Chatterbox and unwanted popups...

There are a number of sites that use chaterboxe, a program that allows instant comments and conversations to take place on line. I thought it was cool and was gonna add one to my site as well until I realize that they planted unwanted popup ads into the computers of unsuspecting visitors... I don't like popups and so rarely visit the pages of many. Thanks to the "Sites I Read" page, I can read comments and go directly to the comments page to avoid these popups. But still, I occasionally click on pages and get something planted in my computer. The popups from Chatterbox are pretty inocuous compared to some of the really bad stuff like the datamining practiced by many commercial sites, but its still annoying...

Thanks goodness for two different freeware programs. Ad-Aware and Spybots.

Public service announcement: Protect you privacy...
According to Ad-Aware's site: "With its ability to comprehensively scan your memory, registry, hard, removable and optical drives for known datamining, aggressive advertising, and tracking components, Ad-aware will provide the user with the confidence to surf the Internet knowing that their privacy will remain intact."

Indeed, when I first ran this program, I was shocked to find how much crap was sotred in my computer. This program will clean it all up for you. Thanks to Capt.Gaijin for introducing this to me.

Another software is Spybot--Search & Destroy. These guys aren't really into self-promotion, but they were named the Best Spyware of 2003 by CNet. The program will pick up on some of things Ad-Aware does not pick up on, such as applets that embed themselves into your computer. Have you ever clicked onto Internet Explorer and gotten a hompage that was not your default hompage? If so, then you definitely need to get Spybot. It will search these mini-programs that infiltrate you computer and destroy them. There is also an immunization to well known data miners and mining techniques. Thanks to CK for twlling me about this program.

The best thing is that both are free. If you download these program--and you should--be sure to get updates at least once a month; there are always new systems to infiltrate your computer and these programs are diligent in keeping up with them. So keep you computers clean and your privacy intact...