[thelist] Popup stoppers (was: Moral : Don't use...)

[David Wagner]

Madhu Menon wrote:
> 1) Clicking on hyperlinks in your mail program won't open them in your
> browser
> 2) File > New > Window won't work, although Ctrl-N will
> 3) Clicking on JS links that open new windows for say, screenshots, or
> polls, etc. will not work.

Exactly. And I have to point out a few more: the interfaces for programs
such as Mozilla and several of the Norton products are built almost
entirely of XML and JavaScript. They can be affected the same way.

Let this be a lesson in the dangers of exploiting good technology for
nefarious (read: advertising) purposes. Or something. :)

Personally, I find it easier to drop a quick form letter on the web
administrators for any sites that pop ads in my face. "Dear
webmaster at annoying-ads.com: I have chosen not to visit your site due to
the prevalence of unnecessarily annoying advertisements. Please feel
free to inform me when you have limited your advertising to a
non-intrusive space on your site, etc., etc." Makes me feel better, anyway.

<tip type="Windows Shortcut" author="David Wagner">

The hosts file can be a nice (and sometimes necessary) way to get -- in
essence -- localized DNS. But, since (on Windows systems) the filename
has no extension, you can't double-click it, and besides, it's difficult
to find. No fun when you're editing it several times a day. Feeling
lazy? Make a shortcut: not to "hosts" itself, but to notepad, and then
edit the "Target" line to read as follows (modify paths as necessary for
your system -- this works on a standard Win2K installation):

%SystemRoot%\system32\notepad.exe C:\WINNT\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

Voila! A quick trip from your desktop (or wherever) to complete control
of your browser.

An article on why you might want to edit your hosts file, and how to go
about it:

http://www.modwest.com/help/kb8-52.html

</tip>
--

David Wagner
dave at worlddomination.net