I wonder how this will scan in your thinking. I just got this message today, how appropriate:

"As our way of thanking you for your positive contributions to Slashdot, you are eligible to disable advertising."

Several below posters note that there are enough compliant people to subsidize the rest, so it looks like content providers are actually doing this in some fashion. My contributions to slashdot are really modest, but it makes sense that more deserving users like, say, John Carmack, should have the privilege of free content particularly if they are the ones making it. After all, comments on slashdot *are* the content! ;)

I agree with you- the ads at checkout stands are the worst! You're effectively their prisoner until the person in front of you is able to dig that last five cents out of her purse or cut that last coupon from the newspaper. At least with gas station pump ads, you don't have to look anywhere near the screen even if the audio is annoying, and you can walk around, go into the snack shop, or make a phone call. It should be interesting to see where Quake Live falls on the spectrum. The in-game billboards are there, but it looks like they'll be pretty unobtrusive when they actually start serving ads. For a free and fun game, I'll gladly put up with relevant ads as long as they don't have audio that is louder than opponents' footsteps ;)

This story demonstrates the need for some type of public relations filter on Slashdot stories. Too often, a company's PR statements are taken as fact. Here, perhaps the people who run google may have been wanting to end yearly bonuses for a long time. Fearing employee backlash, they needed a plausible cover story. The economy is easy to blame. Look, I know that it's entirely possible their motivations are accurately stated in the press release. I contend, however, that it is equally likely that the economy gives Google the opportunity to change its bonus program without suspicion. Given past violations of the "don't be evil" rule, this wouldn't be surprising.

In a black hole (and in Soviet Russia), the aperture synthesizes you! No joke.