A Microsoft Research paper considers serving web-ads from your own computer

 In 2014 PageFair and Adobe released a report [PDF] estimating the number of users blocking ads in their internet-browsing sessions to stand at approximately 144 million, or 4.9% of all end-users – a significant rise from a ‘mere’ 21 million adblocking users in 2010.

 The best place to run the ads from would be the user’s own computer.

 So it is with some interest that I came across today some research by Saikat Guha, a partner at Microsoft Research, which investigates the feasibility of running web ads from localhost – from the user’s own computer.

The paper [PDF], entitled Serving Ads from localhost for Performance, Privacy, and Profit, proposes disseminating the software package ‘through adware-style software bundling, shopping discounts, toolbars or other incentives’.

Read more here.

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Ok I recently took my wive's old Lenovo Thinkpad laptop that had slowed down to a snails pace over the years using the Windows 7 OS.

And I got her permission to load Windows 10 on it.

I started in the evening the process of loading the OS.

It took quite awhile to download the free Microsoft OS so I left the laptop running and went to bed.

On my first bathroom nighttime pee break ( old man prostrate problems typically cause several trips during the night) I checked up on the laptop's progress.

Good thing I did, it was asking for permission to install.

I hit the agreed button and it started another round of "checking for updates."

On my next pee break I checked again and it was "updating drivers."

When I got up in the morning there was the shiny new Windows 10 operating system.

I ran it through it's paces and low and behold the snail's pace laptop had been transformed into a brand new computer that was once again snappy and responsive to my every finger tap that I threw at it.

Folks if you have an old computer that you want to renovate and perhaps restore it's usefulness, I would recommend installing Windows 10 if it qualifies.

There is even another viable free solution that you may want to explore.

 Google released their own line of Chrome OS-clad netbooks, but with only a few choices and a somewhat high price tag, you might be more comfortable running Chrome OS on your own machine.

Here’s how to install the free OS on your current laptop, netbook or computer.

  The new Chrome OS will have a better file browser, a new media player, and offline access for Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Docs.

 Thanks to automatic updates the software on your Chromebook will get faster over time.

Your apps, games, photos, music, movies and documents will be accessible wherever you are and you won't need to worry about losing your computer or forgetting to back up files.

The new File manager will open files in the correct web app when you double-click on them.

 When a web app is "installed" through the Chrome Web Store, it registers file types that it handles so your Chrome OS knows how to open them.

The new media player can skip tracks, pause, and create playlists.

The video player opens videos in a panel that hovers over your Chrome window, so you can watch and work at the same time.

You can, of course, full screen it if you're just watching.

No matter which of these two free operating systems you choose to go with I am sure you will be very happy with the results.

No sense in getting rid of that old computer when you just might be able to renovate it and update it at no cost!

You have nothing to lose so give it a try.