Disqus - Latest Comments for Brianary

Re: Metered Internet Is OK But Won’t Work

Brianary — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 18:23:59 -0000

"Their network"? Terrible excuse. So the only way I have a right to freely participate in modern society is to buy every node on the Internet?

Re: 14 Podcasts To Help You Through Your Commute

Brianary — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 23:03:35 -0000

I loves me some podcasts:

TEKDIFF (teknikal diffikulties)
Adam and Joe (BBC)
alt.NPR: What Would Rob Do? Podcast
APM: Future Tense
Bell's in the Batfry
Best of Today
CBC Radio 3 Super Feed
CBC Radio: Comedy Factory
Christiana's Shallow Thoughts
Cory Doctorow's craphound.com
Decoder Ring Theatre
Downloadable Content, The Penny Arcade Podcast
Escape Pod
Friday Night Comedy from BBC Radio 4
GameSpot presents The HotSpot
Jazz NW Podcast
KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic
KCRW's Today's Top Tune
MPR: The Current Song of the Day
MSNBC Countdown (audio)
Night Air, The (Australian Broadcasting)
NPR: All Songs Considered Podcast
NPR: Car Talk Podcast
NPR: Hourly News Summary Podcast
NPR: Live Concerts from All Songs Considered Podcast
NPR: Playback Podcast
NPR: Satire from The Unger Report Podcast
NPR: Second Stage Podcast
NPR: Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! Podcast
Pendant Productions - The Dixie Stenberg and Brassy Battalion Adventure Theater
PodCastle
Podington Bear
Pods and Blogs
Presidential Archives Uncovered
PRI: Whad'Ya Know? - All the News that Isn't Podcast
Radio Drama Revival!
Radiolab
Real Time with Bill Maher
Rhod Gilbert's Best Bits (BBC)
Russell Brand (BBC)
Russell Howard and Jon Richardson (BBC)
Scotland Introducing (BBC)
Scotland's Funny Bits (BBC)
Slashdot Review - SDR News
Stephen Fry's PODGRAMS
tech5
The Mitch Benn Podcast
The Onion Radio News
The President's Weekly Radio Address
The Sonic Society
They Might Be Giants Podcast
This American Life
this WEEK in TECH - Ogg Edition
Variant Frequencies
VintageRadioShows.com
Woot! - One Day, One Deal
Wormwood: A Serialized Mystery

Re: Challenged

Brianary — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:48:33 -0000

Yay! PowerShell! It's like programming .NET, but with a whole new syntax to learn!

Re: Is It Time To Start Blocking Firefox Users?

Brianary — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:12:28 -0000

Sorry, I invited you to *my* computer. I get to choose what happens here, and I'm not going to go without ad blocking software for several reasons. Let me explain...

In the 90's, my wife and I recorded *everything* to VHS in order to skip commercials.

When the first ReplayTVs came out, I got one of those, and manually skipped commercials, and was able watch while recording.

We switched to MythTV eventually, which automatically skips commercials.

I NEVER liked commercials, because they were broadcast at completely unreasonable volume ("****MOR! FURNITURE FOR LESS****!!!!1!!!!ONE!!1"), were frequently insipid, redundant, dishonest, copious, condescending, and let's face it--THEY DON'T MAKE ME BUY STUFF. Ad agencies have an amazingly inflated view of how well ads work (TV as well as grocery store floors, pre-movie hype shows, tattoos on strangers, product placement, mall "surveys" ("here, hold my warm beverage"), streakers at sporting events, my doctor, phony search results, THE MOON'S SURFACE, &c.). Try counting how many ads and logos you see in a day. ENOUGH for crissake! They don't work like you think they do, addies!

I use AdBlock because I get to have the last word what my son sees at age three, and because banner ads waste my time and energy and patience and bandwidth and will never motivate me to buy anything.

We're on the "Do Not Call" list for largely the same reasons, but now we just get endless push-polls, so no big help there.

I do have to say that we watch more commercials now that we watch most our stuff on Hulu/Boxee/Netflix.com. The Hulu ads aren't usually as bad, but they are deeply weird sometimes ("Cube mobile device"‽). If there are more Recession Aggression Bag-type ads, I may have to look elsewhere for content, though.

Don't think people despise ads? Try standing in front of a grocery store offering free steaks, and see how many people avoid you!

Re: Is It Time To Start Blocking Firefox Users?

Brianary — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:52:29 -0000

That's the problem with the "going to a website" metaphor. Some people think that's how things really work.

Re: Is It Time To Start Blocking Firefox Users?

Brianary — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:59:14 -0000

What if I don't have Flash installed, or I use an iPhone? If you have Flash ads, will you come to my house and hold me down while you install Flash on my machine? Am I "stealing" from you?

What if I use a text-to-speech browser because I am blind?

What if I use a text browser or OperaMini or a lightweight browser I made myself? Am I a freeloader or a pirate or a criminal for not viewing the site using the exact same browser you used to test it?

Militant my-way-or-the-highway advertisers and designers don't understand that print is dead, and that the whole reason the web uses a markup language rather than a formatting language is because the experience *inherently varies*.

You are delusional if you think you can call your audience theives and consider that "reasonable". "Is It Time To Start Blocking Firefox Users?" I encourage you to do so.

Re: Is It Time To Start Blocking Firefox Users?

Brianary — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 12:16:16 -0000

I'm sorry? We're "theives". We "don’t get the option to ignore monetization in the world" (I guess the world has to bend over backwards to preserve your business model). "If I want to stick a banner and a couple of AdSense units on my page, who are you to block them?" "maybe you should turn it off and just stop visiting the sites you can’t stomach without it."

I think we know *exactly* what the message is.

"Look, regarding the sites with advertising so intrusive it drove you to run an ad blocker, boycott them."

I did that until the lowest common denominator became the norm. Some sites I do whitelist to show ads (though not many--I see advertising as inherently immoral), but not ones that threaten their audience, or call them childish names.

"why not click an ad link now and then?"

Because I don't need malware, and I don't intend to buy anything? You want us to lie about our intent, to pretend to be motivated by an ad, and *we're* the immoral ones?

Re: Is It Time To Start Blocking Firefox Users?

Brianary — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 13:28:41 -0000

"Some of these responses are disappointing"

You set the tone by calling us "theives". Please don't be surprised if the level of discourse doesn't magically elevate on its own.

Re: Is It Time To Start Blocking Firefox Users?

Brianary — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 13:32:56 -0000

"I am hearing a lot of chest thumping about computer rights, but nothing intelligent to back up the argument, so my mind remains unchanged."

Nor are we hearing any argument from you. You simply seem to assume your conclusion that we should not have control over our computers. That seems a pretty controversial position to accept without justification.

[torrent flamebait ignored]

Re: Is It Time To Start Blocking Firefox Users?

Brianary — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 13:34:53 -0000

I guess we reap what we sow.

Re: Is It Time To Start Blocking Firefox Users?

Brianary — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 13:37:59 -0000

As I wait for the promised discussion of the points of the article from the author, I'd also like to point out that many employers use proxy servers to block ads.

Re: Is It Time To Start Blocking Firefox Users?

Brianary — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 19:18:31 -0000

"How products are used is always determined by the 'retailer'."

Dead, totally, completely, utterly, self-servingly wrong.

Retailers determine how products are *sold*, certainly never how they are *used*. The relatively new notion of enforced artificial scarcity aside, I can do whatever I want with something after I buy it. That's the very definition of ownership.

Re: Is It Time To Start Blocking Firefox Users?

Brianary — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 19:32:23 -0000

Taking ignoring to the "next level"? That's nonsense. Is that like taking pregnancy to the "next level"?

There is some very odd rationalization here, because you want to be paid.

Re: Is It Time To Start Blocking Firefox Users?

Brianary — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 21:06:48 -0000

I guess my point is that it doesn't *make* it right, because it isn't wrong to begin with.

If you want to say "Hey, I gotta eat. If you like this content, you'll keep it going by whitelisting my site.", I'm cool with conspiring to defraud marketers by feigning interest. I also donate to sites that ask (to the tune of about $20/month, split among various content sources).

What makes me immediately defensive is when, instead of a PBS-style pledge drive approach, someone tries the Clockwork Orange approach of forcing or strong-arming an audience ("Ludwig vaaaaaan!"), or using moral arguments against any alteration of web content (I like your print CSS, BTW). Especially when so many ads are objectionable and occasionally contain security exploits (particularly from smaller sites).

This whole discussion came up a couple of years back when someone registered whyfirefoxisblocked.com (which ran from Aug 17, 2007 until Jun 25, 2008, according to Archive.org), and was much more serious about the notion of blocking Firefox with basically the same rationale. Firefox was young at the time, but was finally gaining traction with normal users, due to constant IE security issues. A movement like this, if it had been successful, may have prevented Microsoft from having to re-form the IE team and release IE7, thereby dooming the web to the dark ages for years longer. As a web engineer, this would have seriously impacted me professionally, and it would have crippled many of the more ambitious web apps we all use today. It's a good thing it didn't work then, and it has made many of us pretty touchy about it.

Re: Is It Time To Start Blocking Firefox Users?

Brianary — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 23:10:40 -0000

In the late 80's/early 90's, Florida had a real problem with tourists getting shot. It was the (then) prominent rental car logos on the cars (an advertisement) that made them targets.

Offered as an existence proof of people dying due to advertising.

Re: Is It Time To Start Blocking Firefox Users?

Brianary — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:12:06 -0000

Please clarify whether you are kidding or not about EFF and lawyers.

You just seem to be further justifying the level of discourse you've been complaining about.