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Block Adverts Outside of the Browser
vm writes with word of a new project from the creators of AdBlock for Chrome, the popular
extension
mini-app
lifesaver
cheese grater
that blocks advertisements from showing up on web pages. The new tool in development, AdBlock Freedom, expands the ad-free experience to television,
magazines
newspapers
circulars
whatarethosethings
, and billboards. 'Here's how it works: when powered off, AdBlock Freedom functions as sunglasses. Slide a discreet switch on the frame, and AdBlock Freedom begins scanning your
view
area
mind
girlfriend
for objects that it recognizes as ads. Any detected ad gets a "smudge" overlay to blend it into its surroundings.' You can sign up now
for the beta test
OPTION BLOCKED
OPTION BLOCKED
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."
April First Post! There, now i never have to do this again.
[First|Second|Third|Fourth] Post.
Just employ your Joo Janta 200 Super-Chromatic Peril Sensitive Sunglasses and set for protection from Advertising. Works great.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Kinda like a reverse of the sunglasses from the movie "They Live" with Rowdy Roddy Piper:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Live
We already have Word Lens, and wearable eyeglass-style displays. I have a friend who wants to try to explore the US using nothing but a compass and a sextant, but with the ubiquity of direction signs you don't actually need navigation equipment. He's hoping he can get Word Lens running on a wearable display so he can scramble all the street signs and have a whole new country to explore.
Nostalgia's not what it used to be.
Not one singe piece of real news posted today? I know that April Fools is an idiot's holiday that the fucktards at Slashdot indulge in every single year, but come the fuck on. Not even ONE piece of real news this year? Also, how about a "don't fucking waste my time" option, so I can filter this shit out of my RSS feed next year?
it's now after noon on 1st April everywhere in the world. If you do an april fool after noon then you are the fool
Seriously, name names, and I'll take care of your problems in a non-lethal, non-criminal manner the instant you can guarantee I'll never have to see one of those annoying commercials again.
Double-points if it includes political campaigns.
Great! I hate looking at all those snarky bumper stickers on cars and advertisements on container trucks while commuting to and from work.
Deltron 3030 - Virus (music video)
Conservative Christians have ruined this country. While they elected assholes because of their stance on "social issues" (really because they hate homosexuals and black people) those asshole used their power to push the agenda of the rich and powerful - especially the corporate interests!
You see, the Republicans use the dumb moronic Christian masses as their "base", get those idiots to vote for them for "social values" - especially the Mormon Cult - and then when elected, pass laws for their corporate overlords. You know it's true - bitches! You know it!
And yet, the fucking Republicans still sucker in the morons with the "low taxes" and "cut expending" morons.
Republicans are morons!
Libertarians... your heart is in the right place, but good grief! Wake up and smell the coffee!!
We're all doomed and the Republicans put us their!
Job went overseas? Republicans.
Can't marry you love of your life? Republicans
Can't get a bottle of wine for your dinner party on Sunday? Republicans.
Budget deficit and you're being taxed more? Republicans.
Want a joint and go to jail for having it? republicans and yet, they're perfectly fine to legalize alcohol for 6 days a week! Hypcrties!
Want to cheat on your wife? Say God will forgive you and vote Republican.
Republican: the party for hypocrites, liars, drug addicts, irrational morons, superstitious morons, and people who want socialism for the rich!
Oh, anti abortion? Guess what assholes! I'm rich, My girlfriend gets pregnant, we fly to Europe, get an abortion and you can't do a fucking thing about it slime ball.
Make abortion illegal and you just prevent poor welfare moms from aborting their future burden on the state. Rich people get it done regardless of the law. Suck peon Christian working class morons! Ahahahahhahahahahahahha ... I fart in your face and your God! Ahahahahhahahahahahahahahhahaha
I abort babies and eat them with Cooscoos! Ahahahahahahahhahahahaha ....while burning the Bible upside down! Ahahahahahahahahahahha
Christianity, the religion of losers!
Its now past 1 April here in Australia . . .
I've been blocking ads external to the browser and independent of it for many years: they're called local HTTP filtering proxies. Proxomitron and privoxy are the two most well known.
I confess, though, that most of my ad- and element-blocking is now done with WYSIWYG and GUI goodness via the browser extensions AdBlock Plus and AdBlock Plus Element Hiding Helper; the latter duplicates - in seconds - most of the custom filters I once had to laboriously craft in Proxomitron. (Other people swear by the Remove It Permanently extension, but they seem to be functionally identical.) When it comes to prettying-up pages for archiving or printing, I use the Aardvark extension to temporarily yank out irrelevant page elements. There are just a few filters I still use in Proxomitron, ones whose effect I can't easily duplicate with any existing browser extensions. The amazing thing is that it still works after all these years, in spite of significant evolution, the death of its author, and no patches or updates whatsoever.
The ad-blocking arms race really pisses me off. If it weren't for Tivo, we probably wouldn't have ads that step on top of the program, and we would probably have fewer product placements.
For years, there was an uneasy peace between entertainment and advertisement. We could get up to go to the bathroom during breaks; but we'd still catch a few ads.
Technology has altered the balance and not necessarily for the--OMG, Ponies. I can see them coming, they're coming, look, Over there--->
Advertisements that make sound without you clicking to activate it, pop-unders, and ads that move around the screen or animate enough to give regular people seizures are the kind of ads that should be blocked, not stationary ones like you see on legit sites. It takes away what's free and degrades the quality over time due to the cost of maintaining the site, staff, and others. It's no wonder that a lot of sites now have premium services because too many people block ads.
I can't imagine living in a world without being surrounded by advertisements and branding. I can't speak for the rest of the world, or even for the rest of the United States, but in the major metropolitan area I'm used to... these sorts of glasses would censor 95% of what's considered the city's culture. It makes me a little sick to my stomach to admit this, but the background noise of advertisments, logos, and product placements is part of what gives urban life an accelerated feel. Whether it be for a community event, an underground up-and-coming punk band performance, or the overly invasive coca-cola advertisement campaigns -- if it all just stopped, everything would feel a bit dull and muted.
There are some people I just don't want to listen to anymore. I'd like some glasses that will blot out annoying individuals, and some headphones that will recognize the voice of known annoying people and project opposing sounds in all directions, so I won't hear the latest annoying thing they have to say.
It doesn't matter which major party you vote for: they're both paid by the corporations. So vote third party - there's no lesser evil, they're controlled by the same evil.
You're so right AC!
The Republicans' have royally fucked us and those lying assholes on Fox News!
I for one am going to convert to Animism this weekend. None of the Judeo crap!!
I will then kill several million babies by jerking off and letting the semen hit the floor! Take that Christian Fundamentalist Morons! Ahahahahhahahahahha
Its like the sunglasses from "They Live", but in reverse.
But at least the Republicans don't have you on their team, so that counts in their favor.
Seriously, you might not understand this, but you don't attract people to your side of an argument by being unpleasantly nuts.
>Seriously, you might not understand this, but you don't attract people to your side of an argument by being unpleasantly nuts.
Why not? It worked for the Republicans.
Advertisements that make sound without you clicking to activate it, pop-unders, and ads that move around the screen or animate enough to give regular people seizures are the kind of ads that should be blocked, not stationary ones like you see on legit sites. It takes away what's free and degrades the quality over time due to the cost of maintaining the site, staff, and others. It's no wonder that a lot of sites now have premium services because too many people block ads.
When sites violate their side of the social contract, people no longer respect their own side of the social contract. The first pop-up started the war, every "innovation" in advertising just reinforces the hatred.
There's an add-on-for-add-ons called, I think, HotPlug. It's a bit of code that developers can hide in their browser extensions that replace website ads with user-side cached ads. With the extensions' developers and HotPlug splitting revenue 50/50. The user has no control over HotPlug (other than making sure they don't downloading anything that has the fucking thing.) And obviously it steals revenue from websites (no honour amongst thieves.)
And yet no one sees the obvious. If you can serve ads from the user-side, and it's worth money, let the user have control (and revenue). Let us make money off our own viewing. Let us donate/subscribe to the websites we use. Let us block ads/product/companies we don't like. Instead of going to war against users and making ads more and more intrusive and objectionable, work with the user.
Science is all about firing a drunk pig out of a cannon just to see what happens.
This technology is nothing new- I had a set of the Peril Sensitive Sunglasses that came with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy video game. Those high-tech gadgets became opaque whenever you were in peril, so that you would avoid the urge to panic.
I read the comments praising the sunglasses so I decided to order a pair, but the product I recieved has been nothing but a dissapointment. I put on the sunglasses and for some reason everything is in black and white, I'm annoyed because the advertisement implyed they would be in color. What's more, they don't remove the ads on billboards I look at, only replace them with eery messages such as "Obey" and "Consume". I looked at a dollar bill and all it said was "This is your god". Kind of freaky if I must say. To make matters worse I looked at my next door neighbor, and he was some sort of hideous alien. When he saw me notice he looked sort of panicked. He started talking into his watch, saying something about "This one can see". As soon as that happened I decided it was best to run inside and inform slashdot.
All I can say is DO NOT BUY THESE GLASSES, they do not deliver the product as promised and are of noticeably shoddy construction.
The editors most likely read comments, so why not counter-troll instead of feeding them? I'll start:
There is no way this system would work. I can see large-scale disasters caused by smudges being erroneously generated. No to mention that our current market is run by advertisements. Don't you think that of all ads were blocked, IP would be worthless? Then the US would slowly get poorer as our lack of foresight is clouded by individual gain. This kind of behaviour has to stop.
(note to all wise-asses, yes I know the "YOU ARE ABOUT TO BE TROLLED" method of trolling isn't effective, but I'm just getting the ball rolling)
Help fight spam
Now can I get my achievement?
You are both too late - the day is over, and anyway it is only funny in the morning.
I might just need them for the coming apocalypse.
Visit www.adshades.info to see details of the project that uses computer vision to block advertising in public spaces. This is not a prank, I have been working on this project since 2009.