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Would you like an advertisement with that PDF?

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There's an old saying that advertising abhors a vacuum. That's why you see billboards and ads covering the sides of roads, buildings, and even T-shirts. Anywhere there's an inch of unused space, you can be certain someone is plotting a way to insert an advertisements.

So perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that Adobe and Yahoo! are partnering on a method to insert targeted advertisements into PDF documents. Not just the ones you read online, but even PDFs that you download to your computer.

The announcement doesn't mean that every PDF file you read from now through eternity will have an ad tacked onto the side. But it does mean that content publishers now have yet another way to try to convince you to buy stuff. If you download or open an infected file with advertisements online, you'll see a clickable advertisement that will open up a new page in your default web browser.

Publishers can sign up for the Adobe PDF Powered by Yahoo! program and then upload their PDF content to be ad-enabled before it's distributed. According to Adobe's press release, ads will only show up in Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat, so it's possible that you may be able to avoid advertisements by using a third party application like FoxIt.

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Featured Time Waster

Forumwarz - a potentially offensive time waster

I pwn UAfter spending the better part of an hour on Forumwarz I still can't decide if it's just sick or if it's kind of fun. It's a bit like a car wreck on the highway. I know I shouldn't be looking but I can't quite turn away.

It's sick, it's twisted, it's the internet on it's worst level and darn it, it's kind of fun. At least for a little while.

Forumwarz is a parody role-playing game that takes place on the internet - or at least the Forumwarz version of it. Your goal is to complete missions that are given to you through a mock up of GoogleTalk called Sentrillion.

Your first "friend" is ShallowEsophagus who begins giving you missions to pwn various forums by being a troll. Depending on the character type you are assigned at start up, you have tools like drooling on the keyboard or bashing your head on the keyboard that you can use to destroy forum threads and eventually, pwn a forum.

Future missions involve buying illegal software from the Russians, pwning more difficult forums and other internet oddness.

Completing missions gives you cash, called Flezz in game, and items that you can pawn or use in other missions. The game is NOT for those easily offended. It's crass, coarse and there are frequent f-bombs in the fake chat sessions.

This is also a game for a more mature audience as it requires you to shop at the Drugs R Fun store to get various concoctions to improve your playing, engage in certain cyber activities to get more Flezz and just generally use a more adult perspective.

If you can get past that, here are the more enjoyable and time-wasting aspects.

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