mrbrown.com

The Great Web Whiteout with Adblock Plus

I have been using Safari on my Mac for a while, even though I use Firefox on my PC at home and I have Firefox installed on my Macbook.

But today, I found the reason to completely move over to Firefox on my Mac... Adblock Plus

Adblock Plus is a free plug-in for Firefox that lets you white out ads on websites. Yes, all of them. And it installs with a few clicks.

I am a big usability fan, and Adblock Plus certainly makes my surfing experience very pleasant, especially for sites and forums that overload their pages with too many blinking ads, pop-ups, pop-unders and even something called a CatFish banner (extremely annoying, especially on Safari because attempting to close it merely makes it open, which probably accounts for some of its clickthroughs). Adblock Plus cleans them all away.

But I am in a dilemma.

In the interest of full disclosure, I also have commercial sites that depend on advertising to survive, like mrbrownshow.com, seewhatshow.com and wtfshow.com.

So why am I even mentioning Adblock Plus if it has the potential to affect my livelihood? Because you cannot fight the tide of technology and what the user wants.

There are many responses to the rise of Adblock Plus (read some at nytimes.com, friendsintech.com, fireatomic.com, roughtype.com, infoworld.com, gadgetopia.com, adverlab.blogspot.com, clickz.com and gadgetopia.com), quite a number of which are critical of it, because site owners claim it robs them of advertising income that allow them to give their content away for free. Chris Soghoian of CNET.com even calls ad-blocking "theft of resources", and one guy started a campaign to block Firefox completely (he called it off in the end, but claims to have code that can block Firefox users with Adblock Plus installed).

I can totally empathise. But you know, if a user wants to block your ads, they will do so. You cannot fight that. You cannot force people to accept your ads so that your business model can survive.

Ilya Vedrashko of Hill Holliday thinks Adblock Plus may a good thing.

I also like what Matthew Davidson said in a comment at openpanorama.blogspot.com:

"The World Wide Web was not developed with advertising in mind. That some people eventually saw a reason to advertise on the web is fine; in fact it's great. But if it eventually becomes less feasible to make money that way, it is not the responsibility of society to guarantee people an income from web advertising.

If you come up with a scheme to make money and it doesn't work, that's your problem. You cannot then point at every reason it doesn't work and cry "Aha! That's theft!""

As the creator of AdBlock Plus argues, "There is only one reliable way to make sure your ads aren’t blocked — make sure the users don’t want to block them," and he goes on to say, "Don’t forget about the users. Use ads in a way that doesn’t degrade their experience."

I agree. Adblock Plus allows you to choose which sites you block ads on, and which sites you don't. I am hoping people who use the blocker like our free content enough to disable it for our commercial sites, and support our sponsors. On our part, we will try to ensure our commercial sites never serve up ads that annoy the fans.

Also a good read, the feedback to the clickz.com piece on Tackling Adblock Plus. Jeff Rodrigues comments:

The public has an annoyance threshold. Exceed it, and people will work around or go without what annoys them. Online advertising has exceeded that threshold. Enough so that somebody out there has devoted weeks or months of their spare time to work around it. The unwritten contract between publisher and consumer is unwritten for a reason, because it's unenforceable."

Meanwhile, I have downloaded the iSafari theme for my Mac's Firefox and I am happily browsing again. Oh, did I also mention Adblock Plus disables annoying Snap.com previews? Sweet.

Will Adblock Plus change the internet business model? Will sites go under because of it? Interesting times.

Start them young with the cycling

Isaac surprised me with his confidence taking his little sister Joy on a, um, joyride. Joy surprised me more, daring to sit on the bike.

Also, as superfit blogger Janice points out, teachers, please don't take your school kids to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve for a walk along the mountain bike trails. She fell down and got some nasty scrapes trying to avoid a 20-kid party walking there.

Speaking of cycling, I just added a cool no-brand mp3 speaker to my handlebars. It looks like a little handlebar pouch but is really a speaker inside. Powered by AA batteries, you can slip your iPod or mp3 player inside the zippered compartment, and play your music out loud. Attaches to the handlebars via velcro. It is no ghettoblaster but it is loud enough. Safer than using headphones while riding (please don't).

Complements the blinking blue LED tire valve cap light on the front tire and the red LED on the rear tire.

Yes, my Kona Lana'i bike is becoming an Ah Beng tourist-trap trishaw.

Xbox girls enjoying the new wireless Xbox

Seen on www.doingitwrong.com

Stone seats

This is classic Town Council bozo thinking. Apparently, some old folks play cards here at Block 128 Lorong Ah Soo, and in order to "solve" this gambling problem, the stone table and seats, which have been there for years, were ripped up.

Now the whole block is inconvenienced. A grandfather told my dad that he has effectively lost his place to sit to wait for the school bus with his grandchildren.

Why not rip up the floor too, in case some old folks gamble standing up?

Nparks, your website cannot make it lah

Who was the genius who came up with this dropdown menu that has so many items, the main page is covered?

And mind you, this is only if I use Firefox for Mac. Try using Safari for Mac and see the mess.

Taking the bus

When you have been riding to and from work daily, you really miss it when you don't. Taking public transport reminds you of how efficient bike riding can be.

My first bus took 13 minutes to arrive. Then I had to wait for my next bus, 10 minutes. Then I had to walk for 7 minutes from the bus stop to the office. Total travelling time, 45 minutes. At off-peak time.

Total travelling time on a bicycle, at peak hours, 30 minutes. And I get my exercise and an endorphin rush to start the day with.

I took the liberty of trying out the SBSTransit Mobile Iris Portal with my phone. You can use the site to check arrival times and to find out what bus to take to your destination. The expensive system allegedly uses some high-end GPS tracking.

Here's the thing. The site is useful only if you know the road name or the bus stop number. If you are at the bus stop itself, you can probably find out the super secret six-digit bus stop code. If you are not at the bus stop, you need to know the road to narrow the search.

Not everyone knows the street name of the place they want to go to, SBS. Most of us use landmarks or buildings as another reference. Say you want to get from your home to Changi Airport Terminal 2.

Try entering Changi Airport into the SBSTransit Mobile Portal journey planner and see what you get.

Zilch.

You have to enter PTB2 to find out the "road" where the bus stop is found, which is PTB2 BASEMENT, then you can click 95129 - CHANGI AIRPORT PTB2, the actual bus stop at T2.

Tada! Then you can use the Journey Planner to find out how to get to Changi Airport Terminal 2.

So simple, right?

the mrbrown show: fare semi-hike

Only 2 cents what! Get the Transport News at mrbrownshow.com!

See What Show: 1408, Ratatouille and Rogue Assassin (a.k.a. War)

We review 1408, Ratatouille and Rogue Assassin (a.k.a. War) at seewhatshow.com.

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Guard duty will never be the same again, at mrbrownshow.com.

Papa on duty

After being away for so long, it was time for me to be DP (duty parent), while the wife spends the week with her best friend in Hong Kong.

I got home at 10pm, and Faith ran out from her siblings' room to sit next to me. She made herself comfortable, and used me as her backrest.

"Kiss the kids for me" sms-ed my wife from Hong Kong earlier.

Mothers cannot help thinking of their children even one day away from them.

I looked down at Faith who was by now lying down, playing with yet another piece of plastic, and using my lap as her pillow, and said, "Ok, Faith. Papa needs to take a bath first, you go to our room and wait first, ok? Papa will tuck you in later."

My six-year-old promptly got up, and ran to our bedroom.

"She understands what we say, doesn't she?" I said to the maids.

"Ya! She understands more than we think she does. Her talking is the problem only!" replied one of them.

Well, not only, but it was a significant enough problem in her condition.

I tucked her to bed, and left for the living room only after she fell asleep. Only to knock out myself on the sofa.

In the course of one night, we had one crying Isaac with a tummy ache, one crying Joy with constipation, and one crying Faith who got up at 2am to find Mommy not next to her, and Papa asleep in the living room.

"Sorry, girl. Ok, I come, I come back to the bedroom. I know, Mommy not there. Sorry lah, Papa was in the living room only."

Then it was morning. Isaac took 10 seconds to realise I was standing in front of him waiting to be greeted because he was transfixed at the tv. The trick is to stand in his line of sight.

He did not seem to be in pain for that moment. but while I think tv can relieve some forms of tummy ache pain in kids, I think a doctor's visit is in order.

Faith had already left for her Occupational Therapy with my mom.

And Joy? Joy was busy with a jam-and-cream biscuit, the kind with the hole in the centre. The cheap kind you get from the provision store.

She was surrounded by biscuit crust all over the floor, and her little fingers were busy digging out the hardened jam and cream from her jam-and-cream biscuit.

Where does a 22-month-old baby girl learn to do stuff like that?

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Malaysia gets tough with the high in highway, drive over to mrbrownshow.com!

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Anti-piracy commercial from the IT Crowd (Youtube)

This is for all the annoying anti-piracy commercials you have seen in the cinemas (look, I'm in the cinema! I am already paying for this movie! Stop preaching to me!) and on tv. Seen on IT Crowd Season 2 Episode 3.

And this is why the IT Crowd is my favourite comedy series from the UK.

(via Mr Tan)

Singapore police sends 4 riot buses to deal with Ultraman?

A group of 8 young people who wanted to protest against local anime distributor Odex's legal actions decided to stage a protest... with their toys... at *Scape, a youth park. The idea was to stage a demonstration with their toys and do a photo shoot at *Scape (Slogan for the youth park: Feel the Space. Fill the Space).

Their project, called the People’s Action Figures Party, was met by 4 "Ang Chia", or riot buses, from the Special Operations Command. Yes, a whole bunch of cops dropped by their party.

You know lah, these action figures and toys, when they stage a protest, you never know if things will get ugly and they start using their superpowers and laser beams. So it is important to send the right show of force to keep the supertoys in line.

A police officer from Tanglin division asked them questions and took down the names and identity card info of the participants (but did not take down the particulars of the toys) and also videotaped the youngsters as they conducted their toy protest photo shoot. But by Zer0's account, they were allowed to complete their shoot and at no time did the police intimidate them (I suppose the police officer videotaped them in a friendly way?).

It is so important for law and order to maintained, because, you know, although you might be well-behaved, someone might want to conduct political debate with one of your protesting toys, say, He-Man, and then there will be a potential for public disturbance and civil disobedience, if he calls upon the Power of Greyskull.

You can read their accounts here and here. The incident was not reported in local media, but you can read the Reuters report.

(Photos from Zer0 and Pp's blog)

Singapore: Feel the Space. Fill the Space.

Beautiful classical Chinese music at Centrepoint

They played so well, I had to buy a green tea and some yakitori sticks to munch on while I listened some more.

Strangely, there were quite a number of shoppers there dressed in the same color as me. Must be a fashion trend.

Say No to Quechup spam

Please do not accept Quechup's invites by clicking the Accept link in their emails. This social networking site will spam all the contacts in your email account with invites as if it came from you.

More info at Dwight Silverman's blog, and here and here.

Night Cycling and Amazing Race disappears from YPAP calendar

It seems that the 28th July Night Cycling event mentioned in my previous post on the Young PAP calendar is no longer there, and it also looks like the entry for their Amazing Race scheduled for 1st October 2007 in Hong Kah has also been removed.

That's too bad. I am sure many wanted to participate. Not like those Workers' Party organised events, so political kind.

Here is a screenshot of the original calendar (close up), in case you need a reference.


Update: Canned events not due to WP ban: Young PAP
Straits Times, 7th Sept, 2007

A MOVE by Young PAP (YP) to drop two outdoor events from its calendar has invited online talk that it was prompted by what happened to the Workers’ Party recently.

But that is not true, two PAP MPs, who are advisers to the YP, told The Straits Times yesterday.