It seems that more and more I see terrible cases of "advertising abuse." Advertising abuse is the use of graphic and other devices in areas that, to me, should be free of the garish display of commercialism. You've all seen them, you can not deny it: Ritz cracker advertisments on you local grocers frozen food aisle, ads on the back of receipts, pop ups on your favorite site. It seems that more and more frequently we are bombarded not only by images that offend our sensibities, and there seems to be no end to it in sight.

Believe it or not, you do have some modicum of control over what and how much you see. Try turning off the TV and grabbing a book (boy, mom would be proud) or how about getting out into the great outdoors? Until they figure out there is a great expanse of wilderness out there to advertise on, a nice walk is a fantastic way to get away from our garishly graphical society.

But for those of you who are tied to the computer screen while unknown radiation infiltrates the back of your brain, there are technological solutions available to supress the flow of pop up, pop under, and generally offensive stuff that "accidentally" ends up in our history file, much to the dismay of my other half. I call it "Safe Surfing" equipment, and it doesn't involve anything water-based. Instead, its a compiliation of sites and software designed to get rid of some annoyances in the quality time you have with your computer.

As much as possible, I've listed two products - one being freeware (yes, I said FREEWARE, not shareware, trialware, or underwear) and the other is software you'll have to pay for. Don't worry, I've not included any budget busters, but what price can you put on your sanity?

PopUp/Under Killers - Get rid of those annoying "If this box is annoying, you are a winner" pop-ups that seem to be everywhere nowadays, along with the X-10 minicamera and casino ads.

• Freeware - Panicware's "Pop-up Stopper" Absolutely free of charge, this will allow you to block the basic pop-ups and popunders. There are times where you'll have to press the CTRL key to access certain links, and those are removed by the more "technologically robust" Pro/Companion edition.
• Payware - Menya Software's "PopUp Killer" This gem, at $24.95, kills it all, even before you download it, which saves you bandwidth. Great news for those of you with slow connections. Trial version is available.

Spyware Disabling - Usually bundled in with other freeware, this accounts for random acts of popups on your computer, as well as reporting to the end user to what addresses your particular IP visits.

• Freeware - Lavasoft's AdAware This one kills them all, so thoroughly, that I'm not putting out a payware counterpart (mostly because there really isn't one). Please do these fine folks a favor and purchase this one anyway. It helps them develop more great stuff, you get lifetime updates, it's only $15.

Browsing Babysitters - Prevents offensive pictures or internet content from invading your browser space. Great if you've got kids.

• Freeware - Soft for you.com Fully configurable, allows you to track usage of the internet, specific search terms, along with an "off" timer to restrict the amount of time the internet may be browsed.
• Payware - AB Internet Nanny Blocks up to 100 search terms and 100 computer applications. Made to either run hidden (even from prying eyes on the task manager) or password protected. User gets to program message when unauthorized activity occurs. A steal at $18.

Spam - You know what this is. No, I don't mean the tasty meat-in-a-can.

• Freeware - Privacy Labs Email Express While this won't filter out your web-based account (most of them have spam filters already), this will handle your POP3/STMP server email such as Outlook, Eudora, Pagasus, and more. Also available in Professional Version for $29
• Payware - Giant Company's Spam Inspector Claims to remove 99% of all spam from MSN, AOL, and many others.

Well, that should pretty much cover it. As always, if you have a product you've tried, or have tried one of these products, please let me know in the Forum. I've gotta run now, I've gotten this great idea for advertising on Sidewalks...mebbe I'll call it sidewalktalk.com