Its officially mac bashing time for some, which is funny as this is a board known for its windows bashing, but bring up Macs and suddenly there's no shortage of "we love MS/Dell!" Suddenly, all the problems with windows and dell's build quality are tossed out the window.
As far as the cheap crap revolution goes, one in five components I buy have to be RMA'd. The time I spent troubleshooting this (along with shipping, not mention waiting) usually costs more than the device itself. Don't get me wrong, if you're a geek and know how to build PCs and can spot a failing IDE controller a mile away, then go save yourself some money. But most people aren't, especially mac users.
These are two very different markets, but people will compare them regardless. I think its because they see OSX as a threat to their own pet UNIX. The enemy of my enemy, etc.
Its really about interaction isnt it? Movies are passive, the theater experience is mixed at best, etc. While I was playing Doom3 and Half Life 2 I would seldomly tell myself "Wow, this is pretty cinematic, its like a movie I'm controlling."
People like two way media. Look at us, we're posting on a big geeky weblog. Why? That's the question Hollywood can't address with its movies, celebrity star system, over-used CGI, and "safe/non-controversial" movies. I'm sure Joe and Jane Sixpack don't really care, but as people divest from Hollywood, the more Hollywood will cater strictly to the LCD. Arguably, they've reached that point long ago.
I see maybe three or four movies a year now. Hollywood can have me and my money, but they need to release some better content. Something original or something that challenges me. They need to step up to the persistant angry religious letter writers. They need to fix the theaters so if a movie claims to start at 8, it will start at 8, not 8:22. 15 minutes of trailers (which should be coming after the movie before the credits as far as I'm concered) and 8 minutes of commercials/trivia is a good way to lose my 9 dollars.
BO: Tell me comrades, what makes you want to give away these products and go open source? Communism? Beatles music? Liberal guilt!?!?!
Guillaume Laurent: Well, first off..
BO: Wait, are you french?
Guillaume Laurent: Yes I am from France and I don't see why that should be held against me, in fact the relationaship between the US and France has always been one of [interuption]
Sorry, but all my relatives who I have switched over to Firefox or Mozilla do not have ANY spyware. Nada. Nothing. I showed them a list of spyware apps, in other words what not to install and they have healthy and happy PCs.
Claiming switching to linux is the only solution is a huge admission of ignorance of how the spyware problem stems almost exclusively from one piece of software, namely Internet Explorer.
Windows, even as admin, can be safe for the technophobe. I've seen it and I continue to see it. The problem is IE. I don't care how savvy you are, if you're using IE to access the WAN (perhaps SP2 is an exception) you will get spyware and other nasties.
So many "linux advocates" are so ready to throw out the baby with the bathwater, its absurd and makes the zealots, well, look like the zealots they truly are. Not to mention, if Linux hits critical mass on the desktop (yeah Im not holding my breath either, OSX has a much beter chance of toppling Windows) then spyware developers will target it also. Grandma will still get emails like "Funnyshit.rpm" and the browser will ask if you want to install "super-search.xpi." These apps will hide themselves anywhere they can, just like they do in windows.
Better browsers and more informed users is the solution, not advocating one's pet OS.
Wordpress has its pros, but the support forum is a ghost town. Maybe when more people migrate over to it this will change, but I think only a small percentage of my questions even had some kind of reply. The wiki is out-dated and full of tips that dont even apply to the current version.
The current version is buggy (password reset, no way to link to user's profile, etc), but runs well enough and now that MT costs money I'm sure there will be more WP users out there soon. Then again, blogger is great for technophobes and experts alike and offers free hosting.
I use only two plug-ins because other plugins break my site. The problem is "this plug in breaks this plug in or this plug in will break the site if that plug in is installed, etc" Plug-in compatibility really needs to be addressed before we start singing the praises of "plugins for everything!!!" As a dabbler in PHP I really didnt like the lack of commenting in the code either.
That being said, its a good project, has an excellent installer, and I hear the current beta addresses some of these issues. But I'd wait for the next version (1.3?) before trying to sell it to a current MT user. I doubt the cries of "its GPL" is going to convert anyone but the already converted.
>This is why we need something like the Child Online Protection Act.
This is exactly why we DON'T need "won't someone think of the children" legislation. You're going to put up with massive censorship because of some blog spam that can be easily fixed with typekey, blacklists, etc? For some useless blog comments we're going to censor the web? Wow. Amazing, how Americans can even suggest such a thing. So much for the land of the free, eh?
Like all mediums, parents should be making sure their children are using it in a way they approve of. Lazy parents and religious nuts (and now the spam ridden) should try to understand this simple concept. The job to keep whatever content you dont like from your children is YOURS, not the state's job.
You don't need to protect "children" (whatever that means nowadays, like a 17 yearold has no idea what sex is). What you need to do is start your own kid-safe internet or TLD or run some censorship softwarre on YOUR machine, not on the global web. Think client side solutions and leave the rest of us alone. Thanks.
I just use composer. I have yet to buy/borrow/steal frontpage or dreamweaver so when I don't want or can't do something using a text editor I fire up Moz's composer.
Its not as full featured as its commercial cousins, but it does a great many deal of things and being a WYSIWG just about anyone can use it.
>Or you could just ask someone who's used Linux online for a little longer than you.
I dont care what OS you are using, if the software you are installing is bundled with spyware then you're "infected."
The problem isn't really technical, although getting rid of the abused and proprietary activeX system would help. Even then the spyware people would just partner up with some free app like they have done with bearshare, limewire, etc.
The problem, as usual is between the keyboard and the chair. Not to mention shady marketing practices and unreadable EULA's.
When have the religious censorship groups and their silent supporters ever been rational or ever defended democracy and western enlightenment? Not too long ago Thomas Jefferson said he could not think of one time where the addition of the clergy to social affairs ever helped people become free.
This is the same crowd who try to ban books at schools and when they fail they take them from the library and throw them away. Its funny how often Huck Finn or Go Ask Alice are suddenly missing from the shelves after these nuts lose some ruling.
This is Blagojevich's big payback to those who helped him get into office. I also voted from this guy, where are his so called "democratic" principles?
Its not "the government" which sits around and thinks of these laws, it the damn lazy parents and their big religious pro-censorship groups who lobby the government to get this done. Blame them and blame the spineless politicians who do their bidding.
This is just part of their plan. First they wanted labeling of music and games so "we could know what the kids are buying" which was a thin pretext (or gateway legislation) to banning content.
Gotta love censorship, its one of the few things the "right" and the "left" agree on.
Also for some context, those $5,000 fines are suspicious considering Illinois's current budget crisis. Cars are being booted like crazy in my neighborhood for only having three outstanding tickets. License plate fees were raised to a ridiculous amount last year or the year before last. The tax rate in Chicago is pretty high as is and is projected to be increased.
Now Blagojevich can play the moral card and make some money off of it. No wonder Democrats have such a hard time winning seats nowadays, they dont seem any different from the Republicans.
This ruling is terrible. Google didn't "win," the consumer lost. Are you searching for a name_brand_whatever now be prepared to get hit with nice and highly-misleading ads from 2nd rate peddlers. More Sorny's and Margnetvox's for Xmas!
Seriously, these kind of things are a failure to control advertising and have responsible marketing. I often have elderly relatives tell me "what is this check for" when they get junk mail in the form of a fake check. Or when telemarketersspammers harass them using their ignorance of brands to cajole them into buying some knock-off.
This is a shitty practice and this case failed to address its web equivalant.
This is classic consumer abuse. If people want shoes they can search for shoes. If they want Nike they should get only Nike shoes in the resulting adlist. Not Nikke.
Other countries (i believe france, germany, and the netherlands) have identified this abuse and have made it illegal, its a shame the US lags behind in protecting consumers from scammers and misleading logos and shady practices.
Exactly. No offense, but screw linux. I'm more for standards and free software and collaboration and better ways of doing things than for someone's pet OS.
I have one too. Its HUGE. Like a small paperback book. I doubt very few "fashion conscious" consumers are going to look at it, compare it to another device and pick it.
The build quality is pretty low too, I'm not the only one on the Neuros board with a drive that went bad after less than a year. The warranty is only 90 days too. Tech support even advises people to "tap it firmly" if the drive gets stuck. So they do have some serious problems. Maybe this has been addressed with their new hardware. Dunno.
On top of it, it has no where near the battery life of most mp3 players. Two 2.5 hours was pretty good, 3 was a rare miracle.
Its saving grace is that it can broadcast to FM, but depending on the radio market you're in you might have a hard time getting a good signal to your reciever. This isn't the Neuros fault. Its really the FCC limitations kicking in, but sadly my Neuros can't transmit below 91.something. So all those open low-wattage "college radio" stations that the iTrip and other devices use aren't available.
Right now I'm sporting the 128 meg backpack (I bought the 20gig/128 combo) and its a lot smaller, but hey its 128 lousy megs of music. The Neuros could really be a contender if they upped the quality and pushed out a model that can take SD or Compact flash cards instead of your two options: buy a big ass ugly hard drive backback with lousy battery life or buy the 128 meg backback. I believe they used to sell a 256 meg backback, but that's still pretty small, especially when it doesnt accept any other storage.
Also, my Neuros is USB 1.1, its only recently they started selling 2.0 backpacks. Also, Some people are confusing line-in with mic-in. The Neuros doesnt do mic-in, you'll need to buy a mic pre-amp to record live shows like you would with a minidisc recorder. The built in mic is lacking to say the least.
If the implementation was better (especially battery life) and if it had a smaller form factor it could really take off, but as it is, its kinda kludge and once I get tired of only having 128megs of storage I'll probably pick up the Creative Muvo 4gig. If you can live with these limitations, its a pretty cool device, but its not for me anymore.
Simple BEAM robots might be better. First off, well, they're simple. A lot of the designs look like insects, so you might be able to get some of the art crowd involved too. They act like living things, seeking out light or whatever they need to keep going so you got the whole AI thing going on.
They're analog so there's no programming involved, which is good as most HS kids dont have coding skills and the less barriers to entry the better.
root and administrator really can't be compared. root in UNIX exists because of the legacy system of multi-user time-sharing mini-computers. Admin/user in windows exists almost purely for sys administration tasks. So in the UNIX world its very easy to get software that runs with its permissions system, in windows you'll be surprised how many apps try to write to system32/temp or windows/temp instead of the local profile.
Sure, they are similiar concepts but in practice they're very different. Windows is for the PC desktop/everyone owns one revolution, UNIX was for the "holy crap we can have accounts on computers" revolution.
Used it, its simpler but its just as slow and because its case sensitive when it comes to ID3 its even more annoying. After using NDBM I had the following artists when I had one before:
I think the MP3 player industry is just crazy. Seriously, its just run by loons. My original Archos 6 gig was a very simple device. I would *gasp* make folders and put songs in them. Every other device I've owned had some special client software with some fancy synch crap.
It blows my mind that mp3 player developers think the user is so stupid that a simple copy and paste is beyond them, thus they must help them will these badly done client apps.
The worst is the Neuros. If an mp3 doesnt have an ID3 tag, it wont even show it in the damn "mp3 browser" part of the client software. Its exactly like the file doesnt exist. You have to find that file and manually edit the ID3. There's not even a n "unknown songs" category so I can do this in the client by looking at the filename. Not to mention, the only way to add songs is to use the client. If you copy a file over via USB, the device can't see it until the client updates its little database.
I hear people complain about their client software all the time. Crashes, too slow, etc. Do they even still make devices that act like hard drives?
Re:Why is more dimensions "better"
on
3D User Interfaces
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
> this will improve anyone's computing experience in any way.
That's ridiculous. Let's talke real 3D, glasses and all. This would completely change everything and for the better. Putting things in a real background, 3D video, parking windows, 3D representations of CD cases instead of ID3 tags, 3D website deisgn, remote control of real world objects, etc.
>This is just another fantastic way to waste the CPU
So is anti-aliasing, so is even having a windowing system that isn't completely and utterly bare bones, etc. Some of us buy our CPUs to use them, not coddle them.
The sidekick does this also, its part of the service. It still isnt a very good solution. Just blocking everything that starts with ads. would take care of 70% of the ads out there.
The biggest problem with using the sidekick on non-mobile pages is how much longer rendering/downloading takes for sites heavy with ads. The proxies should be filtering these out. Its not like anyone is losing money, as they're next to impossible to read on my tiny screen and if the mobile people think people are buying stuff from banners ads on mobile devices, then they're just fooling themselves.
Slashdot Mirror
sure google can do no wrong, eh?
*cough* the never expiring google tracking cookie *cough* the full featured toolbar is spyware.
Ironically, MS doesn't want your private info, the data miners google sells data to do.
Its officially mac bashing time for some, which is funny as this is a board known for its windows bashing, but bring up Macs and suddenly there's no shortage of "we love MS/Dell!" Suddenly, all the problems with windows and dell's build quality are tossed out the window.
As far as the cheap crap revolution goes, one in five components I buy have to be RMA'd. The time I spent troubleshooting this (along with shipping, not mention waiting) usually costs more than the device itself. Don't get me wrong, if you're a geek and know how to build PCs and can spot a failing IDE controller a mile away, then go save yourself some money. But most people aren't, especially mac users.
These are two very different markets, but people will compare them regardless. I think its because they see OSX as a threat to their own pet UNIX. The enemy of my enemy, etc.
Its really about interaction isnt it? Movies are passive, the theater experience is mixed at best, etc. While I was playing Doom3 and Half Life 2 I would seldomly tell myself "Wow, this is pretty cinematic, its like a movie I'm controlling."
People like two way media. Look at us, we're posting on a big geeky weblog. Why? That's the question Hollywood can't address with its movies, celebrity star system, over-used CGI, and "safe/non-controversial" movies. I'm sure Joe and Jane Sixpack don't really care, but as people divest from Hollywood, the more Hollywood will cater strictly to the LCD. Arguably, they've reached that point long ago.
I see maybe three or four movies a year now. Hollywood can have me and my money, but they need to release some better content. Something original or something that challenges me. They need to step up to the persistant angry religious letter writers. They need to fix the theaters so if a movie claims to start at 8, it will start at 8, not 8:22. 15 minutes of trailers (which should be coming after the movie before the credits as far as I'm concered) and 8 minutes of commercials/trivia is a good way to lose my 9 dollars.
BO: Tell me comrades, what makes you want to give away these products and go open source? Communism? Beatles music? Liberal guilt!?!?!
Guillaume Laurent: Well, first off..
BO: Wait, are you french?
Guillaume Laurent: Yes I am from France and I don't see why that should be held against me, in fact the relationaship between the US and France has always been one of [interuption]
BO: Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!
Sorry, but all my relatives who I have switched over to Firefox or Mozilla do not have ANY spyware. Nada. Nothing. I showed them a list of spyware apps, in other words what not to install and they have healthy and happy PCs.
Claiming switching to linux is the only solution is a huge admission of ignorance of how the spyware problem stems almost exclusively from one piece of software, namely Internet Explorer.
Windows, even as admin, can be safe for the technophobe. I've seen it and I continue to see it. The problem is IE. I don't care how savvy you are, if you're using IE to access the WAN (perhaps SP2 is an exception) you will get spyware and other nasties.
So many "linux advocates" are so ready to throw out the baby with the bathwater, its absurd and makes the zealots, well, look like the zealots they truly are. Not to mention, if Linux hits critical mass on the desktop (yeah Im not holding my breath either, OSX has a much beter chance of toppling Windows) then spyware developers will target it also. Grandma will still get emails like "Funnyshit.rpm" and the browser will ask if you want to install "super-search.xpi." These apps will hide themselves anywhere they can, just like they do in windows.
Better browsers and more informed users is the solution, not advocating one's pet OS.
Wordpress has its pros, but the support forum is a ghost town. Maybe when more people migrate over to it this will change, but I think only a small percentage of my questions even had some kind of reply. The wiki is out-dated and full of tips that dont even apply to the current version.
The current version is buggy (password reset, no way to link to user's profile, etc), but runs well enough and now that MT costs money I'm sure there will be more WP users out there soon. Then again, blogger is great for technophobes and experts alike and offers free hosting.
I use only two plug-ins because other plugins break my site. The problem is "this plug in breaks this plug in or this plug in will break the site if that plug in is installed, etc" Plug-in compatibility really needs to be addressed before we start singing the praises of "plugins for everything!!!" As a dabbler in PHP I really didnt like the lack of commenting in the code either.
That being said, its a good project, has an excellent installer, and I hear the current beta addresses some of these issues. But I'd wait for the next version (1.3?) before trying to sell it to a current MT user. I doubt the cries of "its GPL" is going to convert anyone but the already converted.
>This is why we need something like the Child Online Protection Act.
This is exactly why we DON'T need "won't someone think of the children" legislation. You're going to put up with massive censorship because of some blog spam that can be easily fixed with typekey, blacklists, etc? For some useless blog comments we're going to censor the web? Wow. Amazing, how Americans can even suggest such a thing. So much for the land of the free, eh?
Like all mediums, parents should be making sure their children are using it in a way they approve of. Lazy parents and religious nuts (and now the spam ridden) should try to understand this simple concept. The job to keep whatever content you dont like from your children is YOURS, not the state's job.
You don't need to protect "children" (whatever that means nowadays, like a 17 yearold has no idea what sex is). What you need to do is start your own kid-safe internet or TLD or run some censorship softwarre on YOUR machine, not on the global web. Think client side solutions and leave the rest of us alone. Thanks.
I just use composer. I have yet to buy/borrow/steal frontpage or dreamweaver so when I don't want or can't do something using a text editor I fire up Moz's composer.
Its not as full featured as its commercial cousins, but it does a great many deal of things and being a WYSIWG just about anyone can use it.
You might be confusing slashdot with this site:
http://www.newsforge.com/
>I was honestly surprised to see this on slashdot this morning.
What part of "News for Nerds" translates into "News for OSS zealots?"
>Or you could just ask someone who's used Linux online for a little longer than you.
I dont care what OS you are using, if the software you are installing is bundled with spyware then you're "infected."
The problem isn't really technical, although getting rid of the abused and proprietary activeX system would help. Even then the spyware people would just partner up with some free app like they have done with bearshare, limewire, etc.
The problem, as usual is between the keyboard and the chair. Not to mention shady marketing practices and unreadable EULA's.
>WHY people could object to this
When have the religious censorship groups and their silent supporters ever been rational or ever defended democracy and western enlightenment? Not too long ago Thomas Jefferson said he could not think of one time where the addition of the clergy to social affairs ever helped people become free.
This is the same crowd who try to ban books at schools and when they fail they take them from the library and throw them away. Its funny how often Huck Finn or Go Ask Alice are suddenly missing from the shelves after these nuts lose some ruling.
This is Blagojevich's big payback to those who helped him get into office. I also voted from this guy, where are his so called "democratic" principles?
Its not "the government" which sits around and thinks of these laws, it the damn lazy parents and their big religious pro-censorship groups who lobby the government to get this done. Blame them and blame the spineless politicians who do their bidding.
This is just part of their plan. First they wanted labeling of music and games so "we could know what the kids are buying" which was a thin pretext (or gateway legislation) to banning content.
Gotta love censorship, its one of the few things the "right" and the "left" agree on.
Also for some context, those $5,000 fines are suspicious considering Illinois's current budget crisis. Cars are being booted like crazy in my neighborhood for only having three outstanding tickets. License plate fees were raised to a ridiculous amount last year or the year before last. The tax rate in Chicago is pretty high as is and is projected to be increased.
Now Blagojevich can play the moral card and make some money off of it. No wonder Democrats have such a hard time winning seats nowadays, they dont seem any different from the Republicans.
> Just trying to pick up an anvil will quickly make them think otherwise.
And picking up daddy's gun (which should be locked away) makes them think "I need to shoot my brother!"
In other words these are just excuses for lazy parenting and parents who can't lock or refuse to safely lock up their weapons.
> The ruling is fine
This ruling is terrible. Google didn't "win," the consumer lost. Are you searching for a name_brand_whatever now be prepared to get hit with nice and highly-misleading ads from 2nd rate peddlers. More Sorny's and Margnetvox's for Xmas!
Seriously, these kind of things are a failure to control advertising and have responsible marketing. I often have elderly relatives tell me "what is this check for" when they get junk mail in the form of a fake check. Or when telemarketersspammers harass them using their ignorance of brands to cajole them into buying some knock-off.
This is a shitty practice and this case failed to address its web equivalant.
This is classic consumer abuse. If people want shoes they can search for shoes. If they want Nike they should get only Nike shoes in the resulting adlist. Not Nikke.
Other countries (i believe france, germany, and the netherlands) have identified this abuse and have made it illegal, its a shame the US lags behind in protecting consumers from scammers and misleading logos and shady practices.
>The hard drive is a component that DI doesn't build so I don't see how you can use that as the basis to question the Neuros build quality
They sold me the HD inside their device, you bet your ass I can use that as a basis for the quality of their products.
> Either way it's a win for FOSS.
Exactly. No offense, but screw linux. I'm more for standards and free software and collaboration and better ways of doing things than for someone's pet OS.
I have one too. Its HUGE. Like a small paperback book. I doubt very few "fashion conscious" consumers are going to look at it, compare it to another device and pick it.
The build quality is pretty low too, I'm not the only one on the Neuros board with a drive that went bad after less than a year. The warranty is only 90 days too. Tech support even advises people to "tap it firmly" if the drive gets stuck. So they do have some serious problems. Maybe this has been addressed with their new hardware. Dunno.
On top of it, it has no where near the battery life of most mp3 players. Two 2.5 hours was pretty good, 3 was a rare miracle.
Its saving grace is that it can broadcast to FM, but depending on the radio market you're in you might have a hard time getting a good signal to your reciever. This isn't the Neuros fault. Its really the FCC limitations kicking in, but sadly my Neuros can't transmit below 91.something. So all those open low-wattage "college radio" stations that the iTrip and other devices use aren't available.
Right now I'm sporting the 128 meg backpack (I bought the 20gig/128 combo) and its a lot smaller, but hey its 128 lousy megs of music. The Neuros could really be a contender if they upped the quality and pushed out a model that can take SD or Compact flash cards instead of your two options: buy a big ass ugly hard drive backback with lousy battery life or buy the 128 meg backback. I believe they used to sell a 256 meg backback, but that's still pretty small, especially when it doesnt accept any other storage.
Also, my Neuros is USB 1.1, its only recently they started selling 2.0 backpacks. Also, Some people are confusing line-in with mic-in. The Neuros doesnt do mic-in, you'll need to buy a mic pre-amp to record live shows like you would with a minidisc recorder. The built in mic is lacking to say the least.
If the implementation was better (especially battery life) and if it had a smaller form factor it could really take off, but as it is, its kinda kludge and once I get tired of only having 128megs of storage I'll probably pick up the Creative Muvo 4gig. If you can live with these limitations, its a pretty cool device, but its not for me anymore.
Simple BEAM robots might be better. First off, well, they're simple. A lot of the designs look like insects, so you might be able to get some of the art crowd involved too. They act like living things, seeking out light or whatever they need to keep going so you got the whole AI thing going on.
They're analog so there's no programming involved, which is good as most HS kids dont have coding skills and the less barriers to entry the better.
root and administrator really can't be compared. root in UNIX exists because of the legacy system of multi-user time-sharing mini-computers. Admin/user in windows exists almost purely for sys administration tasks. So in the UNIX world its very easy to get software that runs with its permissions system, in windows you'll be surprised how many apps try to write to system32/temp or windows/temp instead of the local profile.
Sure, they are similiar concepts but in practice they're very different. Windows is for the PC desktop/everyone owns one revolution, UNIX was for the "holy crap we can have accounts on computers" revolution.
Used it, its simpler but its just as slow and because its case sensitive when it comes to ID3 its even more annoying. After using NDBM I had the following artists when I had one before:
the Beatles
the beatles
The beatles
The Beatles
I think the MP3 player industry is just crazy. Seriously, its just run by loons. My original Archos 6 gig was a very simple device. I would *gasp* make folders and put songs in them. Every other device I've owned had some special client software with some fancy synch crap.
It blows my mind that mp3 player developers think the user is so stupid that a simple copy and paste is beyond them, thus they must help them will these badly done client apps.
The worst is the Neuros. If an mp3 doesnt have an ID3 tag, it wont even show it in the damn "mp3 browser" part of the client software. Its exactly like the file doesnt exist. You have to find that file and manually edit the ID3. There's not even a n "unknown songs" category so I can do this in the client by looking at the filename. Not to mention, the only way to add songs is to use the client. If you copy a file over via USB, the device can't see it until the client updates its little database.
I hear people complain about their client software all the time. Crashes, too slow, etc. Do they even still make devices that act like hard drives?
> this will improve anyone's computing experience in any way.
That's ridiculous. Let's talke real 3D, glasses and all. This would completely change everything and for the better. Putting things in a real background, 3D video, parking windows, 3D representations of CD cases instead of ID3 tags, 3D website deisgn, remote control of real world objects, etc.
>This is just another fantastic way to waste the CPU
So is anti-aliasing, so is even having a windowing system that isn't completely and utterly bare bones, etc. Some of us buy our CPUs to use them, not coddle them.
Then again 640k is enough, eh??
The sidekick does this also, its part of the service. It still isnt a very good solution. Just blocking everything that starts with ads. would take care of 70% of the ads out there.
The biggest problem with using the sidekick on non-mobile pages is how much longer rendering/downloading takes for sites heavy with ads. The proxies should be filtering these out. Its not like anyone is losing money, as they're next to impossible to read on my tiny screen and if the mobile people think people are buying stuff from banners ads on mobile devices, then they're just fooling themselves.