Messing like this just isn't necessary.

& ad blockers if anything seem to slow things down more than just loading the ads.

The real solution is to get a quicker connection, connect via Ethernet, possibly tweak the interleaving with the ISP and that's it.

In reply to a post by NPR:

I use "adblockplus" but believe and accept it does slow thing's down a tad.

That seems odd. I use AdMuncher and it speeds up loading. I wonder what Adblockplus is doing that could counteract the time spent downloading adverts?

Mmm. I'm inclined to go with that. I can't speak for ad blockers myself, but I seem to be blocking them with an ad blocker.

By the way I had added "emp.bbci.co.uk" to my blocked list, as I couldn't see what purpose it was serving. Since then I've discovered that with it blocked, things like the 'election 2010' dynamic map were blocked. That's the only example I've seen so far though. It may enable bbci flash stuff.

Ahh:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/futuremedia/technica...

EMP (Embedded Media Player)

The standard Flash-based media player for BBC online.

Just took a peek at the Scotsman newspaper website. Ye gods!

scotsman.com
grapeshot-media.net
.jpscotland.co.uk
pagead2.googlesyndication.com
a.tribalfusion.com
b.scorecardresearch.com
localstars.co.uk
statse.webtrendslive.com
singletemplate.jpress.co.uk
johnston.grapeshot.co.uk
s3.amazonaws.com
googleads.g.doubleclick.net
t.mookie1.com
ad.uk.doubleclick.net
b3-uk.mookie1.com
ads.revsci.net
servedby.flashtalking.com
cdn.flashtalking.com
konac.kontera.com
secure-uk.imrworldwide.com
cdn.cxense.com
konax.kontera.com
ds.serving-sys.com
dnn506yrbagrg.cloudfront.net
richmedia-cdn.localstars.com
comcluster.cxense.com
ad.yieldmanager.com
tags.expo9.exponential.com
pix04.revsci.net
js.revsci.net
bs.serving-sys.com
view.atdmt.com
kona5.kontera.com
ad.doubleclick.net
ec.atdmt.com
kona.kontera.com
tag.admeld.com
google.com
editorial.jpress.co.uk
euwidget.imshopping.com
pubads.g.doubleclick.net

They have about every advertising system in there. All but the top one blocked, and the page is fine. Sheesh!