The Random Comic Strip

The Random Comic Strip

Words to live by...

"How beautiful it is to do nothing, and to rest afterward."

[Spanish Proverb]

Ius luxuriae publice datum est

(The right to looseness has been officially given)

"Everyone carries a part of society on his shoulders," wrote Ludwig von Mises, "no one is relieved of his share of responsibility by others. And no one can find a safe way for himself if society is sweeping towards destruction. Therefore everyone, in his own interest, must thrust himself vigorously into the intellectual battle."

Apparently, the crossword puzzle that disappeared from the blog, came back.


Thursday, July 24, 2014

Aren't Ads Annoying?


Not just the ads you see on TV (the number 1 reason I DVR everything... so I can fast forward through them) but internet ads as well. Extremely annoying. And they use data collected from each of us to tailor the ads to suit our "profiles." Which explains why I see so many ads for golf instruction and equipment.

But they have gone too far. One of my favorite sites is jigzone, a site that offers a daily jigsaw puzzle. It's useless now because of ads. Ads that I cannot block with the ad blocking app that I use on Firefox. I do not know how they are getting around the adblocker but they are doing it. Here are the filters I have added to combat them:

http://cdnx.tribalfusion.com/*.swf
https://a248.e.akamai.net/*
https://a248.e.akamai.net/*
http://cdnx.tribalfusion.com/media/*
https://a248.e.akamai.net/img.atdmt.com/*
http://cdnx.tribalfusion.com/media/*

You will, no doubt, notice that there are repetitions. This is because what works one day does not work the next. And the ads interfere with the usability of the puzzle. At times I cannot even move a puzzle piece and must close the browser and re-access the page. The fault may lie with Java or Flash, whichever is used, but I no longer care. And the page owners are concerned with their privacy. So much so that I could not learn who owns the site. Apparently, they had a company that specializes in keeping site owners secret register the site for them. So I cannot write to them and complain.


It's too bad. I will miss going to that site.


Or would have... Wouldn't you know that the day this is to be posted that I take one more look at the page and, voila, no ads pop up?


And now they are back. So, it's into the "junk pile" of unwanted web sites, Jigzone goes! And stays!
 

1 comment:

Tom said...

What I esp. don't like is when they invade your google searches, facebook page and emails, and then pop up ads for things you only mentioned in passing.

Anyway, Douglas, I think they're on to us. But, stick to your guns and defend your turf against those unwanted ads.

P.S. Now I'm going to wait and see if I get any ads about guns.