This is a question you're likely to hear from friends or relatives, notably those who don't know a whole lot about computers. It annoys me, because it's such a stupid question. So. You're on vacation. Does that mean you're taking a vacation from the computer too? Sigh. It's like saying. "So, you're on vacation, does that mean you're taking a break from books?" Yeah, as if books were only ever useful in school right. Or how about take a break from your car, because you're not working this month. Yeah, that should score you some points at the Most Pointless Statements awards.

It's annoying, because what it implies, that is if you're not saying it explicitly, is I think you're spending too much time on that computer. Yeah, as if what you're doing is so much more worthwhile. A myth, that's what it is. So what do you do with your time? Spend an extra half hour in the bathroom every day fixing your hair? Cooking fancy meals? Watching tv? Hanging at the mall? Reading books? I would not trade for any of that, in fact I've optimized my time to get the the maximum time doing what I find the most useful. And if you don't agree, tough.

What people don't seem to get is that a computer and a network is good for more than typing an essay. Five hours spent watching tv, and five hours spent at a computer are very different things. With tv you're just a recipient, and you can't decide what you're watching. A computer and the net gives you the possibility to get in touch with people, to learn stuff you want to know, to work, to read, to be creative, and to be entertained. What you choose to make of it is the relevant question, but personally I use it for all the above and much more.

Yes, I should be getting more exercise, that I agree with. And so should you. We should all be getting more exercise, because few people actually do that. In fact, I was getting a lot of exercise when I was a teenager, because people were into that. Now it's really hard to get people to do that with you, cause no one cares about it anymore.

And not only that, we should all be reading fine literature, learning music composition, practicing yoga, attending the opera, and solving math equations for fun. Better, smarter, healthier. But you're not doing any of those, either. You're just wasting more time on menial tasks. What we are and what we want to be are always going to be far apart, because achieving things is hard, but wishing for them is really easy. Fine, you waste your time over there, I'll waste my time over here.

It's one thing to put Vin Diesel in an extremely explosive action movie with a lousy plot. He may not look much like a field agent, but he is rough and he's definitely crazy enough to do anything. But Ice Cube as a marine takes the cake. :D

If you're looking for some mindless action, this is a fun movie. The whole time I'm expecting Ice Cube to start rapping, but somehow he resists the urge. :D Instead he's shooting guns, jumping, running, fighting, all rather clumsily. And he's not very bright for an agent, none of his sentences are longer than 7 words, none of the words more than 3 syllables, it's such a spectacle. :D

His foe is played by Willem Dafoe, who really isn't a good actor at all. He's the typical minor part actor you've seen in a ton of mediocre parts, so his lead role is somewhat surprising. Then again, Ice Cube.. :D

The opening sequence tells you all about what kind of movie this is. A squad of professional killers breaks into a super secret NSA facility.... underneath a farm. :D Samuel L. Jackson, who regrettably doesn't play a big role, is the only one to make it out alive in a modded hot rod, along with his geek-of-the-movie companion. Whom I have to say is a breath of fresh from the typical geek, he's not a teenager, he doesn't talk in puns, and he wears a flannel shirt. :D

Then they go to pick up Ice Cube, who of course, is in jail. :D After a break neck escape he jumps off a roof... grabbing onto the chopper piloted by Sammy. A poetic move. :star: Then they go get some wheels, where Ice Cube unveils the most ridiculous ride ever, a truck the height of two cars. :D Well you can imagine how this movie unfolds...

Don't miss the hilarious scene where Ice Cube and his band of thugs break into a tank and cruise to the White House in it. :cool:

"Did the president of the United States just quote 2 Pac?" :howler:

There is a certain large class of internet users who, despite knowing that the internet is global, only seem to be interested in the national parts of it. They will use webmail, but only some national provider in their language. They will read papers, but only papers of their country. This to me is a little weird, because why would you limit yourself to just that little part when you have the whole thing to choose from? Anyway, my point is that if you're one of these people you're not going to understand what I'm about to say.

If you are one of those people on the internet, of which there are many, who have a wider perspective than just their country, then you can appreciate how often it feels like you're a second class citizen. Want to buy something on amazon? Well too bad, because there is no Dutch amazon, so you have to buy it from the US and overpay for shipping (or the French, German or UK one, but those don't have nearly the same selection). Oh, and it takes two weeks instead of 3 days. Ebay? Same deal. More often than not, you get a worse deal when you don't have a US shipping address. A lot of things you can't get at all. And most sites default to their largest, US version as well. It's not discrimination on purpose, of course, it's just that that's their biggest market.

Well that's kind of like it is to run Linux. There is less software available, you don't get support for hardware, basically the total number of services offered for Linux is much less, because the market is lesser. Either you can't get the same deals or you have to do more work to get them. But it's actually less painful than online shopping, so those who are switching will find it's not as bad as they thought. Basically if you can stand to live in Europe and shop online, Linux is a delight. :cap:

Bill Maher is an atypical comic in that he's a public person as well. He isn't trying to play the part of a comic, and nothing more, or to play several discrete roles, and that's it. He's rather open to be engaged on anything. On his show he invites people whom apparently he respects a lot, but sometimes it really gets into a heated argument, they don't shy away from it. There is a lot of authenticity about him, less theater. And rather than a performer, he's more just about talking his mind.

So by that he is a rather well rounded character, which I think helps him as a stand-up. And above all, he's very good at telling a story. And that's what he does on stage too, he tells stories in a very relaxed and natural way, it really doesn't seem scripted. They are funny, but they aren't really sound bites either, they aren't manufactured to be funny word-for-word, it's the content that counts. And that's a different way of telling a joke than comics usually do, because they put every effort into wording it best. And they do that because they don't have the wealth of material that Maher does, or at least it appears so. He can easily go off on a little tangent, be funny, then return to where he was and continue with ease. He has that kind of coherence and clarity that not many people have.

But the funniest thing about him is that he's not really trying to be funny on purpose. The stories he tells are funny, but they aren't really jokes, they are just stories, presumably true most of them too. He's not really playing for laughs, it seems, because what he has to say is funny enough. And that's pretty confusing, cause you can't quite figure out how it works.

If you're looking for a good laugh, look no further. :D

So what's funny about it?

Many site owners therefore install scripts that prevent people using ad blocking software from accessing their site.

Many? :howler: I've never seen this page before. If "many" were doing this, then surely at some point I would have noticed it.

Secondly, he kills his own argument already in the second paragraph.

Blocking FireFox is the only alternative. Demographics have shown that not only are FireFox users a somewhat small percentage of the internet, they actually are even smaller in terms of online spending, therefore blocking FireFox seems to have only minimal financial drawbacks, whereas ending resource theft has tremendous financial rewards for honest, hard-working website owners and developers..

So if you block all Firefox users from accessing a website, that only has minimal financial drawbacks. That would necessarily imply that Firefox users running Adblock would also be a minimal financial drawback, since the browser is a somewhat small percentage of the market. So it's not even a problem, is it? :D

But the central argument here is a morality tale. Appealing to our sense of decency and all that, by telling us that we're crooks. :cap: That's right, we're stealing from honest, hard-working website owners and developers. I love those implications btw, apparently every non-developer is lazy and dishonest. :D

But then he says..

Netscape users can simply set their browser to IE mode to continue to enjoy the site that sent you here. FireFox users can use Internet Explorer, Opera or Netscape (in IE mode) to access it. FireFox users also have the option of using the IE Tab plug-in which uses the IE rendering engine to display pages, but also disables the Ad Block Plus plug-in.

Careful, of course, to not mention that any Firefox extension that allows you to switch your User Agent string will also allow you to enjoy the site just like Netscape (in IE mode). :D (In fact, quite a few Firefox users run in IE mode by default, purely because some idiotic sites block non-IE browsers.)

The guy would also be a bit more convincing about his denouncements of The Firefox Cult and Firefox Fanboys if his website (btw I can load it just fine in Firefox :P ) didn't look like some sort of shrine to a certain monopolistic company we know. He even copied the layout and the font (isn't that stealing btw?) :D He also has a page comparing browsers, where shockingly IE is the editor's pick. :D

I agree zealots are annoying and cults are dangerous, but Firefox is hardly the most dangerous cult out there. It's mostly about freedom from a certain company and control of your own computer. That's hardly the most evil plot ever.

Stealing what exactly?

I love this stealing argument. It's the same argument the RIAA uses to complain about their record sales. "If people would buy more records, we would have more money, and so since they aren't, that means they steal from us." Isn't it wonderful to claim profits based on projected income? Or better yet, *desired* income.

The fact is that Firefox is a community driven project, and the features it has, much more so the extensions it has, is a reflection of what people actually want. As opposed to a company telling them what they can have. The tv parallel is actually a very good one. If people had the option not to watch commercials, many of the garbage tv stations would be wiped out. Their whole existence is an excuse to mediocrity, because noone would actually pay for that content if they had to.

This may be a controversial view in the world of people who think they should be controlled by companies, but giving people the right to choose what they want to see is actually sort of the way it's supposed to be in a free society. Then they can decide for themselves if your content is something that a) they will only take for free or b) are actually willing to pay for.

Another thing is that Ad Block wouldn't be so popular if web companies didn't allow their websites to become the ad infested crap (even if the content is decent) that they are. A lot of sites are unbearable without (also often with) Ad Block and it's the one extension I definitely would hate to lose the most.

But but but what about these thousands of honest, hard-working website owners and developers? Well, do you weep over SCO going bust? (Should be any day now.) Lots of companies, no scratch that, most companies are started on a business model that isn't sustainable. So then the plan is that companies that control our technology will enforce ads so that we can keep these other bad companies afloat.

While we're on the subject.. If you've been here before you may have noticed that I slapped on Google Adsense recently just to see if it would make any sort of difference. I wonder if that's some sort of double standard, but on the other hand for those who are willing to look at ads, I'm letting them. :D I never see it myself cause I use Ad Block, and I'm guessing almost all my visitors are too. :D