An advertisement has never persuaded me in my life. Okay, I'm lying. When I was a wee little boy I distinctly remember seeing Batman and TMNT toys, and LEGO bricks, and other fantastic things on television and begging my mom to buy them for me, and she did. Even then they were never as fun I was manipulated into believing. So, they got me there, and then I grew up.

Beyond that, I'm being honest and forthright. I have never bought something from a commercial, and I wouldn't even say I've been persuaded by a commercial. Influenced? Yes. I've been pissed off (no not at something they intended), and I've had my train of thought and viewing experience interrupted.

Let me tell you how much I love to see televised material that is strictly relevant to my interests, and yes, let us phrase it this way. I will speak of that which I love, staying constructive. Attention is creation. I didn't name this blog Code Optimism for nothing. ;)

Everything I watch on my television is through the DVR system. Yes, that's right, everything. If I bump into a show airing I enjoy, I schedule it to record and I watch it an hour later, where I can hit that wondrous fast-forward button. I'm so good at it I count and automatically average the number of large forward skips between my material on a per-show basis for rapid precision. How I love being constructive with my entertainment time! :) If it's a live show? Same thing. Important news relevant to me? Same.

Now Hulu, I love your service, and I understand the advertisement based model. I'm glad there's such a model (though I contest most is utterly broken in their interest-based irrelevance) and that it can support you (I hope it's enough for you, perhaps not!). Additionally many of the things I love rely on advertising. Favorite websites, and consumer goods too.

That said, I have never clicked an ad seriously. ;) Never. This is a pull society, not a push one. Sorry, welcome to the future. I don't watch the news. I don't read the newspaper. When I wish to know something, or what's happening in a particular field, I perform a search, just when I want to. I use Google Voice for my cell phone. I sign things with disposable email addresses, I don't get coupons in the mail. I even do my cleaning this way. Why would I want all of this garbage when I can seek it out precisely when I need it?

So I use Adblock software. So I screen my calls. So I only fake sign-up for subscriptions. I don't mean to be rude by blocking your ads, advertisers. I'm saving you bandwidth! I'm not ever going to click one of your ads. I'm never going to watch one of your commercials. I don't even second-hand listen or watch your commercials when someone else is. I wear headphones and listen to Sirius BPM, pop dance station. You know what's so wonderful about it? Loud, fast, energetic music, with seamless track changes. The music consistently peaks, no low acoustic style pauses where background noise bleeds through, these are dance mixes! Constant changing wonderful music that makes me smile.

I imagine those remarks about the headphones might seem facetious, but no, I'm quite serious. :) Not only do I avoid something that makes me unhappy, its replacement actually makes me happy! It's fantastic, and I really recommend everyone try it. SiriusWM6 for Windows Mobile, right on my cell phone.

So, I'm passionate about this. I'm so passionate I spend hours, even weeks programming around these sorts of things. :) The payoff is immensely worthwhile to me when I can watch entertainment without my mood ruined with advertising drivel, and emotions are highly important! Good feelings get to keep flowing. :)

So, Hulu, I blocked your ads. I blocked them in the most reliable "you can't do anything about it and you never will be able to" sort of way. I screen scraped your advertisement notice and you'd do far more inconvenience to your users by discarding it, which I'm sure is quite obvious. That simple fact means I will always be able to detect ads. If you let the user know, you let me know. If it's on the screen, I can see it. It's like trying to prevent someone from copy-pasting your text or saving an image from a website. It can't be done. Once it's on my screen my computer has it, and everything else is a completely pointless waste of resources in an unending war of escalation. This is all easily grasped for those in the know.

I don't think you'll mind though, that I'm opting out. I'm not the issue though am I? Someone may package my code in a tidy little consumable and disappear your ads with nary a consideration. The occasional or rare advertisement sucker may cease being suckered altogether, or miss something they'd enjoy. There must be enough of these characters to make a difference, maybe even the ones that knowingly use an Adblocker! I can safely say I'm not one though, no not even the rarest of clicks or purchases that would still soundly register from me. Zero.

So here I offer my crude and personal, barely working code for those like me. I'd love to refine it, to present it neatly with simple instructions and ironclad reliability, but this is my blog, you get the crap I'm working on in its crappy probably can't make it work unless you're a developer anyway state or you get nothing, and it's better the internet get something. ;)

If you're not like me, if you'd rather watch an ad than black nothingness (later I'll add fun replacement things), or if you occasionally are persuaded by an advertisement, or they simply get into your awareness and on your tongue and you do not mind, then enjoy your advertisements and support Hulu, because they deserve it.