I don't know what other people do, but I tune my ad-blocking solutions for each site, using pattern matching and turning their own standardized HTML and CSS against them where needed. I sometimes use the same pattern matching to remove other page elements that simply aren't relevant to me.
My ability to remove the offensive and distracting ads and the irrelevant content actually works in favor of the sites I so modify, because it makes it more likely I will choose to visit repeatedly.
Why do this? In large part because there's no effective means to give feedback to each site about which ads or ad spaces are offensive and which ones aren't. Many sites now have systems in place for rating the actual content, but how many offer a system to "mod" the delivered advertising? NONE. Not a single one. Not even Slashdot nor ARS Technica. If the site operators knew statistically which ads were doing more harm than good, they in turn could tune their ad delivery to reduce the offensiveness. Apparently it's never occurred to anyone but ME to implement such a system?! Why? Is is because I'm that much of a genius? No. It's because they just don't give a flying fuck if the ads are offensive to their visitors or not. So instead of implementing a feedback system for the advertising, they implement "enforcement" schemes to thwart ad-blocking and try to make the ads even more attention-getting.
When you find a site that actually cares enough what its visitors think of its advertising to implement a feedback system for it, get back to me and we can have a more substantive discussion about the ethics of ad blocking.
Here we have yet another politician trying to manipulate us into seeing things his way with a fallacious argument. Why does anyone decide to use ad-blocking software in the first place? Do people set out with the express goal that "Heh, I'm gonna teach these fuckers a lesson"? I certainly didn't. Nope... I employed ad-blocking techniques because the ads became a truly hard-sell nightmare. Does anyone recall the meatspace jokes about car salesmen and "hard sell" tactics? That's what we're talking about here: digital ads that take a hard-sell approach.
NOBODY likes the hard-sell tactics. That's why I, and most other people, employ RECIPROCAL tactics to block ads, because far too many are insanely hard-sell. Has it been simple greed and lack of self-restraint, no scruples, or did their business model just suck vacuum from the start? Is either cause my fault, my problem? Honestly... and they blame *us* for starting the whole contest? Ya got it ass backwards there, chum. Ad-blocking is here to stay BECAUSE your foolish greed arrived first.
Honestly, it's already just too damned late; this ship had already sailed. Advertisers proved themselves to be consistently untrustworthy and self-centered, and we responded in kind. How do they intend to win back our trust? Oh, that's right: by blaming the bad behavior on *us* and claiming they always had our best interests at heart.
Bullshit.
Ya know what? I do believe I could survive well enough without their "content" if it just dried up and blew away. So find yourselves a revenue model, guys, one that actually works and that we can actually afford, or just go away. Ad-blocking is here to stay.
... then I guess we'd better wait for the Fox News coverage! They'll be fair, too!
Glenn Beck: "What I wanna know is, why don't these cell phone companies deny this rumor that their phones are cooking my brain? I'm not saying my brain is actually fried, but it sure feels that way and why won't they deny it?"
JB Weld contains so much iron particulate in suspension that it responds to a magnetic field. If it weren't for the fact that the particles are so much larger and get drawn out of suspension and toward the magnet, it might be possible to speed-cure the stuff with this same trick.
I agree with you. I've always found the historic Ubuntu color scheme to be disgusting. However, I find this new one to be WORSE. This reinforces my point: they're spending copious time trying to be artsy and attention-grabbing, rather than leaving it at something basic and guaranteed to suit many people and letting us make our own choices. The features are already in place to make that easy, and scads of alternatives available.
I wouldn't put up with a purple-and-orange desktop for even five minutes, much less a full upgrade cycle. Lucky for me that there are copious alternatives, many provided by other users and enabled by other features created by the design team.
Those features, the ones that allow people to easily choose, are the truly ergonomic design decisions; those are the sort of design decisions and features that should be the focus, not wasting time trying to guess what my personal preference will be (especially not after all these years of consistency).
The marketing, as you said, can highlight the flexibility, the ability of people to shape it to their personal tastes, rather than highlight a one-size-fits-all style that inevitably won't suit many people like me anyway.
I wish they'd stay focused on usability and 'ergonomic' issues, and not waste time on colors and wallpapers and other bubblegum that half of the user base will be guaranteed not to like anyway. I'm not picking on Ubuntu; this criticism certainly applies to Windows and other OSs and Linux distros, too. Too much time wasted on fluff that doesn't matter much.
I'd agree with Lord Ender that, materials-wise at least, the battery would probably come in second or third (if indeed the cell chip is second). Of course it's worth keeping in mind that much of the cost of that cell chip may in fact be due to IP licensing costs rather than actual costs of materials and production.
I have a hard time comprehending the cost of batteries in general, since the materials are trivial and AFAIK there's no governmentally required environmental expenses rolled into the cost.
Did anyone else have parents who used a dinner table argument that sounded like a sales pitch for this device?
"But Ma, I don't LIKE it! It tastes awful!"
"Well then, Timmy, just take a bite of that and a bite of that chocolate pudding at the same time, and you won't notice. It'll all be the same once it reaches your tummy!"
This thing cuts out the middleman of multiple spoonfuls, eh? What's next, pre-digesting the food with enzymes inside the thing and just inserting a hose down your throat?
In Sacramento, it would be his neighbor with the fruit trees that would find himself in the crosshairs: he'd be declared an unlicensed food producer and cited and fined. There's an ordinance prohibiting any kind of food/crop plants in front yards, for no more reason than fear of liability; the city fears that, if a passerby were to eat something edible from accessible private property and become ill, even though it's not public property, the city might get named as a defendant in a lawsuit.
Once again the lawyers wind up being the only winners....
There's been remote control software for years like that for Pocket PCs with infrared output. It wouldn't be a stretch to add Bluetooth, if they haven't already. It really makes sense on Pocket PCs with larger displays, like my iPAQ hx4700 (4", 640x480). Why spend hundreds on that top-of-the-line Logitech Harmony when the same can get you a device that can do other stuff when you're not on the couch?
I attended its funeral yesterday. It was an open-casket ceremony, and people just couldn't seem to resist fingering the deceased. Sadly it didn't respond.
It may not be the government doing it directly, but are there not still Federal laws and policies in place requiring that manufacturers of certain products containing ethanol and methanol be "poisoned"?
This isn't really so shocking when viewed from a global and historical perspective. Don't forget, it also wasn't just German institutions that advocated and implemented various forms of eugenics. In California in the 1920s, it was policy to sterilize patients in sanitariums, lest they be allowed to spread their imperfections further in the gene pool.
Something like this poisoning program is guaranteed to happen again. The only thing more imperfect than our gene pool is our implementations of democracy. It has always been so, because unfortunately there's no such thing as "set it and forget it" democracy; you have to keep after it constantly and aggressively. Ethical and political entropy sets in VERY quickly if you look away - or turn a blind eye - for even a moment.
Games are rarely playtested as thoroughly as they should be, but I think it's a safe bet that Ubisoft playtested the hell outta this new DRM. It probably got at much attention as the code for the space shuttle.
It figures: my town (and state capitol) has no Ignition event planned. Nope, the only ignition we have here is the variety that begins with a match and lighter fluid.
Did I mention our town had a Slashdot Meetup (meetup.com) some years ago, but it fizzled for lack of interest? *sigh*
"revolution is evil, ugly, brutal, murderous and completely undesirable"
Ummm... Ghandi had a revolution. While you're looking him up on Wikipedia, check out an online dictionary for definitions of "revolution". Your definition seems to be pedantically narrow.
For dessert, you might want to Google "literalism", since your mind's expression of it is now clearly the cause of most of the dischord and your vitriol here. Being able to read between the lines and comprehend metaphor, simile, parable, and even hyperbole - as I employed here - is a very useful skill to have. I hope you develop it.
You didn't read - or understand - a single damned thing I said; what sort of reply do you expect? Oh, I know: you expect me to resort to using words like retard and idiot to marginalize you and then dismiss your words, huh?
It's the system that's broken. No "constant low-grade effort" is going to fix that. Maybe if your system at home was more refined, you'd have automated the trash disposal problem; there'd still be trash but you wouldn't have to constantly fight with it. A perfect example of that automation is probably in your house right now, unless you live in the bush: a flush toilet. Do you actually have to carry your shit out in a bucket? No, because the system is designed to eliminate that.
That's why our government and corporate hierarchies are FUBAR: they lack an automatic means to flush away the crap. Since the crap in this instance lives and breathes and has visions of grandeur, it's going to be none too happy with us meddling with the very system that gives it its power.
Your low-grade effort won't fix anything. Neither will your insults and ad hominem.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't know what other people do, but I tune my ad-blocking solutions for each site, using pattern matching and turning their own standardized HTML and CSS against them where needed. I sometimes use the same pattern matching to remove other page elements that simply aren't relevant to me.
My ability to remove the offensive and distracting ads and the irrelevant content actually works in favor of the sites I so modify, because it makes it more likely I will choose to visit repeatedly.
Why do this? In large part because there's no effective means to give feedback to each site about which ads or ad spaces are offensive and which ones aren't. Many sites now have systems in place for rating the actual content, but how many offer a system to "mod" the delivered advertising? NONE. Not a single one. Not even Slashdot nor ARS Technica. If the site operators knew statistically which ads were doing more harm than good, they in turn could tune their ad delivery to reduce the offensiveness. Apparently it's never occurred to anyone but ME to implement such a system?! Why? Is is because I'm that much of a genius? No. It's because they just don't give a flying fuck if the ads are offensive to their visitors or not. So instead of implementing a feedback system for the advertising, they implement "enforcement" schemes to thwart ad-blocking and try to make the ads even more attention-getting.
When you find a site that actually cares enough what its visitors think of its advertising to implement a feedback system for it, get back to me and we can have a more substantive discussion about the ethics of ad blocking.
Here we have yet another politician trying to manipulate us into seeing things his way with a fallacious argument. Why does anyone decide to use ad-blocking software in the first place? Do people set out with the express goal that "Heh, I'm gonna teach these fuckers a lesson"? I certainly didn't. Nope... I employed ad-blocking techniques because the ads became a truly hard-sell nightmare. Does anyone recall the meatspace jokes about car salesmen and "hard sell" tactics? That's what we're talking about here: digital ads that take a hard-sell approach.
NOBODY likes the hard-sell tactics. That's why I, and most other people, employ RECIPROCAL tactics to block ads, because far too many are insanely hard-sell. Has it been simple greed and lack of self-restraint, no scruples, or did their business model just suck vacuum from the start? Is either cause my fault, my problem? Honestly... and they blame *us* for starting the whole contest? Ya got it ass backwards there, chum. Ad-blocking is here to stay BECAUSE your foolish greed arrived first.
Honestly, it's already just too damned late; this ship had already sailed. Advertisers proved themselves to be consistently untrustworthy and self-centered, and we responded in kind. How do they intend to win back our trust? Oh, that's right: by blaming the bad behavior on *us* and claiming they always had our best interests at heart.
Bullshit.
Ya know what? I do believe I could survive well enough without their "content" if it just dried up and blew away. So find yourselves a revenue model, guys, one that actually works and that we can actually afford, or just go away. Ad-blocking is here to stay.
... then I guess we'd better wait for the Fox News coverage! They'll be fair, too!
Glenn Beck: "What I wanna know is, why don't these cell phone companies deny this rumor that their phones are cooking my brain? I'm not saying my brain is actually fried, but it sure feels that way and why won't they deny it?"
I'm already glued to my seat... what more do ya want?
That's not a diversion, you're cementing the point and expressing solidarity.
Yeah, it is the stuff of Star Trek.. I'll use the deflector array! (Thanks for pointing that out.)
Maybe about the same amount found in JB Weld, only much much finer particles.
JB Weld contains so much iron particulate in suspension that it responds to a magnetic field. If it weren't for the fact that the particles are so much larger and get drawn out of suspension and toward the magnet, it might be possible to speed-cure the stuff with this same trick.
How about they get to work on some of the big app projects rather than the OS itself? There's no shortage of graphics work that needs doing.
I agree with you. I've always found the historic Ubuntu color scheme to be disgusting. However, I find this new one to be WORSE. This reinforces my point: they're spending copious time trying to be artsy and attention-grabbing, rather than leaving it at something basic and guaranteed to suit many people and letting us make our own choices. The features are already in place to make that easy, and scads of alternatives available.
Good thing, that.
I wouldn't put up with a purple-and-orange desktop for even five minutes, much less a full upgrade cycle. Lucky for me that there are copious alternatives, many provided by other users and enabled by other features created by the design team.
Those features, the ones that allow people to easily choose, are the truly ergonomic design decisions; those are the sort of design decisions and features that should be the focus, not wasting time trying to guess what my personal preference will be (especially not after all these years of consistency).
The marketing, as you said, can highlight the flexibility, the ability of people to shape it to their personal tastes, rather than highlight a one-size-fits-all style that inevitably won't suit many people like me anyway.
My complaints still stand.
I wish they'd stay focused on usability and 'ergonomic' issues, and not waste time on colors and wallpapers and other bubblegum that half of the user base will be guaranteed not to like anyway. I'm not picking on Ubuntu; this criticism certainly applies to Windows and other OSs and Linux distros, too. Too much time wasted on fluff that doesn't matter much.
I'd agree with Lord Ender that, materials-wise at least, the battery would probably come in second or third (if indeed the cell chip is second). Of course it's worth keeping in mind that much of the cost of that cell chip may in fact be due to IP licensing costs rather than actual costs of materials and production.
I have a hard time comprehending the cost of batteries in general, since the materials are trivial and AFAIK there's no governmentally required environmental expenses rolled into the cost.
Did anyone else have parents who used a dinner table argument that sounded like a sales pitch for this device?
"But Ma, I don't LIKE it! It tastes awful!"
"Well then, Timmy, just take a bite of that and a bite of that chocolate pudding at the same time, and you won't notice. It'll all be the same once it reaches your tummy!"
This thing cuts out the middleman of multiple spoonfuls, eh? What's next, pre-digesting the food with enzymes inside the thing and just inserting a hose down your throat?
Amazon's desired profit margin wouldn't have a thing to do with the high cost, right?
In Sacramento, it would be his neighbor with the fruit trees that would find himself in the crosshairs: he'd be declared an unlicensed food producer and cited and fined. There's an ordinance prohibiting any kind of food/crop plants in front yards, for no more reason than fear of liability; the city fears that, if a passerby were to eat something edible from accessible private property and become ill, even though it's not public property, the city might get named as a defendant in a lawsuit.
Once again the lawyers wind up being the only winners....
There's been remote control software for years like that for Pocket PCs with infrared output. It wouldn't be a stretch to add Bluetooth, if they haven't already. It really makes sense on Pocket PCs with larger displays, like my iPAQ hx4700 (4", 640x480). Why spend hundreds on that top-of-the-line Logitech Harmony when the same can get you a device that can do other stuff when you're not on the couch?
I attended its funeral yesterday. It was an open-casket ceremony, and people just couldn't seem to resist fingering the deceased. Sadly it didn't respond.
It may not be the government doing it directly, but are there not still Federal laws and policies in place requiring that manufacturers of certain products containing ethanol and methanol be "poisoned"?
This isn't really so shocking when viewed from a global and historical perspective. Don't forget, it also wasn't just German institutions that advocated and implemented various forms of eugenics. In California in the 1920s, it was policy to sterilize patients in sanitariums, lest they be allowed to spread their imperfections further in the gene pool.
Something like this poisoning program is guaranteed to happen again. The only thing more imperfect than our gene pool is our implementations of democracy. It has always been so, because unfortunately there's no such thing as "set it and forget it" democracy; you have to keep after it constantly and aggressively. Ethical and political entropy sets in VERY quickly if you look away - or turn a blind eye - for even a moment.
Games are rarely playtested as thoroughly as they should be, but I think it's a safe bet that Ubisoft playtested the hell outta this new DRM. It probably got at much attention as the code for the space shuttle.
Where's the very relevant word embedded in the Slashdot title? Even TFA's author was honest enough to include it in the original title.
It figures: my town (and state capitol) has no Ignition event planned. Nope, the only ignition we have here is the variety that begins with a match and lighter fluid.
Did I mention our town had a Slashdot Meetup (meetup.com) some years ago, but it fizzled for lack of interest? *sigh*
Ummm... Ghandi had a revolution. While you're looking him up on Wikipedia, check out an online dictionary for definitions of "revolution". Your definition seems to be pedantically narrow.
For dessert, you might want to Google "literalism", since your mind's expression of it is now clearly the cause of most of the dischord and your vitriol here. Being able to read between the lines and comprehend metaphor, simile, parable, and even hyperbole - as I employed here - is a very useful skill to have. I hope you develop it.
You didn't read - or understand - a single damned thing I said; what sort of reply do you expect? Oh, I know: you expect me to resort to using words like retard and idiot to marginalize you and then dismiss your words, huh?
It's the system that's broken. No "constant low-grade effort" is going to fix that. Maybe if your system at home was more refined, you'd have automated the trash disposal problem; there'd still be trash but you wouldn't have to constantly fight with it. A perfect example of that automation is probably in your house right now, unless you live in the bush: a flush toilet. Do you actually have to carry your shit out in a bucket? No, because the system is designed to eliminate that.
That's why our government and corporate hierarchies are FUBAR: they lack an automatic means to flush away the crap. Since the crap in this instance lives and breathes and has visions of grandeur, it's going to be none too happy with us meddling with the very system that gives it its power.
Your low-grade effort won't fix anything. Neither will your insults and ad hominem.