I got a few noisy ads last night. One for Canada tourism, I think, technically has a countdown but the sound starts immediately, then after the 3 second countdown the popup comes up.
I have problems with the noisy ads particularly on the off topic page... since I have to put my mouse at the far right to click the "off topic" button in the navigation bar, and then there is a big ad right between my mouse (on the far right) and the forum, so there is no way to get to the forum without rolling over (and triggering) the ad.
Would it be possible to change the layout so that the ad is on the left, forum threads in middle, and navigation bar on the right?