catotheyoungest's comments

I did. Then I spent the weekend with a migraine. IMO, VR isn't worth the effort. I'd rather have my brain directly jacked into the computer, as long as there's an effective firewall available to keep advertising and other malware out of my head.

Enough is enough. Any pharma company caught price-fixing should be dissolved. Its assets should be confiscated. Its patents should be placed in the public domain. Its executives should be subject to criminal charges.

This is what people get for ignoring local politics. If you don't attend village/town/city council meetings and you don't speak up, you end up dealing with idiocy like this. Worse, if you let petty tyrants get away with befouling local government, they go on to become bigger tyrants and befoul state and federal government as well.

Something I learned just in time to salvage my marriage: whenever you find yourself in a conflict between work and relationships, choose relationships. Getting a new job is a hell of a lot easier than making new friends or finding a new lover or spouse.

Why do people think this worth trying to implement? Is it because it looked cool in movies like Minority Report? What is the target demographic for this? What is the use case? Why would I want to add additional and unnecessary complexity to my workflow?

> It provides a counter-offer, rather than just "No.", whereby advertisers can feed you unambiguous and untracked ads.

That ship sailed in 2001, hit an iceberg, and sank with all hands.

> Adblock Plus has their "acceptable ads" feature[1] so it's already a thing. But there was some controversy around it, which I don't recall well enough to give a fair hearing.

You can pay the makers of Adblock Plus to have your ads declared "acceptable". However, I do not want somebody else deciding for me which ads are "acceptable".

> Is it necessary that ad blockers be totally all-or-nothing in their approach?

Yes, it is. Publishers and advertisers have overstepped time and time again. They must be reminded of their place, and nothing short of grabbing them by the scruff of the neck and rubbing their noses in the mess they made will suffice.

> But at least you could give the publishers the ability to make some money from ads served to you.

I could, but why should I? The publishers had a chance to be reasonable, and they just kept pushing. I'm done being reasonable. The publishers should be glad they aren't facing the Internet Death Penalty[1].

1: http://catb.org/jargon/html/I/Internet-Death-Penalty.html

Your business model is your problem. Have you ever heard of having a day job?

Are you asking about blocking ads on a smartphone? Or on a desktop/laptop? The answer depends on your platform, you see.

I don't know. I hadn't bothered to quantify, but my sugar jones isn't as bad as it used to be.

To be honest, I'm not sure. I don't recall making any conscious changes, though I don't have the sugar jones I used to have.

This is strictly anecdotal, and I would honestly love to see this subjected to a rigorous study, but I lost twenty pounds without additional exercise or dietary changes in the last six months just by having a sleep study done, getting diagnosed with sleep apnea, and being put on a CPAP machine.

How much obesity and depression could be prevented or alleviated just by making sure people could get a decent night's sleep?

I've been blocking ads ever since I learned that I could stop seeing DoubleClick ads by blocking their domain in /etc/hosts.

I won't ever apologize for doing so. As far as I'm concerned, any advertisement that depends on JavaScript is malware, and I think that my right to protect myself online outweighs the need of publishers to turn a profit.

IMO, profits are like respect. They must be earned, and if the only way you can turn a profit is by spying on people then maybe you shouldn't be in business in the first place. If the only way you can get me to use your product is by giving it away and selling my data, then maybe your product shouldn't exist?

As far as I'm concerned, the data I generate by using a search engine should be treated with the same care as my medical records. It should not be mined or traded. It should not be kept longer than 30 days.

And if that breaks the internet, so be it. You brought this on yourselves.