Why is there so much hostility over ad blockers?

It's not as if this is a new concept... Ever since advertising arrived people have sought ways to avoid it. Yes, I understand that some websites rely on the revenue generated from their ads. Yes, I understand that some websites would shut down if everyone used ad blockers. But there's no reasonable justification for banners such as these, and no reasonable outrage about "killing a site". You can always implement something to ban clients using adblock, if you're sufficiently cylever. (Though there would probably be a workaround if your site was popular..)

Anyway, the rage over adblockers is almost equivalent to the rage over ads. I have no problems with ads themselves, but I prefer not to see them, so I use AdBlock Plus. I recently had the joy of browsing Youtube without AdBlock, and it amazed me how the rest of the internet puts up with all those ads. Youtube was nearly unusable for me.

What advertisers should realize is that we users are under no obligation to even look at ads, let alone click them, and there's nothing wrong with the internet equivalent of muting, turning off, or changing channels on the t.v. during commercials. And what users should realize is that advertisers aren't obligated to give you free content, nor are they obligated to treat ad blockers with the same respect as non ad blockers. If a site that survived on ads dies because everyone blocks the ads, and the owners can't make money through other means, was it really that important in the first place? Are people so focused on profit that they'll put a paywall up if ads don't work? My estimates lean heavily in the "No" direction.

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Introducing a new ugliness!

New Ugliness 1.0 completed. Well, it should be easier to read... Maybe.

Edit: I may have topped the previous ugliness. Hooray. :)

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Tao Te Ching Reflections, 47 through 55

(It occurred to me the other day I hadn't finished this!)

47

Without opening your door,
you can open your heart to the world.
Without looking out your window,
you can see the essence of the Tao.

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A First Draft Application: Competing Hypotheses

For any who remember my old post about solving modest crime in a non-violent Anarchy society, the solution requires the proper technology app and a culture used to using it in order to create accusations and refutations as well as provide a rational assessment of the evidence, which then allows people to make their own decisions on how to treat a criminal. Strong evidence for armed robbery? Most people will stop dealing with you. (How to keep them from just doing it again, or worse, is slightly answered in Why Disabling?, but in general even armed robbers have to deal with people to get weaponry. I am aware of the bullet holes this has.)

An application originally made for the CIA, now completely open source, steps in to fill part of this need: http://competinghypotheses.org/ While it's not a full Bayesian evidence analyzer, it's nevertheless fairly nifty and should help people reason about hypotheses. So here's some free love from me! Go use it, go extend it, tell grandma. :)

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Cryonics as strong evidence against souls?

There's an interesting story here that has mixed reviews; I like it. It's about the author discovering a testable hypothesis that could destroy a belief in God.

I had some free time this evening, so I decided to chat with a friend of a friend about her theism, and see if I could change her mind in any form. But just getting some thoughts out there for these people to consider, planting some seeds, is a worthy goal. And so I think I've made headway on that part, but at the very end I too discovered a testable hypothesis that should destroy her belief. Since this occurred on an IM protocol, I have the benefit of logs, which I shall share. (Edited slightly for paragraph flow.)

I said, "People get sick. We don't just let them stay sick and die."

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Separate Your Deities

Foreword: this post shouldn't be too enlightening for an educated reader and makes a point that should be obvious but whatever.

Atheism continues to rise, and the arguments are becoming more and more philosophical. Religious people are fighting a rearguard battle, trying to retreat, but they're backed up against a cliff and religion isn't long for this part of the world, though sadly I can't say the same for religious thinking.

But in these modern arguments, the main point often seems to center around Is the idea of a God possible?, with theists taking a "yes" as acknowledgment that their particular God is possible. This is wrong thinking on two fronts: this notion of "possible", and not separating the ideas.

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Let's dissect a rant! With a rant

So in a recent chain mail about what it means to be a manly cowboy, there was an interesting bit at the end. I'm unsure whether I should take it seriously or not; it's pretty crazy from my standpoint yet I can imagine people believing it as a sound course of action. But for amusement I shall take it on anyway, and rant to the air on the web! First, the full text, edited only slightly for formatting:


The COWBOY Solution to save Gasoline !

OBAMA wants us to cut the amount of gasoline we use.....

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