When I took my first internet connection, I think it was around 1993 or 1994. So ten years ago. There was in Switzerland only two ISP : the academic one and a worldwide community of Unix users. Internet was great, a fascinating way to exchange information. I was using Mosaic and spent hours on gopher servers. I had no credit card and in any case, probably the first ecommerce site I came across one day was an online library which might still exist or not, don’t remember.
Months after months, money came. It was ecommerce websites, Amazon, advertisement, spam. It transformed the web into an indescribable – and sometimes annoying – jungle.
But again, what is great in computing and internet, and which is one of the reasons why I am in the field and feel good in it, is that in computing technology meets spirit, machines and humanity interact, and give sometimes its best.
So, what is happening to me now ? I am using tools that are free, open-source, given to the community by people that still believe and think beyond money, and that just throw away all that crap.
Ok. Bayesian filtering for emails is now known. For example, for Windows, SpamPal, with a handful of plugins added, will just get rid of junk mail. I am now using Mozilla Thunderbird, which has a bayesian filter included.
Ok. Advertisement popups and spywares are defeated by very good tools too, like ad-aware or spybot… and Mozilla Firefox, which I use, has an integrated popup blocker.
But still, my last problem was the advertisements inside web pages, that make really painful to read news or articles.
Well, I write this to thank the team who wrote the Adblock plugin for Firefox. This is a great tool that gives me a real pleasure each time I go to a site where it hides and block advertisement images. I hate marketing departments, and I find really great to thwart their hugly efforts to grab money.
When you receive a newspaper, you have no choice. You could write letters to the publisher, or you could create laws to prevent certain type of advertisement to be published. On internet, in computing, if you want your liberty, you do it be yourself, and when it is done, you give it to other people, to improve the everyday life.
Thanks to everyone who does exactly that everyday.
some filter lists
