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Comment Just Press Mute (Score 1) 636

THANK YOU! (Was that loud enough?)

I've no points so this will have to do. If you talk to almost anyone about commercials, they might admit to liking a few of the funny ones here or there, but by and large, I think you'd struggle to find a lot of people who want to watch commercials, who seek them out, and take measures to watch them when they would otherwise be interrupted. Basically nobody gives a shit either way about watching commercials.

I don't watch a lot of "live" TV these days, and as a result I really have no tolerance for commercials when I encounter them. So I mute them.

My "opt-in" approach is nothing novel -- on the slim chance that I want to hear whatever the un-programming is saying, I'll un-mute, but otherwise I assume that the sounds coming from commercials are at best disposable to me, and at worst, really fucking annoying.

I do this everywhere I can, and I've yet to meet a single person who wanted to hear commercials when I was muting them.

Comment Nice strawman... (Score 2, Informative) 390

But really the whole mission statement of Adbusters is stupid. Removing all ads from the internet will destroy pretty much every service on the internet. Think youtube would be profitable without ads? How about any site you visit with alot of images. Bandwidth isn't free so sites make money from either ads, donations or memberships. Most sites with memberships remove the ads for you so this goal is STUPID. Just use Adblock if you hate them so much

...but here's the actual mission statement:

"We are a global network of artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students, educators and entrepreneurs who want to advance the new social activist movement of the information age. Our aim is to topple existing power structures and forge a major shift in the way we will live in the 21st century. To this end, Adbusters Media Foundation publishes Adbusters magazine, operates this website and offers its creative services through PowerShift, our advocacy advertising agency."

- http://www.adbusters.org/about/adbusters

I personally am still weighing the pros and cons of the clickfraud approach, but the comment that your post is FUD is spot-on.

Comment Re:Very suspicious site... (Score 1) 94

Whoosh all you want, I'll make more =)

No amount of prefacing will ever deter all you whooshers -- and I can admit, "whoosh-spotting" entertains me as well. But in truth, I took this as an opportunity to reiterate the precise quotation that comprised the troll-fodder, and I feel I made my perception of the OP's trollery more than apparent (he was -1 Troll at the time of my post, though the subsequent Funny mod isn't undeserved either). The trolls who blend fact and fiction aren't usually worth responding to, but since the one in question was so perfectly opposed to the reality of the source, I feel no shame or regret in biting. The net result is that an exceptionally salient bit of TFA got a few more eyeballs. Now I just have to worry if you've quasi-meta-trolled me. Oh the horror!

Comment Re:Very suspicious site... (Score 3, Interesting) 94

Though you're already -1 Troll, it's worth pointing out that you are 100% incorrect. From https://ssd.eff.org/book/export/html/14:

Avoid Microsoft products where possible. Computers using the Microsoft Windows platform are especially vulnerable as of this writing (although no operating system is immune to all potential attacks). Consider using a non-Microsoft operating system if possible. However, if you have to use Microsoft Windows and you are connecting to the Internet, your best bet is to minimize the number of Microsoft Internet applications you use â" for example, use Firefox as a browser or Thunderbird as a mail client. Microsoftâ(TM)s Internet Explorer and its email programs Outlook and Outlook Express are very difficult for even professionals to secure. Furthermore, adversaries tend to attack more popular platforms and applications.

Keep your software updated. Use the latest stable version of your operating system. As of this writing, Windows 95, 98, and ME are utterly obsolete. You should be using at least Windows Server 2003 for servers and Windows XP for clients, with all patches and service packs applied. For Macintosh computers, use OS X 10.4 or greater, with all patches applied. For Linux and Unix, get whatever version is the most recent stable release, and follow all updates. It is especially important not to let server software versions lag behind, since servers are always on and always connected.

Maintain your firewalls. Firewalls are software or hardware components that protect your computer or network from the Internet, blocking traffic based on network-related parameters like IP addresses and port numbers. Firewalls can protect against those who want to access your computer without permission. Configuring network firewalls is pretty tough for the layperson and beyond the scope of this guide, but you should learn how to use the personal firewall software thatâ(TM)s included in most recent operating systems.

For more detailed information about malware, check out the Malware article in the Defensive Technology section.

Comment Re:What about Foxit? (Score 2, Interesting) 193

Except that breaks the ability to use chapter-like bookmark links from one PDF to another, which are frequently used in business contexts. So another reminder: Lock your corporate user accounts down as far as you can, because they are going to need every stupid little feature in the world, even if it kills them (and you).

Comment Re:What about Foxit? (Score 1) 193

Based on the FoxIt and Sumatra support forums, it appears you're correct. Of course, a quick read of the FoxIt forum tells me it has major problems with creating freakishly large print jobs and taking its sweet ole time even when printing a few simple pages. So neither is ready for primetime business use, and I still have to decide which anvil I'm going to drop on my foot come Monday morning.

Comment Bertrand Russell & Robert A. Heinlein weigh in (Score 5, Interesting) 849

"Obscenity is whatever happens to shock some elderly and ignorant magistrate." - Bertrand Russell

"Of all the strange "crimes" that human beings have legislated of nothing, "blasphemy" is the most amazing - with "obscenity" and "indecent exposure" fighting it out for the second and third place." - Robert A. Heinlein

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