I already addressed ad blocking controversies several times in the past, the context being slightly different each time, e.g.:

• Firefox Pop-ups Block
• Google Ads Go Graphical
• Ad Blocking

With blocking often comes some guilt, as it is resistance to the developer’s intent (much like modification of source code). But to me, the bottom line has always been that I am never (or rarely) interested in the content of the ads, all of which are promotional and often urge the visitor to expend money (if not merely get exposed to and absorb some brand name). Thus, any click that I am ever likely to make would probably verge the line of click fraud (assuming pay-per-click programs) and this revenue money goes towards many sides. It will most likely pay off authorities through taxation, the advertiser (or mediator, e.g. Google, Yahoo/Overture), and the Webmaster. So, everybody is essentially gaining at the expense of the client of these ads. If you are not genuinely interested in ads, never follow the link. It is probably as unethical (if not more) than the exclusion of ads altogether.

Digg.com is no exception to all of this. It recently seems to have adopted Google ads that are rather stubborn in the sense that most plug-ins or rules cannot hide them well away from sight. When Digg version 3 launched (only a few weeks ago) it took only minutes for me to get irritated by the waste of space at the top — that which is assigned purely for contextual ads from Google. None of my 3 blocking mechanisms in Mozilla Firefox was enough to wipe it off the page, much to my misfortune as I use Digg very heavily and my Web browser is small in terms of its height dimensions (due to kpager at the bottom of the screen). Either way, there was a simple way to suppress those ads, merely by excluding the div in question. This can be done using a simple selector in Firefox, which makes that top banner ad disappear, never to be thought of again.

Find your chrome directory under your main installation:

• /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/chrome in Mac OS X
• C:Program FilesMozilla Firefoxhrome in Windows
• firefox/hrome in your Linux local installation directory

You might also find it convenient to do this on a per-user basis, by locating your chrome settings under individual profiles, e.g. ~/.mozilla/firefox/1ixj9tdk.default/chrome on my SuSE Linux box.

Edit (if already existent) or create a file named userContent.css and add the following selector:

*[src*="banner_ads"] , div[id="top_ad"] { display: none !important;}

This was inspired by Firefox AdBlock, which is far more comprehensive, but appears to be no longer available (it older URI is now broken). You can always append new rules by looking at the source code of pages and add selectors for exclusions, even using simple wildcards.

will be in London all day today, which is why I am up so early in the morning/night. A Structure and Function meeting will take place and encourage discussion about some recent research among our inter-site collaboration (Manchester, Imperial College, University College London, Oxford).

The journey to London will be roughly as long as the stay, which is somewhat disappointing, if not a real pain. It is also quite disruptive to the normal daytime activities, so I will go to sleep late at night. It is definitely going to be a heck of a long day!

KDE with a theme that I am particularly fond of

As KDE gears up towards the release of version 4, users continue to contribute innovative ideas. Below are a few examples, all of which are mockups and brainstorms.

1. Show Progress in Title Bar. This one shows the pragmatic effect one can achieve by embedding extra information in the title bar of a shaded window.
2. System Notification. Here we see an illustration of system and task status centralised under a single widget.
3. Tasks Info in Less Windows. Lastly we have yet another similar example where information gets condensed, which saves some screen ‘real estate’.

Related items: KDE: User-Driven Innovation, KDE Receives Praises for Innovative Features

HY is it that so many user interfaces simply fail to work? It’s because users are permitted to take shortcuts and ignore the instructions. This is in fact the message which is delivered by Jeff Veen, whose opinion was inspired by another’s.

Veen concludes: “They’re not stupid. They’re not lazy. Don’t treat them that way.” Users are efficient. They want to get the job done with the least effort. It just doesn’t bode well as far as the intent of the developer is concerned.

New Yanoff for Palm – an example of
poor UI design

have just reached page one of Digg’s top users! This puts me at an excellent position in two separate Web sites: MATLAB Central and Digg, with 20^th and 30^th position, respectively.

With MATLAB I have been for 2 years, but with Digg this was achieved within just 2 months, which seems rather amazing to me. Two months to get there translates to more than one story at the front page, per day, on average. The pace on weekdays stands at approximately 3-4 front page (promoted) items per day, which makes my first rave seem almost insignificant and utterly irrelevant.

Season of the playful penguins from Oyonale

Some days ago I found advice and general information for Linux beginners. It seems rather decent, so I’ll quote a slight bit as a teaster.

1. Read, read, read and study what’s available out there before choosing a distribution to install. Unlike Windows there is more than one choice. A good place to start is distrowatch, a sort of “news of what’s new in Linux” site. You’ll find a paragraph of discussion of many older releases as well as new ones.

OME people might argue that I am “some Linux fanboy”, or at least have me characterised in this way. In reality, I care for far more than just an operating system. I care for technology, communication, and openness as a whole.

Among the things that I try to encourage and/or promote:

• Open Source development models and software. This includes the operating system (which in this case, in the Open Source arena, Linux is The operation system).
• (Preferably open) Protocols. For chips, processor, including their underlying designs.
• Standards and formats. I don’t care for people who send me a Word file or a WMV files, which are proprietary. Sadly, people send them innocently, not realising what they do. They can’t wholly take the blame for ignorance, on which software monopolies capitalise.
• I loathe the idea of encrypting one’s data without consent or genuine purpose, e.g. digital right management (DRM). If I wish to engage in a private conversation with someone, we can mutually choose to encrypt it. Applying this ‘crippling stage’ to other people’s personal media and information without their knowledge is just another black area.
• Neutrality and end of discrimination. Against platforms, regions, etc. The idea of Net neutrality is like that of a fast lane for those who pay more, e.g. First Class in airlines. This augments the barrier between the rich and the poor and creates another technological (or digital) divide, which bridging projects like the One Laptop Per Child are stubbornly trying to annihilate.