Say GoodBye to those browser Ads

If you hear yourselves swearing at those darn pop-up ads that always cover the part of the browser that you want to read, swear no more. The good news is that you can get rid of that ad once and for all. First, you need to be using Firefox (or Mozilla) as your browser.

Next, download this Firefox extension: AdBlock. It is a criticial part of my arsenal to fight the evil pop-up ads.

In a nutshell, AdBlock lets me specify what ads to filter out in a web page.

When you see an ad on a web page (or Flash plugin, say) that you don't want to ever see again, click the AdBlock tab along the top (or sometimes bottom) of the ad.

The URL for that offensive ad appears in the ensuing dialog box. You can use that as the filter, or replace it with a more general regular expression, e.g., "http://ad.ca.doubleclick.net/*".

Rest assured that Adblock is on your side in the war against unwanted ads !!

Mousing Around Cordlessly

Late last year, I was handed a gift - a Logitech Wireless USB mouse. Not quite sure why I would want to install it - I had a PS2 mouse, and was perfectly happy with that rodent.

Finally, today, I decided I had to do something with it (if nothing else, just to clear some more desk space). I would install the wireless mouse on my Debian Sarge machine. Of course, the box came with a install CD that supports only Windows and Mac OS X.

So, I googled around to see how I should install a cordless mouse under Linux (Debian).

It turned out to be rather easy. Essentially, you need to reconfigure your X-Window to use the new mouse.

1. While the computer is powered down: disconnect the existing PS2 mouse, and connect the cordless mouse receiver to a USB port.
   

   Interesting how it claims to be cordless when I could see a nice long cord hanging from the receiver!!
   

2. Power on your Debian Sarge computer. The X-Window Login screen appears.
   
3. Hit the Cntrl-Alt-F1 to get a command login prompt. It would be a major inconvenience to have to login and operate in X without a mouse.
   
4. Login as root.
   
5. dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86
   

   When prompted, select this USB mouse type: "/dev/input/mice"
   

6. Restart X.
   

   What I did was hit Cntrl-Alt-F7 to go to the existing X login screen. Then, I hit Cntrl-Alt-Backspace to kill the X process and start a new one.
   

7. The X login screen should re-appear.
   
8. Don't forget to press the Connect button on both the receiver and the wireless mouse.
   

"Simple. Less Clutter. More freedom. Eliminate tangled mouse cords." So claimed the Logitech box.

Simple? Maybe.

Less Clutter? Do the math: 1 receiver + 1 mouse = 2. Can someone tell me how it could be less?

More freedom. Sure, but don't forget to replace the AA batteries when they run out.

Eliminate tangled mouse cords. Absolutely. But just don't tangle up the receiver cord which to me is just as long if not longer.