two more slightly on-topic questions

greetings, everyone . . . for ages now i've seen the little icon on my toolbar that informs me there are updates to ge gotten and have promptly gotten them. but now, since the upgrade from ubuntu 12.04 to 14.04, i'm also getting annoying, microsoft-like popups having to do with "system problem" and such. they inquire as to whether i want to report it and i say okay, sure, and click on the box, whereupon a web browser opens and tells me there's no site at the link specified. i'd like to be rid of the whole thing. i'm perfectly happy with the adept updater (even though i open a terminal for the update/upgrade). now today i see that among the updates is something called ubuntu advantage tools. i do not know what this is, but it also strikes me as something i do not want. so, then, my questions are: how do i get rid of the new pop-up upgrade nonsense? and is it safe to remove "ubuntu advantage tools"? (it seems like one of those things that should i do a purge would remove other things that i don't want rid of.) thanks for any advice you may have. -- dep The shortest distance between you and playing great acoustic guitar: the great new instructional DVDs from Marjorie Thompson, available at www.MarjorieThompson.com