AMD ads

[gstercken]

Enough, guys...

we already had several long and controversial discussions about those annoying and dilettantly badly done IBM flash ads which rendered our browsers totally unresponsive, and even made our CPU fans spin fast due to the waste of CPU cycles those ads provoked...

I hope that it didn't pass unnoticed that some (valuable) members have refrained from visiting the CG forums during that time - some of them have come back in the meantime, some have not (there are other interesting developer forums out there, ya know?)

The situation has been slightly alleviated over time, and the worst bugs in those flash ads seem to have been fixed (although it took a long time, and left an interesting impression of IBM's skills in the IT field in general, and in their interest in customers in particular... ) In short, those ads have been just counter-productive, safely putting any user of this site in a position against IBM. But that's their problem.

But now, shortly after the IBM nightmare has stopped, here we are again with a new campaign, this time from AMD, and it is even worse! The browser (okay, I'm using the IE7 beta) stops responding altogether for half a minute or so while one of those AMD ads is dsplayed (I can't even browse in other tabs - the entire app is just dead! Amazing - how are they doing that? Perhaps they should seriously get into the business of writing malware, and stop producing CPUs altogether?) To add to that, that annoying banner in top of the page also inadvertently pops up a larger window - right when you're about to click a link in the page, covering the link you want to click! Sorry, guys, but is this supposed to be an April fools joke (we're in August), a virus, or what? In any case, it seems to be a very well thought out strategy to make anyone stop using this site (and build up a healthy aversion against any AMD product). Great going, guys... (Or wait... Is it perhaps Intel who is behind this anti-AMD campaign, and pays JupiterMedia for it? Very cunning...)

I don't know for others - but while I already lost interest in replying to CG threads during the IBM campaign, the current AMD impertinence makes it almost impossible to use this site - so I'll just refrain, plain and simple. (And as a side-effect, I'm certain to opt for Intel CPUs in the future, if I have the choice).

Another hint for you advertising guys: Contrary to the IBM and the AMD ads, those flash movies from Microsoft (VS 2005) behave very well, and have no negative impact whatever on the usability of the CG site (and they're just as colorful and animated as your's, only better). So you see, it can be done. It's probably just a question of the right know-how. Perhaps you should ask MS who does their ads, and learn from those guys.

// Please excse any typos in this post - but one side-effect of those AMD ads is that while compsing a post, some chracters are just missed out - the brwser seems to be busy with more impotant things than accepting user input...

[dglienna]

Well, Firefox has crashed a few times over the last week. It's got to be associated with one of the ads, but it hasn't been enough of a problem for me to look into figuring out which one it most likely may be.

[Andrex]

Firefox is an exception. Open any Flash content on FF and your CPU usage will reach the top instantly.

Just disable the flash active x component and you'll have the nice GIF ads back.

[cilu]

Firefox is an exception. Open any Flash content on FF and your CPU usage will reach the top instantly.

Just disable the flash active x component and you'll have the nice GIF ads back.

Yeah, and when I need flash for other sites, then what?

[Brad Jones]

I'll bring up the AMD ads internally today. They haven't crashed my system, but it sounds like many of you are pointing at them for other crashes.

Brad!

[gstercken]

I'll bring up the AMD ads internally today.

Thank you.

They haven't crashed my system, but it sounds like many of you are pointing at them for other crashes.

Actually, for me (with IE7 beta) it's not crashes, but frequent halts - the entire browser app with all tabs becomes unresponsive for 30-60 seconds as soon as a CG page with an AMD ad is loaded into one of the tabs. Client-side scripts (like used in the post editor) become awfully slow. CPU load goes up to 50% or so for IE - similar symptoms as with the IBM Flash ads earlier (which are still not 100% resolved, btw).

[MikeAThon]

I have seen the same thing as Guido (even the pauses while typing, which sometimes leads to missing characters).

I carefully avoid a mouse-over on the AMD ads, since the pop-up is causing additional problems.

I use IE 6.0

See this other thread: http://www.codeguru.com/forum/showthread.php?t=397908

Mike

[HanneSThEGreaT]

Same here! Especially when scrolling. It seems as if my IE 6 gets stuck, some times when I hover over a link, it doesn't respond (meaning the mouse icon doesn't turn into a hand - and I cannot click that link)

[kirants]

I still see CPU jump to >80% with the IBM man-rolling-between-gears ad

[MikeAThon]

And the annoying "expand on mouse-over" AMD ads are back.

[Sarevok]

Actually, for me (with IE7 beta) it's not crashes, but frequent halts - the entire browser app with all tabs becomes unresponsive for 30-60 seconds as soon as a CG page with an AMD ad is loaded into one of the tabs. Client-side scripts (like used in the post editor) become awfully slow. CPU load goes up to 50% or so for IE - similar symptoms as with the IBM Flash ads earlier (which are still not 100% resolved, btw).

Same here! Especially when scrolling. It seems as if my IE 6 gets stuck, some times when I hover over a link, it doesn't respond (meaning the mouse icon doesn't turn into a hand - and I cannot click that link)

I doubt its the AMD ads. Try scanning for spyware (I used spybot search and destroy). As I mentioned in the other thread, I found the culprit to be an atdmt cookie. From the moment I removed it I had no more crashes 'so far'.

[Brad Jones]

Does high CPU usage continue after a few seconds? Some ads stll use high CPU cycles initially, but after a few seconds drop down to something more reasonable.

[dglienna]

There is a new culprit, which I haven't bothered to go looking for, but after having a few crashes over the past few days, as well as THREE in a row just now, I may have to. I'll post back which one I find.


EDIT: 2 more crashes. Found AMDCH.QUESTIONAIRE or something like that.

EDIT2: More crashes. ads.pointroll.com suspected

[exterminator]

EDIT: 2 more crashes. Found AMDCH.QUESTIONAIRE or something like that.

EDIT2: More crashes. ads.pointroll.com suspected

I second that second one!

There is something seriously ill going on with those ads....

[dglienna]

Well, that cut down the crashes, but didn't eliminate them. Just had one.

EDIT: After two more, I found it. http://amch.questionmarket.com/*