Archiv autora: ani.tchetchenianova

Ad Blocking

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AD BLOCKING

Websites back in 1990s were consisted pretty much only texts, with no animations or popovers. But this has changed when companies started to put many type sof advertisements on the internet as a way to publish and share additional information. But since these advertisements bring up several disadvantages with them, ad blockers came up. Ad blockers are devices within any type of hardware or software, which block certain advertisements that users face when browsing on the internet webpages. Ad blocking grep up by 41% in the world and nowadays, there are around 144 million ad blocker users.

An installation of ad blockers can be done both through the Internet or on a Hardware. The most popular ad blocker is called AdBlock Plus, available for Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari and Internet Explorer. Newly, this Ad blocker can be simply installed through a websites that offers its installation, usually straight via the ad blockers websites. Other Ad blockers can be in a form of Hardware, which are connected to an Internet router.

What has become favored in latest days is Mobile ad blocking. An overwhelming innovation has rised when Apple introduced its iOS 9 with a fully-native mobile ad blocking for Safari. Since Apple did not specify the usage of the extentions, it leaves us the question what the ad blockers are able and unable to do. The extension is a way how to block for example cookies, images, pop-ups and not only adverts, that is why it is named as content-blocking and not only ad-blocking. Talking about the benefits of this innovation, would be speed and privacy. Firstly, it is important to highlight how does the advert come up on a webpage. When a user loads up a webpage through a company, such as Google, a subsidiary of Google, Doubleclick, analyses the user and matches them to a pre-existing profile. When it has enough information, it chooses the most suitable advert and put it on the webpage. This is why sometimes it takes some time for a page to load, since this process is done withing the loading. Therefore, blocking this content can visibly speed up the loading time as well as preventing the analysis of the user.Desktop Ad Blockers work simply by loading all the ad servers into the memory of users computer and then running everything on the website through a filter, removing anything that matches. This could be an effective way, yet expensive to afford.  On the other hand, mobile ad blocking does not use all the information on the website, which is then loaded directly into the browser.

It is important to discuss what impact does ad blocking have on the future web. Adverts next to contents on a website, recuperates the websites of  creating the content. Advertisements however cost a lot of money to be placed on a web. Ad Blockers make it difficult to even the running cost of stotiny and delivering content for the user of the web. A research show us that US Publishers lose about 9% of their ad revenue because of ad blocking, and for some the percentage could even rise up to 50. These losts may lead to a collapse of several websites. Most users of ad blockers use them because of their bad view about tracking, since they do not knot what data is being collected or why. Therefore, the DAA (Digital Advertising Aliance) mandates that advertisers and publishers announce what data is collected and for how long, In simple words, the argument goes that if users did not feel that websites were trying to trick them to click on ads or usány ads that are often very annoying, they would not install softwares like AdBlock Plus and so publishers would earn money.

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https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AAdblock_Plus_2014_Logo.svg , Attribution 2.5 Generic (CC BY 2.5)

Discussing further the consequences of Ad Blocking. Some companies use paid subscription models to increase the revenue. In my opinion if websites use subscriptions as a way to show their content, it would lead to an end of free-access to information, as we will see publications getting more aggressive so they neutralize their ad revenue lost.

It seems that industries had forgotten how it is like to be on the other side of the screen. In my opinion, they should start producing ads that are lighter and less resource-intensive, in order to make a better users experience. In addition, I believe that the rise of any type of ad blocking, announces a big division between useful information and some brand sponsored stories. Which would mean more fiction. However, this is just my idea.

 

CITATIONS :

„Telco ‚ad-blocking'“ Strategy4telcomediatech. Strategy for the Telecommunications, Media and Technology Industries, 24 May 2015. Web. 11 Jan. 2016. <http://strategy4telcomediatech.com/2015/05/24/telco-ad-blocking-new-business-models-for-digital-media-required/>. 

 Hern, Alex. „What Lies behind the Boom in Mobile Adblocking?“ The Guardian. N.p., 18 Sept. 2015. Web. 11 Jan. 2016. <http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/sep/18/mobile-adblocking-boom-apple-safari>.

 Bhat, Faizan. „Ad Blocking’s Unintended Consequences.“ Harvard Business Review. Harvard Business School, 12 Aug. 2015. Web. 11 Jan. 2016. <https://hbr.org/2015/08/ad-blockings-unintended-consequences>.

„About Adblock Plus.“ About Adblock Plus. AdBlock Plus, n.d. Web. 11 Jan. 2016. <https://adblockplus.org/en/about>.

Yglesias, Matthew. „The Ad Blocking Controversy, Explained.“ Vox. N.p., 18 Sept. 2015. Web. 11 Jan. 2016. <http://www.vox.com/2015/9/18/9351759/ad-blocking-controversy>

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SEVERUS SNAPE (Muggle’s guide to Harry Potter)

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THE GOOD AND THE BAD IN SEVERUS SNAPE
***SPOILER*** – If you have not read the books of Harry Potter, or seen the movies yet, do not read the following article

Through all the parts of Harry Potter series, Severus Snape left us the biggest question mark. Nobody would expect that at the end, he showed up as a true hero in the story. Severus Snape was a Potions teacher at the Hogwards School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  Harry Potter had never been likeable to him, because he reminded him Harry’s father, James Potter, his old classmate. Neverthless, he always protected Harry from the Dark Side, saving his life and his friends. But why ?

In the fifth serie of Harry Potter and Order of The Fenix, we get to see Snape’s childhood memories, where we finally understand, why did he hate James Potter so much and at the same time, protecting Harry from „He who must not be named“. Snape had always a weakness for Lily Potter, the wife of James. When James and Lily got together, it broke his heart, but despite that, he never stopped loving her. Therefore, when  „He who must not be named“, mercilessly killed both Lily and James, he promised himself that he will always protect Harry and he will prepare him for the future fight with the Dark Lord, since he was Lily’s child. That is why , you would hear „You got your mother s eyes, Harry“ a lot in the story.

Snape was a so called „Double Agent“. In the sixth serie of Harry Potter and Half blood Prince, it turns out that Snape was not allied only with Dumbledore, but also with „He who must not be named“ as a Death Eater. This tarnished the situation in the whole story, making him an evil betrayer. So why he did it? In fact, it was just a fake curtain. He never really was trully allied with „He who must not be named“, but he had to pretend so, for the safety of not only Harry, but the whole school. As he was the only one „He who must not be named“ trusted, he knew all his plans and so could warn Dumbledore about them. Because he learned how to lock his thoughts, „He who must not be named“ never got to know about it. And this leads us to another question. Why did Snape killed Dumbledore than?

The answer is simple. The death of Dumbledore was not a spontaneous act, but a planned one. Dumbledore had a ring which cursed him-he knew he was going to die anyway. He asked Snape to kill him, because Malfoy, who was asked by „He who must not be named“ to kill Dumbledore, was too weak to do it. Snape agreed in order to protect Malfoy from getting punished and to protect Harry all along, because Dumbledore could not.
In my opinion, Severus Snape sacrificed a lot. I can not imagine, what would have happened if Snape did not kill Dumbledore and did not ally with Voldemort. However, It is still unclear to me, why Dumbledore made Severus kill him, when he knew that Snape was going to die later on. He could have simply plan a suicide. But that would not be real Harry Potter, right? I believe that love was the reason and his only motivation that at the end, saved Harry Potter. He risked so much, for the good of others. His character show us that love is stronger than any fear. Harry Potter at the end of the book, named his child after Severus, as he was for him the bravest man he ever knew.

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Sources:

https://www.hp-lexicon.org/wizards/snape.html

https://www.quora.com/What-makes-Severus-Snape-such-a-compelling-character

Images :

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