I've mentioned before that I don't use an Ad Blocker, and yet I rarely see ads. The addons I use (among others) are RequestPolicy, NoScript and Cookie Monster. These three allow me to not be tracked across most websites.
As well, I tend to use unique email addresses (either with Mailinator, or with another domain) for each website I sign up on (I record which email address I use where, and this allows me to track who is sharing my info).
And if I did somehow receive an email that said something like Sumit Suman received, I would be very unhappy with both the party I initially shared the email address with, and the other party. And would cease all business with both.
A commentator at Hacker News says at least one company uses the IP address to get the company and then looks up that company via LinkedIn. Another reason to a) support Tor, and b) not use LinkedIn I guess. ------
Ironically, 42Floors is using Disqus for their comments. This allows visitors to be obviously tracked across websites (at least that use Disqus) and I'm amazed that any privacy conscious person or organization would outsource like that. There are many other tools (e.g. Gravatar) that fall into the same category. In fact, with Gravatar, I can be tracked even if I don't use the service (by not having an avatar with them) because my email address is still sent every time I leave a comment. And I'm sure there are some blog maintainers wondering why they get email addresses of the form webmaster@domain from some of their more insightful commentators.
I use a desktop email client (Evolution) for a few simple reasons: 1) I have multiple email accounts which I want to access all from the same place. 2) More than one is legacy, with a provider that I no longer trust. I expect it to do something nasty any year now. I have downloaded all email from these accounts and deleted it from the server. 3) IMAP works mostly OK, which allows me to use webmail when I need to.
--- Problems with Evolution: Not as good as Outlook (Lookout!) when it comes to integrating tasks and email (no tasks list in the same window as the email). Search is not so good. When I hit reply, I want the "from address" to be the same as the address the email was sent to. Rather than having to manually change it in the accounts place...
Except when they are VoIP and the power is off. And even though there is meant to be a POTS phone somewhere in the building for emergencies, no one actually knows where it is.
So, yeah, I suggest that desk phones are still useful, depending on the situation. In a previous job, people where scattered across up to six locations. We used the phone whenever we wanted to talk. IM just sometimes doesn't cut it, emotions are harder to get through, etc.
Actually, phone (hands free headset), IM and email were sometimes used all at the same time to communicate with the same person/people. You chat with the phone, you send interesting links with IM (or, look, this is what I mean, as you edit the website scratch area), and the email is used to record decisions.
Personally, if anyone says "I'm going to take your phone away, it costs too much and you don't use it anyway", I'd beg to differ. I'd object. And then they'd probably mention stupid MS Communicator (or whatever it is called now) which is meant to have voice, but just doesn't work as well. First thing in the morning, I can phone someone, it just works (except when it doesn't). But the computer, the computer has to turn on (no we can't leave it on all night, IT gets cranky), and that takes up to five minutes or more.
"except we have a lower obesity rate than the UK by a wide (pardon the pun) margin."
[citation needed]
Figures I've seen put the USA on top, and Australia second. However, actual research seems to indicate that it really depends on which method you use to measure these various things. Just saying that one country has a higher or lower per capita obesity rate is meaningless. You actually need to explain where the numbers came from.
Depends on how it is "controlled". If it is like the security council, all the major players (rather, the five major winners after WW2) get a veto. In which case the US can veto anything they don't like, keeping it like it is now. Right? If it's like certain other UN organizations, and operates on consensus, then any player can veto anything they don't like. That means fewer changes, and keeping things the same, that's what you want isn't it?
I doubt very much if it would be like the general assembly where only a simple majority is required.
But yes, I could be wrong. I saw a news article yesterday which suggested that it could be really awful.
I've said it before: decentralize it, it's the only way to be sure. The USA govt. at the moment (via the Dept. Commerce) has effective control over the generic domain names. And they use that control. They shut down websites for all sorts of reasons, including accidentally. They shut down websites that are operating in foreign countries, hosted in foreign countries, and don't even target US citizens. Oh, but they happen to host links to copyrighted material. Or they happen to be doing a perfectly legal thing in their own country, e.g. providing DRM breaking tools, or online gambling, but which isn't legal in the USA.
And people think that the ITU is some how going to be worse? It would be different, but I can't see how it could be worse (you couldn't get all the countries to agree anyway, and if the USA really cared, they could just veto stuff; I think the ITU operates on a consensus model). (Fun fact: the ITU is older than the UN, and the previous League of Nations; it was setup back in the 1800s.)
Still, the best solution is to decentralize. Perhaps a web of trust; I trust this person (these people) and they (a clear majority) say that this domain resolves to this IP address. Actually, the domain name system is already a trust exercise, with people choosing which resolver to go with (e.g. I currently use Google's 8.8.8.8 as I can't remember the local one, and I'm not sure I would trust it more than Google anyway), and the resolver ultimately choosing a root.
So why can't we decentralize it more? Come on people, I know there are lots of smart people, get together and work out an alternative DNS and make it really easy for everyone to use. And make it not be in the hands of anyway. Perhaps a federalized system. But remove control from governments and corporations and give it back to the people, just like God intended when he created the Internet. (Also more people use FreeNet please.)
Thanks. That's just what this individual wanted to see.
Also the map is one of those stupid ones that shows Greenland as much bigger than Australia (i.e. it is more accurate for distance than for geographical area). I wish people would stop using these maps, it doesn't actually matter if the poles are distorted, but it does matter when people think that Greenland is about as big as South America.
While MS Windows is the most common computer OS around, there are obviously many others. For your personal use, what is your main OS, and how do you keep it secure (do you, e.g. run MS Windows with anti-malware software, or do you run Ubuntu Linux with the defaults)? Is this a setup that you would suggest for others, or is it too esoteric?
My “double”, carrying on a North Korean passport under my name, was in fact detained in Mexico for pre-planned misbehavior, but due to indifference on the part of authorities was evicted from the jail and was unable to serve his intended purpose in our exit plan. He is now safely out of Mexico.
Frankly, I don't know why anyone would link to Network World when they don't link to their sources.
Anyway I just wanted to say that. I don't actually care about the story.
Exactly. I'm living in a tropical (African) country, and have eaten both Indian Cadbury's (they call it "Silk") chocolate, and the local stuff. The Cadbury stuff is better, but still not as good as, say, Australian Cadbury chocolate. The local stuff is cheap and nasty, but also won't melt in your pocket. All the imported stuff just gets really soft if you leave it out at room temperature. Room temperature here is normally about 25 to 30 degrees. Personally, I just keep chocolate in the fridge. It just works. And if I'm going somewhere I don't have a fridge, I just don't take chocolate, there are heaps of alternatives for sweet thing.
I visited Belgium recently. I wanted to go to the Pirate Bay, but it was blocked. I did a quick search for Pirate Bay mirrors and came up with a lot of hits. Including a script that is specifically for mirroring the site http://unblockedpiratebay.com/external/ which you can include on your own website.
So, basically, the whole thing is pointless. Block one site, and mirrors will spring up. (Same as what happened with Wikileaks.)
I've personally found that my X230 is a pretty good laptop (nor perfect by any means, but I've never seen one of those), that doubles as a good enough tablet. For my needs having an extra device is just silly (I do tend to fly too much though).
As for the Surface, I can't see what it does that the Acer Transformer doesn't. Except that obviously the OS is different (but I wouldn't use Windoze anyway). Not that I've paid any real attention to the Surface. I've got a laptop, I'm not about to buy another device, let alone a Windoze one...
Get a Lenovo X230 Tablet. They are actually laptops with a screen that rotates and then you can use it like a tablet. You can choose whether or not to get a finger or a stylus screen. Or you could get a similar convertible type thing from any of the other manufacturer.
Then you don't need to carry around two devices, which is frankly just a little silly...
The point was that the USA is not civilized. And I'm not an American, it was we, in other places.
PS Dear/. coders, please put the karma bonus box back on comment, perhaps next to the post anon box. Having to load options, and reload the page, just to turn it on and off is stupid.
Keeping someone in jail should not be done for the purposes of punishment. Compare the conditions of, e.g., Scandinavian prisons to those of the US. In one, the focus is not on punishment, but on rehabilitation. As such, prisoners have access to TVs and other amenities in their cells. See this 2010 article from Time.
And yes, I do think that imprisoning someone if the reason is not to prevent them from committing more acts against others is uncivilized. Which sort of rules out, I suspect, the entire world as being civilized to my standards. Then again, I suspect I'm even more libertarian than most people who claim membership of a Libertarian party. Though I'm a left-libertarian, not a right-libertarian.
And I do say there is a difference between punishment and torture. In Manning's case he has been tortured. Pure and simple.
Punishment. In civilized places we don't punish people. We attempt to rehabilitate them, and to prevent them from continuing to commit acts against others. But we don't punish them. The fact that the conditions that Manning has been held in equate to punishment, when he hasn't even had a trial and been convicted, is a disgrace. There should be outrage from the international community (at least those places that claim the labels "liberal" and "democratic").
Personally I'm not even convinced he leaked all that stuff. What did he get out of it? But props to whomever did leak those cables. It was a great service to the world. Highlighting hypocrisy by the US government, and also some of the nastiness done by other nations with the tacit support, and knowledge, of the US government.
Also, the pleas have not "been accepted by the judge" according to the BBC.
Earlier on Thursday, the case judge accepted the terms under which Pte Manning would plead guilty to eight charges for sending classified documents to Wikileaks. He could face up to 16 years in prison for those charges. Col Denise Lind's ruling does not mean the pleas have been formally accepted.
Why would he offer to plead guilty if he, as I suggest, didn't even do the crime? Because the conditions are so awful. It's long been the case that innocents have been tortured and then confessed. (I've been reading the Arabian Nights, and someone confessed to thieving because they were being beaten so much, and then they had their hand cut off. But they didn't actually do the crime.) Manning is being tortured.
Even just preventing him from seeing properly (taking his glasses away) is mistreatment.
If Facebook didn't exist, I wouldn't be stressed about it at all. Instead, we get all these stupid stories about this website and stuff. That stresses the shit out of me. The fact that people think I should be using this privacy sucking tool of evil also stresses me. But having friends on that website? Well, I don't use it, so that doesn't stress me.
Also, this is something that people on/. have been saying for ages. It's one of the reasons that Google Plus is meant to be wonderful. (I wouldn't know, I don't use it either.) Being able to separate work friends from pub friends from high school friends from family seems like a pretty obvious requirement.
The idea of forgetfulness is another thing. If I say something stupid down at the pub, my workmates aren't likely to find out about it. The other patrons of the pub are likely to forget about it before too long as well (unless it was particularly stupid). But on the Internet...
Gee, anyone else have any obvious differences between the Internet and RL?
If RMS really admires these two, then my respect for him has gone down.
Winston "let's fuck up attacking the Ottomans" Churchill. Winston "give India home rule? not on my watch" Churchill. Winston "we can't have an election, there's a war on" Churchill. Winston "let's shoot the natives because they are savages" Churchill. Winston "Bolshevism must be strangled in its cradle" Churchill. The man who wanted to machine gun striking miners, and admired Italian fascism. The man who talked of Jewish Conspiracy. The man who supported Japanese intervention into China (because the Japanese had to worry about the "eeevil" Communists in Russia and in parts of China). The man who wanted to hold onto the empire at any cost to the people who inhabited it (see Malaysia, India, and various others).
Franklin D. Roosevelt who conspired to split Europe, had many other flaws. But I won't go into them here.
Here's how I would do it: The organisation that makes the tax code, also puts out the software that will allow an individual to file a return. I.e. fuck the corporations, there is no inherent right to make a profit. The government should simplify the tax system (by, e.g. closing loopholes and reducing the number of regressive taxes), create a Free Software solution, and then verify the results when people file their tax returns.
If Slashdot couldn't survive without ads, I wouldn't care in the slightest. That's what I said, I'll find my sources of community elsewhere. However, there are many ways to survive without external ads. Subscriptions (like/.), selling physical items (many web comics), and just plain donations. And don't forget people simply running these websites because they want to. (I have a website. I run it for me. I don't have ads on it.)
As for search engines, well, yeah. Same deal. They can all just go. I'm sure that someone will step up to fill the void. (Big point though, that Google serves their ads from their own domain, something that means that they can continue. I don't block ads. I just block external requests and JS. Though, I can't remember a time I saw an actually useful ad on Google that wasn't for a site that didn't also come up in the first three results.)
Except that it's more like: Step 1. User loads page. Step 2. Page uses JavaScript to display page. Step 3. I go elsewhere, because frankly, fuck 'em. Step 4. Anyone else who doesn't have JS enabled does the same. Step 5. JS can be used to detect whether external ads are loading or not, and block those that don't load external ads. ------
I don't have an ad blocker. I use Request Policy to block external requests (and whitelist and temporary whitelist if I want external content in a web page). This blocks most ads by default, without any extra work on my part. I also use NoScript. This blocks more ads, especially as I'm not about to whitelist the ad domains. I finally use a cookie manager that blocks cookies by default (and I whitelist certain domains).
The only ads I see are the ones that don't use JS, and are served from the same domain as the website I'm viewing. Though I was certainly thinking about blocking a moving graphic ad recently...
----- So, yeah, websites can detect if you have JS enabled, and use that to detect if ads are being displayed. And I'll say fuck you to the parasites and find my sources of entertainment, news, and community elsewhere. I'd be perfectly happy if all ad supported websites went out of business (I'm not counting those that have ads for their own products though, just those with ads from external sources). Just like if broadcast TV were to go elsewhere because everyone skipped the ads, I wouldn't care at all either.
Slashdot Mirror
Ah, Eris? Why use Latin when you can use Greek?
Because Star Trek is fucking stupid? Who would want to promote some stupid movie or whatever anyway?
I've mentioned before that I don't use an Ad Blocker, and yet I rarely see ads. The addons I use (among others) are RequestPolicy, NoScript and Cookie Monster. These three allow me to not be tracked across most websites.
As well, I tend to use unique email addresses (either with Mailinator, or with another domain) for each website I sign up on (I record which email address I use where, and this allows me to track who is sharing my info).
And if I did somehow receive an email that said something like Sumit Suman received, I would be very unhappy with both the party I initially shared the email address with, and the other party. And would cease all business with both.
A commentator at Hacker News says at least one company uses the IP address to get the company and then looks up that company via LinkedIn. Another reason to a) support Tor, and b) not use LinkedIn I guess.
------
Ironically, 42Floors is using Disqus for their comments. This allows visitors to be obviously tracked across websites (at least that use Disqus) and I'm amazed that any privacy conscious person or organization would outsource like that. There are many other tools (e.g. Gravatar) that fall into the same category. In fact, with Gravatar, I can be tracked even if I don't use the service (by not having an avatar with them) because my email address is still sent every time I leave a comment. And I'm sure there are some blog maintainers wondering why they get email addresses of the form webmaster@domain from some of their more insightful commentators.
I use a desktop email client (Evolution) for a few simple reasons:
1) I have multiple email accounts which I want to access all from the same place.
2) More than one is legacy, with a provider that I no longer trust. I expect it to do something nasty any year now. I have downloaded all email from these accounts and deleted it from the server.
3) IMAP works mostly OK, which allows me to use webmail when I need to.
---
Problems with Evolution:
Not as good as Outlook (Lookout!) when it comes to integrating tasks and email (no tasks list in the same window as the email).
Search is not so good.
When I hit reply, I want the "from address" to be the same as the address the email was sent to. Rather than having to manually change it in the accounts place...
Except when they are VoIP and the power is off. And even though there is meant to be a POTS phone somewhere in the building for emergencies, no one actually knows where it is.
So, yeah, I suggest that desk phones are still useful, depending on the situation. In a previous job, people where scattered across up to six locations. We used the phone whenever we wanted to talk. IM just sometimes doesn't cut it, emotions are harder to get through, etc.
Actually, phone (hands free headset), IM and email were sometimes used all at the same time to communicate with the same person/people. You chat with the phone, you send interesting links with IM (or, look, this is what I mean, as you edit the website scratch area), and the email is used to record decisions.
Personally, if anyone says "I'm going to take your phone away, it costs too much and you don't use it anyway", I'd beg to differ. I'd object. And then they'd probably mention stupid MS Communicator (or whatever it is called now) which is meant to have voice, but just doesn't work as well. First thing in the morning, I can phone someone, it just works (except when it doesn't). But the computer, the computer has to turn on (no we can't leave it on all night, IT gets cranky), and that takes up to five minutes or more.
All these communication tools have their place.
"except we have a lower obesity rate than the UK by a wide (pardon the pun) margin."
[citation needed]
Figures I've seen put the USA on top, and Australia second. However, actual research seems to indicate that it really depends on which method you use to measure these various things. Just saying that one country has a higher or lower per capita obesity rate is meaningless. You actually need to explain where the numbers came from.
Depends on how it is "controlled". If it is like the security council, all the major players (rather, the five major winners after WW2) get a veto. In which case the US can veto anything they don't like, keeping it like it is now. Right? If it's like certain other UN organizations, and operates on consensus, then any player can veto anything they don't like. That means fewer changes, and keeping things the same, that's what you want isn't it?
I doubt very much if it would be like the general assembly where only a simple majority is required.
But yes, I could be wrong. I saw a news article yesterday which suggested that it could be really awful.
I've said it before: decentralize it, it's the only way to be sure. The USA govt. at the moment (via the Dept. Commerce) has effective control over the generic domain names. And they use that control. They shut down websites for all sorts of reasons, including accidentally. They shut down websites that are operating in foreign countries, hosted in foreign countries, and don't even target US citizens. Oh, but they happen to host links to copyrighted material. Or they happen to be doing a perfectly legal thing in their own country, e.g. providing DRM breaking tools, or online gambling, but which isn't legal in the USA.
And people think that the ITU is some how going to be worse? It would be different, but I can't see how it could be worse (you couldn't get all the countries to agree anyway, and if the USA really cared, they could just veto stuff; I think the ITU operates on a consensus model). (Fun fact: the ITU is older than the UN, and the previous League of Nations; it was setup back in the 1800s.)
Still, the best solution is to decentralize. Perhaps a web of trust; I trust this person (these people) and they (a clear majority) say that this domain resolves to this IP address. Actually, the domain name system is already a trust exercise, with people choosing which resolver to go with (e.g. I currently use Google's 8.8.8.8 as I can't remember the local one, and I'm not sure I would trust it more than Google anyway), and the resolver ultimately choosing a root.
So why can't we decentralize it more? Come on people, I know there are lots of smart people, get together and work out an alternative DNS and make it really easy for everyone to use. And make it not be in the hands of anyway. Perhaps a federalized system. But remove control from governments and corporations and give it back to the people, just like God intended when he created the Internet. (Also more people use FreeNet please.)
Thanks. That's just what this individual wanted to see.
Also the map is one of those stupid ones that shows Greenland as much bigger than Australia (i.e. it is more accurate for distance than for geographical area). I wish people would stop using these maps, it doesn't actually matter if the poles are distorted, but it does matter when people think that Greenland is about as big as South America.
While MS Windows is the most common computer OS around, there are obviously many others. For your personal use, what is your main OS, and how do you keep it secure (do you, e.g. run MS Windows with anti-malware software, or do you run Ubuntu Linux with the defaults)? Is this a setup that you would suggest for others, or is it too esoteric?
Aaaannndddd actually they do link to the blog. They may have changed it, or I may have missed it. Either way, you can mod my post back down again now.
What a great article. No indication of what the actual blog address is except in an image.
The fella's website is http://www.whoismcafee.com/
Here we can find http://www.whoismcafee.com/i-am-safe/
Frankly, I don't know why anyone would link to Network World when they don't link to their sources.
Anyway I just wanted to say that. I don't actually care about the story.
Exactly. I'm living in a tropical (African) country, and have eaten both Indian Cadbury's (they call it "Silk") chocolate, and the local stuff. The Cadbury stuff is better, but still not as good as, say, Australian Cadbury chocolate. The local stuff is cheap and nasty, but also won't melt in your pocket. All the imported stuff just gets really soft if you leave it out at room temperature. Room temperature here is normally about 25 to 30 degrees.
Personally, I just keep chocolate in the fridge. It just works. And if I'm going somewhere I don't have a fridge, I just don't take chocolate, there are heaps of alternatives for sweet thing.
I visited Belgium recently. I wanted to go to the Pirate Bay, but it was blocked. I did a quick search for Pirate Bay mirrors and came up with a lot of hits. Including a script that is specifically for mirroring the site http://unblockedpiratebay.com/external/ which you can include on your own website.
So, basically, the whole thing is pointless. Block one site, and mirrors will spring up. (Same as what happened with Wikileaks.)
PS https://duckduckgo.com/html/?q=pirate+bay+mirror.
I've personally found that my X230 is a pretty good laptop (nor perfect by any means, but I've never seen one of those), that doubles as a good enough tablet. For my needs having an extra device is just silly (I do tend to fly too much though).
As for the Surface, I can't see what it does that the Acer Transformer doesn't. Except that obviously the OS is different (but I wouldn't use Windoze anyway). Not that I've paid any real attention to the Surface. I've got a laptop, I'm not about to buy another device, let alone a Windoze one...
Get a Lenovo X230 Tablet. They are actually laptops with a screen that rotates and then you can use it like a tablet. You can choose whether or not to get a finger or a stylus screen. Or you could get a similar convertible type thing from any of the other manufacturer.
Then you don't need to carry around two devices, which is frankly just a little silly...
Except that deterrent doesn't work. Otherwise the USA wouldn't keep having to kill people.
Deterrent doesn't work to stop crime.
The point was that the USA is not civilized. And I'm not an American, it was we, in other places.
PS Dear /. coders, please put the karma bonus box back on comment, perhaps next to the post anon box. Having to load options, and reload the page, just to turn it on and off is stupid.
Keeping someone in jail should not be done for the purposes of punishment. Compare the conditions of, e.g., Scandinavian prisons to those of the US. In one, the focus is not on punishment, but on rehabilitation. As such, prisoners have access to TVs and other amenities in their cells. See this 2010 article from Time.
And yes, I do think that imprisoning someone if the reason is not to prevent them from committing more acts against others is uncivilized. Which sort of rules out, I suspect, the entire world as being civilized to my standards. Then again, I suspect I'm even more libertarian than most people who claim membership of a Libertarian party. Though I'm a left-libertarian, not a right-libertarian.
And I do say there is a difference between punishment and torture. In Manning's case he has been tortured. Pure and simple.
Punishment. In civilized places we don't punish people. We attempt to rehabilitate them, and to prevent them from continuing to commit acts against others. But we don't punish them. The fact that the conditions that Manning has been held in equate to punishment, when he hasn't even had a trial and been convicted, is a disgrace. There should be outrage from the international community (at least those places that claim the labels "liberal" and "democratic").
Personally I'm not even convinced he leaked all that stuff. What did he get out of it? But props to whomever did leak those cables. It was a great service to the world. Highlighting hypocrisy by the US government, and also some of the nastiness done by other nations with the tacit support, and knowledge, of the US government.
Also, the pleas have not "been accepted by the judge" according to the BBC.
Why would he offer to plead guilty if he, as I suggest, didn't even do the crime? Because the conditions are so awful. It's long been the case that innocents have been tortured and then confessed. (I've been reading the Arabian Nights, and someone confessed to thieving because they were being beaten so much, and then they had their hand cut off. But they didn't actually do the crime.) Manning is being tortured.
Even just preventing him from seeing properly (taking his glasses away) is mistreatment.
If Facebook didn't exist, I wouldn't be stressed about it at all. Instead, we get all these stupid stories about this website and stuff. That stresses the shit out of me. The fact that people think I should be using this privacy sucking tool of evil also stresses me. But having friends on that website? Well, I don't use it, so that doesn't stress me.
Also, this is something that people on /. have been saying for ages. It's one of the reasons that Google Plus is meant to be wonderful. (I wouldn't know, I don't use it either.) Being able to separate work friends from pub friends from high school friends from family seems like a pretty obvious requirement.
The idea of forgetfulness is another thing. If I say something stupid down at the pub, my workmates aren't likely to find out about it. The other patrons of the pub are likely to forget about it before too long as well (unless it was particularly stupid). But on the Internet...
Gee, anyone else have any obvious differences between the Internet and RL?
If RMS really admires these two, then my respect for him has gone down.
Winston "let's fuck up attacking the Ottomans" Churchill.
Winston "give India home rule? not on my watch" Churchill.
Winston "we can't have an election, there's a war on" Churchill.
Winston "let's shoot the natives because they are savages" Churchill.
Winston "Bolshevism must be strangled in its cradle" Churchill.
The man who wanted to machine gun striking miners, and admired Italian fascism.
The man who talked of Jewish Conspiracy.
The man who supported Japanese intervention into China (because the Japanese had to worry about the "eeevil" Communists in Russia and in parts of China).
The man who wanted to hold onto the empire at any cost to the people who inhabited it (see Malaysia, India, and various others).
Franklin D. Roosevelt who conspired to split Europe, had many other flaws. But I won't go into them here.
Here's how I would do it:
The organisation that makes the tax code, also puts out the software that will allow an individual to file a return. I.e. fuck the corporations, there is no inherent right to make a profit.
The government should simplify the tax system (by, e.g. closing loopholes and reducing the number of regressive taxes), create a Free Software solution, and then verify the results when people file their tax returns.
If Slashdot couldn't survive without ads, I wouldn't care in the slightest. That's what I said, I'll find my sources of community elsewhere. However, there are many ways to survive without external ads. Subscriptions (like /.), selling physical items (many web comics), and just plain donations. And don't forget people simply running these websites because they want to. (I have a website. I run it for me. I don't have ads on it.)
As for search engines, well, yeah. Same deal. They can all just go. I'm sure that someone will step up to fill the void. (Big point though, that Google serves their ads from their own domain, something that means that they can continue. I don't block ads. I just block external requests and JS. Though, I can't remember a time I saw an actually useful ad on Google that wasn't for a site that didn't also come up in the first three results.)
It's already sort of possible.
Except that it's more like:
Step 1. User loads page.
Step 2. Page uses JavaScript to display page.
Step 3. I go elsewhere, because frankly, fuck 'em.
Step 4. Anyone else who doesn't have JS enabled does the same.
Step 5. JS can be used to detect whether external ads are loading or not, and block those that don't load external ads.
------
I don't have an ad blocker. I use Request Policy to block external requests (and whitelist and temporary whitelist if I want external content in a web page). This blocks most ads by default, without any extra work on my part. I also use NoScript. This blocks more ads, especially as I'm not about to whitelist the ad domains. I finally use a cookie manager that blocks cookies by default (and I whitelist certain domains).
The only ads I see are the ones that don't use JS, and are served from the same domain as the website I'm viewing. Though I was certainly thinking about blocking a moving graphic ad recently...
-----
So, yeah, websites can detect if you have JS enabled, and use that to detect if ads are being displayed. And I'll say fuck you to the parasites and find my sources of entertainment, news, and community elsewhere. I'd be perfectly happy if all ad supported websites went out of business (I'm not counting those that have ads for their own products though, just those with ads from external sources). Just like if broadcast TV were to go elsewhere because everyone skipped the ads, I wouldn't care at all either.