster to block the content at the door than it is to wait for it to load and then scrape it off. He had built a super-list of advertiser domains from various sources and his own hard work. Then he slapped them into a text file and set them to resolve falsely to the local machine in his hosts file.
What's a hosts file? It's a file on a computer that says which IP address matches which domain name. When you type "livejournal.com" into a browser, the browser checks this file first to see whether it knows the 1.2.3.4 IP address of LJ. When it doesn't find an answer there (and usually it won't), it then asks a domain name server out on the Internet for the answer. There are plenty of technical depths to this but the important part is: a computer looking for a domain name's location will look on itself first, then it'll look to the outside.
Using this edited hosts file, I change the result. Let's say a web page calls a link to "annoyingadverts.biz". The default behavior for a domain name resolution is to look on the hosts file in the The hosts file will look up that domain name on its local file and not find it, then go outside. If I've already got annoyingadverts.biz to resolve as 127.0.0.1 (the local home IP) in my local hosts file, then it will look locally... and find nothing. So it puts up an error or nothing at all and gets back to parsing the web page.
Oh yeah, this rocks immensely. However, my roomie put a huge amount of effort into this file and is not interested in giving it out. Thus I am respecting his wishes and not making it available. It's not like you couldn't get your own copy of the file elsewhere or even download an installable version.
Oh man, the signal to noise ratio is dramatically improved. Thank you, geekdom, for letting me thrive in your bosom!
-that and finding PG Tips DCaf in Woburn, Ps/d
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no subject
Date: 2007-09-05 06:26 pm (UTC)He had built a super-list of advertiser domains from various sources and his own hard work.
i’ve historically found that compiling the database of ad image sources is the task that’s annoying enough that i don’t do it. :) once you’ve done that work, though, you might look into setting up an instance of Privoxy on some box on your network, having it block all those ad sources for you, and then proxying your various browsers through it.
Privoxy can also be installed locally on a laptop (yes, even a Windows laptop) for use when you’re away from your home network.
-steve
no subject
Date: 2007-09-05 07:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-05 09:07 pm (UTC)