I make no effort to hide my distaste for internet advertising (or advertising in general).   It’s been my experience that websites that utilize 3rd party advertising servers generally have slower page loads, especially the ones that utilize graphics or flash content.     For the longest time,  I used a custom CSS file in safari to block unwanted advertisements across the websites I visit.   It was when that same CSS file caused issues with WordPress that I finally had to get rid of the CSS file with much regret.   Fortunately, I came across a much better solution:   GlimmerBlocker.

GlimmerBlocker is an ad blocker for Mac OS X’s Safari web browser.   What I like most about GlimmerBlocker (aside that it is completely free) is it acts as an HTTP Proxy.   This means that you can use any web browser (or application that uses the HTTP protocol) and GlimmerBlocker will still block advertising.   You can also feel free to upgrade your web browser without fear of it breaking GlimmerBlocker.   It’s pretty cools stuff, so check it out if you are interested!

-Tim

P.S.   If you are a Firefox fan, tryout Adblock Plus.

iPhone Website View

While browsing the WordPress plugins at wordpress.org, I came across a pretty cool plugin for those of you who visit the site with your iPhone or iPod Touch.   Basically, the plugin detects the HTTP user-agent and displays a version of the site that is designed for Safari on iPhone and iPod Touch.   In addition, I’ve add a custom home screen icon if you decided you like the site so much you want to add it to your home screen.   To add the site to your home screen, visit the site with your iPhone or iPod Touch and touch the “+” icon at the bottom of the window.   The OS will ask you what you want to name the icon and download the home screen icon.   Once you’ve named the shortcut; save it.   You will then have a shortcut on your home screen for this site.   Pretty slick, eh?

-Tim

P.S.   The plugin also works on Blackberry and Android devices.

For the last couple of weeks, I have had an ENORMOUS problem while trying to insert images into my posts.   To be honest, I really haven’t had the need to add many images to my posts (yet) but I would like to rest assured that I have that functionality if I needed to call upon it.   Basically, my problem would occur when attempting to upload an image to the server.   I would only get a “blank screen:”

Blank Screen

My initial assessment was that it was the recently added Flash image uploader to WordPress.   Well to make a long story VERY short, the problem was an added cascading style sheet in Safari.   I use a custom CSS in Safari to block most internet advertising at the websites I visit which is very useful for me but bad for WordPress image uploads.   For those of you interested in what the CCS file looked like, here you go:

/*
* turns off €œblink € element blinking
*/
blink { text-decoration: none ! important; }
/*
* hides many ads by preventing display of images that are inside
* links when the link HREF contans certain substrings.
*/
A:link[HREF*="ad."] IMG { display: none ! important }
A:link[HREF*="ads."] IMG { display: none ! important }
A:link[HREF*="/ad"] IMG { display: none ! important }
A:link[HREF*="/A="] IMG { display: none ! important }
A:link[HREF*="/click"] IMG { display: none ! important }
A:link[HREF*="?click"] IMG { display: none ! important }
A:link[HREF*="?banner"] IMG { display: none ! important }
A:link[HREF*="=click"] IMG { display: none ! important }
A:link[HREF*="/ar.atwo"] IMG { display: none ! important }
A:link[HREF*="spinbox."] IMG { display: none ! important }
A:link[HREF*="transfer.go"] IMG { display: none ! important }
A:link[HREF*="adfarm"] IMG { display: none ! important }
A:link[HREF*="bluestreak"] IMG { display: none ! important }
A:link[HREF*="doubleclick"] IMG { display: none ! important }
A:link[HREF*="a.as-us.falkag.net"] IMG { display: none ! important }
A:link[HREF*="tribalfusion.com"] IMG { display: none ! important }
A:link[HREF*="a.tribalfusion.com"] IMG { display: none ! important }
A:link[HREF*="tags.expo9.exponential.com"] IMG { display: none ! important }
/* disable ad iframes */
IFRAME[SRC*="a."] { display: none ! important }
IFRAME[SRC*="ad."] { display: none ! important }
IFRAME[SRC*="ads."] { display: none ! important }
IFRAME[SRC*="/ad"] { display: none ! important }
IFRAME[SRC*="/A="] { display: none ! important }
IFRAME[SRC*="/click"] { display: none ! important }
IFRAME[SRC*="?click"] { display: none ! important }
IFRAME[SRC*="?banner"] { display: none ! important }
IFRAME[SRC*="=click"] { display: none ! important }
IFRAME[SRC*="/ar.atwo"] { display: none ! important }
IFRAME[SRC*="spinbox."] { display: none ! important }
IFRAME[SRC*="transfer.go"] { display: none ! important }
IFRAME[SRC*="adfarm"] { display: none ! important }
IFRAME[SRC*="bluestreak"] { display: none ! important }
IFRAME[SRC*="doubleclick"] { display: none ! important }
xIMG[usemap] { display: none ! important }
/* turning some false positives back off */
A:link[HREF*="download."] IMG { display: inline ! important }
A:link[HREF*="click.mp3"] IMG { display: inline ! important }

Now, I’m not a CSS ninja, so I couldn’t begin to tell you which of the above lines was the culprit, but if one of you know please leave a comment.   Once, I removed this CSS from Safari (Safari–>Preferences–>Advanced), the flash uploader worked like a champ.

-Tim