©01 The Media Desk

Another Good Idea that Doesn't Work

      Pop Up Stopper® from Panicware.

      Boy this one promised it all. No more chains of ads when you leave a site. No more 'Hey Presto!' windows that show you movies of the Blue Man Group pawning Pentiums. No more Instant Credit Approval applications in your email. All of it... Gone. And the best part. The little program is Free!

      Well... It works.

      It works too well.

      The first thing the Desk noticed was that it couldn't read its email. When you click the button on the email menu it opens a new window with the requested message in it. 'Click'. ... . ... nothing. Pop Up Stopper was blinking. And probably smiling in a self-satisfied way. It had stopped an annoying pop up window. Except this window was one that was wanted. The Desk had to disable the program to read its mail.

      Turning it back on, it did a quick search for something in Altavista. The old standard Search Engine has been sold and is now as commercial as Yahoo ever wanted to be. It is littered with pop ups and banners and... Look! Pop Up Stopper is blinking. It has prevented me from seeing the latest installment in the Blue Man Saga. Onward. This could be a good thing after all.

      Checking the news, it blinks again. Sorry, you can't read the story about the new class of black holes. Pop Up Stopper has sent that window into a Black Hole.

      Which is more annoying? Closing ad windows or turning Pop Up Stopper off and on?

      The Desk has the fastest ALT + F4 fingers in the State.

      So long Pop Up Stopper. It wasn't meant to be.

      If you want to try it... Pop Up Stopper is free from http://panicware.com/

Selah