Slashdot Mirror
Ad Block Plus Filter Maintainer "rick752" Dies At 56
A user on Reddit pointed out that Richard "rick752" Petnel, maintainer of one of the most popular filter lists for Ad Block Plus, has passed away at age 56. In an article last year Petnel described a bit of what he was up against in the ad world. "'I'm playing against some pretty big players,' he said, explaining his reluctance to step forward. 'I don't want to be harassed. . . . I don't want to be bribed. I started it because I was frustrated with getting my computer infected from ads -- malware and spyware and all that stuff,' he said. 'I kind of went overboard with it. But you have to admit, it's pretty amazing, right?'" Update 15:05 GMT by SM: updated to reflect Rick's status as maintainer of the most popular Ad Block Plus filter as opposed to Ad Block Plus itself.
does this mean no new updates?
I would give everything i own for a little bit more.
I feel for his family. I use and really like adblock plus but that is trivial compared to what his lose means to his family and friends.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
You might have annoyed advertisers, but that's fine with me, because advertisers used to annoy the shit out of me. Thanks to AdBlock Plus, I no longer have to be annoyed by adverts when I go online.
I write sci-fi for metalheads
That's a bit young to go, but at least he lived a full life. I wonder what the heck he died from "after a brief illness". Given it's a hospice, I can only imagine an aggressive cancer.
Didn't know the man, but I love the product. It's comforting to know he won't have to worry about ads any more.
http://forums.lanik.us/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=3366
Donations made to:
Community Hospice of Albany
445 New Karner Rd.
Albany, NY 12205
A close friend has recently died at a similar age and it's so strange to think of all the plans we make for after retirement, never contemplating we may never reach it...
First and foremost, condolences to the family.
Second, Rich, thanks for a powerful plugin that I'm sure has kept my blood pressure down a few notches. Whenever I use a browser that doesn't have adBlock installed I am aghast at the irritating clutter that is on most web pages.
CommentBot 0.7a running with args "-module irritate,disagree -target random"
Though it's sad that the maintainer of one of AdBlock Plus' block lists (the "EasyList") died he still wasn't the maintainer of AdBlock Plus itself.
That's still Wladimir Palant, as can be easily seen here.
"I'm not anti-anything, I'm anti-everything, it fits better." - Sole
The battles of advertising & greed / annoying customers was always gonna go like this. They need to keep hitting targets, which means more eyeballs. They know that only a small percentage of eyeballs who see the advert actually convert to cash, so they need more eyeballs to be a bigger pool.
That means they are more in-your-face, more determined to ignore your option not to see them. This in turn leads to people like Rick taking a stand which leads to all of us AdBlockPlus users having a better surfing experience.
Advertisers have brought it upon themselves by being aggressively greedy. It's a numbers game which is backfiring to some extent as more people decide that enough is enough and they block all adverts. Unfortunately this greed by the super-corps has hindered the little guys who rely on adverts and use them subtly and responsibly as they are blocked too by users. Then.....since when has any CEO been ousted for considering the little guy? It's all "ME! ME! ME!".
Naw, ya gotta go classy. Discount caskets aren't classy. Now a Folger's coffee can and scattering the ashes when the wind is in your face.... that's classy ;)
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
but how much money does this guy going away represent to the ad industry?
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
This guy deserved a Nobel Prize. He truly made the world a better place.
On a related note, I wonder if anyone has released a "First Post Block Plus"?
I'm interested in your thoughts. What about a completely ad-free town? Is there a small town somewhere that is willing to go completely ad-free (maybe there already is one)?
Maybe ad-free stretched of road (with anonymous sponsors)!!
Perhaps a huge billboard that is perpetually kept empty (or has only news/info on it).
Let's do something really good to commemorate this guy's vision.
*** Don't be dull.***
...some kind of Internet-equivalent of a statue built for him, and the creator(s) of the original AdBlock (of whose I can't even find the names :/).
Without this little extension, the Internet would be unusable for me, and many, many other people.
Any suggestions besides making AdBlock Plus a community project and maybe even integrate it into Firefox itself? (After all, I don't know a more important extension. If I would have to choose between having tabs and having ads blocked, I'd always choose the ad blocker.)
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
He made the world a little bit better for a whole lot of people, quietly and effectively. There's almost no higher purpose in life.
From that post:
It's with great sadness that have to announce the passing of a good friend and our EasyList author, Rick752. Rick had suffered a stroke on St Patrick' Day, and I was just informed that Rick had passed away last evening. During this short period, while hospitalized, Rick had his family very close by his side. There was some able communication and awareness between Rick and his family before his passing and although given this short period to "prepare" for the inevitable, this news (as with any of this type) is still quite shocking and difficult to accept.
Rest in piece Richard, thanks for all the good work, strength to the family and relatives.
---
"The chances of a demonic possession spreading are remote -- relax."
I never knew you but as recently as Saturday I was bragging about your awesomeness.
Rick wasn't one of the maintainers of Adblock Plus. He was the maintainer of Easylist, a filter list that works with ABP, and quite possibly the best one I might add.
When you have finished this cup of coffee your adventure will begin again.
I've been using adblock plus for years now, and I can count the times I needed to disable it or allow something through it because a item or site I wanted to use wasn't working.
Shadus
A very sad farewell to the man who made the internet usable again. RIP.
Shadus
I read the article associated and all I heard from the content owners' side was "If you block our ads, we lose revenue!" It seems to me that if websites stopped using more and more intrusive ad techniques that people would be less likely to want to use ad-blockers. You already know your customers hate pop-ups, so the ads get blocked. Your answer is to use pop-unders instead, trying to circumvent the wishes of your target customer. You know they block half the ads on your site, so you double the ads and spread the content out over twice as many pages. Again, your customer has already told you what they want, but you insist that you know better.
Seriously, I'm getting tired of website owners and advertisers continuing to whine about how we won't let them bug us. If you want me to look at your ads, stop making them annoy me so much! Stop using blinking, flashing banners (too bad the BLINK tag didn't take you with it when that died), stop using javascript banners that are as likely to infect my computer as not. Stop trying to "bundle" your adware with anything I want to install.
If you make your ads play nice with me, I'll stop using ad-blocker software. I'll look at your ads and I might even buy something from them.
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
If you liked the software, donate money to his family to help cover funeral costs, or donate money to the charity listed in his obituary, Community Hospice of Albany, as a last tribute to someone whose work you've enjoyed over the years.
Someone else will maintain adblock plus. It could even be you!
...Though it'd be deliciously ironic as a Googler's 20% project.
Of course, it never quite occurrs to them that the more obnoxious they get with their ads, the more people who will resort to blocking technologies.
Back when ads were just simple banner images without all the annoying pop-up, pop-under, flashing, and annoying sounds, I didn't really mind them. As they started adding those annoying features, I went out of my way to actively block them.
From that point on, just about ANY ad on a web page (except for the non-annoying google text ones) pretty much turns me off from the advertiser... if I could see them which I pretty much don't due to the aforementioned blocking.
By definition, anyone who is willingly blocking advertisements is probably among the vast majority of people who are NOT likely to click through anyway. If I were an advertiser, I'd be glad they were out of the pool. Of course, I'm pretty sure most web advertising providers charge by impression (cuz they'd go broke if they charged for actual results.
The real money in Internet advertising isn't in having your ad be successful, it's in providing services to those who THINK they're going to make money advertising their wares.
The Digital Sorceress
...and getting the ashes caught in your beard, no less.
I love it too, though sometimes I feel like the ads shouldn't be totally blocked (I won't say it's "conscience" because what many advertisers do is unconscionable).
I started deploying it because all the Flash ads were bringing older computers to their knees, making them unusable on otherwise manageable web pages.
If usability is the main concern for some users, maybe we should have the option of deciding how many ads are allowed per page... and let ABP randomly choose which ones to show.
RIP Richard
Real men of genius indeed. You will be missed.
And I think Slashdotters are the right people to ask.
In short, if I want advertisement blocking, what should I install? More specific questions:
Swedish plasma phys. PhD student; MSc EE; knows maths, programming, electronics; finance interest; seeks opportunities
60% of UK consumers are willing to browse with an ad-blocker in return for free videos, music and other content, a survey has revealed.
"This willingness to pretend to view adverts in exchange for free content is good news for sites wanting to lie to advertisers, and is perhaps a pointer in the ongoing debate over whether advertising or subscription is the right revenue model," said Tudor Aw at KPMG.
40% said they would pretend to accept popups, popunders, interstitials, Phorm, floating windows, Flash videos that start playing sound automatically, eye-gouging animations and 2o7.net cookies in exchange for free music. 16% said they would pay to avoid ads. The rest would continue to use BitTorrent or Mozilla Firefox with AdBlock.
People were more willing to pay on mobile phones, unless they had a modern phone with which they could steal someone's WiFi connection.
Google, the world's largest online advertising agency, said it was looking into tastefully-interspersed direct content advertising and brand placement, and added that you should PUNCH THE MONKEY TO WIN £20,000!!! If you know what's good for you.
http://rocknerd.co.uk
I prefer Eli Stone, who used Chock Full O Nuts (which was symbolic.... and fitting).
So you click the big stop sign and then click "Disable on Hulu.com". You are seriously arguing that this is a problem?
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
I suppose he truly was Rick Rolling the advertising companies.
I hope his work on the list was not causing him stress that led to his stroke.
In the consensual hallucination that is cyberspace, there has arisen the shining, towering figure of rick752, his left hand raised in a gesture of defiance to the admen barbarians who would overrun the matrix.
Thanks for your contribution Rick, if each ad blocked counted as ten seconds, you helped increase the total joie de vivre of millions by at least a century.
Rest in peace, and condolences to your family.
"I improvise. It's my greatest talent. I prefer situations to plans..." --Wintermute, William Gibson's "Neuromancer"
Trying to play Devils advocate.
As a user of AdBlock plus myself, I do often wonder how many services that I perceive free have advert revenue behind them. Will we see these services disappear as usage of ad blocking tools continue when they cannot generate enough revenue?
You must make a distinction between the egotist and the egoist. The first boasts to his friends and holds their opinions of himself above his own. The second looks to himself for his inspiration and motivation. They both claim "pride", but the former is a false pride. You can expect the first to manipulate/lie to others when it is convenient to do so. The latter would not even conceive of it - not because of some commandment that must be followed, but simply because it would never come to mind.
But Firefox and Adblock Plus made that unnecessary -- which made my life a hell of a lot easier.
I write sci-fi for metalheads
We're scattering the FUCKIN' ashes!
What an amazing coincidence: a day ago the original adblock became unsupported after latest firefox patch upgrade..
Take a deep breath and look at the long-term trends. Are housing values depressed? Sure, but only back to 2004 levels. Are stocks depressed? Yes, but only back to late 90s levels. It would suck if you were planning to retire this year, but prices will recover for those of us currently under 40. This isn't the end times, it's just a recession. Even the Great Depression ended eventually.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Good night, sweet prince.
Simple banner ads, text or even animated gifs, usually get a pass on my system, but only on sites I like. My favorite webcomics and novels have their advertisers allowed, as long as they are just pictures and texts.
Strangely, as people who are profiting from the ads, those artists and authors also want to not annoy their readers. They know that, as the ads get more annoying, the readers start to block them, and the ratio between ad hits and page views starts to separate. The advertisers do not see that. They might, if they really pay attention, notice that their views are going down. But they can attribute that to the website becoming less popular and therefore worth less advertising dollars. Or because the website is only showing their ad some of the time. Basically, they can create in their heads any number of reasons that it is 'not their fault'.
I'm a big fan of both this project and the Open Source movement in general, but this does show off one major flaw in the system. Just like the proverbial bus that is so widely feared and runs down IT folks everywhere, many projects are small and while there may be many contributors there is one main person whom without the project would fail. When that person meets that proverbial bus, in an instant a widely used and relied upon piece of software can become dead as well. That's a major problem.
If things were truly born of chaos like we seem to think, these things would have no impact... but there is still a major underlying structure and hierarchy to this "chaos" and it is quite fragile.
The biggest barrier is ego, quickly followed by celebrity. It is hard for the creator of some neat widget to give up total control and truly step back and just share the success with those who hopped onto "their" project after the fact, but that is what needs to happen. There should never be less than two individuals at every level of a serious project, and both need to be fully competent... but that is not the case, even in very large projects.
* Oh, and give up on bashing the people who are concerned about what this means as to updates/life of the project... none of us were his good friend and the question is not callous or insensitive.
http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
FTFA:
"Just imagine, they argue, what television programs would be available if there were no commercials to fund their production. "
-TV show funding comes from the corporations that provide the financial backing from a variety of sources, not just advertising. Plus, the advertising products through ads isn't the only way companies let people know about their products. I can go to several sites and look to see what's new and available. You can use many ways of finding out about products on the Internet at anytime. On TV, you can only watch either the program or the advertisements at any one time. You can change the channel, but you will be watching something other than what you wanted to watch in the first place.
Advertisers should take note: If someone creates a way to NOT look at ads, and the means of blocking the ads are being adopted by more and more users, then that is a *VERY* strong sign that people do not want to see the ads. If people are blocking the ads, then advertisers should understand that whether they show the ads or not, people are most likely NOT going to buy the product or service being advertised. Companies will save money by not wasting it on advertising products that are not going to be bought, and consumers will go to places where they can voluntarily look for a product or service on their own, without having an ad shoved in their face.
People are most likely going to buy things when they need or want them, and when they do, they'll go looking for them. When you walk up to someone and constantly try to sell them something that they weren't looking for in the first place (think TRADE SHOWS), you'll definitely piss them off to some degree and they probably won't but it. Ever get annoyed by people begging for a handout outside a business's doors? That's exactly what ad companies are doing, except advertising on the internet it the equivalent of following you throughout the store and continually giving you sales pitches the entire time you're there. Whiny kids are bad enough, but a salesman attached to your back like a remora is even worse.
Anyways, maybe less TV shows for people to watch would mean more people going outside and having some good, old-fashioned fun as a source of enjoyment.
Knowing Google's lust for data collection, the Soviet Union is still alive and well inside the psyche of Sergey Brin....
it really brought the room together...
This will not stand, ya know, this aggression will not stand, man.
"You can kill the revolutionary, but you can't kill the revolution."-- Fred Hampton
Don't know jack about the guy, but just wanted to say thanks.
Times like these, when so many crooks are getting away with so much in broad daylight, makes me reflect on him and others like him who quietly keep on to stick it to the fucked-up system.
How did he die?
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
...when I had my own shitty little website where I posted the shitty little stories I used to write: pay the hosting bill by working a day job. Again, the need to depend on advertising, subscriptions, donations, or a day job is not my concern. I don't run a website; I just use them. If I find your ads obnoxious, I will block them without apology.
I write sci-fi for metalheads
What? I use Adblock Plus on Firefox 3, and Hulu works just fine. I don't see the ads, though I do see the nag screen.
Method of processing duck feet
Viewers will have the opportunity "to see more of our finest creative advertising minds at work" under proposals put forward by Ofcom to deal with the drop in television advertising revenue.
The report notes: "The advertising industry is powerfully adept at producing thirty-second immaculately-constructed visual masterpieces, perfect for the modern on-the-go citizen. We also hope to bring long-form works to the viewer, which they presently must seek out themselves on home shopping channels. We feel this will alleviate the monotony of shows such as The X Factor."
Broadcasters are currently restricted to showing an average of eight minutes an hour of advertising during peak times, amounting to a maximum of 40 minutes across the five-hour period. The new plan involves eight minutes an hour of programming, amounting to a maximum of 40 minutes across an evening.
"We want to ensure that viewers continue to benefit from a wide range of advertising-funded television services. We feel there is no prospect of this backfiring, as it's not as if there's any alternative to television," said the preliminary report, which is also available on YouTube and BitTorrent.
"Ofcom has taken on board our opinion that any suggestion of 'regulatory capture' by the bodies it is meant to set the rules for is piffle," said Channel Four. "But we understand these moves are controversial, and strongly suggest people call in with their opinion on our 0900 line, at only 95p a minute."
"Oh dear, what a pity, never mind," said a BBC spokesman, opening champagne.
http://rocknerd.co.uk
I imagine fewer and better programs.
Once I was a four stone apology. Now I am two separate gorillas.
Rest In Peace.
Representing content on the client I own in the way I choose to view it is not stealing. Stop asserting that it is.
[ home ]
No, actually I was arguing the opposite, but managed to delete the "I've had to do this on one hand." part somehow while I was editing.
Shadus
The Dude abides... ;-)
It's not the website itself that I find annoying, but the ads. All ads. Everywhere. I stopped watching TV because of ads, but I'm not going to let ads drive me off the internet.
I write sci-fi for metalheads
I love that you think blocking adds on biggest and most successful attempt to bring content directly and legally to the internet is something people should be proud of. Don't be retarded, ad revenue is the only way Hulu will stay alive.
The answer is simple. AdBlock Plus, and Flashblock. That'll make your browsing pleasant again. NoScript will make it safer. Cookie Monster to limit what sites put cookies on your system. And OldBar to get rid of that fucking awful "Awesome Bar" that has been inflicted upon us in Firefox 3.
Get your own free personal location tracker
he is not murdered?!
Persian Project Management Software as a Service
People have been saying that for hundreds of years
If I have nothing to hide, you have no reason to search me
OK, so a whole bunch of stuff is funded/supported by ad-based revenue. Let's assume that enough of the rest of you start using Adblock+ and its relatives, and they all go under. (I've been using it as long as I can remember. It's occasionally a shock to use someone else's browser and realise what they have to put up with!)
So a bunch of big-ish website vanish. the real question is: who cares? Will we really, truly miss them? Or will Mom and Pop Sixpak get off their butts and start contributing content. Or will they simply ditch The IntarWeb and go back to watching TV.
Win, win, either way!
New mod option wanted: -1 DrunkenRambling
Then google comes along and finds that well targeted unobtrusive text adverts work well enough to support it's services and starts offering them as a service to other websites.
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
include :
127.0.0.1 ad.doubleclick.net # dead end ad server
and Viola...2/3rds of your problems go 404
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
That's not my problem. I don't even own a TV, so it's not like I can't live without Fringe and Terminator. If the rest of the TV junkies want to pay for my freeloading because they can't find something interesting to do in the absence of TV programming, more power to them.
The content providers are already catching on. Knight Rider is one big Ford ad. Terminator is a Dodge ad. And Fringe is a Dell ad. It's not too conspicuous, so all is good for now. If the shows are really interesting, I may even invest in the DVD sets once the series has run its course. The networks make a ton from merchadise licensing: that cool Spaceballs Flamethrower, CSI Forensic kits for kids, sountracks, Valentines Day cards, and branded folders for school-kids. I can't go anywhere without having to endure the sight of fraking Hannah Montana tripe, so don't tell me merchandising isn't making someone some major coin!
But I won't tolerate incessant bliverts for the sake of pimping my eyeballs to the networks. I know what I want/need in my purchasing habits; I don't need them pre-programming me with brand recognition. Sure, that doesn't help Hulu... yet. In the future, when more people ditch the absurd habit of actually paying directly for cable and satellite (and watching ads, as a bonus!), the content producers will be starving for exposure, and *they* will be the ones paying the likes of Hulu to promote their precious franchises.
Ads are evil. They really are. There are other more ethical ways to make money from content creation, and these companies will eventually have to face that particular reality.
Method of processing duck feet
Surely there's enough reason for a site that extols the virtues of those who have contributed significantly, dead or alive, to what is possibly one of the most important technological changes in recent years? Somewhere that people could go and understand something of the history of the internet and find out more on the personalitites that helped take things forward.
Without it there's the chance that effort, intelligence and creativity will just be forgotten and all people will remember is Tim Berners-Lee.
I'm not really questioning the value of historical record. I'm only questioning the knee-jerk emotional reaction when someone suggests something like this because someone just died.
If it is the will of the gods. If no, then maybe he will not be added but blocked from Heaven.... If he makes it to Heaven, then maybe we'll know the money IS the root of (almost) all evil...
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
I would like to say Thank You to "rick752" Petnel's family and that I personally admire and respect him for his contributions. He will be missed and remembered as a Hero.
I've been using it for years as well, and I don't think that I've ever had to disable it because a site wasn't working.
The list that Rick put together was fabulous. I haven't seen an ad on the internet in years. A couple of weeks back I wanted to try out another browser... (chrome/opera) but both of their ad blocking wasn't as substantial as the great list that Rick as been maintaining.
Real shame, the guy was doing some great work. Credit where credit is due!
Sorry, but no: it's my client, and I can view the content any way I wish. If they don't want people viewing the content in non-standard viewers, they can try to lock it down to DRM'ed clients; that said, heretofore attempts to restrict content to DRM'ed clients have generally failed.
Using open standards and allowing open access is one of the prices you pay for making content that people actually want to view.
[ home ]
While "free" is great, there are services I would pay for - heck, there are services I want to pay for. I would be much happier knowing that the service is making money from its users rather than wondering what sort of back-room deals are keeping them afloat.
Here's an example: OpenDNS. Great service, I recently installed in for a small company. There isn't even an option to pay for the service. So just what does OpenDNS get out of providing their service to this company? It bothers me - I keep wondering what the catch is...
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
Perhaps not real towns, but how about a rick752 Memorial Day, where website owners take down their ads completely? Something like a no ads day?
cpghost at Cordula's Web.
Yea, Slashdot consensus - is there anything more sublime? :)
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Past tense, not infinitive. He doesn't die regularly or all the time. He died just the one time.
Utilizing the synergization of benchmark e-solutions to pre-workaround action items!
Uuuhh....Kinda missed the part where I said 'average user" there? Most folks don't know anymore about a PC than they do a toaster. they push the button and either it works or it don't. They don't WANT to learn, because talking geek crap gives them a headache and is like speaking kilgon to these people. hell I bet if you stopped 100 folks on the street i doubt you would even find five who knew what an IP address WAS, much less how to edit a HOSTS file to selectively block certain websites.
That fact that you were able to teach your buddy and more telling that he is able to use Process Explorer without boning something like lsass or csrss tells me that your buddy is actually smart. More importantly he was willing and able to learn and grasp technology. Sadly from 15 years in the biz I can tell you he is in a VERY tiny majority. Most folks are smart in their area of expertise and frankly have no desire whatsoever to learn new things in other fields. let me give an example from my own family, no less. My dad is a master electrician. he can tell you anything you would ever want to know about voltages and wiring and capacitance, etc. I had to build him a new PC recently. I gave up even trying to explain what he was getting because before I even got to the processor he held up his hand and said "Will it run quickbooks and my lighting software and do it fast?" when I said yes he handed me a blank check and said go do it.
The point is with something like a HOSTS file you have to WANT to know how such things work. Otherwise you will inevitably run into a site that doesn't work for one reason or another and you will have NO way to fix it other than calling some guy like me and paying for a service call. With Adblock Plus they simply right click and pick "allow". That's it. No need to know anything about IP addressing, or editing HOSTS files, or even how the Internet works at all. It is beyond simple for those that know little about tech and just want to use the machine to do a job.
I have a graphic artist down the hall that summed it up perfectly. I told him he could pay me $50+ for the parts + change a cap or two in a nice motherboard I had(he is an ex NASA engineer) or he could sit there for 40 minutes and let me teach him a little CLI for fixing his network problem. He said "Good God, why would I want to do that? I have graphic work that I like to do. I also like working with caps and resistors. I absolutely HATE all that stupid command stuff. It is boring and a PITA. I'm sure that you will set something up so I will NEVER have to deal with such stuff and it will just let me get my work done." So that is what I did. I rigged him up a KVM 2 port along with a second NIC so his graphics box could be hooked directly to his main rig by a crossover. Now when he needs to run his Xres for graphics work(which only runs on PCs with less than 2GB RAM and 2GHz CPUs) he can simply drag and drop and go "clicky clicky" on his KVM and be working.
For those of us that lurk here on /. learning a new trick in enjoyable. We like hardware, software, tweaks and hacks. A VERY large section of the population simply gets no joy whatsoever from PCs. To them it is a toaster to do a job. For them simple trumps all, including security unfortunately. Like I said, selling security is like selling folks on air. they know they need it but getting them to grasp it is a horse of another color. That is why i love Adblock Plus, as for users like my dad and the graphic artist they don't HAVE to grasp or frankly even understand anything. The tool does the drudgery and leaves them to the stuff they actually want, like dad and his quickbooks and the artist and his Xres. I'm glad that you were able to teach your buddy though. Sadly i can only dream of having users willing to learn. But since I have learned to do all the work for them, such as scheduling AV scans and antispy scans and things like Adblock Plus filters, I don't have to piss in the wind trying to explain to them stuff they will promptly ignore or forget. But it must be nice to get users that actually want to know things....sigh.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.