by syaffolee

Nosiness

The majority of the ads on the internet capitalize on this one human weakness: nosiness. Sure, this comes in handy if you want to find out if your neighbor is an axe murderer or trying to build a non-compliance nuclear reactor in his backyard, but this must be applicable to only a small segment of the population. Unless you are a crazy old lady (or man) who thinks peeking into other people’s lives (dirty voyeur!) is more interesting than spinning conspiracy theories, it’s practically maddening at how many spycam ads and high school search services pop up everywhere.

Most people do not like these ads. Thus, it’s obvious that they’re marketing to the wrong people. They should restrict their ads to conspiracy-oriented sites, cyber sex chat rooms (for those who think their spouses are cheating on them), private dectective agencies, gossip monger webrings, the FBI’s most wanted list, and high school reunion-type sites.

Because why market to me? I have no inclination for spying on my next door neighbors. (If I really wanted to, I could just turn down my music and listen. There’s no sound-proofing.) I don’t want to look up my high school classmates. E-mail would work just fine. But more importantly, I escaped from my hometown as soon as I could to a place far away (about 2000 miles away) so I wouldn’t have to endure my “friends'” endless psychotic whining. I’m a poor college student who doesn’t have money to buy these services, even if I wanted them.

What we need is an anti-nosiness detection screen. Sort of like mosquito repellant that actually works. It’ll eliminate the pesky ads from ever being downloaded (you don’t even have to visit their websites to disable it) and deter gossipy people from coming near you. Yeah, yeah, I know there’s already a lifestyle to describe this: hermit.

Neato Astronomy:
Solar System Simulator. JPL always churns out great stuff. Check out how the solar system looked on your birthday.
Celestia: A 3D Space Simulator. Haven’t tried this one yet, but looks awesome. I think you can create your own solar system too.
WinStars. Nifty planetarium program.