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

[Paradoxish]

Mod this up so us whiny bastards can put slashdot out of business.

Re:The Cheap Alternative to Subscribing

[Anonymous Coward]

This big ad stuff is annoying. I like the adds they had at the top of the screen. This IBM thing in the middle is worse than the time they went around major citys chalking the sidewalks.

Until this problem goes away I am going to filter adds on Slash. VA is going to learn very quickly that asthetics is one of the reasons Slash is a good site. Hate to see Rob and the crew getting beat around because VA trying to do another of their "great" business moves. What's their share price now? Hehe. I thought so.

Oh yeah back on topic. Go freenet!! The net will be so much more useful when ALL files are easy to get a hold of.

Re:The Cheap Alternative to Subscribing

[Anonymous Coward]

If someone is paid $15/h and wastes 1h/day browsing Slashdot while he is PAID to do something else, then $15/day is unlawfully acquired. Morally it should be sent to slashdot. Why doesn't Slashdot promote that reasoning? They'd get shitloads of money.

Re:The Cheap Alternative to Subscribing

[Anonymous Coward]

You meant to say, "Mod this up so we whiny bastards can put slashdot out of business."

I really hope you did, at least, you illiterate fuck.

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

[Anonymous Coward]

This is so incredibly wrong. It's not like Rob (CmdrTaco) et al. are living it up off ad revenue, driving nice cars and taking trips all over the world. They need this money to pay the bandwidth bills, buy new database servers, and continue developing Slash. In other words, they have to EAT. Compared to a lot of other less adequate news sites, Slashdot's ads are very small and unassuming, and at least they don't dance and fly across the page. If you don't like it, ante up and pay 5 bucks for 1000 ad free pageviews. Those are the rules; if you block the ads, you're only fucking over the rest of the community, and that includes me.

Re:The Cheap Alternative to Subscribing

[Anonymous Coward]

1-800-IBM-7080 extension INFRA028

Speak with an IBM

e-business specialist by

calling toll-free in the US

and Canada.

Call IBM and tell them what you think of their new Slashdot adds in the middle of the screen.

Re:The Cheap Alternative to Subscribing

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure, and what's next? Putting ad banners in between comments? How about if someone replies to your insightful comment with an AD for SourceForge Corporate (Closed Source) Edition... and it inexplicably gets MODDED UP!? It's not about the community anymore, it's about OSDN using its number one page-view generating site as a crutch to produce far more advertising revenue than they could ever make "selling" open source software. Nuf sed.

Re:The Cheap Alternative to Subscribing

[Dr. Awktagon]

Or you could just browse with Lynx.

Or use an ad-busting proxy.

Or just ask daddy for a little extra money this week and pay the damn $5.

How the hell did this get modded up?

Re:The Cheap Alternative to Subscribing

[Anonymous Coward]

Dear Troll,

We are plesed to inform you that, after careful consideration , we have accepted your troll into the Troll Library

You show a masterful skill at trolling.

Thank you for your time and your contribution.

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

[Anonymous Coward]

VA is going to learn very quickly that asthetics is one of the reasons Slash is a good site.

I take it you've never looked at Slashdot before.

Re:The Cheap Alternative to Subscribing

[slashfucker]

How the hell did this get modded up?

Just wait until one of the editors notices that people are actually TALKING about Slashdot on Slashdot and bitchslaps the entire thread into limbo. Can you say The First Slashdot Troll Post Investigation?

Re:The Cheap Alternative to Subscribing

[Anonymous Coward]

Those are the rules; if you block the ads, you're only fucking over the rest of the community, and that includes me.

I guess that means I'm fucking everyone else over, including you. Guess what?

I DON'T CARE!

AHAHAHAHAAHHAHHHAAAAAA!!!!!

Re:The Cheap Alternative to Subscribing

[Anonymous Coward]

You have referenced a verboten part of Slashdot history, which DID NOT happen. Go directly to negative karma. Do not pass go, do not collect positive mod points.

- The Editors

Re:The Cheap Alternative to Subscribing

[Anonymous Coward]

Moderation Totals: Offtopic=6, Informative=3, Total=9.

Gee, looks like somebody doesn't want this information to be free!!

Re:The Cheap Alternative to Subscribing

[Anonymous Coward]

This is so incredibly wrong. It's not like Rob (CmdrTaco) et al. are living it up off ad revenue, driving nice cars

name: Rob Malda
age: 24
habitat: Cyberspace -- in the early days of Slashdot he stayed online up to 15 hours a day, seven days a week. Now he's cut it down to 12 hours a day, and he tries to take weekends off.
residence: A yellow condo in the tulip capital of the U.S.A. -- Holland, Mich.
nom de plume: CmdrTaco
--snip--
RIDE: A shiny-blue BMW, leased.

Source

Re:The Cheap Alternative to Subscribing

[Anonymous Coward]

I hope you read this (You're very actively repeating this cool little trick)
Thanks, it works great. You say it doesnt work in IE perfectly, but it does under IE 6! Easier than Junk Buster/Web Washer, or any other ad filter! Good work, now go spread the gosphel!

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

[Anonymous Coward]

...without paying those greedy slobs at VA Software a cent

Oh, yeah, since a website like Slashdot can be run for free, besides the cost of a residential 256k DSL connection off of a 486 DX2 50MHz.

Hardware costs money. Bandwidth costs lots of money. Slashdot is a fairly popular site--just look at how other sites often cripple after merely being linked to from Slashdot. And you think they can provide for this FOR FREE? You're fucking out of your mind.

Clearly the one being greedy here is you. Web sites cost real-world money, and you're demanding that you have Slashdot for free, without ads.

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..

What are you saying?

[elenchos]

How did you know I'm an aries? And who said they were sick of me? Who? Name them!

You bastard, the people love me! They have always loved me and they always will! Take it back!

Re:What are you saying?

[Anonymous Coward]

To get really off topic, I wonder why Ted Rall's
Terror Widows strip is missing from the NYTimes
web site. Should speech be free if it is really tasteless?

I hope you're joking

[Anonymous Coward]

because this is a real issue. Slashdot was once my safehaven from the sickeningly commercialised TV-surrogate the rest of the Internet has become. Now it's just the same as the rest of the Internet. I'm hoping this is just a phase, and that Rob and Hemos will come to their senses before they totally fuck over what little goodwill they have left.

-S.Trooper

Which Ads? I don't see any...

[Anonymous Coward]

Stop moaning about the ads and just block them by pointing the ad servers to your local machine (at least it works with Linux). Check out:

http://remember.mine.nu

713th Post!

[Pinball Wizard]

I hereby dedicate my 713th post to Josh Marotti aka FortKnox.

Hey, if Michael can go and post to FortKnox's journal to tell him to get a life for posting to slashdot too much, its only fair that someone post this in one of his stories.

Re:Why is this at -1? Re: The Cheap Alternative to

[Anonymous Coward]

We'll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgement of all wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the song

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again

The change, it had to come
We knew it all along
We were liberated from the fold, that's all
And the world looks just the same
And history ain't changed
'Cause the banners, they are flown in the next war

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
No, no!

I'll move myself and my family aside
If we happen to be left half alive
I'll get all my papers and smile at the sky
Though I know that the hypnotized never lie
Do ya?

There's nothing in the streets
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye
And the parting on the left
Are now parting on the right
And the beards have all grown longer overnight

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
Don't get fooled again
No, no!

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss

/etc/hosts

[Anonymous Coward]

127.0.0.1 m.doubleclick.net

Re:Why is this at -1? Re: The Cheap Alternative to

[dsb]

I did mod up and all childern I modded up to support discussion of this horrendous tactic. Take a look at the moderation totals 6-offtopic, how is this off topic? When the giant ad is right in the middle of the TOPIC! Clearly on topic and informative. And no, I dont feel like using lynx, etc. I don't mind the banner ads at the top, in fact I have clicked on them from time to time to check out the cool geek stuff. But a gigantic Ad in the middle of the comments has to go! Mod up!!!!

Re:Why is this at -1? Re: The Cheap Alternative to

[Anonymous Coward]

You dumb fucking bastard. When you posted, you undid all your positive moderations! With friends like you, who needs enemas?

Thank you!

[Starship Trooper]

It's appreciative posts like this that keep me writing software. Thank you for the compliment, and for telling me that it works in IE! :-)

and now for the easy alternative...

[Anonymous Coward]

Use opera browser and turn off images.

The robust solution is to use webwasher or some similar type program which filters out ad noise.

Have you ever thought that..

[Anonymous Coward]

Some people want to see images, but don't want to see ads? Or that some people don't have the time to fuck around with complex software like webwasher?

Great!

[Anonymous Coward]

The problem must be my old copy of Opera 5 then. Thanks for the info!

-S.Trooper

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

If you want to keep the top banners, ...

[Anonymous Coward]

... then use this slightly modified version, which removes the image killing loop. The iframe killer (which nukes those terrible full-page ads) continues to work independently of that. I don't mind the top banner ads much either, but I thought my script should nuke them just for the sake of completeness. Hope this helps! :-)

-S.Trooper (posting anonymously since I seem to have struck a nerve and gotten my account banned)

--- CODE UPDATED ---

[Anonymous Coward]

If you downloaded the code to some personal webspace, I humbly request that you download it again. The ad layout was changed to no longer use iframes, but instead place the ad img directly into the page. The new version (also available in a keep-banners version, which retains banner ads at the top while removing the obtrustive new large ads) now catches these new iframe-less ads. Be sure to check the code on occasion for updates (but always look over the code yourself before running it!)

-S.Trooper

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

OFF TOPIC?

[Anonymous Coward]

How the fuck is this off-topic? He was replying to a message from a god damn editor!

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.