melonman's Journal: Why I hate pop-ups more than spam

So there I am typing away, and suddenly my server starts grinding to a halt. I trace the problem to client account 3, I have a look at his terminal, and, 4 windows behind the one he is looking at, there is a pop-up ad with some wonderful javascript-enabled animated gif thingey whirring away in the background. The trouble is that this ie enough to pretty well saturate the local network and tie up the server.

On the other hand, deleting spams takes me a few seconds a day. If it became a problem I would set up a filter, but, for the moment, it just isn't worth it.

Why don't I block pop-ups? Because a lot of sites used by my clients use them for legitimate purposes. The AOL site is a classic (and annoying) example. In a cybercafe, the last thing you want is to have to teach your clients to reconfigure the system. Some people will never get it, and the ones that do will promptly reconfigure everything else Because They Can.

So I'm all for making pop-up ads illegal, and sending the spam merchants a Christmas card...