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Comment Block only obnoxious ads (Score 1) 1051

by Sivar (#31395256) Attached to: Ars Technica Inveighs Against Ad Blocking

Ad-block has a rather heavy handed policy of blocking every ad it possibly can, at least with the most common lists.
My proposed solution: Add a voting system, or some other means to detect when ads are very intrusive (like the flashing "You've Won!!!!" ads), and keep a list of ads or ad servers that follow that criteria.

Then, users can subscribe to an "obnoxious ad" list in adblock, eliminating the ones we all hate (discouraging their use at all), and allowing those which aren't bad, or are actually useful.

--Charles N. Burns
Patents

Patent Chief Decries Continued Downward Spiral of Patent Quality 179

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the dudas-just-wants-his-rug-back dept.
Techdirt is reporting that Jon Dudas, head of the US Patent Office, is lamenting the continuing quality drop in patent submissions. Unfortunately, while this problem is finally getting the attention it deserves, the changes being implemented don't seem to be offering the correct solution. "When you set up a system that rewards people for not actually innovating in the market (but just speculating on paper), then of course, you're going to get more of that activity. When you set up a system that rewards those people to massive levels, well out of proportion with their contribution to any product, then of course you're going to get more of that activity. When you set up a system that gives people a full monopoly right that can be used to set up a toll booth on the natural path of innovation, then of course you're going to get more of that activity. When the cost of getting a patent is so much smaller than the potential payoff of suing others with it, then of course you're going to get more of that activity. The fact that Dudas is just noticing this now, while still pushing for changes that will make the problem worse, is a real problem. Patents were only supposed to be used in special cases. The fact that they've become the norm, rather than the exception, is a problem, and it doesn't seem like anyone is seriously looking into fixing that."

Western Digital's VelociRaptor 10K RPM SATA Drive 250

Posted by CmdrTaco from the spinning-really-fast dept.
MojoKid was one of a number of people to submit about WDs new 10k RPM SATA Drive. He says "Western Digital's Raptor line of Hard Drives has been very popular with performance enthusiasts, as a desktop drive with enterprise-class performance. Today WD has launched a new line of high-performance desktop drives dubbed the VelociRaptor, and the product finally scales in capacity as well. The new SATA-based VelociRaptor weighs in at 300GB with the same 10K RPM spindle speed, but with one other major difference — it's based on 2.5" technology. Its smaller two-platter, four-head design affords the VelociRaptor random access and data transfer rates significantly faster than competing desktop SATA offerings. Areal density per platter has increased significantly as well, which contributes to solid performance gains versus the legacy WD Raptor series."
Data Storage

Submission + - Terabyte drive roundup

Submitted by
Sivar
Sivar writes: "StorageReview has a comparison of the first two new terabyte drives to compete with Hitachi's, which has stood alone in the terabyte world for months."
Data Storage

Submission + - Faceoff at one Terabyte

Submitted by
Sivar
Sivar writes: "There's finally some competition in the terabyte drive market. StorageReview has... a comparison of all three 1,000,000,000,000-byte (give or take) drives on the market. That's a lot of...."

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I tell them to turn to the study of mathematics, for it is only there that they might escape the lusts of the flesh. -- Thomas Mann, "The Magic Mountain"

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