The Rules of Civility

I have two rules:

1) If someone irritates or annoys you and it persists, find some little but significant way to serve them.  Sooner or later they’ll be vulnerable in some way, when it comes take the high road and do the right thing, it’ll balance it out and they’ll feel in your debt, even slightly.  I swear, this works like a charm every time.

2)  Traffic is a good metaphor for life.  For instance, if I’m in a lane and someone really needs to get in, and they approach nicely, I’ll do it most times.  If someone approaches it with privilege and demands it, rot in the other lane, buddy.

Website Bans FFox Users, Lashes out at Mozilla Corp.

I won’t post the guys site, it’s nothing that I would be going to anyway, but you can read about it without viewing the site or driving this idiot’s hits up.  Besides, I can’t visit the site, I use Adblock and Firefox and refuse to load IE of any version for any reason.

The whole deal is that advertisers have GOT to understand that I and many others will refuse to visit sites with those damned pop-up ads that obscure part of the screen, or the ones that blink and move, or at the very WORST the ones that have music or sound in them.  Just the other day I hit a particular site with a non-Adblocked browser and some pop goop blasted out of my speakers (which had been turned up, my fault, for a fragfest on COD2) and scared the crap out of me and the poor dog, snoozing nearby.

You know, like the line from Field of Dreams “If you build it, they will come”, site owners need to understand that “If you build it crappily, with annoying ads that try to wring every bit of concentration out of your visitors, they’ll quickly find other sites to visit”.

Nuff said.

RossB

The Four Horseman of the Internet

It’s my experience that there are 4 categories of people/organizations on the Net:

1. Creators of Content
2. Indexers of Content
3. Referrers to Content/Indexes
4. Consumers

Which of these are you? You should be at least #4, and if you’re participating in a recognizable manner, you’re any or all of #1-3.

Ubuntu Fanboy dates around with SUSE…

Element14’s cathartic blogging post about his dalliance with OpenSUSE is interesting and funny, particular since he’s a Ubuntu fanboy (self-admitted) and the best line of the whole review is:

“I’m impressed. I love my opensuse10.2 install with a passion. But now it’s kinda like the passions one might have for a hooker he doesn’t want to bring home to mom. It feels a bit dirty, but i am in love nonetheless.”

Caution, the posting is a little, erm, “salty” at times, so be warned.

How to Move to NYC Sane and Not Broke

I’ll bite, how do you do that? Read the article. I got offered a position in the city at the same time as the one I took in upstate, no frigging way I would move there with a 3 year old child and family, but I respect those who make it work…

Red Hat Kernel Developer files Patents for DRM

Yeah, sure, Patents are Evil, but look who has applied for some patents, apparently they aren’t SO evil, he just had to get him some.

Converting Techno-phobic Loved Ones

Great article, add this to your New Years Rez’s

Things that Linux Get’s but Winbloze doesn’t

Great list of Linux’s accomplishments

The War is Over

And Linux Won, or so the columnist proclaims.  See if you agree, is this a “Bush” declaration of victory or simply the end of the first major battle for the hearts, minds and motherboards of the computing public???