Animated gifs -> transparent

[Anlar]

I would like to replace animated gifs with the same sized transparent gif. The current animation killer leaves us with the first frame of the advertisement, which is not actually very good. Why would we need to see even the first frame of some advertisement? GIFs are not nowadays usually used for anything else.. In the rare cases where they would be needed, we can always use our hunch and click on the "empty" space.





 

[Arne]

Hi and welcome,
The animation killing is done programatically by Proxomitron and not by a filter. It is not possible for a filter do decide if a gif is animated or not. One has to look inside the gif file, which a filter can not do. Sorry

Best wishes
Arne
Imici username: Arne

[hpguru]

You might try eDexter.

http://www.accs-net.com/hosts/eDexter.html

It's a small HTTP server that listens on localhost:80. The basic idea is you create a hosts file in your Windows folder (If NT/2K/XP it is in winntsystem32driversetc) that contains a list of ad server hostnames with their IP addresses all set to the IP address of localhost (127.0.0.1).

For example:

127.0.0.1 localhost #Comment
...
#Another Comment
127.0.0.1 adserver-1.com
127.0.0.1 adserver-2.com
...
127.0.0.1 some.other.adserver.com
(newline - last line is blank)

When your browser requests a file from one of these ad servers the dns lookup will return the address of 127.0.0.1:80 where eDexter is waiting. eDexter will respond by serving up a transparent gif which is what you want.

More info and a complete hosts file here.

http://www.accs-net.com/hosts/get_hosts.html

For anyone who wants it my hosts file is here.

http://hpguru.bravepages.com/files/hphosts.zip

It doesn't contain the akamai hostnames.

 

[Anlar]

Yes. I knew how Proximotron does it. Maybe the programmers should add the new function, did not find any REAL contact information to them...

And no, hosts files just plain suck. It's not actually a very working solution.


 

[Arne]

The hosts file works perfect for what it can be used for.

Best wishes
Arne
Imici username: Arne

[hpguru]

Arne is right. My hosts file used in conjunction with eDexter is responsible for 80 to 90 percent of my ad blocking. All Prox does is to clean up the mess. There is simply no possiblity of connecting to an ad site by use of its hostname if you've included it in your hosts file in the manner I prescribed.

 

[Arne]

Actually I think we are talking about two things when we mention the hosts file in this subject. I think Anlar means only animated gifs, and not ads. At least I answered assuming this is what was meant. Hosts file will not do anything with these, and that is why I carefully said that the hosts file is good for what it is meant for.

Best wishes
Arne
Imici username: Arne

[hpguru]

If all he wants to do is replace any animated gifs with transparent gifs then this filter will accomplish that but it would require less work to simply turn off animations in Prox or in the browser.

Name = "Ani Gif Killer"
Active = TRUE
Multi = TRUE
Bounds = "<imgs*>"
Limit = 256
Match = "src="*$LST(NoAnims).gif"s1"
Replace = "src="http://Local.ptron/transparent.gif" 1"

After you input this filter you'll need to create a list and name it "NoAnims" when you configure Prox to use it. It doesn't matter what the name of the actual text file is.

In this list you will need to input the names of the offending gifs without their extensions. In other words if the name of a gif you wish to replace is "home.gif" then input "home" into the list (no quotes). This filter doesn't know if a gif is animated which is the reason for the list.

Since most images used on the web are gifs then use of this filter will probably slow you down since it will have to check every gif on the page and there may be dozens of them.

You'll need a transparent gif too.

http://hpguru.bravepages.com/files/transparent.gif


Edited by - hpguru on 22 Apr 2002  02:35:25