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The times it doesn't suck is when true friends, like yourself, will remember those who loved them and write about them.
I'd like to encourage you to consider writing something about them [reply to your own post] (use their first names, or initials) and post a little something about each you'll always cherish about them.
This, that we, too, may hear of and know of the friends they've been to you. ![Rose | [Rose]](https://codeproject.global.ssl.fastly.net/script/Forums/Images/rose.gif)
(Because, hey, CPians [CodeProject members/folk] have lives & friends, too...)
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It's all the Anonymous Proxy's government fault.
modified 20-Oct-19 21:02pm.
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I read today a very interesting blog post about AdBlock Plus.
Unfortunately it's only in german. However for those of you who do understand it: Link[^]
The blog post is continued here: Link[^]
It made me think quite a bit about it. I do not say that Sascha Pallenberg (the author of the blog) is right, however neither do I trust the responses from AdBlock Plus.
I'll try summarize some of the content of the blog:
- AdBlock Plus has a feature called acceptable ads which allows predefined ad servers to server their ads (whitelisting)
- The criteria for those ads have been updated to allow the whitelisting some of the companies associated whit ad block plus (an affiliate program) named YieldKit. Making it the only whitelisted affiliate program in ad block plus.
- There are also claims that AdBlock Plus offered some of the larger publisher to buy themselfes into the whitelist
- There are even claims that the urlfixer in AdBlock Plus rewrites the Amazon Links to include the partner id of AdBlock Plus
- The so called active community which debates the whitelisting of additional hosts consists primarily of the investors / owners of AdBlock Plus
- There are some other associated companies related to web advertising which should ultimately bring those users to AdBlock Plus (using blinking ad banners, overlays etc.)
- In the end AdBlock Plus wants to generate income through routing all advertisement through those companies associated with itself and blocking any other source of advertisment on blogs, news pages, and so on.
One might say that the claims Sascha Pallenberg makes are pretty sound. How would you say that a company with a single product which is free and is for blocking advertisment is financed? And how do the pay for 15 employees?
I for one has to say the "acceptable ads" has already a very nasty smell.
What do you think about that?
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I don't use AdBlock Plus. I use AdBlock, an entirely different piece of software... 
As far as I know, it doesn't have any of these fishy behaviors.
The United States invariably does the right thing, after having exhausted every other alternative. -Winston Churchill
America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between. -Oscar Wilde
Wow, even the French showed a little more spine than that before they got their sh*t pushed in.[^] -Colin Mullikin
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Colin Mullikin wrote: an entirely different piece of software...
wait what?
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AdBlock (for Chrome, Safari, and Opera) is a completely different extension from AdBlock Plus, which started as a Firefox add-on and has expanded to support Chrome and Opera as well. AdBlock is an open source project started by Michael Gundlach. Adblock Plus was written by Wladimir Palant, and while the source is viewable/downloadable, it isn't a true open source project.
The United States invariably does the right thing, after having exhausted every other alternative. -Winston Churchill
America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between. -Oscar Wilde
Wow, even the French showed a little more spine than that before they got their sh*t pushed in.[^] -Colin Mullikin
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I just use the popup-blocker but don't block ads. I don't want new windows all over the screen, if someone shows some ads, he can do this. I don't mind.
Author of Primary ROleplaying SysTem
How do I take my coffee? Black as midnight on a moonless night.
War doesn't determine who's right. War determines who's left.
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Long time no hear from you. Do you already know about the CP switzerland meetup?
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Yeah... I've spent my last 3 weeks in the army 
And have been quite busy before that 
Haven't heard of it yet. Registered for it now 
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The local mall has a number of pinch-points where charity muggers accumulate making it irritating to walk by without being accosted by various scruffy sods trying to get you to signup for whatever charity they're mugging you for. I can't stand them at the best of times but they've crossed a line. I was enjoying a coffee outside recently; reading a paper and generally at ease with the world. Without warning, three of the bassstard muggers came into the outside eating area and started making small talk as the preamble to try and sign you up. One bloke and his missus snapped at them and told them to sod off. They did and I was pleased somebody did bark at them.
I know it's a sh*t job to do, but don't these muggers have any respect for personal downtime?
If there is one thing more dangerous than getting between a bear and her cubs it's getting between my wife and her chocolate.
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Nope. Chuggers get paid on piece work, not per hour. So the more respect they have for other people, the less cash they get to take home. They don't generally care about the job, the charity or your personal space - they just want your signature on a piece of paper so they get paid for talking to you.
The universe is composed of electrons, neutrons, protons and......morons. (ThePhantomUpvoter)
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Here it is an offence to do that, but they are still doing it. If security appears they make record runs out of the malls.
The only legal way to do it is with a declared stand. To me it happened that one (on the street) tried to sell me "for free" a pen and still wanted 50 Swiss Francs (quite a lot for a 1 Franc pen). Those guys cross the border from Italy into Switzerland to do this, and are very well organized.
The signature is in building process.. Please wait...
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Similar to those ones that collect old clothing. They leave you a bag and come collecting later. Some organised gangs nick your cast-offs and sell them for a good profit elsewhere in Europe.
I remember one enterprising reprobate in Joburg. We had lots of clothes so we packed them in an old suitcase and gave them to him. The old bugger moved no more 50 meters away from our house and then opened the case by the kerbside and started selling them to anyone who was interested. That was the last time we ever gave to charity. We had many so-called bona fide agents come to our door asking for donations. We never gave cash (who would?) and gave them cheques instead. Never once was any cheque deposited. If they'd have been genuine, they'd have a bank account.
If there is one thing more dangerous than getting between a bear and her cubs it's getting between my wife and her chocolate.
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In my case it has been proved that behind that scene is the Italian mafia employing Roumanian guys to do the "bad" job.
The signature is in building process.. Please wait...
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small talk back, ask them about their charity, go deep, you'll see them starting to get nervous. At that point start talking louder and agitated .
Fun for all the mall
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I stopped once to answer their questions. I told them under no circumstances am I giving them my name, address, or other personal information. Interview terminated at that point.
If there is one thing more dangerous than getting between a bear and her cubs it's getting between my wife and her chocolate.
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A mate of mine was a Chugger (CHarity - mUGGER) for about a week and gave up as he was told he was not aggressive enough! (rough description 6ft7inch, built like a brick outhouse, beard, shaved head!)  I would have thought that was a way of getting arrested looking like he looks....
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I don't get any of that, but apparently I look intimidating.
“I believe that there is an equality to all humanity. We all suck.” Bill Hicks
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I've a zero tolerance policy towards them. They get a very firm "no" if they try and make eye contact, coupled with a look of "I've hard a carp day and I'm taking no sheee-eeet." If they fail to act sensibly and back off, they're then told to elephant off. If they complain about the swearing as a way into a conversation, I start one. I begin a lecture about how they broke the social norm of not invading people's privacy and personal space, so I'm breaking the norm about not swearing at people who p1ss me off. I keep them as long as I can (typically employing some of the tactics they deploy) then when I decide it's over I've pointed out they've spent the last n minutes with me instead of doing their job. I've only had to go that far once in fairness.
“Education is not the piling on of learning, information, data, facts, skills, or abilities - that's training or instruction - but is rather making visible what is hidden as a seed”
“One of the greatest problems of our time is that many are schooled but few are educated”
Sir Thomas More (1478 – 1535)
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A few years back we at a local mall we were accosted by the same type of people with the clipboard who attempted to make small talk with us. We told them we didn’t want to and that we wanted to finish our fruit smoothies. They told us we could bring them with but we insisted, no. Then we got up and started to walk around to some of the nearer shops and they followed. My wife and I looked at each other and had the same thought, how far could we walk before they give up.
We went to a few more shops as they were trying to make small talk and convince us to see their supervisor to receive a “prize”.
It was about 20 minutes they stopped, when we left the building.
Idiots.
It was broke, so I fixed it.
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Very interesting post.
BTW, I represent an organization that is making wonderful headway against...
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Ah, I'm glad to see the fight against the unconditional ellipsis is making good progress.
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I have a technique that gets rid of them easily. As soon as they approach I say
"est a le manta se messes mounge milanderer" very loudly and swinging my arms about to make myself look more foreign. 99.9% of the time they leave you alone and move on to the next person. The only time they have carried on speaking was when I was with my Missus and kids, and she heard my missus speaking to the kids in English. She turned to my missus and said 'he's actually English isn't he?' My missus not being as game said yes, to which the Chugger replied 'see I knew it, because I'm good at my job'. (I didn't realise her job was to detect fake foreign people).
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Hahaha, I have given one a mix of Gaudeamus igitur and lorem ipsum. Nobody spoiled my fun, so I started to look a bit bewildered and out of it, almost shouting until the chugger left me. 
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These people have been a problem in Seattle for years: I cannot walk home from work without having to pass two or three every day. Problem is that every charity I want to sign up with, I signed up with four years ago when this plague first became epidemic. I do my best to be civil and polite because I know they are trying to do a crappy job in an even crappier economy; a lot of them make it very difficult, though.
And "charity muggers"... that is such a fitting image.
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