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Curry Member Posts: 134 From: USA Registered: 11-21-2002 |
Hey y'all, I was wondering if anyone would like to get together with me to discuss plans for a safe web browser, and one we have a feasible plan and if no one else has already done this, hopefully to go ahead and make it. My idea is not a complete antiporn service with server-side stuff, but rather an all-purpose, low-cost browser that can be used by itself or as a component of any complete service. The basic idea is to provide something that all major browsers SHOULD already have--basic porn filtering based on content, not just ratings. It should be everyone's undeniable right as part of using the internet to have the option of practical content-based filtering in the browser even if they don't want to invest in a service because of time, expense, or the need to have complete control over access for their line of work. In fact, because it's so simple, not having a content-based filtering option is unthinkable and a real failure of the companies that make browsers. The initial technology would be modest yet practical--don't load pages (for kids) or images on pages (for adults) that meet criteria--primarily based on text content, but perhaps also using a list of domains. It would use all ways to achieve maximum protection possible based on content. If the initial release is successful enough, it could perhaps fund work on enhancements such as image analysis. This content-based filtering would block most porn images, including those that could be come across by accident, as well as those sought out intentionally. It should also block the launching or URL viewing of other types of bad media, like movies, and perhaps the launching or downloading of other browsers. It should have silent or informed-but-mandatory auto updates of the content filtering rules. I want to make a good browser or browser companion, not a whole safe-internet package. I know other people here have thought about that and maybe will do it, plus there are all the other companies that do it, so I think that's covered. It's a very good goal, to make a service as a service should be. But what's not covered is to make a browser the way it should be--the kind of basic built-in solution for everyone whether they have a whole service or not--what all browsers should provide and don't. I know somebody might think what's the point without some added protections of the service, but remember, that's a service--this is a browser, which can be used alone or contribute to a service. In order to cover the spectrum of consumers and most of the technical users, it would be nice to have a cross-platform solution: Windows, Mac (at least OSX) and maybe Linux to cover the new desktop PCs (Microtel) selling to consumers with Lindows, Lycoris, etc. Of course, it wouldn't be a browser from scratch, but rather using IE SDK or scripting (haven't researched yet, so not familiar enough yet to know if these would provide the necessary features) or a process that provides a gate for the information before it gets to the browser, or any other potential method. That would be the first step--researching and deciding the best way to make it and realistic goals for first version depending on our resources. (I haven't heard about this kind of thing before, but there's a lot of stuff out there, so if we are researching and find out that there's already another browser that already does this, we could see if it's compatible, effective, and affordable enough to be a good solution and whether to go ahead with ours or stop and spread the word about the other one! We'll make sure about the competition in the research phase as a first priority.) After completing it, we could start selling it immediately as shareware and try to get it published as well as offering it to safe services to use as a standard component. If you're interested, let me know and we can start researching and discussing some. I think a good team for this would be three or four people including myself. I would like to lead the project and help work on the algorithms and strategies for the software. I have Mac OSX and Win XP, and do BASIC and MetaTalk. I don't do C/C++, so I couldn't help work on the final product coding if it needs to be C. Some people can work more on the algorithms and strategy using mockups--pulling pages directly from the web or manually pasting HTML from browser to a field in the mockup software, analyzing it, and output to another field. Other people can work more on how to interface with or customize the browser. We can ensure that "no humans (as well as animals) were harmed in the testing of this product"
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Klumsy Administrator Posts: 1061 From: Port Angeles, WA, USA Registered: 10-25-2001 |
sound like an ambition project i personally are starting a project with client side filtering and well as accountibility features (as i know all filters don't work fully and can be gotten around). we can talk about it if you like as far as making a browser alternative you could get mozzilla browser and modify that? i suggest not really to make a browserr, but just a filter system that will filter ALL internet(HTTP) traffic from that computer its installed on.(unless set up not to filter certian stuff, like automated apps that communicate via HTTP).. just some thoughts ------------------ |
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Christian Member Posts: 400 From: Australia Registered: 09-15-2002 |
A few comments: 1. A heck of a good idea. It is a great offence to me that companies can put pictures of porn into my inbox now, and usually I see them before I know what they are. And I get constant spam offering me married people as contacts for sex, what's up with that ? Why would it be better to destroy a family as well as defile your body ? This world is evil. 2. The Netscape guys cannot make a browser with enough standards conformance to make people want to use it, what chance would you have ? 3. Low cost ? The other two are free. 4. As soon as you create a filter, they will try to find a way around it. As anyone who has accidentally clicked a link into a pr0n site knows, these people think all they need do is show you nakedness, and your wallet will open. I've had to reboot my PC to make it end at times. 5. IE is in fact integratable with any MFC app through COM, perhaps that is a starting point for you to get IE compatibility and add the filtering on top ? |
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Curry Member Posts: 134 From: USA Registered: 11-21-2002 |
Karl, if your project is all client-side, maybe it's already going to do what I described? If so, no need to make another of the same thing, so in that case, maybe I can contribute something to yours. Anyway, my main desire is to have something that allows users authorized at the adult level to access all sites if preferred, but to turn off pictures at questionable sites so that you can go to any web site you need to, and not run into anything that the service blocks but you need. And preferably something completely on the user's computer for a one-time cost rather than subscription, although I still use Mac more than Windows, so I would rather have an online service than something Windows-only. However, I realize that what I think is the perfect filter is based on the way I use the internet--to research for making software or other content, and for the last few years I've focused more on social issues, including moral issues. So I need to be able to look at Planned Parenthood's site even though it has some really gross words, sites that discuss homosexuality, sites that discuss immoral practices. Many services would block some or all of those pages. I know that many adults don't really need to have such unfettered access to text. Keeping this in mind, personally I can get by without any filtering products myself although it would be neat--so I guess it just depends on if there is a big enough audience that would prefer this kind of filtering rather than what the popular services offer right now. If not, then I can resign myself to being in the minority situation and wish the complete filtering solutions well in serving the viable markets. But if there is a big enough market, I think it would be a great type of filter. I agree that filtering all internet data before it gets to the browser is best. So, let me know if your project will already do these things that I'm thinking about and have the option to do it at that level. BTW Christian, just turn off the images to your e-mail--after all, while images are pretty useful in web browsing, they're usually not essential at all for e-mails in my experience. If you don't have separate image loading prefs for your e-mail and your browser, try another e-mail app, or if you use web mail, then try setting up a desktop e-mail app using a POP mail address. Then you'll see ugly words, perhaps, but no ugly pics. It's a bit of trouble to change if you only use web mail, but it's worth it not to see everything that's aimed your way! I think that accidental exposure on e-mail is hard to avoid otherwise while on the net, usually you won't be exposed accidentally if you're careful. When the subject lines can't be distinguished from legit e-mails, I used to see something bad now and then. But since I turned off images in the e-mail, no problems, even though I may get sicked out even from the subject lines about bestiality themes and as you said, married people, and all the rest. I shudder to think of the kids across the nations subjected to this through the e-mail even if they don't go and seek out anything by themselves--not to mention the adults who are minding their own business and get stuff like that--actually the porn spammers deserve serious punishment. Curry |
dalehend Junior Member Posts: 1 From: raleigh,nc,usa Registered: 01-08-2003 |
My suggestion for the code base of your browser is an open source GUI - wxwindows.org , which has support for IE or Mozilla browser plugin. regards, |
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Christian Member Posts: 400 From: Australia Registered: 09-15-2002 |
How do I turn images off in Outlook ? That would be cool. I get so much spam with images, not just pr0n. And yes, the thing that upsets me most is that I cannot just let my kids have an email account or use the web alone. It's not that I don't trust them ( they are 6 and 2 ), it's that I don't want to have to explain that stuff to them yet. |
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Klumsy Administrator Posts: 1061 From: Port Angeles, WA, USA Registered: 10-25-2001 |
i don't know how to turn it off in outlook (nor outlook express) but with outlook express maybe turning images off in IE would do the trick? but you can turn off the preview panel.. thats what i do.. after last week when i got a porn spam that had a porn movie embedded.. this way i can ussually tell what is spam by the subject only without having to be subject to its foul contents Karl ------------------ |
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Christian Member Posts: 400 From: Australia Registered: 09-15-2002 |
But I don't *want* to lose images in IE all the time. And I get a lot of email, the preview view is the only tenable way to scan it. I guess I can just rely on my current system - if it looks like the page is grabbing a pic, quickly delete it. |
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Klumsy Administrator Posts: 1061 From: Port Angeles, WA, USA Registered: 10-25-2001 |
you could use mercury mail http://www.pmail.com/overviews/ovw_mercury.htm it will check your mail first from various sources, and filter it out into different things, maybe delete some, and put suspicious stuff in a different account.. then whatever mail program you use, doesn't check the actual mail account, but an mailaccount on mercury.. ------------------ |
rowanseymour Member Posts: 284 From: Belfast, Northern Ireland Registered: 02-10-2001 |
I've been using Mailwasher recently to bounce spam and it has definitely reduced the amount of spam I'm getting. Success !! ------------------ |
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Curry Member Posts: 134 From: USA Registered: 11-21-2002 |
I don't know about Outlook, but Eudora does let you turn off the images separately from web browser. This is from the manual: "Automatically download HTML graphics—If you select this option, Eudora will fetch and display images from the web that are embedded in a received email message using Eudora’s internal HTML viewer." You just unselect that option to turn it off. Eudora is at Believe me, it works better than keeping your finger on Delete key and trying to beat the pictures to the draw! Much more relaxing. Curry |
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graceworks Member Posts: 455 From: Corvallis, Oregon, USA Registered: 03-03-2001 |
I've been using MailWasher too. You can double-click on an item and get a TEXT preview. I can't say for sure if it is reducing my spam though ... I have a lot of Email accounts that are well distributed. That is another strength of MailWasher. If you have POP3 access to your Email, you can configure MailWasher for multiple accounts. Interesting, I have an account at Ureach that was working but recently stopped. I think they realized I was sending bounces through their POP server and they have a specific SMTP server for sending (but now I can get the settings tweaked correctly to get it to work). Again, I believe this is a Ureach issue, not MailWasher (which works fine with my attbi accounts). If I keep using, I'll be registering it. They are only asking $20. -Tim ------------------ |
D-SIPL Moderator Posts: 1345 From: Maesteg, Wales Registered: 07-21-2001 |
Just ressurecting an old post. Curry, did anything come about of this? I've been thinking of doing something similar. --D-SIPL ------------------ |
bennythebear Member Posts: 1225 From: kentucky,usa Registered: 12-13-2003 |
i hope someone does make something like that. if anyone does come up with this let me know, cause i'll use it, beta test it, whatever you folks need  . |
CobraA1 Member Posts: 926 From: MN Registered: 02-19-2001 |
Creating a program similar to the Proxomitron might be possible. That would be good. Seeing that I like Java, I surfed the 'net and found a Java proxy program - could easily be wrapped up and modified to do something like this. The licence on it is pretty relaxed also - I could see integrating it into an open source project, no problem. ------------------ [This message has been edited by CobraA1 (edited February 12, 2004).] [This message has been edited by CobraA1 (edited February 12, 2004).] |
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MadProf Member Posts: 181 From: Larnaka, Cyprus Registered: 01-24-2001 |
writing a browser seems a bit over the top to me... wouldn't it be simpler to just make a decent filtering localhost proxy? should be fairly simple from a code-overhead manner. No need to make a full browser GUI (hard. believe me), or to do any of the embedding stuff. You could probably fix up the main proxy bit in a few weeks or less, or even get an open source one and modify it, and then spend as much time as you need on actual filtering algos and such. Dan ------------------ |
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MadProf Member Posts: 181 From: Larnaka, Cyprus Registered: 01-24-2001 |
oh, sorry guys for repeating what had just been said. ignore me. (madprof = stupid annoying idiot) ------------------ |
Mack Administrator Posts: 2779 From: Registered: 01-20-2001 |
A safe broswer would be nice, I remember talks back about a HOSTS blockage program that would block sites and would be updated by downloading updates from a server. I still think that would be a cool idea.
quote: Hey man, don't put the hammer on yourself. We can all be stupid, annoying or idiots from time to time, lighten up on yourself. ------------------ |
mee0830 Junior Member Posts: 2 From: Registered: 08-31-2005 |
Have you tried firefox? http://getfirefox.com Then try this lovely feature-limited extension http://www.extensionsmirror.nl/index.php?showtopic=821
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CPUFreak91 Member Posts: 2337 From: Registered: 02-01-2005 |
quote: No need. Just edit the firefox or mozilla browser source code. If I knew C/C++ I'd help ;-) Or better yet. Write a plugin for the mozilla firefox or mozilla browser that would be easier. ------------------ |
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bennythebear Member Posts: 1225 From: kentucky,usa Registered: 12-13-2003 |
firefox is the only thing i use...unless i'm updating windows or seeing if a webpage i made will work in ie...the only 2 uses i have for it.  ------------------ proverbs 25:7 www.gfa.org - Gospel for Asia www.persecution.com - Voice of the Martyrs |
MastaLlama Member Posts: 671 From: Houston, TX USA Registered: 08-10-2005 |
you could always build a Spam filter using OpenBSD, amavisd, spamassassin and fetchmail. that's what i did, of course, then i sold it to a large company... MastaLlama ------------------ |
HanClinto Administrator Posts: 1828 From: Indiana Registered: 10-11-2004 |
quote: Hey Mee0830! thanks for the informative link! Do you use this extension? If so, does it work well for you? It looks great, and just like something I would want, but the reviews on the site make me feel a little sketchy about it. If I haven't welcomed you already to CCN, Welcome! Glad to have you here! --clint ------------------ |
