Hi,
Does anyone know how I can ban our computers from using Yahoo? That site is terrible.
Running an idle handler is ok. I don’t know how to use javascript with AppleScript, but that’s ok also. I was thinking that javascript might be better because you can use this in all browsers.
Thanks,
This sounds more like a job for a software content-blocker or software firewall, rather than applescript. Applescript doesn’t have a mechanism for listening to the outgoing network requests, so you really don’t have the power to stop a request from going out if there is one you don’t like. There is plenty of content control software out there that can block IP requests on a URL-specific basis.
As you said, you could ping the active browser every second to to see what the current url is… and then crash the browser or send them to a different url if they even hint at typing in ‘yahoo’. This would cost a lot in processing overhead, and may not necessarily work for all browsers. I’m not sure how javascript would help you, either… as you’d need to use a script to call the javascript into the browser, and then let javascript do it’s work. This could pose more problems too, as javascript is still not platform-independent, and javascript can be turned off.
What kind of environment are you in? If it is a public one like in a school, or even a private one like a business… unless you have policies that explicitly state “no outside internet access allowed”, it sounds kind of sketchy and “big-brother” to me. I suppose if you’re in a prison or preschool, it might be appropriate. Yahoo is one of the largest websites in the world, and telling people not to use it might lead to some problems. Yahoo not only handles tens of millions of peoples’ email accounts, it is also a jumping off point for many research resources, image libraries, business websites and online merchants, and various other resources that your users might not consider quite as “terrible” as you do.
As a web developer (and yahoo user) I’m curious to know what you find so terrible about it. What about it makes your job so much more difficult or unpleasant? I can’t say I’ve ever heard someone complain about yahoo being “terrible”. Perhaps you think it’d be better if we all sign up for AOL accounts instead? 
In fact, maybe you could install AOL on all your system’s computers. I hear they have great parental controls, so you could keep all your kids in line.
j