IEEE Computing Covers Freenet

Rayban writes: "From the Freenet Project homepage: IEEE Internet Computing has an article (pdf) entitled 'Protecting Free Expression Online with Freenet.' It provides an excellent technical introduction to the core ideas behind Freenet."

Comments

The Cheap Alternative to Subscribing

[Starship Trooper]

If you're like me, you're probably wondering just why the hell anyone would pay for Slashdot, let alone want to support it. As it turns out, Slashdot already has all the features you need to completely disable all advertisements without paying those greedy slobs at VA Software a cent. All you need is a DOM-compliant browser, such as Mozilla or Konqueror, and the User Slashbox. With disgustingly-placed new full-page ads now arriving, the time has come to show that we users will not let ourselves be advertised into submission.

Follow these five easy steps and never see another Slashdot ad again:

1. Go into your Homepage Preferences.
2. Scroll down to the "User Space" textarea, and paste the following four lines of HTML in there:

   <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pknet.com/~joe/adkiller.js"></sc ript>
   <script type="text/javascript"><!--
   delAds();
   --></script>
   

   (click here to download the adkiller javascript code and put it on your own webspace, in case you don't trust me :-)
3. Scroll down the list of slashboxes, and make sure the "User Space" checkbox (inexplicably located between "MP3.com" and "Myther.com") is checked.
4. Return to the front page, and your Slashbox should be there, quietly zapping all iframes and banner-shaped images on the page.
5. There is no step 5!! It's that easy.

There are a few problems, however:

• Opera doesn't seem to work with this at all.
• Internet Explorer won't automatically remove the ads, but by appending the following to the above code:

  <a href="javascript:delAds()">Click to delete ads</a>

  and clicking the new link in your Slashbox, the ads will go away.
• The User Slashbox only shows up on index.pl and articles.pl pages, so comment and user pages will still have ads. Luckily, the article pages seem to be the only ones running the obnoxious new full-page ads, so this shouldn't be too annoying.

If you are a Javascript wizard and know how to make this script work on Opera or IE, please tell me. Ad-free Slashdot should be available to everyone!

Re:The Cheap Alternative to Subscribing

[reaper20]

Heh, not like it matters, they were stupid in putting the advertisement in the article area, an area notoriously known for the LACK of attention paid to it.

Re:The Cheap Alternative to Subscribing

[sharkey]

Or browse in "Light Mode".

Or just read the ads. They're not THAT bad.

Re:The Cheap Alternative to Subscribing

[Bruj0]

It seems to work with Opera 6.0 TP3

Re:The Cheap Alternative to Subscribing

[jamie]

Your attention please,

Anyone here who is silly enough to put

<script type="text/javascript" src="CODE ON SOMEONE ELSE'S WEBSITE!">

into their User Space should be aware that they are begging to have their passwords stolen.

That is all.

Re:The Cheap Alternative to Subscribing

[PureFiction]

Linux users:

iptables -A OUTPUT -p TCP -d 64.28.67.114 --dport 80 -j DROP
iptables -A OUTPUT -p TCP -d 199.95.206.210 --dport 80 -j DROP

64.28.67.114 is images2.slashdot.org, where the banner ads come from. The other IP is from doubleclick.net, which gets rid of the more annoying huge ads.

Try it, it works. And I can leave JavaScript turned off...

Re:The Cheap Alternative to Subscribing

[Vulture_]

The banner ads on top are cool with me. They're reasonably unobtrusive, and usually advertise products that /. readers would be interested in anyway.

The huge ads in the middle of articles, however, are horrendous. I hope someone at the controls recognizes this before too many people get pissed off and start reading K5 or NewsForge or such instead. I don't like ZDNet for it and I won't like /. for it, either.

Re:The Cheap Alternative to Subscribing

[DavidJA]

Your attention please;

Anyone that is silly enough to to run advertising on a site that is decicated to anouncing the latest clever hacks to get around advertising and other such restrictions like the DCMA

should be aware that they are begging to go out of business.

Re:The Cheap Alternative to Subscribing

[Rick the Red]

The bad thing about blocking the ads is then you don't know which companies to boycott.

Re:The Cheap Alternative to Subscribing

[mosch]

yo Jamie, ever heard of wget?

Re:The Cheap Alternative to Subscribing

[Bazman]

I already have something in my User Slashbox - a nice local weather pic and info. Can I just add the code to it?

Re:The Cheap Alternative to Subscribing

[NewOrder]

Wow... What a life you must live. Ever try running a company that is almost 100% web based and try to figure out where your going to get money to pay for such a high profile service like slashdot?

First get a clue. Geeeez. it's not like slashdot guys are getting totaly dirty fithly rich off this site.

Re:The Cheap Alternative to Subscribing

[Voline]

I had no idea that there was new, more intrusive advertising on slashdot. I use the iCab browser with Mac OS X. It has a great user-configureable ad-filter.

It filters out banner ads based on their URL, file name, path, or server - of the page itself or the page that the banner links to. It replaces the banner with a box of the same size that is empty, except for an icon of a little melita coffee filter (nice touch, that).

It works great.

That said, I am very disturbed by the reports of censorship by the maintainers of slashdot of their unlimited moderator powers. Evidence does seem to point in that direction.

If they were serious about democratic speech, freedom of speech and anti-censorship they would give themselves only the same moderating power that anyone else has - and only if they meet the same critera.

More proof that hierarchy in *any* form is corrupting, but especially when money is at stake.

Re:The Cheap Alternative to Subscribing

[Burgundy Advocate]

Nope, not just you. They're filtering out javascript.

If you've already put it in your userspace, don't make any changes. Trying to save it again will kill what you already have.

Re:The Cheap Alternative to Subscribing

[jamie]

Script tags in User Space, in fact any unapproved HTML tags, have been disabled for security reasons. Existing data has been modified to comply (by running the strip_html function).

Conspiracy theories will probably abound, but the bottom line is, this was a security hole that we should have closed a long time ago. Better we do it now than after someone gets hurt.

Anyone who wants to discuss this is welcome to start a journal or discussion. It is offtopic here. I am only posting this because it's a security matter, and I will moderate myself down :)

Re:The Cheap Alternative to Subscribing

[linuxislandsucks]

Here is a real easy way for VA linux to get me to subscribe..

Give me a 5% disocunt on anything I buy at thinkgeek.com and I will subscribe to slashdot.org for 2 years..

I know there's a problem there

[Astral Traveller]

Hence, I said:

(click here to download the adkiller javascript code and put it on your own webspace, in case you don't trust me :-)

There was no other way I could get this code working; the User Slashbox's size limit was too small to fit the entire code into. I don't want people freeloading my bandwidth if I can help it, and I'm not the sort of person who would pull a bait-and-switch like that. You'll have to take my word on that, which is a bad thing to do for anyone on the Internet, so I say to everyone interested in this code, COPY IT TO YOUR OWN MACHINE and then run it. Save yourself from my dirty, evil self, and save me some bandwidth too! Everybody wins!

Thank you Jamie for bring this issue to the front.

Re:anonymization arms race

[Backov]

Why the hell is this marked flamebait? This guy is not trolling, he has an extremely valid point.

Cheers,
Backov

Re:The best is yet to come...

[Troed]

Those who think Java is slow do not understand software engineering.

(hint: real-world user-applications seldom do number-crunching in tight loops for hours)

I always thought you're a girl

[Elkobim]

..like Jamie from Mad About You. It was so cute if a girl maintained Slashdot. But apparantly you're not. Oh well. :(

- Kobim

But I *want* to see ads

[Elkobim]

The ads of slashdot are a part of it.

Rarely you get to know about new things by reading them (new computer languages/platforms), but it's interesting to see who sponsors slashdot. The ads aren't the thing that take a lot of download time - but it's the comments that do.

It's not the annoying Java or flash ads that make sounds or explode when you accidently move your mouse over them. They are just innocent ads. I can't see why anyone would filter them.

- Kobim

Re:But I *want* to see ads

[Elkobim]

Well, now they keep slashdot alive.

Btw: Screw those jerks who moded me down! I lost 2 karma points goddamnit! bahh!! (hug_me)

Someone slipped up :-o

[Rick the Red]

Starship Trooper (User #523907) posted some code that may or may not kill the new ads here in Slashdot [haven't tried 'em, so I can't vouch for their effectiveness].

jamie pointed out that it might not be safe to run javascript hosted on someone else's server.

Astral Traveller (User #540334) then says:

Hence, I said: [emphasis mine; read the parent for the full text]

Hmmm. I guess Astral Traveller and Starship Trooper are the same dude. How many other accounts you got? Ever mod yourself up? (ever mod yourself down?)

I don't doubt that lots of people have multiple accounts, but if you do you should be careful which ones you use in which thread :-)

It is well known that A.T. and S.T. are the same

[Anonymous Coward]

Unfortunately, "Starship Trooper" has been banned from posting after this incident, so I was forced to used "Astral Traveller" (the similarities should be obvious) in order to reply to jamie (after which A.T. was banned from posting too). So, yes, I was fully aware that I was using multiple accounts while referring to myself. And let this be a lesson -- don't post anything that threatens VA Software's new business model!

-S.Trooper/A.Traveller

Re:It is well known that A.T. and S.T. are the sam

[maxpublic]

Well, this definitely needs to be boosted into the airy ranks of '2' comments. Banned for posting code that blocks slashdot ads! Geez, given the editorial fairness we've seen up to this point who would've thought?

A.S.'s, original comment, moved up the firing line to keep it from languishing in the ranks of '0' comments. Yes, I know, redundant, but this is also a test to see if I can still post later on today:

Unfortunately, "Starship Trooper" has been banned from posting after this incident, so I was forced to used "Astral Traveller" (the similarities should be obvious) in order to reply to jamie (after which A.T. was banned from posting too). So, yes, I was fully aware that I was using multiple accounts while referring to myself. And let this be a lesson -- don't post anything that threatens VA Software's new business model! -S.Trooper/A.Traveller

Max

Bitchslapped thread.

[nyet]

I found this thread after reading this article on K5. Yes, it is yet another variation on the "imminent death of /. predicted, film at 11" rant, but the many pointers to bitchlapped threads piqued my interest.

Most readers *would* no doubt be very interested in this thread, but for some reason the whole thing got downmodded by the editors.

I was willing to give /. the benifit of the doubt (I had always felt the k5 readership to be pedantic and elitist FAR beyond even the worst /. poster) but this really takes the cake.

I have karma to burn, so I'm interested in seeing how fast this post gets moderated down.