Theres an arrow... what is it?

[hawkeye122]

It says AdChoices... Am I supposed to click it? Its not a very good advertisement, as it only supports itself... Anyways

Is this an actual ad, or do i have some sort of ad-ware on my computer?

 

[hawkeye122]

And now theres 2...

 

[Jordan]

Yep, that's normal - you'll begin to see that icon on banner ads around the web. You can learn more about what it here.

 

[watermelon punch]

I haven't seen this arrow anywhere yet?? Is it on some of the ads on the main big banner under the tabs at top? I guess it's a form of smart-advertising...

But sometimes on this forum... The banner ad instead has flash code (in text). I constantly update my flash plugin - it's the only plugin I usually make a point of updating. So I'm not sure why that happens. I keep thinking I need an update, but yet I don't. ? It only happens once in awhile, not all the time.

 

[Jordan]

That only started recently for you, watermelonmpunch? It's actually a Javascript issue, not a Flash issue, and it can happen sometimes with remnant banner ad invocations that didn't load as expected. You can safely ignore it when it happens.

 

[watermelon punch]

Thanks... Yes I only started noticing that maybe a week or so ago. But now that you say it's a javascript issue... it may make more sense. I hadn't thought of it as java, but yeah, it would be javascript that induces the flash embedding, so it isn't to do with flash.

Maybe 2 weeks ago I'd updated java. I promptly got some kind of trojan or malware that my virus software quarantined... I deleted it (or whatever it told me to do). And then wound up having this weird problem I had to find a fix for file associations (replace some dll file I think).

But I'm thinking the banner bar showing text flash code on this forum started happening AFTER all that happened.
Maybe it's just like what you said with the remnants... old code maybe that isn't quite shaking hands with my java update. Or my java just isn't working properly & I don't know it.

Anyway, if I had to guess, it only happens about no more than 10% of the time. (Like maybe out of looking at 10-15 forum pages, it might happen once.)

 

[Jordan]

So you know, "Java" and "JavaScript" are two entirely different and unrelated things. Java is a programming language - installing "Java" on your computer allows you to run programs that are written in that language. JavaScript is another programming language that manipulates web pages inside your browser window. Though their similar names are not a coincidence, they have little to do with one another (don't feel bad - this is an extremely common source of confusion).

As such, the version of Java installed on your computer has no affect on how JavaScript is processed in your browser. The problem began to appear because I've been tinkering with different advertising JavaScript codes over the last few weeks.

 

[watermelon punch]

The problem began to appear because I've been tinkering with different advertising JavaScript codes over the last few weeks.

heehee. Well why didn't you say so. That's a relief.

Yeah I know there's a difference, but I wouldn't be able to say what it is. haha. And I have ZIP bupkis experience knowing what ads are doing or how they're run. It's been some years since I've had to even think about it.

To be honest, after that weird problem I had a couple of weeks ago, I've been unsure about what else may have gone wrong that I simply don't know about yet. It was the most disturbing problem I'd ever come across. And I'm already having other problems with this computer, so I've been pretty confused and frustrated.

I've turned off almost all plugins in Firefox because I'm sick of dealing with it.
And now I've got yet another toolbar somehow installed. I feel like I'm forever uninstalling tool bars I thought I'd opted out of. If I kept every toolbar out there that's pushed on me, I would need to quadruple my monitor size & resolution, just to be able to see a centimeter of a web page. (But that's my pet peeve rant that nobody wants to hear.)