- Seth's Blog: Ad blocking
All worth reading, but here's the killer line "More data isn't the point. Data to serve explicit promises is the point."
Tag: advertising
Bookmarks for August 13, 2015
- The ethics of modern web ad-blocking – Marco.org
This is pretty much my position. I don't mind (ell, I do, but I'll live with it) being show a few adds in exchange for content. I *do* mind being tracked by 15 different sources, none of whom I have given informed consent to be tracked by, and none of whom are ever made clear. So I block ads and trackers, and encourage others to do the same.
Bookmarks for May 23, 2014
- On the Future of MetaFilter – Marco.org
Marco Arment discussing the Google-inflicted problems MetaFilter are having, pretty much nails what I consider a reasonable and sane attitude to Google: "People wonder why I’m so skeptical of Google and careful not to rely on them for too much. This is why: they’re in this unassailable position of absolute monopoly power for such a massive part of web publishing because too many people aren’t so skeptical."
Bookmarks for May 21, 2013
- Vintage & Retro Childrens Advertising – a set on Flickr
I know there are people complaining about Flickr's new look. But I know you're all wrong, and I can prove it, because this page now exists, and it didn't, before the re-design. Seriously, just go and look at it, and think about all the other brilliant and visually arresting pages that have just sprung into existence overnight.
Bookmarks for May 24, 2012
- Kosmograd: Olympics Brand Exclusion Zone
If I know anyone who lives in these zones (and I suspect I do) I *strongly* encourage you to buy competitor products, and leave them prominently in your windows. And, indeed, to pass this idea on. It would be *lovely* if the streets in these areas were plastered with the logos of competing brands – not as paid for advertising, but just as spontaneous citizen reclamation of the space that belongs to them, not to advertisers and marketers.
Bookmarks for April 10, 2012
- 4 final Orpheuses – rejectamentalist manifesto
This really worked for me, got me thinking about other ways to view similar heroes.
- Cartes Infernales by Ariana Osborne — Kickstarter
Every time I see Kickstarter used for something cool, I die a little inside, because I cannot contribute, because Amazon are a bag of dicks. So once again, I do what I can, and point you at yet another project that I would love to contribute to. I've used the Dictionnaire Infernal as a source of inspiration many times in the past, and would love a deck of these to use a a prop. But instead one of you will have to stump up the cash, and let me look on in envy. Which is kind of appropriate, I suppose.
- Learn Touch Typing Free – TypingClub
I was asked if I touch type while away in Northern Ireland. I don't, but I've always wanted to learn. Might give this a go, if I haven't go too many bad habits from my self taught typing.
- Flashback Trojan Creators Scared of Xcode, But Not Norton Antivirus – Waxy.org
I don't know if this is telling, or just amusing. Either way, pleased to see that I should be immune to that trojan.
- Threat Description: Trojan-Downloader:OSX/Flashback.I
Odds are I'm clean, I just ned to remember to run this at home.
- ADmented Reality – Google Glasses Remixed with Google Ads – YouTube
Every time I get excited about our shiny new AR future, I must sit and watch this video, which is a much more accurate depiction of the horror that likely awaits us all.
- When the cops subpoena your Facebook information, here's what Facebook sends the cops – Phlog
Not actually posting this as a dig at Facebook, it's just interesting stuff. I'm not personally wild about the fact that subpoena relating to getting information relating to one user can result in the forking over of messages relating to unrelated users – I would prefer it if they were required to specify that they were interested in correspondence between parties A and B, rather than just getting all party A's correspondence, but I know that's not how the world works, and that's not actually Facebook's fault. See? I can be rational about this stuff, if I try hard!
Bookmarks for February 6, 2012
- The ‘Eggs In One Basket’ Index – SplatF
Dan Frommer take a look at major tech firms, and what percentage of their revenue is generated from for their largest revenue source. I was saying the other day that I would be happy to pay google a lot for their services, in exchange for an advertising-and-tracking free experience. I look at this chart, and I realise that it might even make (some) sense for Google to offer that option, just from a diversification-of-revenue point of view. I don't expect they will, and I'm sure there are big hurdles in their way that would stop it, but still, there's an awful lot of eggs in the advertising basket, there.
- Britons give more to donkey sanctuary than abuse charities | Money | The Guardian
This statistic is four years old, but I bet it's still true. People always look at me funny when I occasionally express my serious disgust with people who given to animal charities. I'm familiar with the walk-and-chew-gum theory, and indeed, use it myself when arguing for things like funding for the space programme, but that's an apples-and-oranges comparison – tech progress vs. abuse – while this is directly a "which abuse is worse" like-for-like comparison, at least to me. And many people appear to prefer to spend the money that they have available to spend on animals, instead of people. Because it really matter when someone shoves a cat in a bin, but much less when someone shoves their fist in someone else's face.
- Who the hell do Camden Council think they are?
Unfuckingreal. Local council decide that what residents really want, when hanging out in communal gardens of their flats, is a) to be on camera, and b) to have that camera tell them in the disembodied voice of authority to move on, or their photos will be "sent for processing". This photo of them, in their own garden.
Bookmarks for August 24, 2011
- New Android spyware answers incoming calls – SC Magazine US
Anyone want to bet me that there was a governmental intelligence agency involved in the development of this, at some point?
- Home – Readmill
I've just signed up for the beta of this service. Will dump books across to it in the next day or so, and give it a go. The app certainly looks nice, just as a shame apple don't expose an API to pull books out of the iBooks app, meaning I'm going to wind up with (quite a lot of) duplicate data on my iPad.
- FOSS Patents: Samsung cites Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey' movie as prior art against iPad design patent
This one is really interesting, and I kind of hope they succeed, just so sci-fi writers all over American can get really litigious with big corporations going around turning all their ideas into reality.
- What Does Google Mean By “Evil?” (Aaron Swartz's Raw Thought)
This has been on my mind lately, and it's an interesting perspective. Swartz is suggesting that Google's definition of "evil" is "not making things worse for users in order to make more money". It's not a bad suggestion, and if it's accurate, it's still more than many companies even attempt, but (as is probably obvious if you've listened to me bang on for a while) I think it's perfectly possible to be "evil" and still hew to that definition. (I also don't agree that the G+/real names nonsense passes that definition of "evil", but that's another thing.)
Bookmarks for July 7, 2011
- The iPhone SLR Mount
OK, I quite want this. (As I do half of photojojo's stuff.) If only it were about half the price, I'd buy it like a shot.
- Google Ads Preferences
If you're currently logged in to Google (or if you log in), this page will tell you what ads Google currently things it should show you based on the sites google knows you have recently visited. And if you prefer that their sinister robots *not* spy on you while you browse the web, there's a handy button to opt out.
- A field guide to bullshit – opinion – 13 June 2011 – New Scientist
Oi! Hippies! Read this!
Links for Wednesday January 5th 2011 through Thursday January 6th 2011
- The Tearoom of Despair: Last night The Invisibles saved my life (24-month countdown remix)
If you have not read the Invisibles then you should have. If you have read the Invisibles then you may enjoy this reminiscence of the experience of reading it for the first time.
- Ninth Art: for the discerning reader
Minor pleasure of the day: getting 9A back on one of it's original two domains. If the person who jumped on ninthart.com the instant that ISP incompetence cause it to lapse is reading this: please can we have it back? There's still hundreds of links pointing to your site that are dead. I will buy you the domain of your choice in exchange?
- Android Isn’t About Building a Mobile Platform | TightWind
Solid analysis of Google's behaviour and strategy in respect of Android and the bigger picture. It's why I tend to call bullshit on their mantra a bit re: their evilness, because I would prefer to be the customer, not the product sold. I will admit that for a company set on selling me as a product, they provide a much better service than most in exchange, but even that's not all good, as it means they tend to blow away paid-for competition that does stuff (or might do stuff) better than they do.