Ad Block Plus Filter Maintainer "rick752" Dies At 56 385
A user on Reddit pointed out that Richard "rick752" Petnel, maintainer of one of the most popular filter lists for Ad Block Plus, has passed away at age 56. In an article last year Petnel described a bit of what he was up against in the ad world. "'I'm playing against some pretty big players,' he said, explaining his reluctance to step forward. 'I don't want to be harassed. . . . I don't want to be bribed. I started it because I was frustrated with getting my computer infected from ads -- malware and spyware and all that stuff,' he said. 'I kind of went overboard with it. But you have to admit, it's pretty amazing, right?'" Update 15:05 GMT by SM: updated to reflect Rick's status as maintainer of the most popular Ad Block Plus filter as opposed to Ad Block Plus itself.
erm? (Score:4, Informative)
The announcement on the EasyList forum (Score:5, Informative)
Donations (Score:5, Informative)
Donations made to:
Community Hospice of Albany
445 New Karner Rd.
Albany, NY 12205
Re:erm? (Score:5, Informative)
As it turns out - he was a filter maintainer, one of the first, but AdBlock Plus is likely to remain.
AdBlock Plus is one of the best add-ons that has been created for web browsers ever.
AdBlock Plus still maintained by Wladimir Palant (Score:5, Informative)
Though it's sad that the maintainer of one of AdBlock Plus' block lists (the "EasyList") died he still wasn't the maintainer of AdBlock Plus itself.
That's still Wladimir Palant, as can be easily seen here [adblockplus.org].
Re:What can you say. (Score:5, Informative)
Someone else can maintain AdBlock, no one else can be his daughter's father.
Someone else already does maintain Adblock Plus: Wladimir Palant. The summary is incorrect. Rick Petnel maintained the most popular filter list for Adblock, not the addon itself.
That said, it still sucks for his family.
Some details... (Score:5, Informative)
From that post:
It's with great sadness that have to announce the passing of a good friend and our EasyList author, Rick752. Rick had suffered a stroke on St Patrick' Day, and I was just informed that Rick had passed away last evening. During this short period, while hospitalized, Rick had his family very close by his side. There was some able communication and awareness between Rick and his family before his passing and although given this short period to "prepare" for the inevitable, this news (as with any of this type) is still quite shocking and difficult to accept.
Re:erm? (Score:5, Informative)
From http://adblockplus.org/blog/sad-news [adblockplus.org]
"With his work, Rick helped improve the browsing experience for millions of people. And while he will be deeply missed, he built up a strong community that will be able to continue what he started. There are several strong candidates and I expect to announce Rick's successor as EasyList maintainer in the next few days."
So essentially not too much to worry about, but yes that was indeed trollish to care more about yourself rather that the family and friends and publicly ask that question.
Re:RIP (Score:5, Informative)
He had a stroke about two weeks ago:
http://forums.lanik.us/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=3366 [lanik.us]
"Rick had suffered a stroke on St Patrick' Day"
Re:Donations (Score:3, Informative)
"In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be sent to:
Community Hospice of Albany
445 New Karner Rd., Albany, NY 12205.
To leave a special message for the family online, visit www.NewcomerAlbany.com"
Re:erm? (Score:1, Informative)
It was the maintainer of EasyList advertiser list who died, not the author of AdBlock Plus.
EasyList can be used with AdBlock Plus, along with other such lists.
Re:Ditch MS Windows and set up an IP filter list (Score:5, Informative)
So you click the big stop sign and then click "Disable on Hulu.com". You are seriously arguing that this is a problem?
Re:I'd like a few things cleared up (Score:5, Informative)
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Devil's Advocate (Score:4, Informative)
Re:AdBlock (Score:5, Informative)
If only this could be modded higher than 5
Re:Ditch MS Windows and set up an IP filter list (Score:4, Informative)
No, actually I was arguing the opposite, but managed to delete the "I've had to do this on one hand." part somehow while I was editing.
Re:Devil's Advocate (Score:3, Informative)
I've never used AdBlock — I just use NoScript. I'm not blocking based on content, I'm just enforcing tighter security on my computer.
It cleanly kneecaps admonger arguments — static ads (I also disable animated gifs) and text ads display just fine, but you don't have my permission to run Flash, Java, or JavaScript on my system. And strangely enough, NoScript's control is finely-grained enough to give a site general permission to execute content without also granting access to skeevyads.cx and other bastions of consumer rights.
(And I'd use NoScript even if it did none of those things, because the act of *not loading a PDF by default* has saved me hours and hours of dodging lockups and crashes.)
Re:Devil's Advocate (Score:2, Informative)
Try NoScript (noscript.net). It is a bit of a hassle until your trusted sites are added, but it sure saves a lot of trouble in the long run.
Re:The extensions you need for Firefox. (Score:3, Informative)
You can just Tools->Options (or Edit->Preferences) and then Privacy tab->Cookies->Keep until I close Firefox. You can then use the exceptions button or even the "site info" dialog box to decide who gets to give you permanent cookies. No extension needed!