sundry

rants sundry the 8C

various and redundant sundries

I hate myspace because people like music.
November 10, 2006I just don't understand the myspace crowd. Damn near everybody has a list of bands they like, so from that I infer that the myspace person who's profile I am perusing probably listens to music a lot. These same music fans then put a song on their site to automatically play. Do they not find it annoying that when they are listening to their own music collection and visiting their friends' pages that the myspace music starts playing and interrupts the music that they are listing to? I do. That's another reason I hate myspace.  

hosts: there's no place like 127.0.0.1

i hate advertising. especially when its forced at you everywhere you go. most of the interweb is supported through advertising which is fine except that most of it is now animated and spreads across your page. i'll not bother bitching about adware.

there is actually a great feature in microsoft windows that allows you to block a lot of ads. it is called a hosts file. every website server has an address similar to a street address. your computer checks the hosts file to look up the address if you have it listed, if not it asks your interweb provider. i've listed some tricks below.

where to find your hosts: the hosts file (like a rolodex for your computer) is most often located in the system32driversetc directory. this is not always the case though. easiest way to find it is click "start" and then "search" and type in "hosts."

editing for happiness: open the file in notepad. on a new line type "127.0.0.1" a few spaces and the name of the server (ie www.myspace.com) that you want to block. you can also use this to redirect websites. let's say, for example, that you want to go to somewhere even less horrible than myspace. on a new line add the following "209.191.93.52    www.myspace.com" and then save the file. open a new browser window and type www.myspace.com and you'll go to yahoo. you're welcome.
editing for happiness

so now you'll want to know where to get an already done hosts file. go to google and search for hosts. you'll find some. i'll probably add the one i use here soon and update it from time to time.