# Why doesn't my computer do what I say? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 2, 2007, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-computer-do-what-i-say/386412 "2007-01-02T14:52:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Peanuthead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peanuthead/32/360_2.png) [@Peanuthead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peanuthead)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-computer-do-what-i-say/386412/1 "2007-01-02T14:52:06Z")
When I go to a web page like Yahoo there is always an annoying, moving, jiggling, jumping up and down advertisment that I’m not interested in. (lowermybillsdotcom you suck and I fuckin hate you) In order to stop the distracting advert I right click and uncheck PLAY. It doesn’t stop the movement. Why? How can I get rid of these intrusions on my monitor and my sanity! ---
**Author:** ![wasson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/4da419/32.png) [@wasson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wasson)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-computer-do-what-i-say/386412/2 "2007-01-02T15:19:15Z")
The FireFox browser and the AdBlock extension. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-computer-do-what-i-say/386412/3 "2007-01-02T17:03:41Z")
OK, this is an amazing question, one I’ve tried on and off to get answered for years. So, I don’t want to use an alternative browser, because too many things are barely compatible as it is. And, I never want my computer to show me anything other than a still screen image. I’d be happy with a computer that had no moving picture ability at all, or if it had an “Annoy the Hell Out of Me” switch I had to activate. Why in the world is this so difficult? ---
**Author:** ![MrSquishy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9e5f3/32.png) [@MrSquishy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrSquishy)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-computer-do-what-i-say/386412/4 "2007-01-02T17:15:54Z")
[QUOTE=Napier] And, I never want my computer to show me anything other than a still screen image. I’d be happy with a computer that had no moving picture ability at all, or if it had an “Annoy the Hell Out of Me” switch I had to activate. [/QUOTE] You might try uninstalling/disabling the Flash plugin in your browser. Many animated ads require Flash to work. ---
**Author:** ![wasson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/4da419/32.png) [@wasson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wasson)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-computer-do-what-i-say/386412/5 "2007-01-02T17:38:56Z")
FireFox isn’t really an alternative browser these days… It’s actually more compatible with a lot of sites lately than IE is. It’s a better experience, trust me. With IE, there’s very little you can do to block these ads. One of the most effective would be to uninstall the Flash plugin, as most moving/blinking/annoying/sound making ads are Flash movies. However, uninstalling the Flash plugin will stop you from getting YouTube and Google Video content. But if you’re not concerned with seeing things move, then go for it. There’s other more complex options, like configuring a proxy server to deny traffic to ad server sites, but that’s probably more trouble than it’s worth. I’m going back to my previous recommendation of FireFox. I’ve never found a site that didn’t work in FireFox but DID work in IE. Most of the web will work better or the same in FireFox. I’m a web developer for a living, by the way. ---
**Author:** ![Myglaren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Myglaren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myglaren)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-computer-do-what-i-say/386412/6 "2007-01-02T17:45:45Z")
Another vote for Firefox. I have to agree with **wasson**. I can’t bring to mind ANY site that doesn’t work with Firefox now. You aren’t stuck with just Firefox though, Opera is an excellent alternative, as is Slimbrowser and Maxthon. All of them better than IE. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-computer-do-what-i-say/386412/7 "2007-01-02T17:51:47Z")
Most of the annoying jiggling jumping up and down crap comes from advertisers who for some reason believe that annoying the crap out of you is a good way to make you want to buy their stuff. There are a lot of places on the net where you can get “hosts” files that you can use to get rid of known annoying advertisers. The way it works is this. When you get a name (like [boards.straightdope.com](http://boards.straightdope.com)) your computer has no idea what to do with it. So, it goes through a search to find what sorty of computer-ish numbers the name corresponds to. The first place it looks is in its local hosts file, which on most computers doesn’t have anything in it. From there it goes to the dns server that you have configured, and so on and so on up through the chain of dns servers until some computer can tell it what IP address it should use in place of the name. To completely disable access to a site (like some annoying advertiser popup thingy) all you need to do is add an entry to your local hosts file that points it to your local machine. The IP address 127.0.0.1 is the local “loopback” IP address. So if you add an entry to your hosts file like “127.0.0.1 [annoying.advertiser.com](http://annoying.advertiser.com)” then whever your web browser (firefox, ie, or whatever) tries to access “[annoying.advertiser.com](http://annoying.advertiser.com)” instead of going out on the internet and retreiving the annoying jiggly video, it will instead look on your local machine, and since you don’t have any annoying jiggly video on your local machine, it just returns a “not found” error. The popups don’t pop up, the jiggle video only displays the little broken picture icon, and whatever horrible java code that tries to take over your machine and insert all kinds of spyware into it is never called and never gets executed. If you do a google search on “127.0.0.1 hosts” you will find more info and probably a site or two that has periodically updated hosts files you can download to your computer. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-computer-do-what-i-say/386412/8 "2007-01-02T19:26:57Z")
Animated images can be in a variety of formats, here’s how to disable some: Disable animated pictures ``` Disable animated pictures commonly animated GIF pictures in Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 by clicking Tools and selecting Internet Options. From Internet Options click the Advanced tab, within this window under Multimedia uncheck the box "Play animations in web pages." It is important to realize that this will only disable animated pictures, animated java scripts or applets or Flash animations will not be disabled. ``` ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2007, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-computer-do-what-i-say/386412/9 "2007-01-02T19:53:03Z")
Seriously, give Firefox a try. McAfee updates, news sites video and Microsoft’s various sites are the only ones I access now that require IE. There were a couple more that did, but they’ve been updated to be FF compatible. There’s even an add-on that will open designated FF bookmarks in IE. Resistance is futile. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-computer-do-what-i-say/386412/10 "2007-01-03T00:29:32Z")
The computer can’t hear what you say. You have to use the keyboard. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-computer-do-what-i-say/386412/11 "2007-01-03T00:54:23Z")
There’s a Flashblocker available for Firefox (which I use, natch). You can still click on the icon blocking the image if you want to see it anyway. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-computer-do-what-i-say/386412/12 "2007-01-03T00:58:54Z")
Low tech, but it works for me: Drag the frame of the browser window in until the offending content is occluded. Most of the jumpy/flashy ads I see are on the top or side of the content I’m looking at and are easily removed by pulling in the frame. ---
**Author:** ![Peanuthead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peanuthead/32/360_2.png) [@Peanuthead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peanuthead)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2007, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-computer-do-what-i-say/386412/13 "2007-01-03T04:27:22Z")
Guess I’ll give Firefox a try. Thanks all!