Cure multi-page articles with Repagination and Adblock Plus

I don’t know about you, but when I see what should be a one page article spread across 6 pages in tiny chunks, it drives me nuts! Call me crazy, but I don’t want to wade through ad-saturated page after ad-saturated page just to read a simple article!

A few examples of this are:

• computerworld.com
• environmentalgraffiti.com
• ew.com
• gamesradar.com
• instructables.com
• itwirecom
• maximumpc.com
• rd.com

While Adblock Plus usually makes short work of the ads, there are also self-promoting ads on every page as well. I may be interested in these on the first page, but by the second, third and fourth pages they’re nothing but the visual equivalent of static noise.

Repagination (a Firefox add-on) stitches all of the pages together, much like taking a report and taping the pages end to end to create a large ribbon.

Add in Adblock Plus’ side kick “Element Hiding Helper” to zap the noise, and you can actually do what you set out to do – read the article!

How-to:

Requirements:

• Firefox
• Adblock Plus
• Adblock Plus – Element Hiding Helper
• Repagination (the official project doesn’t support Firefox 3, but a simple edit or alternative source will allow you to use it)

The first thing you’ll need to do is stitch the pages together:

1. Right-click on the Next link
2. Choose Re-pagination
3. Choose All
4. Wait as it loads (you should see your scroll bar shrinking and jumping up)

Then I’d recommend scrolling down to the second page, or even just the last page.

Once you’re there, you’ll want to use Adblock Plus’ Element Hiding Helper to target the areas that are not related to the article (header, footer, “you might be interested in” links, etc.)

The way I target each annoyance is:

1. Right-click on the Adblock Plus icon and choose “Select Element to Hide”
2. Move your mouse over the offender
   
3. Hit W (wider) on the keyboard until it outlines an area that affects the content
   
4. Hit N (narrow) to go back down a level
   
5. Hit B (blink) to see what removing that selection would affect.
   
6. Hit S (select) to choose that area
7. Go into the advanced editor
   

Here’s the tricky part… I, personally, don’t like the first page affected by the slimming process.

In the advanced editor,

1. scroll up the tree until you’re just under the body area,
2. choose the one that’s the ancestor of your target
   
3. then find the ancestor with the SAME name on the same level.
   

Troubleshooting:

Every once in a while Repagination inserts a frame for the next page, which foils adblock’s selection.

The easiest solution to this is to go into Adblock Plus’ Preferences, finding the rules for the site, and replacing (as an example):

instructables.com##*#container + * + * + * + * + * + * + * + * + * + * + * + * + * + *#container > DIV#sidebar

with

instructables.com##*#container ~ *#container > DIV#sidebar

The tilde (~) means “any sibling after”, and so this would target all of the “container”s after a “container” that are on the same level. It’s usuall shift + `, which is called a “back tick” and is in the very top left of most keyboards.

Scientific vs Social Intuition

Your result for The 2-Variable Intuition Test…

Very Well-Rounded

The graph on the right represents your place in Intuition 2-Space. As you can see, you scored above average on emotional intuition and above average on scientific intuition. (Weirdly, your emotional and scientific intuitions are equally strong.)

Your Emotional Intuition score is a measure of how well you understand people, especially their unspoken needs and sympathies. A high score score usually indicates social grace and persuasiveness. A low score usually means you’re good at Quake. Your Scientific Intuition score tells you how in tune you are with the world around you; how well you understand your physical and intellectual environment. People with high scores here are apt to succeed in business and, of course, the sciences.

Try the other test! The 3 Variable Funny Test

Take The 2-Variable Intuition Test at HelloQuizzy

Personal – Keyboards don’t like milk baths

So, in the action of defending my keyboard from an avalanche of toys (brought on by my daughter’s armful of them and insistance about putting them on my desk) I knocked a cup of milk onto my keyboard.

Nothing really happened at first except a big mess, the keyboard even drained through the holes for the flipping feet. Then about 3 hours later… of all things my space bar wouldn’t work.

I get my daughter to go to sleep and fall asleep myself. I come back and my computer’s in standby mode.

Cool, I think, less power used, etc.

Yeah, except I had to restart it to get it out of standby mode (it doesn’t like my video card, it’s a known bug).

A restart later and I can’t log in. Wait, what?

Yeah, see title. Keyboard not responding at all. I couldn’t even arrow into Windows.

So I find the keyboard my daughter’s been using to pretend she can type (she can, but badly, she got me banned from chat once when the computer didn’t go into lockdown mode when the screensaver kicked on)… except….

The stupid keyboard uses the PS/2 connection, and the metal C shaped piece that surrounds the pegs is bent in. Easily fixable, but still exasperating!

But, as you can see, it’s working now.

Looks like I get to clean my usual keyboard with some rubbing alcohol (disolves milk solids, etc, pours out like water, evaporates quicker AND slightly sanitizes).