I have become increasingly frustrated with the latest advertising trend on the Internet:  hover ads. These are similar to pop-up ads, except that they are fully rendered within the website you are viewing and prevent you from reading or using the website until you dismiss the ad.

At first, a lot of webpages started using this functionality to solicit requests for feedback, usually through third-party survey companies. Then, sites created similar pop-ups to ask you to sign up for their newsletters or beg for donations through PayPal or Kickstarter. Sites then added logic to wait until you have scrolled down to a later point in the article before popping up the request, to ensure that you are fully engaged in the reading material (and therefore even more annoyed at the interruption). And now third-party advertising has joined the game, preventing you from reading content on a page until you scan the advertisement enough to figure out where the “close” button is hidden.

This type of tactic is straight from Advertising 101: the more eyeballs you get on the ad (or the more times you directly ask for money/email/survey), the more successful conversions you will get. And content publishers that use these tactics will argue that advertising revenue keeps content on the Internet free. If the content publisher was unable to make money from advertising, then the content would either disappear or move behind a paywall (or so the argument goes). Continue reading “Hover Ads”

FatWallet.com has put together an infographic of the fastest ships in the universe. They calculated the speeds of spaceships and other vehicles from a collection of sci-fi classics and ranked them by their top speeds.

I’m sure that the list is far from exhaustive, but I had fun reading the list of ships they chose. I was surprised, for instance, that the USS Enterprise NCC-1701D (from Star Trek: The Next Generation) did not even break the top 20.  But I did enjoy the fact that the Swordfish II made it on the list.

And I am definitely a fan of the third-fastest ship in the universe.

Click on the image for the full article at FatWallet.com and their infographic.

***Updated June 12, 2019 – FatWallet.com no longer exists, but the Fastest Ships in Sci-Fi study still exists at http://fastestships.com. The image link has been updated.

This information is not new, but somehow I just discovered that the cast of Mr. Show with Bob and David will be starring in a new sketch comedy show on Netflix, named With Bob and David. The series will only have four half-hour episodes and an hour-long making-of special, but most of the original cast will be part of the series. It is expected to come out either later this year or early 2016.

In related (and much older) news: I stumbled on the above amazing information after noticing that the credits of one of the Mr. Show episodes lists Dino Stamatopoulos as a writer. I have mentioned Dino before (he is from Chicago, created multiple animated shows, written on various shows including Late Night with Conan O’Brien and MadTV, and plays the character “Starburns” on Community). But somehow I never learned that he has also written on some of the Mr. Show episodes, which I’ve been a fan of since the original run on HBO. For those that know the Mr. Show episodes — he is also one of the dancers in the “Jeepers Creepers” musical sketch.

As if he hasn’t already done enough cool projects, Dino will also be part of the new With Bob and David show.

The official premier date of the second season of Rick and Morty has been announced: July 26! And, as a bonus, they animated the couch gag on the season finale of The Simpsons last week, which you can watch on Adult Swim’s YouTube channel. Enjoy!