Asa Dotzler – Firefox and more: blocking those flash pop-unders with firefox
privacy.popups.disable_from_plugins

It seems like advertising agencies never stop looking for ways to force their products on us. I had begun to notice some sites exploiting what I thought was a bug in Firefox’s JavaScript engine to generate pop-ups. Turns out they’re using flash to spawn the new window. Thankfully there’s a way to stop it, but you may run into problems with some sites. Works great for me so far… give it a try and see what you think.

Microsoft Gadgets

Microsoft seems to be getting a bit of the “me too” syndrome with their Gadgets feature. Gadgets are a similar in function to Yahoo’s Konfabulator and Apple’s Dashboard. However, based on the MS Gadgets blog, it looks like they have plans for Gadgets to be more than just widgets. While the idea sounds really cool, the examples given seem a bit misguided. An embedded messaging display in a keyboard? A task list mini-display on the outside of a laptop? Cool to be sure, but useful? I think not. After all, when was the last time you actually looked down at your keyboard while using the computer? (not including the hunt-n-peck folks) If I were MS, I’d put a little more thought into function, and a little less into flash.