John Walker's Electronic House

In our 207th ever Rum Doings, our topic is, Wittgenstein said if a lion could talk we would not understand him, but what if he met a good animal psychic?

It’s fair to say we spend most of this week’s episode talking about our kids. There’s a discussion of our Christmas lunches, too, and spoiler-free discussion of the new Star Wars Cinema Film.

Make sure to follow us on the Twitters and Tweets @rumdoings. If you want to email us, you can do that here. If you want to be a “fan” of ours on Facebook, which apparently people still do, you can do that here.

To get this episode directly, right click and save here. To subscribe to Rum Doings click here, or you can find it in iTunes here.

Or you can listen to it right here:

[audio: http://rumdoings.jellycast.com/files/audio/207_rumdoings.mp3]

In our 206th ever Rum Doings, our topic is, Donald Trump?

After brief discussion of Toby’s continued inability to sleep, we discuss why Owen Jones’ recent column on Corbyn was quite so dreadful, and get pretty deep into explaining why anyone genuinely left wing should be furious with Corbyn’s abysmal leadership.

We talk about why Stop The War are a vile group of racists, John’s grumpiness, and then the best email John has ever received. And then it finishes with an anecdote about John’s blanky.

Make sure to follow us on the Twitters and Tweets @rumdoings. If you want to email us, you can do that here. If you want to be a “fan” of ours on Facebook, which apparently people still do, you can do that here.

To get this episode directly, right click and save here. To subscribe to Rum Doings click here, or you can find it in iTunes here.

Or you can listen to it right here:

[audio: http://rumdoings.jellycast.com/files/audio/206_rumdoings.mp3]

In our 205th ever Rum Doings, our topic is, in this age of iPhones and Uber, why can’t binmen be replaced with robots?

Recorded yesterday, before the vote result, we obviously spend a good deal of time discussing the matter of bombing Syria, and the politics involved on either side. Things move on to John’s recent panel appearance at the Being A Man Festival (no, really), chivalry, and then the PC tech war.

And Noel Edmond’s face.

Make sure to follow us on the Twitters and Tweets @rumdoings. If you want to email us, you can do that here. If you want to be a “fan” of ours on Facebook, which apparently people still do, you can do that here.

To get this episode directly, right click and save here. To subscribe to Rum Doings click here, or you can find it in iTunes here.

Or you can listen to it right here:

[audio: http://rumdoings.jellycast.com/files/audio/205_rumdoings.mp3]

In our 204th ever Rum Doings, our topic is, isn’t it about time we gave homoeopathy a chance?

We discuss counting, terrible radio comedies, and the possible unreality of Father Christmas. Nick predicts the end of the world, and then John tries to buy a nuclear bomb.

We berate listener Steven Chicken, and then explain how to solve the problem of ISIS. And end celebrating South Park.

Make sure to follow us on the Twitters and Tweets @rumdoings. If you want to email us, you can do that here. If you want to be a “fan” of ours on Facebook, which apparently people still do, you can do that here.

To get this episode directly, right click and save here. To subscribe to Rum Doings click here, or you can find it in iTunes here.

Or you can listen to it right here:

[audio: http://rumdoings.jellycast.com/files/audio/204_rumdoings.mp3]

In our 203th ever Rum Doings, our topic is, instead of building HS2, shouldn’t we just fix those potholes?

After moaning about being tired, John recalls his recent holiday to Wales, and then move on to talk about the current dreary trend for being offended, and our opposite approaches to the inherency of equality.

Things soon move on to whether we hate anyone, then a rather extended musing on the nature of love. Then we ponder why we’re not having a world war.

Make sure to follow us on Twitter @rumdoings. If you want to email us, you can do that here. If you want to be a “fan” of ours on Facebook, which apparently people still do, you can do that here.

To get this episode directly, right click and save here. To subscribe to Rum Doings click here, or you can find it in iTunes here.

Or you can listen to it right here:

[audio: http://rumdoings.jellycast.com/files/audio/203_rumdoings.mp3]

In our 202th ever Rum Doings, our topic is how can they be thinking about building a base on the moon when there are starving children in Africa?

After a short Autumnal hiatus, we’re back with aplomb, discussing The Martian movie, something about shouting insults at Laura, and… and… no, we’ve forgotten already.

Oh yeah, there’s something about a wedding John went to, and about how Toby is a screaming idiot, and – oh yes – we bang on about teaching handwriting again.

Make sure to follow us on Twitter @rumdoings. If you want to email us, you can do that here. If you want to be a “fan” of ours on Facebook, which apparently people still do, you can do that here.

To get this episode directly, right click and save here. To subscribe to Rum Doings click here, or you can find it in iTunes here.

Or you can listen to it right here:

[audio: http://rumdoings.jellycast.com/files/audio/202_rumdoings.mp3]

In our 201th ever Rum Doings, our topic is shouldn’t the United States simply adopt A4?

Recorded a couple of weeks back, this episode features the wondrous thunderous Judge Coxcombe, and we discuss Game Of Thrones Christmas toys, the poor greenscreen of Once Upon A Time, our daemons, and our favourite Star Treks. And then, somehow, European politics.

Make sure to follow us on Twitter @rumdoings. If you want to email us, you can do that here. If you want to be a “fan” of ours on Facebook, which apparently people still do, you can do that here.

To get this episode directly, right click and save here. To subscribe to Rum Doings click here, or you can find it in iTunes here.

Or you can listen to it right here:

[audio: http://rumdoings.jellycast.com/files/audio/201_rumdoings.mp3]

In our 200th ever Rum Doings, our topic is that it’s episode 200.

We obviously talk Corbyn, the causes, the reactions, and the future, and unsurprisingly, that dominates. Not so much though that we don’t also manage to say entirely unnecessarily offensive things, talk about fireplace shopping with UKIP, and Nick bans all hats for immigrants.

Make sure to follow us on Twitter @rumdoings. If you want to email us, you can do that here. If you want to be a “fan” of ours on Facebook, which apparently people still do, you can do that here.

To get this episode directly, right click and save here. To subscribe to Rum Doings click here, or you can find it in iTunes here.

Or you can listen to it right here:

[audio: http://rumdoings.jellycast.com/files/audio/200_rumdoings.mp3]

In our 199th ever Rum Doings, our topic is, we need finally to decide, Lego or Meccano.

Joined by Judge Coxcombe, we take your dilemmas and queries, as well as discuss the Labour leadership race, a conversation you may understand about maths, a plot to be allowed to kill people, and what happens after Twitter?

If you don’t leave a review on iTunes then we’ll weep the oceans until they flood the lands. Thank you to everyone who has so far – you’re keeping the human race alive.

Make sure to follow us on Twitter @rumdoings. If you want to email us, you can do that here. If you want to be a “fan” of ours on Facebook, which apparently people still do, you can do that here.

To get this episode directly, right click and save here. To subscribe to Rum Doings click here, or you can find it in iTunes here.

Or you can listen to it right here:

[audio: http://rumdoings.jellycast.com/files/audio/199_rumdoings.mp3]

AdBlock is a useful tool. There are websites that are close to unusable, or even entirely broken, because of their advertising. There are sites that use dirty, underhanded tactics like pop-unders. While clearly the best argument is to say that perhaps one should just not visit such websites at all, it’s obvious that people are going to use AdBlock instead. Denying it is silly. However, by default, AdBlock removes advertising from every site you visit with that browser, no matter how relevant, responsible or reasonable. And when ads don’t load on websites, those sites don’t get money. This means they either eventually wither and die due to lack of funds, or they resort to even more intrusive, gross, unblockable advertising, like paid advertorial disguised as genuine articles, or hollow pieces written purely to stuff with affiliate links. As much as you may not revel in seeing a Taboola list of The Amazing Tricks Insurance Companies Don’t Want You To Know, those sites are only there for you to read because those ads are there too.

Default AdBlock causes you to become a smash-and-grab user of the internet. You may be Googling to work out why your boiler isn’t working, find the solution on a super-helpful website you’ll never visit again, and then get on with your hot watery day. But that super-helpful website got nothing from you in return, because the ads they depend on didn’t load. And the couple of banner ads that would have appeared would have made no difference to you at all.

But there is a way to use AdBlock entirely differently, that’s very simple to set up. Instead of blacklisting the entire internet, and perhaps whitelisting (allowing ads on) sites you may one day remember to try to support, you can whitelist the whole web, and blacklist those that offend. Like this:

1) Click on the Adblock logo, and pick “Options”.

2) Select “Customize” from the top row, and then click on “Show ads everywhere except for these domains”.

3) In the options that appear, add at least one website (without the ‘http://’ and the ‘/’ at the end), and then click “OK!”

And you’re done!

Now the whole web is whitelisted apart from that dreadful BigHairyBums.com site with its pop-under auto-playing video ads for hitmen and poison. Although, once again, perhaps consider whether you want to just not visit the website at all. If you want to blacklist something else, you just click on the AdBlock button and choose “Enable AdBlock on this page” to automatically add it to the list.

You’re a much fairer user of the internet now. And you’re helping sites you enjoy, or even sites you flitter past, to stay online.