Hagablog

18
Jan
12

How to Get Around Wikipedia’s Blackout

Just a quickie, as I’m stressed beyond belief with exam revision. But considering the situation, I thought I might share this little for-today-only discovery. 

Firstly, I would like to make clear that I am in full support of Wikipedia’s blackout in protest against SOPA and PIPA. I would also like to point out that despite the usefulness of Wikipedia, there is no substitute for going back to the original source of information. Maybe it’s a good thing for us not to have Wikipedia for a day. 

But I know few people who disagree that Wikipedia is a fantastic source of knowledge and a platform from which to explore a subject in detail. I am also conscious of how many last-minute homework assignments that owe their grades to Wikipedia and such, I would like to share an easy way bypass the blackout; although I urge you not to use it without necessity, Wikipedia did this for a reason. 

The blackout is achieved by way of a JavaScript snippet — there is no need here to go into what that means — but to get around it, all you need to do is disable JavaScript!

Exactly how you do that varies from browser to browser and I don’t have the time to give instructions on how to do it in every browser. Simple google “Disable JavaScript in [BROWSER]” and substitute [BROWSER] with the name of your browser. 

If you use Safari, you can do it by enabling the “Develop” menu item by going into Preferences, Advanced, and clicking the tickbox to show the develop menu. From there, go to the develop menu and click “Disable JavaScript”.  

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About Hagablog

Alex Clarke studies geology at the University of Leicester, coaches people how to kayak, designs websites and is obsessive about typography.

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