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The Man Responsible For Pop-Up Ads On Building a Better Web

An anonymous reader writes Above all, Ethan Zuckerman wants you to know that he is sorry. In the mid-1990s, Zuckerman was working as a designer and programmer for Tripod.com when he wrote the code for the first pop-up ad. He says: "At the end of the day, the business model that got us funded was advertising. The model that got us acquired was analyzing users’ personal homepages so we could better target ads to them. Along the way, we ended up creating one of the most hated tools in the advertiser’s toolkit: the pop-up ad. It was a way to associate an ad with a user’s page without putting it directly on the page, which advertisers worried would imply an association between their brand and the page’s content. Specifically, we came up with it when a major car company freaked out that they’d bought a banner ad on a page that celebrated anal sex. I wrote the code to launch the window and run an ad in it. I’m sorry. Our intentions were good."

135 comments

  1. Not sure I believe him... by Travis+Mansbridge · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As soon as the tools were added for a web page to open a new web-page, I'm sure pop-ups were "invented" simultaneously across numerous ad agencies.

    1. Re:Not sure I believe him... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly. First to implement =/= Invent.

      And their intentions were not "good", their intentions were to get funded, and later, to get acquired.

    2. Re:Not sure I believe him... by F.Ultra · · Score: 1

      Why is an intent to get funded not "good" ?

    3. Re:Not sure I believe him... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 2

      As soon as the tools were added for a web page to open a new web-page, I'm sure pop-ups were "invented" simultaneously across numerous ad agencies.

      On the other hand, if somebody confesses to such a heinous crime it's probably worth at least giving their sincerity the benefit of the doubt...

      This isn't like people fighting over a patent or the glory associated with some scientific discovery. This is a guy voluntarily admitting that he's guilty of a sin for which there will not, must not, and can not, be any forgiveness.

    4. Re:Not sure I believe him... by Immerman · · Score: 1, Offtopic

      I can confess to the holocaust, that doesn't mean the crime actually rests on my shoulders. Hell, I wasn't even born at the time.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    5. Re:Not sure I believe him... by TWX · · Score: 2

      Heh. The screenwriter that took L. Ron Hubbard's Battlefield Earth and turned it into a movie later apologized too; apparently he met a hot girl that turned out to be a scientologist and she convinced him to do the screenplay, and his libido obliged.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    6. Re:Not sure I believe him... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do you know who also wanted to get funded?

      Hitler.

    7. Re:Not sure I believe him... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 2

      Not all confessions are true; but the incentive to lie about having done good is obvious, while the incentive to lie about having done bad is less clear.

    8. Re:Not sure I believe him... by Black+LED · · Score: 1

      So do the Red Cross, NASA and cancer research centres.

    9. Re:Not sure I believe him... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And they do it without inventing pop-up ads. See the difference.

    10. Re:Not sure I believe him... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Funding is a totally good thing. Just so you know, I also personally need funding, for my culturally important activities. And by "culturally important activities", I mean hookers and blow. Some herb, too, but mostly hookers and blow. 'cause it's traditional.

    11. Re:Not sure I believe him... by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      He made great improvements on the book.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    12. Re:Not sure I believe him... by cbhacking · · Score: 1

      Because money is not, in and of itself, good? Their intentions may not have been evil - turns out it's not a dichotomy after all - but for their intentions to be *good* they would need to have intended greater benefit than harm. It's possible they did, in fact, intend that - and were just really, stupidly naïve (does Slashcode present that correctly?) - but I am having a hard time seeing it. Getting other people to give you money is not an inherently good thing. Producing something of greater value than the cost to produce it and thus enriching society is good, I would argue, but I'm not sure that's what they did here and I'm not even sure that's what they intended. The pursuit of wealth does not inherently produce a net positive value to the world.

      --
      There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
    13. Re:Not sure I believe him... by Black+LED · · Score: 1

      Are you saying Hitler used pop-up ads then?

    14. Re:Not sure I believe him... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hitler was not that evil.

    15. Re:Not sure I believe him... by Cito · · Score: 1

      Definitely used ads... Dachau, Auschwitz had signs marketing the spa resort.
      "Come for the jobs, food, and free lodging, but stay for the free gas!"

    16. Re:Not sure I believe him... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you saying Hitler used pop-up ads then?

      "Arbeit macht frei" (work makes free) above the gates. So they'd think there might be hope . . .

    17. Re:Not sure I believe him... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you RTFA, they were trying to provide free web hosting for personal web pages. The progenitors of MySpace and Facebook, if you will. They created the pop-ups because their advertisers were concerned about not being able to vet every web page their ads might appear on. Don't get me wrong, their motives were not purely altruistic, they wanted to make money but they were just trying to find a busines model that kept advertisers paying the bills rather than their customers.

    18. Re:Not sure I believe him... by Black+LED · · Score: 1

      LOL!

    19. Re:Not sure I believe him... by Frobnicator · · Score: 1

      He made great improvements on the book.

      Improvements along the same way we see many improvements in software. Things are certainly different and a few changes are enjoyable, but some changes leave me longing for the original.

      --
      //TODO: Think of witty sig statement
    20. Re: Not sure I believe him... by KevReedUK · · Score: 1

      In other words, this was a giant leap in the direction of those who would previously have been considered as their customers (those publishing sites via the "free" hosting) essentially being transformed even further into the product to be sold to their real customers (the advertisers). Sure, banner ads meant that this was already the case, but it's hard to argue that this didn't make matters worse.

      It can be argued that they did this as the only way to keep their service "free", but it could equally be argued that making funding through advertising so much easier has eliminated the incentive for the industry to think outside the box to find a better way. Are we really expected to believe that, without pop-up advertising to promote psychological separation between the advert and the page, all the advertisers would have fled the industry and free hosting would have simply ceased? I may be overly idealistic, but I prefer to believe that, if advertising revenue had dropped to near zero, the industry would have found another way to achieve it.

      --
      Just my $0.03 (At current exchange rates, my £0.02 is worth more than your $0.02)
    21. Re: Not sure I believe him... by KevReedUK · · Score: 1

      I would think that the server-side perl bit was probably to detect/analyse the content of the referring page so that the ad presented was, at least tangentially, related to the page that "launched" it. Otherwise, the ad would have had to be specifically selected by the code inserted into each launching page (a heck of a lot of work). Other alternatives would have been to either use the same, static page for all, or randomly select the target ad, both of which are likely to eliminate any chance of the ad being even remotely related to the content of the launching page.

      That all being said, although I work with some very smart coders, I am not well versed in programming. As such, the assumptions on which the above is based could well be far off the mark!

      --
      Just my $0.03 (At current exchange rates, my £0.02 is worth more than your $0.02)
  2. If only he'd taken out a patent... by ConfusedVorlon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A very expensive patent that was litigated aggressively...

  3. Paving to the road to hell by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    [quote] Our intentions were good. [/quote]
    FVO "good" meaning "to make money". Not unsurprising in the Capitalist America, but still a bit too easy.

    Not that I care much, if not him someone else would've thought this one up. Pop-overs, pop-unders, pop-ins, insertions, insertions by your own ISP, unbidden playing of something VERY LOUD, possibly with video attached, what-have-you. There's something about advertising that invariably brings out the most obnoxious in the advertiser. Or even outright evil, like advertising toolbars and other malware.

    It's what commerce does, it what it must do if it's effectively a religion to you.

    1. Re:Paving to the road to hell by Nite_Hawk · · Score: 1

      I disagree, though only to a limited extent. There is a legitimate net good that can be accomplished by connecting people who need goods and people who make goods. What form this takes has changed dramatically over the years, but it's important that people ultimately know where they can go to get something they want/need to improve their lives (be that medicine, food, entertainment, etc).

      Having said this, I generally agree with you that advertising has numerous dark sides and often manipulation is involved. There is some spectrum where providing information turns into attempting to manipulate people's minds. You run into the same problem everywhere though including places like Wikipedia (which I think is a fantastic benefit for society), so it's not unique to advertising. I think the best you can do is try to teach people to understand when they are being manipulated and hopefully it will some day cease to be profitable enough for folks to continue doing (one can always hope).

    2. Re:Paving to the road to hell by TWX · · Score: 1

      I look at it that nothing is free. We pay for what's "free" in other-than-currency means, but we still pay. Advertising and the subscriber's or reader's looking at it has been a way to pay for "free" newspapers for well over a hundred years. Attempting to adapt it to the world wide web model was no surprise.

      And for those that want to argue that FOSS is truly free, anyone that has spent hours and hours of their time attempting to get something to work that would have worked out-of-the-box with a commercial solution definitely know the price of free software. We still pay it, mind you, but that price exists.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    3. Re:Paving to the road to hell by Immerman · · Score: 1

      > I think the best you can do is try to teach people to understand when they are being manipulated and hopefully it will some day cease to be profitable enough for folks to continue doing (one can always hope).

      I can do you one better - we could ban ALL attempts at psychological manipulation in advertising, restricting ads to only strictly factual statements about the product. If that's a bit to vague for we could start with a set of concrete guidelines: No sexuality or sensuality of any form will be portrayed or implied in an ad. No social situations will be displayed or heard. No implications may be made that a product will increase your social status or other desirable qualities unless it is specifically being marketed to do so (and is thus vulnerable to false advertising charges). And I'm sure we could think of a few more, and would have to add still more as marketers found new buttons to push.

      That would still allow advertisers to inform their audience of the availability of their product and whatever wonderful features it has. They just can't attempt to inspire any emotions other than "this is a wonderful product on it's own merits". You can show the car and its luxurious interior, you can list it's impressive specs, and demonstrate the surly growl of the engine. You just can't attempt to manipulate your audience into wanting it more than they're pre-inclined to do.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    4. Re:Paving to the road to hell by Sentrion · · Score: 1

      Nowadays even the charities have gone too far with some of the obnoxious lengths they go to in order to extract one more dollar from their donors. Shortly before my mother died she began sending large monetary gifts to a few of her favorite charities. She ended up getting non-stop calls all throughout the day and night from dozens of charities pleading for her to contribute. Some of them were sneaky, with recurring auto debit agreements buried in fine print. On the phone they were very pushy, fast talking, always closing, and quite presumptuous. Many calls went like this: "Hi, I'm [name] calling on behalf of [name]. We're calling to confirm your donation today to our fundraising campaign. Please confirm your credit card number for a monthly contribution of $120...". We heard this from organizations that she had never contributed to. Most of the call centers were privately contracted, for-profit fundraising companies, probably staff by ex Comcast and AOL CRS's. She was on the National Do Not Call list, but there was no DO NOT CALL list to keep the pestering charities away. The whole experience really turned me off. Since I have special needs kids who don't get any support from any charities or government agencies, my donations go directly into their Special Needs Trust. But if I were to support a charity, I would only do it absolutely anonymously.

    5. Re:Paving to the road to hell by DavidHumus · · Score: 1

      Not to troll, but the problem with restricting advertising is that you are restricting free speech. This is a legitimate concern: who makes the decisions and on what basis when you start down the path of "strictly factual"? It's not that simple. Any number of repressive governments across the globe have laws against publicizing "false" statements but these laws are clearly used to suppress anything they don't like.

    6. Re:Paving to the road to hell by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

      Really so Greenpeace, Amnesty International, Feed the Children, St. Jude Children's Hospital, and the United Way are all evil?
      ""Good" is when you donate to charity, not when you manipulate people"

      Is it good to manipulate people to donate to your charity?

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    7. Re:Paving to the road to hell by Deep+Esophagus · · Score: 1

      Advertising and the subscriber's or reader's looking at it has been a way to pay for "free" newspapers for well over a hundred years.

      My kingdom for mod points.

      I don't install AdBlock Plus, for exactly that reason. I accept the implied contract that I am getting "free" content in exchange for being willing to at least be aware that there are ads trying to get my attention.

      Now having said that, pop-up ads and their ilk get blocked by NoScript and FlashBlock. I accept ads in the margins of online content, just as I accept ads in the margins of printed content; I accept (somewhat less cheerfully) inline ads that interrupt content just as I accept full-page ads and blow-in cards in the middle of magazine articles. I even accept 30-second ads before streaming content (although any longer than 15 seconds, I'll hit the "skip ad" button quickly). But anything that directly impedes my viewing experience; anything that wrests control of my computer from me... I will put a stop to that REAL fast.

      So... it's all about balance between the content provider's need to buy groceries and our need to maintain control over our own computing environment. Block the intrusive ads, but allow the passive ones through -- or give up on having free content.

    8. Re:Paving to the road to hell by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      The United Way _is_ absolutely evil.

      They do NOTHING. All they do is distribute the money they collect. And keep 70%+ for admin.

      Also note the salary of the president of the United Way. There are many companies where you will simply never advance unless you allow them to take money from your check for the United Way. Big cheeses at these companies are rewarded with the no-show president of the United Way job (and million dollar salary) after they retire from their primary job.

      In other words 'The United Way' IS EVIL.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    9. Re:Paving to the road to hell by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We don't want completely free speech. Which is why you can't harass in speech, for example. And I don't think we need a "freedom to advertise" either.

      Go ahead, exercise your free speech and praise some $PRODUCT all you want. But it has to be speech. Not a broadcast, certainly not html or flash or mpeg. You have freedom of speech only. So get on your soapbox, but remember that freedom of speech does not in any way imply a freedom of using technology to spread the word way beyond the reach of your voice.

      And note that freedom of press does not get you any further either. Freedom of speech and press is severely limited, you can only communicate with those who agree to listen. No freedom to ram a message down anyone's throat. If I don't want ads, you don't have any freedom to provide them anyway. If I don't want to listen, you have no freedom to talk to me.

    10. Re:Paving to the road to hell by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

      Ummm... Not according to Charity Navigator.
      http://www.charitynavigator.or...
      They get 4 stars.
      Or give.org
      http://www.give.org/charity-re...
      Or the Christian Science monitor.
      http://www.csmonitor.com/Busin...

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
  4. *pitchfork and torch* by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I am reminded of a User Friendly comic.

    http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20030712

    1. Re:*pitchfork and torch* by sirlark · · Score: 1

      I followed your link, and then clicked random comic, and got this... http://ars.userfriendly.org/ca... Also, appropriate

    2. Re:*pitchfork and torch* by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This one is good too -> http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20021026

    3. Re:*pitchfork and torch* by retchdog · · Score: 1

      User Friendly is never appropriate.

      --
      "They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
  5. Unintended Consequences? by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ... which led to the pop-under, etc. On the bright side, this led to higher adoption rates for browsers that supported ad-blockers, noscript, etc. So if it weren't for this guy, Firefox would probably never have gained the traction it did, and the vast majority of people would be stuck on IE.

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    1. Re:Unintended Consequences? by bunratty · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I never thought of that as the reason that Firefox became popular (and why Mozilla was quickly becoming popular before that). Back then, Mozilla's built-in popup blocker blocked nearly all popups. IE didn't have any corresponding feature? That sure would be a compelling reason to switch browsers!

      When I read the article, the thought I had was that I installed AdBlock Plus only to disable the popups that Firefox didn't block with its built-in blocker when popups evolved to get around it. Is there still not an ad blocker that blocks only the most annoying ads such as popups?

      --
      What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
    2. Re:Unintended Consequences? by penguinoid · · Score: 1

      When I read the article, the thought I had was that I installed AdBlock Plus only to disable the popups that Firefox didn't block with its built-in blocker when popups evolved to get around it. Is there still not an ad blocker that blocks only the most annoying ads such as popups?

      AdBlock Plus has the option to block everything, or allow unobtrusive ads. Presumably the latter option will help convince people to tone down the spam while allowing ad revenue.

      --
      Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
    3. Re:Unintended Consequences? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      There were a wide selection of helpful pop-up blocking toolbars for IE.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    4. Re:Unintended Consequences? by bunratty · · Score: 1

      Ah, it took me a while to find it. Under Filter preferences... there's a checkbox for "Allow some non-intrusive advertising." It was already checked when I first found it -- the documentation says it's enabled by default. It doesn't seem to allow much advertising through, yet. Maybe if more advertisers read about the feature and sign the Acceptible Ads Manifesto that will change.

      --
      What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
    5. Re:Unintended Consequences? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For me the killer feature was EXTENSIONS. Finally, being able to do that one little thing I always wanted to do but didn't have the skill to code.

  6. good intentions? by radja · · Score: 4, Insightful

    the intention was to show advertising to people. Steal their bandwidth and hide real content without getting approval. The intentions of advertising on the web were never good, they were evil. And all that because some companies want to line their pockets.

    --

    No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
    --Sheikh Abd-Al-Kadir, 1587
    1. Re:good intentions? by SuricouRaven · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Not entirely evil. Thanks to those ad-funded companies like Tripod, many people were able to create websites that could not otherwise have afforded to do so. Web hosting was expensive back in those days, and even now it'll still cost you at least ten quid a month or so, which is a significant amount for some. Even today we continue to reap the benefits of advertising-based businesses for all manner of useful things - even though the ads themselves are so loathed that many users find ways to block them.

    2. Re:good intentions? by ganjadude · · Score: 1

      hell i learned how to code on tripod (and geoshitties before that) as a teen it made sense, didnt cost my parents any money and i got to tinker.

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    3. Re:good intentions? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      Back in the day most people had free web space through their ISPs.

      I'm with HostPresto for £1.60/month. Okay, I pay for a domain name on top, something like £10/year. PHP, databases, easy install control panel etc. Hosting is dirt cheap now. Google Sites is free too, and has no ads. Well, Google tracks visitors, but there are certainly no pop-ups or banners.

      Tripod was always just shit I'm afraid. Noobs tricked into using an "easy" platform that spammed their visitors. At the very least, there were alternatives that didn't have pop-ups or animated GIF banners.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    4. Re:good intentions? by mrchaotica · · Score: 1

      Web hosting was expensive back in those days, and even now it'll still cost you at least ten quid a month or so.

      Not true. All it cost, then or now, was a DSL-or-better Internet connection (that you wanted whether you had your own website or not)*, free account with a dynamic DNS service and electricity to keep your home computer running 24/7.

      (* OK, I admit Tripod may have been useful in the dial-up era, but still...)

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    5. Re:good intentions? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I remember using Tripod, Geocities, and Angelfire. On all of them at one point or another you could pull off wrapping the <body> tag in a <comment></comment> and have an ad-free page as they just inserted their code immediately following the body.

      Ahhh, standards non-compliance...

    6. Re:good intentions? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Web hosting was expensive back in those days,

      Really, it wasn't expensive. The $plufty Information $uperHighWay Ad$ were expensive. Flat text content, with no fancy scripting, was quite cheap, far more reliable, and more accessible to visually or manually impaired users.

    7. Re:good intentions? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do you know how much a DSL connection cost in 1995 (assuming your telephone provider had adopted it yet) or dynamic DNS hosting or a computer powerful enough to handle more than one person browsing your site at a time. And by the way, that computer your using to host, that's all you'll be using it for; Not many of us had two PC's (they were 2 grand plus at the time) unless you still had your old 486 and had spent $400 to upgrade your ram to 4 MB.

      In the early days (circa 1995) a significant portion of internet traffic was coming from computer labs on college campuses (i.e. people using computers that weren't theirs). Most people didn't have a computer yet; The golden age of computer sales was from about '98-'01 when the internet started to be useful/fun (it was pretty much just lotsa p0rn and a few university profs till that point) and ram was under $2 a MB. That's when most families in North America purchased their first PC.

      These costs were not inconsequential, and TBH the internet would never have evolved as fast as it did if every site required a paid subscription to view. I never would have learned HTML without sites like Tripod (i used angelfire.com)

      Kids these days....

    8. Re:good intentions? by mrchaotica · · Score: 1

      Ok, so I was thinking more along the lines of 1998-2000, not 1995. A year or so made a big difference back then...

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    9. Re:good intentions? by BillX · · Score: 1

      Ads were not an original part of free web hosts' user agreements during much of the the Web 1.0 bubble (only the usual "we can change this agreement whenever we like" clause) - and in the area where a static 468x60 banner was the gold standard, few could have forseen the evilness that was the popup ad. (Disclaimer: I tried Geocities and Angelfire circa 1997. Angelfire at the time appeared to be a medical transcription company that happened to have some server space left over.)

      --
      Caveat Emptor is not a business model.
  7. Advertising.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    NEVER has good intentions. EVER

    Your apology will never be enough to excuse what you wrought

  8. Don't sweat it... by MasseKid · · Score: 1

    Why sweat it? This was the obvious next step in advertising. If he hadn't of done it, someone else would have done it a few days/weeks/months later.

  9. Makes sense by SJHillman · · Score: 5, Funny

    We finally have it confirmed that pop-up ads are the result of anal sex. Makes sense to me.

    1. Re:Makes sense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I don't think that's fair; anal sex can be enjoyable sometimes, pop up ads never are!

  10. Don't sweat it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "If I hadn't followed orders, someone else would have."

    I come from a wealthy family which has done some fairly atrocious things serving horrible people, and got very rich in the process. That line has been used by them over and over.

    You know what? If the best people refuse to do something - especially if they shout loudly about what they were asked to do - then it gets done badly, or not at all.

  11. appreciate by Cardoor · · Score: 1

    i appreciate the apology. i imagine steve buscemi crossing his name off a list with a crayon and then smearing lipstick all over his face.

  12. And of course if you RTFA ... by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

    ... it's blocked by a pop-up.

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  13. I was in marketing too... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But I have to admit that if my intentions were ever good, I wasn't actually marketing anymore. I'm glad that he's apologetic, but let's not push the junk mail and pretend users wanted it.

  14. I was in Marketing too... by Vitriol+Angst · · Score: 5, Insightful

    But I have to admit that if my intentions were ever good, I wasn't actually marketing anymore. I'm glad that he's apologetic, but he was in marketing. You don't swing a pitchfork in Hell and pretend you don't work there.

    --
    >>"ad space available -- low rates!!!"
  15. This technology sounds totally cool! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    This technology sounds totally cool. I'd like to see them use it to make pop-up ads on the shitty Slashdot Beta site. They could make pop-up ads to counter the user's extreme boredom as this user waits for the shitty Beta site's page and all its shitty JavaScript and CSS crap to initially load. Then they make pop-up ads on to record the exact back-button click when the person notices that it's the shitty Beta site rather than the Classic site, and the person's anger starts to grow. The pop-up ads would progressively cause the user's anger to turn into madness, and then finally utter and complete disappointment and despair once the shitty Beta site has finally loaded. The pop-up ads could also cause the formation and flow of the very first of many teardrops to cascade down this poor victim's cheeks as the user struggles in vain to read the stories' small text with poor contrast. The total anguish could be examined in excruciating detail, so the awful nature of the Slashdot Beta site could be truly comprehended.

  16. Not PC, but I think I'm justified in saying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    a major car company freaked out that they’d bought a banner ad on a page that celebrated anal sex. I wrote the code to launch the window and run an ad in it. I’m sorry

    That was so gay!

    1. Re:Not PC, but I think I'm justified in saying by ArcadeMan · · Score: 1

      Only gay people have anal sex? I better tell my wife.

    2. Re:Not PC, but I think I'm justified in saying by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      You married her (and her strap-on).

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    3. Re:Not PC, but I think I'm justified in saying by ArcadeMan · · Score: 1

      I knew she wasn't referring to my brain when she said I was always behind.

  17. Paving to the road to hell by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Agreed. Advertiser's intentions are never good. Their intention is to manipulate people at a subconscious emotional level in order to get their money. "Good" is when you donate to charity, not when you manipulate people.

  18. "Our Intentions were good." by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ya, and the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

  19. Facebook by Stele · · Score: 3, Funny

    And then he went on to write Facebook. I'm not sure I like this guy.

    1. Re:Facebook by mmell · · Score: 1

      You're thinking of Mark. Ethan went on to be an agent working for the IMF.

    2. Re:Facebook by Stele · · Score: 1

      I should have a put a smiley.

    3. Re:Facebook by mmell · · Score: 1

      Yeah - me too!

  20. Good intentions in marketing? by thegarbz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There are no such things as good intentions, at least not for users.

    Marketing is about manipulating and about out-shouting the competition. This is not at all restricted to the internet. The obvious progression on the internet was stationary ads, animated ads, ads that pop up over content, ads that were indistinguishable from content, ads that bypassed adblockers, ads that started playing sound, ads that start playing videos, and now ads that pop up in the middle of videos.

    We saw the same thing with TVs, ads in the ad breaks, louder ads in the ad breaks, longer ad breaks, ads popping up at the bottom of the screen during content, ads featured in content (not all actors like drinking Coke).

    Oh and on billboards which were painted on the side of buildings, then free standing, then free standing with lots of lighting shining on them, and now a back lit video billboard which is blindingly bright at night.

    Sorry buddy but you never had "good intentions".

    1. Re:Good intentions in marketing? by penguinoid · · Score: 1

      It is theoretically possible to do marketing with good intentions -- there are people who would really benefit from a product but don't know about it. If you could target your ads to exactly those customers, well enough to make up for showing the ad to people who wouldn't benefit from it and especially not to people who would buy it and regret it, then it would be a net positive.

      Of course you'd need to get a well-intentioned marketer working for a well-intentioned company who can tell the difference between a slacker and a well-intentioned marketer. So, it's basically impossible.

      --
      Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
    2. Re:Good intentions in marketing? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      quote>Sorry buddy but you never had "good intentions".

      I've had this discussion with ad people, telling them "just because you club baby seals for a living" and its legal, its not ok. If your living depends on smashing something(ones) face in and you can't see the evil, you are the evil. Hang on! that nice man from Windows is calling to tell me about the latest virus on my computer again. And fuck beta with a hot poker all to hell.

  21. It's even worse by demon+driver · · Score: 1

    You're factually right, of course, except for the religion part. Indeed, it's worse than religion, because you can always free yourself of religion, while on the other side and for the time being, capitalism is the one currently available world operating system, wherein the only thing keeping everything going (including the world itself) is profit – until the world finds another, better operating system.

  22. Oh, we believe you by grheller · · Score: 1

    At the end of the day -- you are still a worm Zuckerman

  23. Sofia Lucifairy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sofia Koutsouveli Sofia Lucifairy lucifairy7@gmail.com

  24. The road to hell... by jsh1972 · · Score: 1

    ... is paved with good intentions.

  25. Wrong protocol for you, you want nntp by raymorris · · Score: 0

    I think you took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up on http. If you want to pay cash to have discussions, you want to be on nntp newsgroups.
    Here on the web, ads pay for the sites, such as this one, so you don't have to pay cash.

    1. Re:Wrong protocol for you, you want nntp by radja · · Score: 0

      the site is paid for by putting ads among the content. Luckily, I have taken measures to prevent those ads stealing bandwidth. I have never consented to being shown ads, its purely between the site and the advertiser. The viewer is not part of the deal, so don't bother the viewer with ads, unless he asked for it.

      --

      No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
      --Sheikh Abd-Al-Kadir, 1587
    2. Re:Wrong protocol for you, you want nntp by F.Ultra · · Score: 2

      Well you asked for the site, and the site is funded by ads so in some sort of way you did ask for the ads.

    3. Re:Wrong protocol for you, you want nntp by radja · · Score: 0

      I'm not responsible for the site's funding. I AM responsible for the bandwidth I pay for. I'm also responsible for how the site is rendered on my screen. I did not ask for ads, either implicitly or explicitly, and was never asked if I wanted to see ads. Advertising is also an attack vector, so blocking ads is also about my safety.

      --

      No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
      --Sheikh Abd-Al-Kadir, 1587
  26. No they weren't by Oligonicella · · Score: 1

    The mere fact that they had purchased the ad on that particular page shows their intentions weren't good at all but strictly profit motivated. A "good" response would have been to remove the ad, not create a pop-up. On the other hand, the car company should have fired them.

    1. Re:No they weren't by F.Ultra · · Score: 1

      They? He worked for Tripod.com, they where a web hosting company. The car company bought ads to be shown on the sites that Tripod.com hosted. Removing that particular ad might have been a working solution but he just brought up the one case that made them rethink how they placed ads on their hosted sites, not that they _had_ to use popups due to this very car ad.

  27. Who freaks who out? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well maybe I did't want that car ad on my tripod page either, did they consider that?

    1. Re: Who freaks who out? by KevReedUK · · Score: 1

      They put about as much consideration into it as you put into paying for your tripod hosting!

      --
      Just my $0.03 (At current exchange rates, my £0.02 is worth more than your $0.02)
  28. Re:Wouldnt be the first time by F.Ultra · · Score: 1

    No it simply means that he is aiming for a position at Apple.

  29. It's easy. by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    First we hang you and your kind.

    Then we'll work something out.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  30. Good intentions in marketing? by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

    Look at the bright side of online ads. If you don't like something and want it changed, instead of uselessly complaining to the site owner, you can complain where it really hurts - the advertisers. Works in the real world all the time. Popups suck, no question about it, but a banner or sidebar, if it's paying for the site, I'm not going to complain. Noisy video ads, on the other hand ... can't close the tab fast enough.

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  31. If you are in marketing, kill yourself by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
  32. The free market will fix it! by penguinoid · · Score: 2

    Not that I care much, if not him someone else would've thought this one up. Pop-overs, pop-unders, pop-ins, insertions, insertions by your own ISP, unbidden playing of something VERY LOUD, possibly with video attached, what-have-you. There's something about advertising that invariably brings out the most obnoxious in the advertiser. Or even outright evil, like advertising toolbars and other malware.

    Don't worry, the free market will fix it!

    --
    Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
    1. Re:The free market will fix it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't worry, the free market will fix it!

      Sure and it will. Excessive pop-ups and auto-play videos and such are a signal from a web page to users: "Don't come here." I for one heed such signals.

      The free market works slowly sometimes, but it does work. If people really are bothered by pop-ups, people will figure out how to avoid them.

      The alternative is a government agency with the power to tell you what you can put on a web site and what you cannot. No. HELL NO.

    2. Re:The free market will fix it! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The free market provided me with adblock and a mute button . . .

  33. So what's the anal sex car? by swb · · Score: 1

    And is it the preferred brand of, well, drivers or passengers?

    1. Re:So what's the anal sex car? by Cardoor · · Score: 1

      is that anything like anal bum cover? i think that was a jeopardy category

  34. Major car company ... by PPH · · Score: 1

    ... freaked out about ads on anal sex site? Why? They didn't have a model equipped with heated seats?

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
    1. Re:Major car company ... by retchdog · · Score: 1

      i know, instead of pop-ups, they should have invented tailored advertising: https://www.google.com/search?...

      --
      "They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
    2. Re:Major car company ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It must have been a car company run by people with Catholic persuasions.

    3. Re:Major car company ... by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

      A better question is who complained?
      Was it, "I was looking this web page because.....

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    4. Re:Major car company ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The marketing department of Tata Motors must have fun with context derived advertising. The sites exalting the virtues of motor boating surely always get a hit.

    5. Re:Major car company ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why? Franciscan priests drive cars, too, and *boy* do they love their boy booty.

    6. Re:Major car company ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Could it have been the Mormons and AMC?

    7. Re:Major car company ... by PPH · · Score: 1

      Bodacious Tatas.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
  35. same biz model today by globaljustin · · Score: 1

    The model that got us acquired was analyzing users’ personal homepages so we could better target ads to them.

    **of course**

    that's the narrative for most tech companies that we see in the media being depicted as "successful"

    that's the model and everyone knows it...this guy was a fool if he didn't see it (but i accept his apology!)

    seriously, /. the above quotation explains quite a bit of conflict in tech today...it's about **incentives**

    with the above business model, the incentives all go in the wrong direction: towards 'big brothering' a person as an internet profit model

    we must end this notion forever!

    --
    Thank you Dave Raggett
  36. Re:Battlefield Earth by DocSavage64109 · · Score: 1

    What's wrong with Battlefield Earth? That movie is freaking hilarious. I am rather angry that they removed one of my favorite scenes from the DVD -- the one where they are debating if humans can fly and they drop a guy off a cliff to find out.

  37. Just as much as you asked for News for nerds by raymorris · · Score: 1

    You knew that at Slashdot.org, you'd find "news for nerds". You intentionally loaded Slashdot to get what is on Slashdot (news, discussion).
    You knew that at Slashdot.org, you'd find ads. You intentionally loaded Slashdot to get what is on Slashdot (ads).

    So yes, you did ask for the ads, just as much as you asked for the discussion - you intentionally requested a page that has those things.

    If you want a discussion without ads, nntp or IRC is for you. You are welcome to pay Dejanews directly rather than paying Slashdot indirectly.
    If you choose to come here, to a site with ads, knowing that the service provided to you is provided by ad revenue, don't bitch about receiving exactly what Slashdot offers - news and discussion financed by ads. If you don't want what Slashdot offers, don't come to Slashdot. Simple.

    1. Re:Just as much as you asked for News for nerds by JesseMcDonald · · Score: 1

      You knew that at Slashdot.org, you'd find "news for nerds". You intentionally loaded Slashdot to get what is on Slashdot (news, discussion).
      You knew that at Slashdot.org, you'd find ads. You intentionally loaded Slashdot to get what is on Slashdot (ads).

      While you did know that you'd find ads, that doesn't imply that you "intentionally loaded Slashdot to get ... ads". You just wanted the news & discussion; the ads are an unwanted side effect, impurities in the data stream. You agreed to accept whatever the site sends you in response to your request, but that doesn't imply you have to display it, run embedded code, or follow the links. A good web-browser with plugins like Ad Block will help to refine the signal from the noise, simultaneously improving both load times and security.

      --
      "The state is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else." - Bastiat
  38. Not sure I believe him... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yeah, seems a bit of a spurious claim. You could argue the developers who added the ability to open new windows to the browsers are more responsible (and put a lot more work it).

    And what's the back-patting "I'm such a leet hacker" bit all about:

    "Not only did I deploy what was probably the first popup, I wrote the javascript and the server-side Perl to launch it," Zuckerman told me in a follow-up. "I'm old."

    It wouldn't of been much claim to fame if he hadn't written the javascript would it? "Yes, I FTP'd the first popup ad code to a web server (but someone else wrote it)"... He wrote a few lines of javascript with a "window.open" call. It's not exactly rocket science. And what's server side Perl got to do with 'inventing' the popup advert? The server side code has nothing to do with creating the popup, it could just as easily be a static html file.

  39. The road to hell by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is paved with good intentions.

  40. AdBlock = Inferior + 'Souled-Out'... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My program for hosts file construction adds security, speed, reliability, + anonymity & does more, more efficiently by FAR vs. addons + fixes DNS' security issues:

    APK Hosts File Engine 9.0++ 32/64-bit:

    http://start64.com/index.php?o...

    (Details of benefits in link)

    Summary:

    ---

    A.) Hosts do more than:

    1.) AdBlock ("souled-out" 2 Google/Crippled by default)
    2.) Ghostery (Advertiser owned) - "Fox guards henhouse"
    3.) Request Policy -> http://yro.slashdot.org/commen...

    B.) Hosts add reliability vs. downed/redirected dns (& overcome redirects on sites, /. beta as an example).

    C.) Hosts secure vs. malicious domains too -> http://tech.slashdot.org/comme... w/ less added "moving parts" complexity/room 4 breakdown,

    D.) Hosts files yield more:

    1.) Speed (adblock & hardcodes fav sites - faster than remote dns)
    2.) Security (vs. malicious domains serving malcontent + block spam/phish & trackers)
    3.) Reliability (vs. downed or Kaminsky redirect vulnerable dns, 99% = unpatched vs. it & worst @ isp level + weak vs Fastflux + dynamic dns botnets)
    4.) Anonymity (vs. dns request logs + dnsbl's).

    ---

    * Hosts do more w/ less (1 file) @ faster levels (ring 0) vs redundant inefficient addons (slowing slower ring 3 browsers) via filtering 4 the IP stack (coded in C, loads w/ os, & 1st net resolver queried w\ 45++ yrs.of optimization).

    * Addons = more complex + slow browsers in message passing (use a few concurrently & see) & are nullified by native browser methods - It's how Clarityray is destroying Adblock.

    * Addons slowup slower usermode browsers layering on more - & bloat RAM consumption too + hugely excessive cpu use (4++gb extra in FireFox https://blog.mozilla.org/nneth...)

    Work w/ a native kernelmode part - hosts files (An integrated part of the ip stack)

    APK

    P.S.=> "The premise is quite simple: Take something designed by nature & reprogram it to make it work for the body rather than against it..." - Dr. Alice Krippen: "I am legend"

    ...apk

    1. Re:AdBlock = Inferior + 'Souled-Out'... apk by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

      Now that a quad-core 2 gigahertz 8 gig ram laptop is under $400 nobody' worried about "slow browsers." 1990 called - they want their 386 back.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  41. AdBlock = Inferior + 'Souled-Out'... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My program for hosts file construction adds security, speed, reliability, + anonymity & does more, more efficiently by FAR vs. addons + fixes DNS' security issues:

    APK Hosts File Engine 9.0++ 32/64-bit:

    http://start64.com/index.php?o...

    (Details of benefits in link)

    Summary:

    ---

    A.) Hosts do more than:

    1.) AdBlock ("souled-out" 2 Google/Crippled by default)
    2.) Ghostery (Advertiser owned) - "Fox guards henhouse"
    3.) Request Policy -> http://yro.slashdot.org/commen...

    B.) Hosts add reliability vs. downed/redirected dns (& overcome redirects on sites, /. beta as an example).

    C.) Hosts secure vs. malicious domains too -> http://tech.slashdot.org/comme... w/ less added "moving parts" complexity/room 4 breakdown,

    D.) Hosts files yield more:

    1.) Speed (adblock & hardcodes fav sites - faster than remote dns)
    2.) Security (vs. malicious domains serving malcontent + block spam/phish & trackers)
    3.) Reliability (vs. downed or Kaminsky redirect vulnerable dns, 99% = unpatched vs. it & worst @ isp level + weak vs Fastflux + dynamic dns botnets)
    4.) Anonymity (vs. dns request logs + dnsbl's).

    ---

    * Hosts do more w/ less (1 file) @ faster levels (ring 0) vs redundant inefficient addons (slowing slower ring 3 browsers) via filtering 4 the IP stack (coded in C, loads w/ os, & 1st net resolver queried w\ 45++ yrs.of optimization).

    * Addons = more complex + slow browsers in message passing (use a few concurrently & see) & are nullified by native browser methods - It's how Clarityray is destroying Adblock.

    * Addons slowup slower usermode browsers layering on more - & bloat RAM consumption too + hugely excessive cpu use (4++gb extra in FireFox https://blog.mozilla.org/nneth...)

    Work w/ a native kernelmode part - hosts files (An integrated part of the ip stack)

    APK

    P.S.=> "The premise is quite simple: Take something designed by nature & reprogram it to make it work for the body rather than against it..." - Dr. Alice Krippen: "I am legend"

    ...apk

  42. I heard you were dead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    holy crap, TIL that User Friendly is still around.

  43. confession by CosaNostra+Pizza+Inc · · Score: 1

    Bless ye my son. After your confession, write 10 quicksort algorithms and ye will be absolved of thy sins.

  44. Associating with BAD advertisers = BAD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I fail to see why that was the solution they came up with. There's no difference between ads on the page and ads in a popup.

    If YOUR page loaded it then YOUR ad provider was sketchy as hell and YOU were guilty for blindly hooking up with them.

  45. You never did read very well, did you? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wanting it to be as safe, reliable & efficient as possible would be the goal to achieve sockpuppetmaster, TomHudson = Barbara, Not Barbie (back with yet more sockpuppets I see & the same poor "illogic-logic" you always spouted).

    APK

    P.S.=> Of course, as per MY usual? YOU are MORE THAN WELCOME to validly technically disprove the points extolled here http://tech.slashdot.org/comme... regarding how hosts files give you more added speed, security, reliability, & even anonymity online (which you can't validly, of course... & THAT? Makes ME, laugh... really laugh, @ the trolling technically weak "likes of you" & ALWAYS did!)

    ... apk

    1. Re:You never did read very well, did you? by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1
      Seeing as I'm running for federal office in 2015, there's no need to "hide behind sockpupets." Or even nyms. That would be counter-productive, so might as well post under the name that's going to be on the ballot :-) And yes, the last few years I didn't read very well - or at all for much of the time. Kind of hard to when you're going blind. However, sight in my good eye has become good enough to use a computer again, and the doctors even managed to return significant sight to the other eye rather than it being completely blind.

      When I bought this machine a couple of months ago at the local pharmacy (8 gig ram, quad core 2 ghz, hdmi out, etc) I didn't want to spend much because I was afraid I might still not be able to use it ... it took a while, but I adapted. Kind of a surprise, but I'm not going to complain.

      But like always, you failed to address my point - that today even the el cheapo laptops are so overpowered that there's no problem running a browser, etc., without problems. It's not the 20th century any more. Your "solution" is obsolete.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  46. BarbaraHudson: "Close enough for gov't. work" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So you're saying one shouldn't surf safer, more reliably, & faster (if possible, & it is with my program)?

    Please - Do society a favor:

    DO NOT RUN FOR POLITICS!

    (Since NO society needs yet another "ah, close enough for gov't work" waster of taxpayer monies since you do NOT believe in doing the MOST with what you've got to work with).

    * Additionally, as per your trolling usual (since you saw fit to even *try* to "startup" with me again & failed badly)? You can't validly disprove my points on hosts adding speed, security, reliability, & more -> http://tech.slashdot.org/comme...

    APK

    P.S.=> Lastly - it's unbelievable you'd make yet ANOTHER "sockpuppet" account ontop of your other 2 (or more probably) in TomHudson & Barbara, not Barbie, also - you really ARE a piece of work "cyclops" - the fact you've said what you did seriously makes me wonder if your brain was damaged worse than it was before any 'treatments' you got for your malady (which your attitude & karma in LIFE earned you it + other misfortunes a troll like you merits - you came in here giving me guff proving that much)... apk

    1. Re:BarbaraHudson: "Close enough for gov't. work" by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1
      I've never denied I enjoy trolling the trolls, Fat Boy. And why should I bother with your "challenge" when the whole issue has been rendered moot by hardware advances?

      As for my running for Parliament in the next federal election, there are plenty of people who are depending on me to continue to fight for their rights and against projects that are a waste of money and have results contrary to their stated goals. There IS life after programming, and the same problem-solving skills apply to "debugging" political problems.

      But you can continue to "solve" a problem that nobody cares about any more. And now that I'm back you can continue to try to bug me. After all, like I said before I started going blind, someone has to keep you busy so you don't get distracted and start chewing more paint chips.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    2. Re:BarbaraHudson: "Close enough for gov't. work" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      BarbaraHudson why're you trying to play innocent when you bugged apk first here http://tech.slashdot.org/comme... only to be shot down for your illogical stupidity saying it's ok to not do the best with what you have in web browers to make them better in security, speed, reliability and efficiency online then also later attempting to tell us about how you'd be efficient with taxpayers monies when you aren't with a computer even?

    3. Re:BarbaraHudson: "Close enough for gov't. work" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      BarbaraHudson projects her own issues again? Fatness is associated with diabetes: Don't you have that, Barb?

    4. Re:BarbaraHudson: "Close enough for gov't. work" by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

      Fatness is associated with Type 2 diabetes, not Type 1, aka Juvenile Diabetes. Genetic, not related to diet or calorie intake, and untreated leaves you skinny as a beanpole. Educate yourself, APK

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  47. BarbaraHudson = multiple acct sockpuppeteer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How many /. registered 'luser' acc't.s do you have again? At least 3??

    Please - lol, go away "cyclops"... you're a joke!

    You're also completely dumb if you think NOT doing the BEST WITH WHAT YOU HAVE is a "smart thing to do" as far as speed & efficiency (let alone tossing better security, & reliability out the door with it)...

    Man - No wonder YOU want to run for politics: You "fit the bill" of someone with no more than the intellect of a carrot that "jumps" when the 'master with the dollars' speaks & asks "how high, masta?" vs. DOING THE RIGHT THING instead!

    After all - You'd tell us it's ok to NOT surf safer, faster, & more reliably just like you'd waste tax payer dollars as some political schmuck (no doubt about it based on your "illogic-logic" you've just spouted yet again... lol!).

    APK

    P.S.=> Lastly - I love making you "Run, Forrest: RUN!!!", as always, from disproving my points on hosts adding more security, speed, reliability & more, MORE EFFICIENTLY than any single browser addon (as well as fixing DNS redirect security issues too - multiple bonus), here -> http://tech.slashdot.org/comme... since you ALWAYS do (you're not proficient enough technically to do so, & YOU KNOW IT, I know it, + by now? So does anyone else reading...)

    ... apk

  48. Quit projecting fatass by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You state it damages a brain as it has yours obviously, along with you projecting you're fat http://slashdot.org/comments.p... so quit doing yourself in BarbaraHudson=TomHudson=Barbara, not Barbie you multiple account using stalking troll (or didn't you startup with apk here too)? Yes, you did. Man, you're too stupid to live.

  49. BarbaraHudson = "Run, Forrest: RUN!!!" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "I tore apart your stupid hosts file crapola." - by BarbaraHudson (3785311) on Tuesday August 19, 2014 @10:46AM (#47703255) Homepage

    Why'd you run from disproving my points that give users added speed, security, & reliability here this week where YOU started up your usual b.s. with me -> http://tech.slashdot.org/comme... ?

    ---

    "and one way to monetize your hosts file is to put a few bogus entries in that go to bogus "monetizing" sites" - by BarbaraHudson (3785311) on Tuesday August 19, 2014 @10:46AM (#47703255) Homepage

    I don't "monetize it": It yields more speed, security, reliability & more, for FREE - a good thing to do. I have the ability to do so & it's better than ANY single competitor by far doing more with less.

    (ALL I let users add is their favorite sites (for speed, & reliability) + to import known bad sites or adbanners (for safety & speed) blocking entries from 12 reputable sources in the security community - & users control it, not I!)

    ---

    "Who has independently vetted it?" - by BarbaraHudson (3785311) on Tuesday August 19, 2014 @10:46AM (#47703255) Homepage

    The BEST in the security antimalware & antispyware business currently, http://www.av-test.org/en/news... who also host my program for hosts is who -> http://hosts-file.net/?s=Downl...

    They recommend it as "best of breed" @ the TOP of that last link's page (MalwareBytes' hpHosts page).

    APK

    P.S.=>

    "After all, you post anonymously" - by BarbaraHudson (3785311) on Tuesday August 19, 2014 @10:46AM (#47703255) Homepage

    Better than having multiple sockpuppet accounts like you for upmodding yourself & downmodding those you can't get the best of:

    http://slashdot.org/~Barbara%2...
    http://slashdot.org/~tomhudson...

    Which YOU have used to spread falsehoods like where you attempt to harm my professional programming career by libeling me http://slashdot.org/comments.p... + trying to create a concerted effort to stalk me by anonymous posts http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

    ... apk

  50. Ask yourselves these questions... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Can adblock do the following things (that custom hosts files can):

    1.) Secure you vs. known malicious sites/servers
    2.) Secure you vs. downed DNS servers aiding reliability
    3.) Secure you vs. DNS redirect poisoned dns servers
    4.) Protect you vs. fastflux using botnet attacks and stop their communications back to their C&C servers
    5.) Protect you vs. dynamic dns using botnet attacks and stop their communications back to their C&C servers
    6.) Protect you vs. domain generation algorithm using botnet attacks and stop their communications back to their C&C servers
    7.) Speed you up for websurfing not only by adblocking but also hardcoding favorite sites
    8.) Get you past a dnsbl you may not agree with
    9.) Keep you off dns request logs
    10.) Do all of those things and block ads (better than adblock) more efficiently in cpu cycles and memory usage
    11.) Work on ANY webbound application (think stand-alone email programs, for example).
    12.) Give you direct, easily notepad/texteditor controlled data for all of the above
    13.) Block out trackers
    14.) Block spam mails sources
    15.) Block phishing mails sources

    "?"

    * Simple YES or NO answers will do for repliers to this - that's all.

    APK

    P.S.=> Of course, ANSWER ="NO" to each enumerated item above as far as "Almost ALL Ads Blocked" (crippled by default & 'souled-out' defeating it's very base purpose) is concerned -> http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/... so *IF* you feel like doing things LESS efficiently as well -> https://blog.mozilla.org/nneth... ontop of doing less than hosts do (by far) with more complexity + from a slower mode of operations (usermode with more messagepassing overheads vs. hosts in kernelmode, also starting up w/ the IP stack itself, before REDUNDANT inefficient addons even BEGIN to operate, & as the 1st resolver queried by the OS as well)?

    That's illogical but up to you - I can lead a horse to water, but I can't make them drink!

    ... apk

  51. Ask yourselves these questions... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Can adblock do the following things (that custom hosts files can):

    1.) Secure you vs. known malicious sites/servers
    2.) Secure you vs. downed DNS servers aiding reliability
    3.) Secure you vs. DNS redirect poisoned dns servers
    4.) Protect you vs. fastflux using botnet attacks and stop their communications back to their C&C servers
    5.) Protect you vs. dynamic dns using botnet attacks and stop their communications back to their C&C servers
    6.) Protect you vs. domain generation algorithm using botnet attacks and stop their communications back to their C&C servers
    7.) Speed you up for websurfing not only by adblocking but also hardcoding favorite sites
    8.) Get you past a dnsbl you may not agree with
    9.) Keep you off dns request logs
    10.) Do all of those things and block ads (better than adblock) more efficiently in cpu cycles and memory usage
    11.) Work on ANY webbound application (think stand-alone email programs, for example).
    12.) Give you direct, easily notepad/texteditor controlled data for all of the above
    13.) Block out trackers
    14.) Block spam mails sources
    15.) Block phishing mails sources

    "?"

    * Simple YES or NO answers will do for repliers to this - that's all.

    APK

    P.S.=> Of course, ANSWER ="NO" to each enumerated item above as far as "Almost ALL Ads Blocked" (crippled by default & 'souled-out' defeating it's very base purpose) is concerned -> http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/... so *IF* you feel like doing things LESS efficiently as well -> https://blog.mozilla.org/nneth... ontop of doing less than hosts do (by far) with more complexity + from a slower mode of operations (usermode with more messagepassing overheads vs. hosts in kernelmode, also starting up w/ the IP stack itself, before REDUNDANT inefficient addons even BEGIN to operate, & as the 1st resolver queried by the OS as well)?

    That's illogical but up to you - I can lead a horse to water, but I can't make them drink!

    ... apk

  52. Addendum: True story, AdBlock vs. Hosts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Regarding AdBlock/W. Palant: He wrote me by email, 1st mind you, stating "hosts are a shitty solution" to which I replied:

    "Show us adblock can do more for added speed, security, reliability, & anonymity than hosts can, + that adblock does it more efficiently than hosts"

    Which on my latter 'point-in-challenge' on efficiency he was proven in research by others to be MASSIVELY inefficient -> https://blog.mozilla.org/nneth... & he can't show adblock does more (especially crippled by default + 'souled-out' to GOOGLE).

    Additionally - I sent Wladimir Palant that challenge in response to his statement from 2 different email addresses I use!

    Result:

    Still no answer from him in regard to my challenge put to him to this very day MONTHS later (that tell you anything? It did me - he knows his addon is far inferior to hosts & certainly less efficient by far also) - Wladimir Palant RAN like a scared rabbit...

    ClarityRay is also DESTROYING AdBlock - via native browser methods to DUMP what addons you use (however - it can't DO THAT to hosts files).

    I only tell it how it is on hosts' superiority vs. AdBlock & any browser addon (or combo of them, from 1 FILE you already natively possess no less - vs. "bolting on" more redundant & inefficient complexity + room for failure/breakdown) - Funniest part is, Wladimir Palant (& his running) does as well!

    APK

    P.S.=> Hosts = a superior solution that even fixes DNS redirect security issues (vs. browser addons & their inefficiencies + messagepassing overheads as well as myriad lack of abilities hosts have from 1 file that's part of the IP stack itself - faster, more efficient, & less redundant as well, since TCP/IP has 45++ yrs. of refinement & optimization in it, & runs in a higher CPU serviced ring of privelege & operations in kernelmode vs. slower usermode layering over browsers slowing them more, & hosts = 1st resolver queried by the OS itself also - MULTIPLE bonuses)... apk

  53. Addendum: True story, AdBlock vs. Hosts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Regarding AdBlock/W. Palant: He wrote me by email, 1st mind you, stating "hosts are a shitty solution" to which I replied:

    "Show us adblock can do more for added speed, security, reliability, & anonymity than hosts can, + that adblock does it more efficiently than hosts"

    Which on my latter 'point-in-challenge' on efficiency he was proven in research by others to be MASSIVELY inefficient -> https://blog.mozilla.org/nneth... & he can't show adblock does more (especially crippled by default + 'souled-out' to GOOGLE).

    Additionally - I sent Wladimir Palant that challenge in response to his statement from 2 different email addresses I use!

    Result:

    Still no answer from him in regard to my challenge put to him to this very day MONTHS later (that tell you anything? It did me - he knows his addon is far inferior to hosts & certainly less efficient by far also) - Wladimir Palant RAN like a scared rabbit...

    ClarityRay is also DESTROYING AdBlock - via native browser methods to DUMP what addons you use (however - it can't DO THAT to hosts files).

    I only tell it how it is on hosts' superiority vs. AdBlock & any browser addon (or combo of them, from 1 FILE you already natively possess no less - vs. "bolting on" more redundant & inefficient complexity + room for failure/breakdown) - Funniest part is, Wladimir Palant (& his running) does as well!

    APK

    P.S.=> Hosts = a superior solution that even fixes DNS redirect security issues (vs. browser addons & their inefficiencies + messagepassing overheads as well as myriad lack of abilities hosts have from 1 file that's part of the IP stack itself - faster, more efficient, & less redundant as well, since TCP/IP has 45++ yrs. of refinement & optimization in it, & runs in a higher CPU serviced ring of privelege & operations in kernelmode vs. slower usermode layering over browsers slowing them more, & hosts = 1st resolver queried by the OS itself also - MULTIPLE bonuses)... apk