On Thu, 15 Apr 2010 14:19:42 +0100, Invisible wrote:

> - Advertising. You know the sort of thing. Excessive Flash animations.
> Windows that pop up every time your mouse pointer happens to brush past
> something. Every third paragraph being a bannar ad. Pages that open with
> "First, a word from our sponsors. (Click below to skip this.)" Are you
> TRYING to annoy me to the point of leaving your site?

Adblock Pro is what I use to avoid that. :-)

But I agree that it's annoying - the latest trend that I really dislike 
is on many news sites, they now break a story down into multiple "pages" 
- and on each page, the space for the story is a small percentage of the 
total space.  Reason I use adblock:  So I don't have to be distracted by 
50 flashing ads per page.

> - Stuff which is "free", yet you still have to "register" to actually
> get it. Sometimes they won't let you download it until you give them
> your life history. Sometimes you have to give them an email address so
> they can email you the download link (and a bunch of spam for the rest
> of your life). Sometimes the software is "free for anyone to use", but
> each time you install it you have to enter a machine-specific "license
> key" to "activate" the program. (I.e., you can't just install it on any
> machine you want.)

"Free" always comes with a cost when dealing with a commercial entity.  
You get something, the provider gets something.  Them giving you 
something and getting nothing in return doesn't give them reason to give 
stuff away for free.  Commercial businesses are in business for one 
reason:  to turn a profit.  So everything they do is in pursuit of that 
goal.  If you want something for free, go OSS or become a charity. ;-)

Of course, you could always use a jetable mail address or a mailinator 
address.

Jim

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