The small number of people who follow me on Twitter are well aware of my distaste for the implementation of the paywall on baltimoresun.com.  Given how obstreperous I found the paywall to be, I opted to remove the RSS feeds for the sun from Google Reader. It would be a cold day in Hell before I would return to view content on baltimoresun.com!

I had not paid much attention to how to workaround the paywall, as I had already implemented a simple workaround–use Incognito Mode in Google Chrome (or the equivalent setting in a modern browser of your choice).  After some time of successfully using this workaround, though, I decided take a deeper dive into how to solve this. Needless to say, thanks to reddit and some tools already at my disposal, the solution is pretty simple.

Some of you who read this might complain that I am stealing content.  I would counter by stating that I am just leveraging technology to take advantage of a feature in the paywall that Tribune Media has invested in.  I would also reply with the following image:

Interestingly, many of the sites that implement this paywall technology–Press+ from RR Donnelley–admit to knowing about the existence of a workaround to the paywall.  They explain it away, however, by stating that the technical knowledge required to do so is too much for the average user.  In other words, most users are too dumb to realize how easy it is to get around paying for a digital subscription, so we will profit from the dumb.

Following the very simple how-to below, however, shows this to be pretty easy to implement.

1. Install Google Chrome (if you have not done so already).
2. Go to the Chrome Web Store, and search for Adblock Plus for Google Chrome (Beta).  Install the extension.
3. Once it is installed, go to the wrench icon to the right of the address bar, then click Tools|Extensions.
4. Select the Options link for Adblock Plus.
5. Click on the Add your own filters tab.
6. In the text box next to “+ Add filter,” paste the following filter:
   ##div[id="gregbox-overlay"]
   Click the “+ Add filter” button once done.
7. Repeat the previous step for the following filter:
   ##div[id="gregbox-wrap"]
8. Once done, open up a new tab to baltimoresun.com.  Enjoy paywall-free browsing, and feel free to say with me "SUCK IT, Tribune Media!"

Go vote for the better ones.

I will, however, be attending the celebration for these nominations.  There might be some Sun reporters and bloggers I can harangue. 

“Don’t blame me.  I didn’t vote for Dixon.”

To describe myself as non-plussed by Dixon becoming Mayor last Fall would be an understatement.  I was suspect of her and the ethics problems that had been at issue since she first became City Council President.  Additionally, I like my politicians to have above average public speaking skills, and Mayor Dixon certainly does not rank first among her peers in this category.

So, to see new coverage of the ongoing investigation into her dealings with the awarding of contacts is not terribly surprising.  What has been fascinating–and highly annoying, actually–has been the focus on the Dixon’s spending habits.  She apparently bought some fur coats, some expensive shoes, and some other womanly accessories.  Of course, if one were to read the local rag, you would find nothing but article upon article about what Dixon purchased as opposed to the investigation, its history, and other pertinent matters.  If I read another article about her expensive purchases, I will tune out this investigation.

Ultimately, how surprised would one be if there was ill-gotten gain for Dixon and her associates as a result of her position of power?  In the continuing evolution of urban poltiical machines, is this terribly surprising?  Yesterday’s Tammany Hall has evolved into today’s nameless political machine.  By no means does this make it right, and it certainly is not an indictment of every local politician.

Nonetheless, I demand more substance to the coverage of this investigation.  Would it be too much to ask to actually get investigative journalism as opposed to the style of tabloid journalism that is currently being exercised here?  Thus far, that desire seems a bit outlandish.

Rather than force my 10 readers to click through, I will summarize my comment.  I admitted to being the person complaining about her use of the more tag in her posts.  While I respect her desire to make her blog more readable to her users using this convention, it pains me to no end as a user of an aggregator.

I suggested a few ways to make this tolerable for everyone who visits her blog.  For those of us using aggregators, why not present your feed for those of us using FeedDemon, Google Reader, Netvibes, or NetNewsWire in all of its full-text glory.  I pointed out that this is possible, as the online version of her employer’s sister publication–b–does this, thanks in part to my cantankerous ways.  I suggested she talk to Tim Windsor, so I apologize in advance for anything I might stir up, Tim.

I also suggested that maybe it would be possible to advertise the existence of RSS feeds for comments.  If the content can be aggregated, then why not do the same with the comments on said content.  Apparently, some of her readers do not know how easily one can click on the comments for different entries.  Perhaps advertising it in this way will encourage them to more easily track their contents.

I also suggested that if the number of posts on the main page was truly an issue then investigate the possibility of increasing the number of posts available on the main page.  I admitted to not knowing how (or if) the Sun’s corporate blogging platform exposes that setting, but I can only presume it is set at the global level.  I know MT does it, but I can understand that the corporate interface and usability types probably suggested a small number of posts on the page.  Let’s hope they let her increase the number of posts.

At the end, I just wanted to be able to point her in the right direction of maximizing her content for everyone–to the “unenlightened consumers” to the cranky “enlightened consumer.”  Sure, the web and Internet are full of sites where we still need to click through.  Nonetheless, in this age of feeds, aggregators, and other tools, let’s encourage their use.

P.S. Phil, I will gladly offer whatever assistance you require to make you an “enlightened consumer” of web content.  While it may not be for everyone, I think it is the best use of your time in an environment where there is too much competing for your attention.

P.P.S. While I know that my continuing ranting about full text seems to be the mad raving of some computer geek with too much time on his hands, I really think there is something to be said about bringing the content to you instead of you going to the content.  It reminds me of the early variation on bringing content to your desktop from around the late-1990s dot-com bubble.  Now that the tools are out there, we just need to encourage people to use them.

Although I live nearby these neighborhoods, I do a fair amount of driving over there–running to the gym, the grocery store, or meeting folks out for dinner.  It all started when Ostend Street had a block closed between Hanover and Charles Streets, and then it was compounded with Marshall Street being closed for about 2-3 blocks.  These closures started back in February.

Yesterday, when I headed to the gym last night, I was met with a closure of Charles Street between West Street and Cross Street.  On my way home from the gym, I then hit the closure of Ostend Street between Marshall and Charles Streets.  It is getting to be a maddening array of detours in what is a pretty easy place to get around.

The neighborhoods apparently are getting some major work done to the water mains and lines, but the haphazard way in which one street is closed for a week or two, then re-opened unexpectedly has truly become a nuisance.  I was swearing like a sailor last night on my way home from the gym.

Of course, knowing what roads are closed for utility work for an extended period of time would be a wonderful and surprisingly useful service that nitwit Dresser could provide.  Instead, that old cantankerous boob continues blathering on about speeding as opposed to paying attention to some of the real traffic concerns.  Ba

After receiving an email last week informing me of b aggregating my blog’s content, I had filed it away in the back of my head as something to respond to and investigate. When I ran into Greg Cangialosi for the second time this weekend at the gym, he mentioned that he checked out the site and was pretty impressed. I gave it the once over, and I noticed that the site was essentially a blog.

There are some nice touches that b has included–video integration using YouTube, Vimeo, and Revver. The wide use of Flickr for photos. They also make use of a forum on the site. The content also is a bit more edgier than what one would see on the Baltimore Sun–which is slowly becoming the playground for the old codgers. (To wit, that nitwit Dresser’s column from Monday. Can he actually write about something other than speeding vehicles?)

Nonetheless, I had one serious ding against them. Given my slavish addiction to my aggregator, I added b’s feed to my reading list. Much to my disappointment, the site’s posts made use of the MORE tag quite extensively.  Thus, my attempt at reading it via FeedDemon was for naught.  I decided to post this to the forum.  To my surprise, my post garnered a response:

As an obsessive feedreader user myself, I’m with you completely. We’re looking into whether it’s possible to both have the split posts – and get more stories onto the home page – and to have the full posts show up in the XML feed.

Update when I have it.

A post to the forum on a somewhat obscure and technical issue I had with the site garnered a response, and a response from the VP, Interactive at that.  I have to admit that this site maybe onto something, and it will be interesting to see how it grows in the highly competitive media market.

In an attempt to make their publication relevant, the Sun has chained some of their reporters to their keyboards and made them enter the brave new world of blogging. I have had a love-hate relationship with many of these blogs, and only a few of them have made my aggregator.

On a lark a few weeks ago, I decided to add the blog of the Sun’s Restaurant Critic, Elizabeth Large: Dining@Large. It was an occasional good read, but the author insisted on using a trick to clearly increase pageviews for her blog. The use of the “More” tag when composing various posts, forcing me to click through to read the rest of her content.

In a post where Large decided to discuss the benefits of her blog, “What you missed,” she ran down some interesting stats for her blog thus far and jokingly implored her readers to bookmark her blog and visit frequently. I decided to leave the following comment on this post:

Actually, you have caught on to the way blogs are supposed to work: encourage and engage conversation among authors and commenters. Kudos to you for being an old media type and embracing this medium.

The bigger problem, Ms. Large, is that I don’t need to bookmark your blog if I have an aggregator to get the blog’s feed. A bit technical, of course, but it sure beats hitting refresh on the main page of the blog. It does make your surfing a bit more concentrated, though, and can potentially lead to information overload for the uninitiated.

Finally, would it be too much to ask for full text feeds for your blog. Nothing is more annoying and disappointing for me having to click through to finish reading a blog entry. If it continues, I will do what I have done with other blogs: remove it from my aggregator and pay it scant attention. So, do me a favor, and do full text feeds and don’t do the whole “continue reading” link. I know it is a stupid MovableType trick that needs to stop.

Large responded inline to my comment–another annoying trend she exhibits on her blog–with the following response:

The problem is that not every entry is of interest to everyone, so I want you to be able to scroll through quickly to get to the ones that do interest you. When my entry is short, I do keep all of it on the main page.

I left a response to that comment that was never posted for one reason or another. In that comment, I lambasted Large for essentially relying on a hack to encourage pageviews. I stated that the need to conserve space for people consuming blogs in aggregators was unnecessary, and the argument that browsers needed to be able to skim down a page seemed especially foolish considering it takes but an extra click or two of the scroll-wheel of my mouse.

Following this exchange, I removed this blog from my aggregator. I refuse to waste my time reading a blog whose author maintains some befuddling notion that a few extra clicks of the mouse are taxing on folks who browse her blog. It was useless to convince someone that folks will scan the headlines of various post and pay attention to those posts that interest them by commenting on them.

Dining@Large: FAIL

I have read some bad columns out of our local fishwrap–admittedly the quality it was once known for has continued to decline more sharply in recent years.  This column, though, comes close to one of the worst regular columns ran by the Sun.  That “distinction” continues to be a two-horse race between Dan Rodricks’ and Laura Vozzella’s columns.  I could spend a lengthy blog post railing about how annoying Rodricks is and his blatant inability to check his facts, but I digress.

Dresser’s “Getting There” has been more annoying.  In a column that should be covering those issues that are important to transportation in the metro area, let’s take a quick look at what Dresser has focused his attention on:

• Aggressive Drivers (14 January 2008 and 7 January 2008)
• Speeders (31 December 2007)
• Work Zone Speed Limits (17 December 2007)
• Alternatives to I-95 South (10 December 2007 and 3 December 2007)
• ICC Opposition (26 November 2007)
• Delaware Tolls (19 November 2007)

Why isn’t this column focusing on things like, I don’t know, road closures due to construction, common commuting bottlenecks in the area, the recent attempt in Baltimore to repave road surfaces, parking issues and other items actually relevant to local transportation issues.

Dresser has instead made this column his bully pulpit about what he deems as bad motorist behavior.  He rails against speeders, informs folks of ways around the I-95 tolls in Delaware, and has timed different long-distance commuting routes.  Any savvy commuter already knows of multiple ways around those tolls and other obstacles to navigate while driving the East Coast’s major thoroughfare.  The column is by no means informative.  Even the Examiner has a better column on local commuting and traffic issues, and that says a lot.

Thank you for bringing this situation to our attention. We have located the ad that has been causing your browser to freeze, and removed it from our ad serving system. At this time you should be able to browse baltimoresun.com without this interruption.
Thank you again for alerting us to this issue, and please continue to let us know how we can make your baltimoresun.com experience a better one.

An additional email I received mentioned that the problem was third-party advertisement for a major credit card company.  Once that ad was identified as the culprit, the banner was pulled from the site.

My thanks to the folks that fixed this problem at the BaltimoreSun.com.  It is much appreciated.

I consume most of my links to the Sun’s website via their RSS feeds. When I encounter an article that seems worth reading, I will click on that link from within FeedDemon, and the link will load in a browser tab in Firefox. When I am done scanning through my feeds, I have a Firefox window with multiple tabs open to different pages on the Sun’s website. I can then review these articles at my leisure. For a long time, this has worked with no problem whatsoever.

When I first observed this problem, I thought I had encountered the memory consumption problem Firefox 2 has been known to exhibit. The problem was a bit different, though, as the browser just became unresponsive as I could see it loading one of the links to the Sun’s website on a tab. Normally, the Firefox memory problem exhibits itself when a window has a number of tabs open or when Firefox has been open for a long period of time. When I brought up Task Manager (or Process Explorer), I could see a spike in processor utilization and a rapid increase in the amount of memory the firefox.exe process was consuming. In one case on my home machine, I had to forcefully exit Firefox using PsKill, as it had hung my desktop.

With all of this in mind, I decided to investigate the cause of the problem. I immediately came to hypothesize that some advertisement that is loaded when the page being requested is loading had to be the cause of the problem. To verify my hypothesis, I decided to make use of an ad-blocking extension for Firefox. I have used the following two extensions:

• Adblock
• Adblock Plus

The use of either extension is a successful workaround for this problem. Since I have installed Adblock Plus on both of my workstations at home and the office, I have yet to see this behavior. With some certainty, I can say there is a problem with the advertising hosted via the Sun’s web pages. Still, I presume the advertising executives for the Sun are none to happy to read that one needs to use an extension to block their ads to merely access their site. Eventually, most users will stop accessing the site, as most users will not want to or know how to install an extension.

I have seen this problem on two different PCs, both from two different hardware manufacturers. Additionally, the problem has happened with Firefox with my usual stable of extensions, the handful of extensions I run on my corporate workstation, and a profile that had no extensions installed. In all three cases, I have been able to observe a page on the Sun’s website effectively hanging the browser and having a deleterious effect on system performance.

If you care to see if you experience the problem here are the steps to reproduce:

1. Open Firefox. Make sure you have the latest version of Firefox 2 (2.0.0.11). To do so, click About Mozilla Firefox from the Help menu. If you are not running the latest version, select the HELP menu again, and select Check for Updates…
2. Go to the Sun’s website, http://www.baltimoresun.com in the address bar.
3. Open up multiple tabs to different pages of the site. The easiest way to do this would be to hold down the CTRL button while left-clicking on links from the Sun’s homepage.
4. Observe if Firefox appears to hang or if your workstation hangs. If it does, bring up Task Manager and forcefully exit Firefox. This can be accomplished by performing one of the following:
   • click on the icon for Firefox in the Applications tab and select End Task;
     
   • click on the Processes tab, select firefox.exe in the list of processes and click End Process.
     

If you have seen or are able to reproduce this behavior using the above steps, please leave a comment below. If I hear nothing tomorrow, I will pester whomever is manning the feedback mailbox with the URL to this post.