THIS. Absolutely. Socialism works on small scales, but doesn't scale. It is why Northern Europeans and Asians are so good at it - they all have the same end goal - and they all look the same, feel the same. It is terrible to be an outlier in a culture like this - but for the vast majority - it is bliss. 


But in an independent, self-actualized Western society - it is a living hell. Despair and misery. 

And that we can't all get on the same page and acknowledge the reasons for this - is a huge part of the problem. It works on small scale, and in homogenous societies. But it doesn't scale. It becomes oppression at scale. 

Sun Feb 22 2026 18:08:48 UTC from DarfWader Subject: Re: WTF Google???

Few today realize he was actually a socialist.  But he didn't agree with the end game 'authorization' and instead he believed in the 'pie in the sky' version. Which of course can never happen on a large scale. It can work on small scale, like within a family, or a small tribe that is pre-industralized. But not beyond that, human nature takes over and it al falls apart.

Sun Feb 22 2026 07:51:52 UTC from ParanoidDelusions Subject: Re: WTF Google???

 Weird that Orwell's preferred system of governance ended up resulting in the very same oppressive State that he feared.  

Which of course can never happen on a large scale. It can work on small scale, like within a family, or a small tribe that is pre-industralized. But not beyond that, human nature takes over and it al falls apart.

It works when it's voluntary.  Imagine that.

When it's mandatory, it sort of rolls along until it consumes the resources of whatever came before it, then everyone starves.

Few today realize he was actually a socialist.  But he didn't agree with the end game 'authorization' and instead he believed in the 'pie in the sky' version. Which of course can never happen on a large scale. It can work on small scale, like within a family, or a small tribe that is pre-industralized. But not beyond that, human nature takes over and it al falls apart.

Sun Feb 22 2026 07:51:52 UTC from ParanoidDelusions Subject: Re: WTF Google???

 Weird that Orwell's preferred system of governance ended up resulting in the very same oppressive State that he feared.  

It is funny how often Democratic Socialists write about the dangers of Right Wing Fascist totalitararianist (f;k that word) - systems - but their works end up getting interpreted as critiques of Left Wing Democratic Socialist systems of governance. 

I wonder why that is. Weird that Orwell's preferred system of governance ended up resulting in the very same oppressive State that he feared. 
 

Fri Feb 20 2026 12:41:17 UTC from DarfWader Subject: Re: WTF Google???

And today, its banned in schools.

Mon Feb 16 2026 02:13:27 UTC from ParanoidDelusions

...or, "How I Wasted My Afternoon".

At work I figured what the hell, corporate is watching my machine anyway, and we use Microsoft 365, so I might as well log on to the things.  Google Chrome was there, I used it, I logged in to Google, etc. etc.

Today I needed to rearrange my monitors to see two computers at once, so I selected "laptop only" and switched my big monitor to another machine.  When I came back later and re-added the big display, Microsoft Teams would no longer allow me to turn on my camera or share any screen.

I spent the entire afternoon nuking caches, clearing configs, anything I could find, anything I could look up.  Eventually I tried a fresh profile ... and it worked!   Then I logged into Google ... and it synced back all of the corrupt configuration and Teams broke again.

Seriously, Google?  How much garbage do you need to slurp out of my broken browser?  Apparently it brings in service workers, database buckets, all sorts of stuff that's broken and I wanted gone.

So I installed Ungoogled Chromium, brought over my bookmarks, and started from scratch.  Sure, I have to install my extensions again, and eventually I'll have to element-zap the beg screens on Wikipedophilia again, but at least my browser has broken free of Google's gravity well.  There's a couple of hours I'll never get back.

(Post script: don't install Ungoogled Chromium.  Install Brave.  The only reason I don't use Brave at work is because it's banned due to its built in Tor client.)

And today, its banned in schools.

Mon Feb 16 2026 02:13:27 UTC from ParanoidDelusions Subject: Re: WTF Google???

I just did a post where I noticed, in 1984, they made us all read the book - 

I just did a post where I noticed, in 1984, they made us all read the book - and we went, "That is stupid... we would just turn off the TV, or not talk in front of it." 

And now, my wife and I talk about... I dunno - rain gutters, in the living room - or wheels for our Razor, or blinds...

And the next time I log onto Facebook - that is all I have ads for - and we go, "That is just coincidence - the algorithm is just so well defined it can determine what it wants before you know you want it." 

Seriously. 

But - instead of a TV - I have this device, that I can talk to, and ask a question - and it will seek the right answer - that is ALWAYS ready to respond. It is, I know, listening for me to invoke it - so it can provide assistance. Hey Google - Alexa, Siri... what is the name of this song. It answers - sometimes when I wasn't actually asking it to. Then it apologizes, and goes quiet. But the proof is there - it was listening - as obedient as a faithful dog. Bu

Sun Feb 15 2026 19:14:54 UTC from DarfWader Subject: WTF Google???

So, first hand experience in this, so its real, as hard it is to believe it is.

Recent upgrade to Android, installed Gemini ( not unexpected ).  Much like IE in the past, you cant remove it, But in this case you can disable it, sort of. One of the 'features' is they re-map your power button. It no longer works to turn the device off, it spawns Gemini instead. And if its disabled it STILL does it, and asks you to turn it on.  Took me a good 30 mins to disable the nonsense and make it a power button again.

Really Google? Disabling the power button by default?!?!?  While i agree not everyone turns off their phone, ever, but it does get in the way of turning off the screen quickly, or the reboot you need to do every so often. If you have a tablet, i bet you turn it off. ( In my case, it was a tablet. But, I'm sure my phone will get hit with it soon )

So, first hand experience in this, so its real, as hard it is to believe it is.

Recent upgrade to Android, installed Gemini ( not unexpected ).  Much like IE in the past, you cant remove it, But in this case you can disable it, sort of. One of the 'features' is they re-map your power button. It no longer works to turn the device off, it spawns Gemini instead. And if its disabled it STILL does it, and asks you to turn it on.  Took me a good 30 mins to disable the nonsense and make it a power button again.

Really Google? Disabling the power button by default?!?!?  While i agree not everyone turns off their phone, ever, but it does get in the way of turning off the screen quickly, or the reboot you need to do every so often. If you have a tablet, i bet you turn it off. ( In my case, it was a tablet. But, I'm sure my phone will get hit with it soon )

I'm so drunk now I'd electrocute myself. There are a lot of rooms to work through visiting a week at a time. 

Especially drinking whiskey. 

So, what is the point?

The VPN may not work on your Pixel device if:

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When you use the VPN, you can’t change your IP location to access online content that isn’t available in your region.

How did you make any money on any platform when I've got an actual following and used to be published as a content contributor on Tech Republic and have been trying to monetize my personal content for 20 years? 

I've never seen a single check. Like, Blogger.com - you have to pass a threshold for them to cut you a check. I've got "money in the bank," but not enough that they ever cut me a check. 

I've got about 250 followers - and at one point most of them were active. I got seriously demonetized during Trump's first administration, though. Totally shadowbanned on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. 

Heh. That kinda pisses me off. 

That is one of the unfortunate sides of YouTube. They make money off you even when they don't let you have the opportunity to do it yourself.

Sun Feb 01 2026 15:36:29 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar Subject: no money for ig

 And to think, they were still showing my videos with ads, just not giving me a few pennies anymore.  Bye, Felicia.

I learned recently that I've been demonetized on YouTube.

I'd like to say that it's because I spoke the truth too much and they decided I am a dangerous dissident.  But apparently it wasn't that.

You see, I've been on a quest lately to erase most of my history in unsafe places.  I've never been too bad on YouTube but I wanted to erase all of my comment history.  You know, just in case some shithead reads something I wrote 20 years ago and tries to use it to ruin my life.   So I started deleting comments ... which they make you do one at a time (no "select all") which took a couple of days ... and then it stops somewhere around 2014.  Anywhere older than that, you have to actually find the videos you commented on and remove the comments from there.

I really didn't want to delete the whole account because it was making money.  Not much anymore, mostly from one blockbuster I made in 2012.  So I went to look at how much money I was really making, to see if it was worth it at all ... and that's when I discovered that they shut off the spigot entirely in 2024.  It seems my viewership crossed a minimum threshold under which they take you out of the program.

So in the end they made it easy.  I downloaded a list of my subscriptions, deleted the channel, created a new empty one, and re-subscribed to my favorites.  Around 25 years of history, all gone.  And to think, they were still showing my videos with ads, just not giving me a few pennies anymore.  Bye, Felicia.

I wont give my data to any of them. Only local for me.

Tue Dec 09 2025 05:12:51 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

I actually use Copilot just about every day, mainly because it's the only one that has free unlimited use. I don't use it in any other product they've force-fed it into, and I only use it in a web browser with adblock turned on, so they'll never make any money from me.

I've found that Grok provides better quality answers, but the free tier has usage limits and Nurb told me I'm not allowed to give money to Elon. :)

Best case scenario: a quick race to the bottom, AI Chatbots become impossible to charge money for in the same way Search has been for a long time, and Windows 12 pisses off users as much as Windows 8 did.

I have mixed feelings about this.  Im glad something is eating Microsoft, and really hope OpenAI collapses as Altman is a *head. If this was 20 years ago id be all for it without question, but Google is not the same company they were.  

https://www.windowscentral.com/artificial-intelligence/microsoft-has-a-problem-nobody-wants-to-buy-or-use-its-shoddy-ai

One of the funny parts:  "If there's one thing that typifies Microsoft under CEO Satya Nadella's tenure: it's a general inability to connect with customers."     um no, they have always been that way. lol. 

IF they even turn them on. More and more just use their phones.

Sun Dec 07 2025 02:34:14 UTC from ParanoidDelusions

I suppose you're right - most users - their PCs are MOSTLY devices for connecting to Facebook - more than any other use. 

The other things - used to be Netflix and Office. But the Office landscape has changed - and streaming services seem to have realized that making their delivery platform neutral is actually a net benefit. 

I suppose you're right - most users - their PCs are MOSTLY devices for connecting to Facebook - more than any other use. 

The other things - used to be Netflix and Office. But the Office landscape has changed - and streaming services seem to have realized that making their delivery platform neutral is actually a net benefit. 

Well isn't that strange,  my i7 Pixelbook that runs ChromeoS got an update this morning, and included updates for android apps...  They way they talk you would think that is impossible..  'we have to create an entirely new product line to support x86 and android!'

idiots.

10 years ago it was a bigger deal, and ya i lived thru that too.. But realistically in 2025, for the average person today, what 'local' apps do they use on a computer? Other than for work, and that don't count ( and even that is not many at this point. )  And since 3/4 of the population now lives on their phone, for me, making it look more like their phone + the phone apps they are used to = no support calls.

And while i dont want to give them $, even stuff like MS office does not need to be local anymore either. In my case, id just install the nextcloud client/apps and point it back to my server "here is your office suite, and some other stuff, its about the same as it was before".   of course googles is free too, for personal use.

The only real exception is gaming. And as has been discussed to death, that is changing too.

And no, not trying to push ChromeOS here. It just fits my needs well for when i'm mobile or to help people get off windows or osx. Id hate for it to go away. Tho i would love to get Android support on non-official machines.. ChromeOS-Flex is fine, extends usefulness of machines long after MS and Apple have pulled support. And does the job for converting 'web centric people', and if you need Linux its there too, but its missing that one piece of android support.  Of course 'techies' need more than just web, but we also don't need our hand held so we don't count.           There is also openfyde, but they lost android support for now, and if Google pulls the plug on the ChromeOS project, then their base code goes stale on them and may not have a future, unless the replacement is also open.

And yes i know Google is no longer the company they used to be. They are no longer the 'good guys' and now the 'less bad guys'. And its frustrating.

So, I mean the use-case for me is "can I move my grandmother-in-law" to a non Windows machine and NOT have to constantly support her to the point where she asks for something that I go, "No - you can't do that on this OS." 

It has gotten BETTER over the last 10 years, I guess - but ultimately - I end up going, "What YOU want is an OS X machine." You want the Windows, without the Windows - the broad application support without the Microsoft. And Linux - is always LAST, if at all. 

I mean, 3D rendering - DAZ3D is the market leader - the dominant juggernaut of 3D rendered art. It is easy, it is well supported, it is well documented, there is a huge corporate engine behind it with tech support, and tutorials and mainstream, easily accessible assistance - and the majority of the content is produced by, and for - their engine. They're the successor to POSER. They're the engine used for early modeling of 3D architecture in movie and entertainment CGI. They're huge in Pr0n. 

Yo

Fri Nov 28 2025 14:38:17 UTC from Nurb432

Right. I have moved people from windows/etc over to ChromeOS in the past.  Its 'sort of like how your phone works, and you can use the same apps too'.  And if they need a bit of extra, i can install Linux stuff underneath add a shortcut to the bar, they never know the difference.    

I have also ran windows under a VM on my pixelbook ( but not any of my ARM devices ).. but that's not for everyone. ( and was just an experiment anyway )

My pixelbook was more than 1k. But it was a i7, 32g ram, bla bla and that was a lot back then for anything.  But i do agree prices have risen in general, both due to general inflation, and the move towards higher end intel or arm chip-sets.  But lower end cheaper machines still do exist and are plentiful. 

 

Right, the lock down is just like any other enterprise setup, the IT gods decide what you get and don't get to run.  But, they could leave the door wide open too.. its not googles choice in this case.

Fri Nov 28 2025 07:18:10 UTC from ParanoidDelusions

And from what I've seen - the locked down education systems won't let students install Android apps that aren't approved. So again - it just seems that there are more convenient alternatives. It just never had an "a-ha" moment for me - and everyone I've known who has been a Chromebook advocate has had ties to education which seemed like why they liked them. Teachers, administrators, education IT workers... Then it IS a price thing - "We used to be Mac oriented, but they're too much money to give every student a Macbook, iMac, or Mac Mini - but we can do that with Chromebooks - and there are better tools catered to us than with Pi. So we go Chromebook..." 

 

Right. I have moved people from windows/etc over to ChromeOS in the past.  Its 'sort of like how your phone works, and you can use the same apps too'.  And if they need a bit of extra, i can install Linux stuff underneath add a shortcut to the bar, they never know the difference.    

I have also ran windows under a VM on my pixelbook ( but not any of my ARM devices ).. but that's not for everyone. ( and was just an experiment anyway )

My pixelbook was more than 1k. But it was a i7, 32g ram, bla bla and that was a lot back then for anything.  But i do agree prices have risen in general, both due to general inflation, and the move towards higher end intel or arm chip-sets.  But lower end cheaper machines still do exist and are plentiful. 

Fri Nov 28 2025 07:15:21 UTC from ParanoidDelusions

I didn't realize you could run all Android apps on Chrome OS - that is kind of cool. 

But beyond that - the problem to me is... I mean, for the "Real World", LibreOffice and Python and linux in general - it doesn't work. Every time I've tried to migrate someone from Windows to Debian or Ubuntu - it works for a while until they go, "I need to do... THIS..."  and I go - oh... yeah, that... you need Windows - you could try WINE - and they try WINE, I set it up for them, it doesn't quite work - and at some point the support of getting a "normie" to live in a *nix world is more work than it is worth - and they usually end up - most likely going to OS X - or back to Windows. Usually - Linux seems like a gateway drug to being a Mac user in my experience. 

Linux guys never get this and don't like to hear it. But so, for you or I, I suppose - if you can get a Chromebook to run root Linux apps - that is an incentive - especially if the price is right. 

But the high-end Chromeboo

Thu Nov 27 2025 15:30:00 UTC from Nurb432

Its more than just that if you don't fit the 'main market'. If you have a supported version you can run anything that android has, browsers, network tools, games, whatever. Exactly what this 'new thing' is being touted to do.. And unless its a managed device, you do have access to the core system if you like.  I run LibreOffice and some python stuff on mine ( like thonny or spyder ). But, 99% of what i do is web if im out and about, and its via Linux Firefox + anti spam plugins.. Aside from places like this or work related sites, i have nextcloud at home, so the need for local stuff is almost zero.

 

 

And from what I've seen - the locked down education systems won't let students install Android apps that aren't approved. So again - it just seems that there are more convenient alternatives. It just never had an "a-ha" moment for me - and everyone I've known who has been a Chromebook advocate has had ties to education which seemed like why they liked them. Teachers, administrators, education IT workers... Then it IS a price thing - "We used to be Mac oriented, but they're too much money to give every student a Macbook, iMac, or Mac Mini - but we can do that with Chromebooks - and there are better tools catered to us than with Pi. So we go Chromebook..." 

I didn't realize you could run all Android apps on Chrome OS - that is kind of cool. 

But beyond that - the problem to me is... I mean, for the "Real World", LibreOffice and Python and linux in general - it doesn't work. Every time I've tried to migrate someone from Windows to Debian or Ubuntu - it works for a while until they go, "I need to do... THIS..."  and I go - oh... yeah, that... you need Windows - you could try WINE - and they try WINE, I set it up for them, it doesn't quite work - and at some point the support of getting a "normie" to live in a *nix world is more work than it is worth - and they usually end up - most likely going to OS X - or back to Windows. Usually - Linux seems like a gateway drug to being a Mac user in my experience. 

Linux guys never get this and don't like to hear it. But so, for you or I, I suppose - if you can get a Chromebook to run root Linux apps - that is an incentive - especially if the price is right. 

But the high-end Chromeboo

Thu Nov 27 2025 15:30:00 UTC from Nurb432

Its more than just that if you don't fit the 'main market'. If you have a supported version you can run anything that android has, browsers, network tools, games, whatever. Exactly what this 'new thing' is being touted to do.. And unless its a managed device, you do have access to the core system if you like.  I run LibreOffice and some python stuff on mine ( like thonny or spyder ). But, 99% of what i do is web if im out and about, and its via Linux Firefox + anti spam plugins.. Aside from places like this or work related sites, i have nextcloud at home, so the need for local stuff is almost zero.

 

 

Its more than just that if you don't fit the 'main market'. If you have a supported version you can run anything that android has, browsers, network tools, games, whatever. Exactly what this 'new thing' is being touted to do.. And unless its a managed device, you do have access to the core system if you like.  I run LibreOffice and some python stuff on mine ( like thonny or spyder ). But, 99% of what i do is web if im out and about, and its via Linux Firefox + anti spam plugins.. Aside from places like this or work related sites, i have nextcloud at home, so the need for local stuff is almost zero.

Thu Nov 27 2025 04:37:43 UTC from ParanoidDelusions

I'm ok with ChromeOS dying. I never understood a Linux OS that did everything through the Chrome Browser. 

I never put that together until now. Like I said... the bottom 19% of the top 20%. Voight-Kampff suitcase. That is exactly what it was. 

I'm ok with ChromeOS dying. I never understood a Linux OS that did everything through the Chrome Browser. 

It was like Mac OS - only even DUMBER - to me. 

I mean, the first thing I'd want to do with a ChromeBook - would be to ROOT it so I could have access to the real power under Chromium. 

Outside of education - I never saw the appeal - another iOS "walled garden" - only... only browser based. 

I always felt like I must have been missing something? 

Tue Nov 25 2025 15:33:05 UTC from Nurb432

Yes, but it was supposed to resemble the Voight-Kampff machine.

 

Well this is both good and bad news. wrapped up into one.

That real android support is coming for generic x86 is nice as that was the missing piece in FlexOS, but hat chromeOS may be seeing retirement soon is not nice news.. But this new OS is targeting x86 i think, not arm too, so donno what this really means in the long run. ( and of course android phones are still going to be arm for the foreseeable future.. )

Tho to be honest, i dont get it the trouble that is going on.. I have a pixelbook with an i7. It runs ChromeOS. it runs android apps just fine.  I can get an official Chromebox, same thing..with an i-whatever i want.    so its not like they haven't done this already..    grrumble.

https://www.theverge.com/news/828595/google-aluminium-os-android-pc-chromeos-ai

Yes, but it was supposed to resemble the Voight-Kampff machine.

Tue Nov 25 2025 03:23:44 UTC from ParanoidDelusions

Looked like a metal detectives briefcase? 

The super special collector's edition. I have that. 

 

 

Looked like a metal detectives briefcase? 

The super special collector's edition. I have that. 

Sat Nov 22 2025 14:38:59 UTC from Nurb432

i think i have them all.  Most came in that 'boxed set' with the car and pictures and unicorn. it did have 5 versions ( or at least 5 discs... one might have been a 'making of' documentary, its been in storage too long. )  I only ripped the theatrical version, so it had the correct ending, and be the one i remember watching in the cinema when it came out. I know why it was later removed, but it seemed like something important was missing to me.

If i remember right, it also has the really hard to find ( or watch/rip ) video disk release.  I could go get it out of the closet and look.  

Sat Nov 22 2025 03:32:31 UTC from ParanoidDelusions

The "Director's Cut". I can never keep track of which that is. There are a half dozen versions.  

 

i think i have them all.  Most came in that 'boxed set' with the car and pictures and unicorn. it did have 5 versions ( or at least 5 discs... one might have been a 'making of' documentary, its been in storage too long. )  I only ripped the theatrical version, so it had the correct ending, and be the one i remember watching in the cinema when it came out. I know why it was later removed, but it seemed like something important was missing to me.

If i remember right, it also has the really hard to find ( or watch/rip ) video disk release.  I could go get it out of the closet and look.  

Sat Nov 22 2025 03:32:31 UTC from ParanoidDelusions

The "Director's Cut". I can never keep track of which that is. There are a half dozen versions.  

The "Director's Cut". I can never keep track of which that is. There are a half dozen versions. I grew up on the Detective Noir version with dubbed old school narratives by Ford as the "Dick"... and though that version is hated, I like it - it FIT the whole cyberpunk ethos that Blade Runner basically mainstreamed - which was only underground comix Heavy Metal before. 

But other cuts fleshed the story out better - I see that too. So... I don't know... I'm OK with all of them. Where they leave it ambiguous, where they make it clear Deckard is a Replicant - where they show a happy ending once you get out of LA, where the ending seems forlorn and full of despair. Maybe that is what makes this movie so posthumously great - that there is an ending for everyone. 5 of them, anyhow. But I was 11 or 12 the first time I saw it on VHS - at my stoner buddy's house who ended up going to Folsom Prison. He was rich, and pampered, and had all the gadgets, including a VHS... and I didn't even get an Atari 2600

Sat Nov 15 2025 15:34:05 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

The original? That's pretty cool. Do they have a version of the film with the score removed?

Fri Nov 14 2025 13:21:36 UTC from Nurb432

In practical terms, its not much different than the increased use of cheap CGI over the decades.

Real movies stopped with Blade Runner.   My understanding it it was pretty much the last 'true' movie, that used actual miniature models and real 'sets', instead of green screen.  I think the scenes of them on the roof fighting, the backdrop was an actual oil panting.. ( cleaned up a bit during editing to make it more realistic )

I could be wrong but related, i think some series that Amanda Tapping was in was 100% green screen.    The just would walk into the green room, pretend they were doing stuff, reading their lines. and the rest was all CGI...  I read they had a hard time with it, since there was nothing there.. but each other.  ( and head similar about early Avenger movies.. it wasn't a new concept, but people were not yet used to it )

Fri Nov 14 2025 02:46:33 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

At least the sluts are human creators.  The whole platform is flooded with AI slop now.

 

 

I'm going to see Blade Runner on a big screen with a real orchestra playing the Vangelis soundtrack in January.  My first experience with the movie was renting it in 1983-84 from our video store and watching it on a 27" RCA console TV. 

I've never seen it in a real theatrical experience. I paid a LOT. I'm a little stoked. 

In practical terms, its not much different than the increased use of cheap CGI over the decades.

Real movies stopped with Blade Runner.   My understanding it it was pretty much the last 'true' movie, that used actual miniature models and real 'sets', instead of green screen.  I think the scenes of them on the roof fighting, the backdrop was an actual oil panting.. ( cleaned up a bit during editing to make it more realistic )

I could be wrong but related, i think some series that Amanda Tapping was in was 100% green screen.    The just would walk into the green room, pretend they were doing stuff, reading their lines. and the rest was all CGI...  I read they had a hard time with it, since there was nothing there.. but each other.  ( and head similar about early Avenger movies.. it wasn't a new concept, but people were not yet used to it )

Fri Nov 14 2025 02:46:33 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

At least the sluts are human creators.  The whole platform is flooded with AI slop now.

 

At least the sluts are human creators.  The whole platform is flooded with AI slop now.

I think we are just noticing it more..   But i could be wrong too.

Mon Nov 10 2025 13:37:12 UTC from darknetuser

2025-11-10 13:11 from Nurb432
Hate to break it to you, but that is how the entire
entertainment industry has worked, since day one.

I am aware, but I think it is getting more extreme each year. Which was my point, or at least one I was making. Which is the reason why I find it curious they managed to make a hot Youtube female persona precisely by backpedaling back to sanity just enough and then using clever presentation tricks.

Hate to break it to you, but that is how the entire entertainment industry has worked, since day one.

If its male or female they put out there, all depends on the demographic of the audience. 

Mon Nov 10 2025 00:35:39 UTC from darknetuser

Something that has always bothered me LOTS is the fact Youtube viewers have this tendency to empower talentless videomakers just because they are hot women. It is not because these gals are successful, but because an horde of drooling men is devaluating every other man in town. Kind of shitty. I think a lot of videomakers know this because there are a bunch of them making homesteading and farming videos with the sort of makeup and clothing you don't use when you are going to plant okra. The pandering is so obvious.

In that regard, I must commend that gal who has a horse channel with a video in which she teaches her horse how to kiss her in the mouth. Absolutely "I don't give a damn for likes" vibes.

Anyway, case in point, I recently ran into this Youtube gal called "TheBackgroundNPC" and, while she is banking on her feminity to generate viewers, her persona has been manufactured in such a professional way I think it is fucking impressive. Seriously, whoever

I don't want to blame them directly, since they are being ordered to by several states now.. But they are starting to roll out the 'prove you are 18' by uploading your ID. Or you are stuck only seeing children's videos.  But i guess at least the are not cutting access totally, like others will. ( and they must retain records of everything you watch, and give it to the government on a regular basis )

Soon, every major player on-line will have to comply.  Will be the end of the internet for me for the most, part as i refuse. 

And 'its for the kids' is a bunch of nonsense. its not, never has been.

Anyone else post stuff on YT?

As mentioned in another room i recently started the adventure to publish the ZoeBot music and ran into a couple things that i don't understand and not seeing it out on the web..

1 - uploaded a single video. It does NOT show in the video list, but others i did do..   But, if i move to view the playlist its with, it shows..    I thought it ate a video, uploaded it again, still nothing. Then tried the list view just by chance, both were there.. ( and got rid of the dup while i was there )

2 - batch upload. only about 80% show up. Here as a batch they would still be in draft mode so no playlist association yet.  Same sort of event here. Upload 10, 7 or 8 show in draft, and i cant upload another as my daily limit of 10 was reached.    But since they are not attached to a playlist yet, i cant see it via the workaround above.

Clearly they are not being 'blocked' since i can either see them in the list, or the next day do it again and if i send it ot a list i can see it.    Where the hell are these rogue videos hiding? same place my socks and tupperware lids go?

Go residents! 

Short version is its the story about people up in town giving google the finger about a datacenter being dropped into their back yards and wiping out more farmland. Unfortunately its not really "over and done" in the bigger picture, as the concrete machine will win in the end, since this state has declared war on nature, farms, trees.   But, its nice to at least win once in a while and piss them off, even if its short term.

https://futurism.com/future-society/residents-shut-down-google-data-center

People are stupid.

There is a plugin for Chrome, that is pretty much now dead due to manifest changes since it needed high level access to the page. ( was far more than a simple ad-block )  Aside from the normal complaints saw one today " i cant believe its even affected in chromium"   Um.. lol.   Ill give them a little slack on something like brave, if you dont have the sense to ask, you dont know, but chromium? really?

And another did not understand that for the most part, if you change browsers any particular page basically looks the same..  they seemed surprised..   

Many cant figure out why this app isn't available for the 'android' app that goes along with the web page. "its going to the same site"  um.... no, its a freaking web browser plugin...

They all need to get their phone out and go back to tiktok, they are just wasting our time with posts.. and no i don't expect them to be experts or something, but geesh use some logic.

Still say there needs to be an "existence test". If you fail base level intelligence and logic questions,  you become fertilizer.

I still dont get why FlexOS doesn't have Android subsystem baked in, would make it really popular i think.  FydeOS, which is based on chromeOS code did have it ( may never come back however, the project they relied on, shut down )  and x86 pixel books have it ( and other 3rd party x86 chromebooks had it and im sure there are a few still )..  And there are x86 android solutions for linux ( tho it requires wayland.. ick )  So it's not a technical limitation. 

Sounds like officially supported android subsystem is coming to ChromeOS flex.

That is the one piece its missing. Its a good web terminal, if your hardware supports it you can run linux VMs with almost no effort..  easy install, has drivers that are a pain in the neck with linux ( like apple wifi.. )

i know i know.. google is evil.. but stuff like this is still opensource ( for now at least ) and 'less evil' than the commercial alternatives for the 'average joe' to use.

That said, we don't use the TV much. I sit with family and dogs to watch a movie twice per week, and it is turned off the rest of the time.

And therein lies the difference.

"Video time" here involves two or more people throwing a bunch of 5 to 20 minute videos into a queue from multiple remote devices, and letting them play through.  It's not everyone's use case, for sure.  But it's our use case, and the traditional "cast" interface matches it well.

Just before the council vote was to start to allow it or not, google called: "nevermind" 

Good. Citizens win. ( cant say nature won, as i'm sure the area will be filled with houses instead )

Sat Sep 20 2025 19:42:14 UTC from Nurb432

And i guess Google is trying to move in to town with a new datacenter.   Locals are fighting it.  But Google paid off the ones in charge. So, you know how that ends

95% of the time for me, its either "cat TV".. or just a screensaver with random images from the net ( not local images )..   Its more abut spending time in the other room with the animals for a bit in the evening, instead of my office. The TV is just 'there' 

Tue Sep 23 2025 11:36:55 UTC from darknetuser Subject: Re: Bookmarks sync in the Mv3 world

That said, we don't use the TV much. I sit with family and dogs to watch a movie twice per week, and it is turned off the rest of the time.

And i guess Google is trying to move in to town with a new datacenter.   Locals are fighting it.  But Google paid off the ones in charge. So, you know how that ends

Or no phone...

Mon Sep 01 2025 02:21:38 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar Subject: Be Evil

 then at that point you might as well be on iPhone.

And if anyone was following my ongoing saga for a plan for when my current TV box dies .. getting everything we have now working and simple enough for others here to use,  finally gave up and just ordered a new version of what i have.  Might get here in a couple of weeks ( more amazon scam.. "hurry buy now be here at 4am.... ok.. its late, perhaps tomorrow.. ok. perhaps 2 weeks. we donno.."  Not that i care it may take 2 weeks, but that they get away with false advertising annoys me ). If it gets geminifed, ill look at how to disable it all, even if it requires editing stuff in debug mode to get my launcher to auto start and disable garbage that wont go away.

If it was just me, id have ditched it long ago, but need to make it easy. ( and wouldn't even have things like Netflix or chromecast.. i don't need it )

And a side note, it amazes me how easy an app is for a streaming site, just scroll and click, but try to use their web page, its like a schizophrenic GenZ child created it. Noisy, lots of steps.. 

To avoid this but still be able to type in a id/password or something on my Android boxes once in a while without going back into the computer room and digging out a keyboard/mouse and dongle ( only got 1 port ). i have a BT keyboard/trackpad about the size of 2 modern thin remotes side by side, so tiny.  Also have a TV remote with a keyboard on the back and an gyration detection mouse feature.. ( wave it in the air, the pointer moves ),  tho it requires a port for its dedicated dongle..

Would i want to use either on a regular basis, no, but it fits my need for the 'once in a blue moon' situation. Sure there is on-screen "keyboard", but i hate those.  And while you would have to pass it around, at least you dont have to get up to do it, or have it hanging off your 'TV PC'. ( which if its a tiny nuc, wont take up much space )

Wed Sep 17 2025 02:48:57 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar Subject: Re: Bookmarks sync in the Mv3 world

 require putting a computer and its keyboard and mouse at the screen

Honest question: Why does people use devices and dongles when you can hook up an old computer you a boring dumb TV and have pretty much the same services?

The answer to that lies in the layout of the typical viewing room.

My house, for example: 55" television is on the wall, seating is on the opposite side of the room.  It's comfortable.  When we watch videos, several of us attach to the queue and submit things to watch for the next hour or so.  Doing that with a computer would require putting a computer and its keyboard and mouse at the screen (ugly), getting up to change videos (too much trouble), and not having the ability to do a multiuser video queue.

It's convenience and style, nothing more.  Sure, if you're sitting in a small room by yourself it isn't really a big deal, and your computer screen is probably your TV already.  In a big comfortable room, the "lean back" interface is actually quite nice -- nice enough for me to tolerate a few short ads.  But now they're getting greedy, and they're about to lose me.

Ya, blocking ads is a critical security flaw.

For me, its a matter of being a far simpler interface.  Not that *I* cant do the hard way, but for others, just 'click and watch' is good.   its why i have been working on ways to make it brain-dead easy on a PC-NUC. ( auto start a home screen with nothing but about 6 big buttons that go direct to the streaming sites, or my jellyfin server, or weather ) 

But, for many of the streaming services, once you get there,the android app is easier to navigate than their web page however.  often times web is a dismal interface.  So back to android boxes..

And from the above about the dongles, in theory you can just use your phone .. send it to the TV.  Tho unfortunately here too, the chromecast variant is nearly transparent so it wins first place. But Mira, it takes a couple more steps.  and again, not a concern for me, but others.  Consolation is with a bare chromecast, none of the ads and crap you get with the default launcher on Android TV ( and ya, you can change the launcher but its now a pita and requires debug mode. so i just have it first in line, and its a click away to get rid of the noise )

Myself i almost never stream from extenral, but if all we used was Jelyfin, then a nuc with auto start web would be plenty. ( or i guess even kodi/libreelec but not a real fan of it. its ok, just not my style )

Mon Sep 15 2025 14:19:27 UTC from darknetuser Subject: Re: Bookmarks sync in the Mv3 world

Sure, if you are watching YT, or Netflix or something that is
fine, but if you want to use local files and not expose your TV
to the outside.. it wont work if its 'only' a chromecast. ( one
advantage to my AndroidTV, its a real android box underneath and
chromecast is optional. 

Honest question: Why does people use devices and dongles when you can hook up an old computer you a boring dumb TV and have pretty much the same services?


I don't do Internet streaming to TV (because my Internet is too slow for it to work at home) but when I want to play movies from my NAS or whatever I just dock my Steam Deck to the TV and play from there. The Steam Deck can be controlled with a cell phone from the LAN so you even get a remove controller in the setup.

And a slight update.

It does work, i guess.  However, looks like you have to use an app to get Windows or OSX or Chromebook to work, unlike my other one.   And i see people having limited success in the reviews.  Android does work. i might try the apps, donno. Even setting it up requires an app.  My other 'connect to its WiFi, use a webpage to setup"

Also cant get it to connect to my 5G WiFi, the entire reason it exists..  Keeps rejecting on the password. 

Most likely its going to be dumpster food or donated.  Cant really return it, it does work as advertised and isn't technically defective. I wont blame them on compatibility issues compared to the other, its my fault for not being able to read.

Sat Sep 13 2025 21:10:18 UTC from Nurb432 Subject: Re: Bookmarks sync in the Mv3 world

And apparently i cant read.

 

Well, it arrived today anyway.... What i have now is 'anycast' i thought i got an upgraded version. But no, its 'ezcast'  and no, its not the same feature set.    Not sure if its going to work for me or not.

While true, aside from being shackled into the google infrastructure the biggest disadvantage to chromecast is it *requires* internet.   Not that im against google ( yet ), but i dont want to be locked into it. And im slowly getting aggravated with them.

Sure, if you are watching YT, or Netflix or something that is fine, but if you want to use local files and not expose your TV to the outside.. it wont work if its 'only' a chromecast. ( one advantage to my AndroidTV, its a real android box underneath and chromecast is optional. 

I had a blueray player like that once. For it to work at all it *had* to have internet.  It wasn't around long and found its way to the dumpster.

( oh, and if you cast YT to your TV, all your browser ad blocks die, since like you say, its not really coming from your browser anymore, its direct to your tv )

Sat Sep 13 2025 21:22:50 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar Subject: Re: Bookmarks sync in the Mv3 world

Miracast is an option.  Its what the rest of the industry uses

True, and I have devices that do Miracast as well.

The win with doing youtube the native way is that the remote device (phone or whatever) does not sit in the media data path; it is basically your phone commanding your TV to play a video directly.

And apparently i cant read.

Well, it arrived today anyway.... What i have now is 'anycast' i thought i got an upgraded version. But no, its 'ezcast'  and no, its not the same feature set.    Not sure if its going to work for me or not.

Miracast is an option.  Its what the rest of the industry uses other than than apple and google. 

In fact, i just ordered a new "anycast" dongle. It supports several protocols, even apples.. native. Supposedly even chromecast, but never got that to work right.    ( part of my plan B for when my current AndroidTV box either dies or gets upgraded to GeminiTV ). Ironically, chrome use to stream to it too.  But google cut that off some time ago and now its "only allowed sites". ( which does not include any of theirs :) )

Was supposed to arrive today " hurry, order in 3 hours it will be there at 4am Saturday!!!"  "um, never mind, perhaps Monday ( Not that i care, but annoyed at the false-promises )

New, in that my previous gen current dongle works fine ( just updated it Friday actually ) only is 2G WiFi, and this bumps it to 5G. Its not used much, mostly was to record something when i have no other practical alternative, or when i was on the road i could use it in a hotel room. Just cast to that, and then hook my HDMI to USB converter, and hit record. If i go to that as plan B ( instead of the NUC idea ) ill want the extra bandwidth i think.

Apple is still worse.

Also, i suspect 3rd party phones will still allow it. Or there will be a way to 'fix' it, at least for the foreseeable future.  Much like you could ( still can? i donno ) jailbreak iOS.

Mon Sep 01 2025 02:21:38 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar Subject: Be Evil

Louis Rossman is pointing out that if they move to an app store only model, then at that point you might as well be on iPhone.

Gotta love walled gardens, that feed off of advertisements.  How dare you circumvent us!

Mon Sep 08 2025 13:17:12 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar Subject: Bookmarks sync in the Mv3 world

Once again I'm probably the last to figure this out, but ...

I was using "XBrowserSync" extension to sync my bookmarks across browsers.  It has a choice of servers or you can run your own.  I was happy with it for years but it appears to be getting murdered by the ManifestV2 slaugter.

Found a replacement called Floccus.  It does all the same things, can store your bookmarks using a bunch of different stores (both cloud and personal options -- I'm actually using my own git server), and relies on HTTPS encryption rather than storing bookmarks in an opaque format.  And it is ManifestV3 so the Goolag won't try to destroy it anytime soon.

Yes, all browsers have bookmark sync, but none of them are willing to sync between different browsers.  This does.  I am happy.

Once again I'm probably the last to figure this out, but ...

I was using "XBrowserSync" extension to sync my bookmarks across browsers.  It has a choice of servers or you can run your own.  I was happy with it for years but it appears to be getting murdered by the ManifestV2 slaugter.

Found a replacement called Floccus.  It does all the same things, can store your bookmarks using a bunch of different stores (both cloud and personal options -- I'm actually using my own git server), and relies on HTTPS encryption rather than storing bookmarks in an opaque format.  And it is ManifestV3 so the Goolag won't try to destroy it anytime soon.

Yes, all browsers have bookmark sync, but none of them are willing to sync between different browsers.  This does.  I am happy.

That is plan B.

Fri Aug 29 2025 02:48:59 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

Obviously you can still plug your own box into the HDMI port.

Rumor is AndroidTV ( the TV-ized android ) will soon have Gemini embedded. Some time ago my ( branded ) Android box for TV got "upgraded"..  Was not pleased. Its bad enough now, unless you swap out the launcher, ( which is a pain now.. ) as you get background ads constant on the 'home' screen.  I really don't want Gemini looking at what i watch then suggesting paid 'alternatives' on top of that. 

My ongoing concern is if it closes down the OSS side.  Which these companies want, OSS is competition ( well other than abusing it for free beta testing, feature needs, and bug fixes.. ).     And yes i agree like every bubble, it will burst.  The question is what dies with it? 

Sat Aug 23 2025 16:45:58 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

That might not mean what you think it means. What do you do if you know your core business is ridiculously overvalued? You buy something that actually has value.

When the AI bubble collapses -- and it *will* collapse -- they'll have a browser business and all the eyeballs attached to it.

From a news article:

"Perplexity AI, an artificial intelligence startup, has made an unexpected $34.5 billion offer to buy Google’s Chrome browser.

The bid is larger than Perplexity’s own current valuation, but the company says it has secured funding commitments from several investors to make the deal possible. Google has not responded to requests for comment, and The Wall Street Journal was the first to report the news.

Perplexity is best known for its AI-powered search engine, which gives users quick, straightforward answers along with links to the original sources. Just last month, the company introduced its own AI-based web browser called Comet. 

By making a bid for Chrome, Perplexity appears to be aiming to dramatically grow its reach in the browser market and combine its AI features with one of the most popular browsers in the world."

That would mean the end of Chromium and ChromeOS. Both would be a loss to the community.

If we had stuck with the original plan of being a universal dumb graphical terminal, in effect, and not gone down the route of "client side everything"  we would not be in this mess today.

Not real sure who to blame. I know the JS people did it, but i also know Guido tried it with python ( anyone remember Grail?) , not sure if it was after JS or that it was the idea catalyst.. its been too long, and too lazy to research.

We're currently living in a world where all browser engines are built by bad people.  At least the good folks at Brave are doing us a favor by sanitizing Chromium.

Even the organization behind the completely original Ladybird browser employs Mike Shaver, one of the biggest assholes in the known universe.

Pale Moon is the browser I use. It uses an engine called Goanna, its own fork (NOT a rebuild, a fork) of Gecko. It is not perfect (there are a few sites that do not render/function properly), but it is the closest thing to an independent AND usable browser that exists.

I like horses. ( all animals really )

Sat Jul 12 2025 09:16:06 UTC from darknetuser

You're not fooling anybody, man. I mean horse.

You don't know how much of a let down I am having. I thought this was a safe space from discrimination. I am tired of people not lettimg me into the bus because I am a horse, or not letting me near the vegetable stands in the grocery store because I am a horse. All I wanted in life was to show up at some digital place and be treated normally.

Latest chrome update. Disabled several of my plugins. And no option to turn them back on. 'its our computer now, serf'

Mostly using FF now, but a few items ( mostly work or google related like voice ) are still on chrome.   

lol

Thu Jul 03 2025 16:55:02 UTC from darknetuser

Well for one, real as he may be, I suspect that darknetuser may in
fact be a horse.

Why do you blow my cover? I thought you were my friend.

Horses are cool.

Wed Jun 25 2025 02:26:07 UTC from zelgomer

Well for one, real as he may be, I suspect that darknetuser may in fact be a horse.

Like it or not, im real, unless some of my other theories pan out and nothing is real...

LoL

Mon Jun 23 2025 23:18:58 UTC from zelgomer

After all, why are we all here on this board? Because we know
everyone here is human.

Yeah, about that. I've been developing doubt in a couple of cases...

Are you sure?

Are any of us real? What is real? 

Thu Jun 19 2025 21:18:22 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

After all, why are we all here on this board? Because we know everyone here is human.

That is what "synthetic data" is all about.

Thu Jun 19 2025 21:18:22 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

It can't just eat itself. 

That is an example of what i was talking about for Google.  Their AI will eat data from all its products.

Tue Jun 17 2025 00:42:44 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

It's interesting to watch Grok 3 augment its vast corpus of data with the latest posts on X.

Yes, the days of being reliant on web-scraping for core training is over. But also, i agree, if the plethora of data 'out there' was suddenly gone and all we had to work with was distillation, refined synthetic data and 'reference manuals', it would make the models take a hit with popular culture and current events. But overall, it would not be a deal killer or anything like that for the advancement.  And other than edge cases and a few exceptions, like this one, most work on models is starting to head more towards STEM and 'targeted' use. Like for robotics, IoT, custom 'chat agents' with proprietary company data, and less about 'general purpose'.

As i have mentioned i do make my living in the AI world, and even i am not too fond of forcing users into that sort of thing.  1: let them choose 2: don't be "creating" the content, just summarize the search, and include all references.  If they start truly "creating" the content it will give them too much control over the results and they will 'become the web', in effect.  And then, aside from the money, how does that go again? "Those who control the present."

Of course i fully feel that AI has its place in a lot of areas, but boxing in users into only generated content, and letting a single source win over all others, is not one of them. Even if they were a 'good company'.   

Forgot to add this to the above.

Case in point: Go look up 'the pile'. Due to that, there were/are several law suits for IP infringement against some of the bigger players, as basically its a huge database of pirated manuals/books/papers/etc that was used in early model training.  

But fast forward to today, for the most part no one is creating models from scratch anymore and current generation AI models are training their successors, as well as refining what they have, and adding new data to that to increase knowledge/accuracy, i really do believe that the loss of 'public forums' would not matter at this point. ( its called synthetic data and distillation ) Perhaps it would effect things like 'current popular TV' or useless garbage like that, but actual work ( coding, medical, chip design, mathematics, chemistry, science stuff, etc ) can get by just fine with the models we have now + curated, and often private, training content, so it wont hinder things at all in the bigger picture.

But. im just an amateur in all this and know just enough to get by since i was doing this stuff decades ago with "simple" ( by today's standards ) robotics when i was with GM and collision detection doing hobby work and had a head start. But if you want a true expert's view, you know who to talk to :) 

I know we don't agree on this one, but its more than just regurgitation. And they can ( and do ) get trained on actual technical documents. Operational manuals. Stuff like that. Its not just web crawling forums.  Sure, its a large % but if that vanished, it would not kill things.

Fri Jun 13 2025 18:00:35 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

.  But if all the developers move to pair programming with AI (which I admit I have been doing a bit of lately) there's no one left to contribute answers to Stack Exchange.  Same end effect.

 

That why i was suggesting at some point it will all come from googles resources.  News groups, forums, mails, chats, bla bla.  Eventually they will team up with the likes of FB and they will share data as the smaller players are wiped out..   If its not in the big garden, it wont exist. 

Fri Jun 13 2025 18:00:35 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

 Extrapolate that out far enough and all the source sites go out of business and Google has nothing left to train the AI.

 

It's kind of bizarre.  Google is moving to AI-generated answers by default, and the operators of the sites they're scraping to train the AI aren't getting the clicks and revenue they need to fund those sites.  Extrapolate that out far enough and all the source sites go out of business and Google has nothing left to train the AI.

The corollary to this is AI for software development.  Right now it's doing the same thing all developers used to do: cribbing from Stack Exchange.  But if all the developers move to pair programming with AI (which I admit I have been doing a bit of lately) there's no one left to contribute answers to Stack Exchange.  Same end effect.

But rather than running around in a blackpilled panic that it is the end of days, I'll simply point out that this is one more example of why nothing moves in the same direction forever.  Monoculture is not sustainable.

Might be wrong, but i think google going to replace search with AI content.  Not the optional  'ai summary' they have now, which lists references, but actual content generation, and mandated.  While the web wont 'die' they will end up killing off most of the little content guys, and the entire web will be google content from their services...  And yes, i know there are currently alternatives, but the unwashed masses don't know about them, and now they wont as it will just be filtered out even easier.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250611-ai-mode-is-google-about-to-change-the-internet-forever

Change in management structure didn't help.

Mon May 19 2025 01:50:02 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar Subject: Re: Google Caves on Nextcloud App Permissions

So if our old friend Zooer ever comes around and reads this thread ... old buddy, I want to let you know you were completely right. Google went evil as soon as they had the means and opportunity to do so.

Well that explains issues i was having, i figured it was just bugs and went back to web access instead of native apps since in the end, its good enough anyway. Didn't imagine Google was trying to break them intentionally. Interesting. 

Sun May 18 2025 18:07:51 UTC from rss <>Subject: Google Caves on Nextcloud App Permissions

After Google removed needed permissions from the Nextcloud app, it refused to return them for months — which quickly changed when the press got involved.

https://fossforce.com/2025/05/google-caves-on-nextcloud-app-permissions/

Technically, unfortunately you do know someone. 

Sun May 04 2025 16:24:26 UTC from SouthernComputerGeek

Nobody I know misses the Bell system.

something i read in passing in the news

"Feds demanding google open up android to allow 3rd party stores and developers and offer the same development tools and allow external payment systems "   um...  they do.    Sure, google has issues, but don't need to make stuff up..

Nobody I know misses the Bell system.

Or you end up like we did when AT&T was broken up.   Higher costs, tons of walled gardens. Bell labs was effectively shut down due to lack of funding. Who knows what we lost out on.

Even today, just try to take a carrier cell phone across to another garden. Even if you can, its going to be a battle.

But true, we, the consumer, still got the shaft, while the government and their donors ( ie, payola ) got more $ and power, over us.

i still worry about the downstream effects for us consumers.

Google may not be 'great' but having them collapse and leaving us with 2 practical choices left for many things which are far worse ( Microsoft and Apple ) would be terrible.  There are a lot of good projects their ad revenue funds, which are really a revenue loss on their own as a 'product'. Lose too much revenue at the top, projects like that get cancelled and we lose options. ( and this does not happen just with the IT industry, its common in others too )

Aside from not being able to fund them so we lose the alternatives, forced spin offs like is being discussed, most often die too, or soon after spin off they get bought by one of the other big ones, and vanish, so same result.

Thu Apr 24 2025 16:44:59 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar Subject: Re: From Bad to Worse

It means that the default search engine in Chrome is going to be Bing pretty soon, since M$ has a controlling interest in OpenAI.

Ick. I wonder what happens to ChromeOS and Android..  they are all intertwined.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -OpenAI would be interested in buying Google's Chrome if antitrust enforcers are successful in forcing the Alphabet unit to sell the popular web browser as part of a bid to restore competition in search, an OpenAI executive testified on Tuesday at Google's antitrust trial in Washington.

I would agree, but if anything i have learned is that each generation is more controllable than the previous and less likely to rock the boat.  Even if they claim they will. 

Today's generation, they just accept tech as it is, and are not organized or competent enough to change it.  "this is how its always worked, feed us more 30 second videos .. *squirrel*  what were we talking about?"  ( and yes im speaking generalization not specific people, but it takes the 'whole' to force change in a different direction )

Sorry, i see the future is bleak, and i see the 'free world' as a lost concept that we are merely living in the shadows of, as the rulers see fit to keep people complaisant as they slowly, incrementally ratchet things down. I see no light at the end of the tunnel. Not even an oncoming train.  ( but that should surprise no one :) )

Mon Feb 24 2025 14:27:55 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

 

I have more faith than that in the ability of the free world to resist that kind of thing.  

Its still chromium based, so it will be impacted at some point. Tomorrow? Perhaps not, but someday it wont be practical to put back missing prices and not break things. 

I have more faith than that in the ability of the free world to resist that kind of thing.  We've done it before and we'll do it again if we have to.  The death of Internet Explorer should serve as sufficient evidence to demonstrate that John Gilmore was right, the people of the Internet can and will work around anyone attempting to gatekeep.

And anyway the Chromium code now sits in a place where derivative works are pretty much the intention.  Google, Microsoft, Brave, and a dozen others are pulling from it.  Mozilla is dead to me, they are doubling down on being assholes about removing "nazis" from the community.  Let them collapse, I don't care.

I was doing something like that for a bit, but then i ran across a dedicated YT blocker, which then got removed by force "its malware, its gone, suckers"..   then found ublock.

Ublock does still seem to work with FF.  and YT-DLP. 

Sun Feb 23 2025 19:37:51 UTC from darknetuser Subject: Fuck ads

For Youtube videos, I have a private server that acts as an advertising removing proxy. It is a bitch to setup but if you are interested I can share details.

Neat, now im getting popups on searches " you have your history turned off"  yes.  i do, now bug off!

Its still chromium based, so it will be impacted at some point. Tomorrow? Perhaps not, but someday it wont be practical to put back missing prices and not break things. Trying to see what works and does not work in FF for the things i need. I know one app at the office, it wont work properly.  Couple of plugins, are not there, but most are.  I did sign up with a Mozilla account to see how well sync works across platforms. ( which is REALLY handy for me, with more than one device ).  Also have to see about GPU acceleration on ARM machines, in the past that was missing.  Made video nearly unwatchable.

Of course eventually all browsers will stop working other than the 'blessed' one, at most large sites due to special components.  Its all cyclical. But by then i wont care and will just turn the computer off and walk away, for good. ( so close to that now its not even funny. if it was just me i might actually do it. Sell out. Go find a shack out in the woods. Drop off the grid and call it a day. )

Fri Feb 21 2025 03:00:36 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

DUDE. Just install Brave. Problem solved.

Well, 'lite for v3' does not block YT ads fully.   It shows a blank screen thru some of them, others show a static banner..  and the video itself only played the last couple of minutes ( out of 11 ) .   Not tried other stream sites yet, but that was mostly a fail. 

Off for another solution, before v2 dies on my desktop.  

Yes i just saw the v3 version was out. going to try that on a laptop for a bit.  Since 80% of what i do now is via external facing web apps, I use my home machine for work quite a lot and don't futz with the shop machine.  VDI for 15% when needed, and then that 5% via my shop machine + VPN ( due to some network restrictions from VDI ).

With ad block working, chrome is fine for me, but if the V3 stuff sucks, then ill be moving on.  

Thu Feb 20 2025 14:29:59 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

There's a "ublock lite" which I am using with Chrome on my work computer.
It's as decent as you can get with ManifestV3. But for your own machines you really ought to be running Brave. Do it for the adblocking. Do it for privacy. Do it for Brendan.

Well. Chrome may be dead to me now.  The removed ublock from the store.. without that, i refuse to go online.

Have to see if there is another way to install it. ( i hear something like tapermonkey . donno research time ) 

"Google updated its artificial intelligence principles on Tuesday to remove commitments around not using the technology in ways “that cause or are likely to cause overall harm.” A scrubbed section of the revised AI ethics guidelines previously committed Google to not designing or deploying AI for use in surveillance, weapons, and technology intended to injure people. "

Are these the same friends who you turned on to search.citadel.org?  As a famous anti-Google frog once said: feels good, man.

lol

Fuck the browser bullshit, rip out their advertising.

Too many people today want that to be the first and only resort. 

Sat Nov 23 2024 16:40:27 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar Subject: Re: Bribe Time

Government intervention ought to be a last resort,

Disclaimers up front:

1. I agree there are issues with Google.
2. I do not have solutions to propose. But, i do not propose a meaningless hand slap.
3. The following is totally based on selfish involvement in their services and their effects on me, personally. 

Fri Nov 22 2024 03:19:29 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar Subject: Bribe Time

So it appears that the government has requested that Alphabet pay them a very large sum of money.

That's not how they phrased it, of course. What they actually said is "Alphabet needs to divest itself of the Chrome browser and possibly Android as well."

In other words, once enough dark money changes hands, they'll end up with a toothless consent decree. That's how it always goes.

Sometimes its hard to avoid them 100%. 

Mon Nov 18 2024 22:57:01 UTC from darknetuser Subject: Re: Butthurt google crybabies

You deserve the bad karma you get for participating in youtube and other mainstream tech sites.

Friend of mine has that google home voice controller thing.   He asked it to turn on a light.  Instead of turning it on, it asked "what is the value".

Tried it several times, same result.  He finally said "Zero value"... then it turned the light on.

Mine just get instantly deleted by the bot.   Same effect, different method. 

( i quit commenting long ago due to that.  Why bother? )

Mon Nov 18 2024 13:49:50 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar Subject: Butthurt google crybabies

ooooh, my ability to comment on youtube videos has been suspended for 24 hours because some crybaby there didn't like something I said. Dunno what it was but I hope whoever did that gets so upset that they pop a blood vessel in their brain and drop dead.

And safer, since YOU are in control...  Even if the others are benevolent, i don't trust many.

Sun Nov 17 2024 23:16:35 UTC from darknetuser Subject: Adblockers

 Setting your own is more fun, though.

Ill take a peek at that when i have some free time. 

I tried pihole once, it seemed to do ok, but since i had ad blocker plugins, it was needless overhead and removed it.  ( it was back when blockers for YT started to fail )

Blocking at DNS level is what PiHole does.  I've tried that, and wasn't impressed with the results.  I think you need an entire adblock list loaded into an HTTP proxy, which is what Privoxy can do.  Either on the same machine as the browser or network-wide to serve all local users.

It's an arms race.   It won't end well for them.

Yes i think long term solution is local ad-block at the DNS level.  I dont think long term browser based code is going to work.

And ya, google went south some time ago from being the underdogs, to being just like the rest.

Thu Nov 14 2024 15:37:55 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

It would be somewhat difficult for Goolag to stop downstream browsers from doing whatever they need to inside the browser source code to prevent them from gaining access to every page's actual manifest. De-open-sourcing Chromium is also a non starter because it uses existing open source components and has several downstream browsers (including Edge hehe).

Worst case scenario, we load our adblock lists into something like Privoxy and block at the network level. And you know why? Because fuck off Google, you've misbehaved to such an extensive and obnoxious level that you don't get our money now. You built your empire on the backs of a community of people whose prime directive is to disempower rent seekers.

Last i heard brave is based on chromium. so it will matter to you in time.  Attacking plugins is just the beginning.

Thu Nov 14 2024 14:35:34 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

I didn't and won't notice. I'm using Brave, which has the ad blocker hard coded into the browser instead of implemented as an extension. I say let the plebians see the ads and generate the ad revenue for whoever. Quite frankly most people don't deserve to have the Internet in the first place.

Rumor is they are starting to disable manifest V2 plugins now, and pulling them off the store.

Cant allow those pesky ad-blockers now can we?

Well that is a shame  Google may discontinue ChromeOS Flex.

I know know google evil bla bla bla, but they keep politics out of ChromeOS, and for the most part Android.  Still not tied to their garden, the base OS is still opensource..  etc.  

Google Chrome basically has a monopoly in the browser market; most other browsers are just the Chrome engine, Blink, wrapped in a different GUI. Blink was forked from Webkit, which was forked from KHTML. So if you ever see a KDE developer, get in his face and scream "IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!"

One might argue that this is the open source process doing what it was meant to do.

Consider that open source KHTML and its derivatives literally ended a Microsoft monopoly (Internet Exploder).

YT is rolling out " Pause ADs"

So when you pause your video you get blasted with ADs.  

Google Chrome basically has a monopoly in the browser market; most other browsers are just the Chrome engine, Blink, wrapped in a different GUI. Blink was forked from Webkit, which was forked from KHTML. So if you ever see a KDE developer, get in his face and scream "IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!"

XD

I looked up Xiaomi's out of curiosity, and its just a 2 screen fold currently.  But if 3 way is coming, still say that may cross the threshold from neat gimmick to useful feature.  ( current model is about same price as the lower end google fold at around $1200, so while its 'better' than googles high end for the lesser price, ill still pass )

 

Wed Sep 04 2024 09:17:52 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

The big three chinaphone makers (Xiaomi, OnePlus, Huawei) are all coming out with tri-fold phones. Huawei is going to be the first to market out of those three, from what it seems. Interesting idea, to have a phone that unfolds into a tablet. I still can't get past the idea that a foldable screen isn't going to eventually develop problems at the crease. So we'll let other people be the pioneers (and get the consequential arrows in the back).

 

Not sure what screen lock has to do with it either. Other than like you say, if its 'lost' its 'locked' anyway.  And not that tying back a BTID to a person is impossible for a hacker with a few radio skills, but not sure how easy it would be in practical terms. Ill have to build a BT tracker or something and see how granular it can be from across the room. As far as G- tracking you and your device(s), if its a cell phone they already have the towers to feed data from. ( tablets, Chromebooks, not so much since not many have cell data, but this would get around that )

And, i have not got that email yet.  is there a way to disable it? ( short of getting a pinephone and physically turning off the radio )

Wed Sep 04 2024 09:25:11 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

Meanwhile, I got an email from the Goolag saying "your android devices will soon join the Find My Device network". It then goes on to explain that it's going to use bluetooth to scan for nearby items. So I guess this is Goolag's version of "AirTag" and "Tile". It also means that there will be a billion new devices eavesdropping on the bluetooth space and returning that data back to them. Imagine the privacy concerns. Imagine the Big Brother possibilities.

It says that if you set a screen lock, it can also "use the network of over a billion devices ... to help locate your items when they're offline." I don't know why a screen lock is required for that feature. Maybe they think it's a nominally safe way of preventing someone who finds a random phone from stalking its owner? Or at least barely enough that Goog can say they did something more than zero so don't sue them.

Privacy? What privacy?

Xiaomi is who i used to get phones from, until this last change due to the radio. Reasonably priced, no carrier bloat, little of their own bloat.  

Ya, eventually those screens will crease, but in theory its far enough down the road you want another device anyway.  I do know they test them with 10000s of bends, years worth of daily bending.  I do also think its a neat idea, but donno if its like the stylus. a neat idea but hardly ever used in reality.  ( at least for me that is how it turned out ).  Not sure if 2x screensize = novelty or actual use ( google ) But 3x may be across the threshold into actual use.  But then again, I thought the 'flex' devices ( where they fold over backwards into a tablet ) might have fallen into that same novelty boat, but for me turned out i loved the idea and stopped using tablets totally when i got my first.  I dont use keyboard a lot on the go, but having the option is good as its 'often enough' to not even bother with a traditional laptop for 'daily life' on the go.

Wed Sep 04 2024 09:17:52 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

The big three chinaphone makers (Xiaomi, OnePlus, Huawei) are all coming out with tri-fold phones. Huawei is going to be the first to market out of those three, from what it seems. Interesting idea, to have a phone that unfolds into a tablet. I still can't get past the idea that a foldable screen isn't going to eventually develop problems at the crease. So we'll let other people be the pioneers (and get the consequential arrows in the back).

To be fair its also a small tablet when you unfold the screen, so i can accept it being a little more than a average phone.  but man... 2500 bucks..  that is freaking insane.

Google has a new folding phone too now.   2500 bucks

ouch. 

Dude, everyone I know who was around back then is glad the breakup happened.

Thu Aug 15 2024 09:35:37 EDT from Nurb432

AT&T was to serve as an example to all:  "dont play ball with us, we will destroy you"  ( true, in the long run they were not obliterated, but they DID screw them, and hurt them badly.. and fractured the industry for decades, some would say it still is to an extent )

Has there been a breakup of that magnitude since?

Thu Aug 15 2024 09:14:31 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

Sounds like the DOJ is looking for a bribe, doesn't it.

 

Just replace the O's with eyes..  no IP infringement suit and it is even more accurate...

It literally took me five years to find someone willing to make a "Fuck Google" shirt, and even then it had to be a skunkworks project with the boss's approval behind the scenes. Everyone I tried? They weren't blue-nosed conservatives making the sign of the Cross at an F-bomb. Every single one of them said in so many words that they were terrified of El Goog and their army of lawyers. And I'm in basically small town central-midwest - not some festering pit of rancid snail shit like CA or NY.

Fuck Google.

In this case i think its them being dumb.  But, in others, ya 'you hurt my feelings, you cant use that name'

Can I just say one more time ... fuck Google.

 

Hi IGnatius T Foobar,

The handle you chose violates our spam, deceptive practices and scams policy.

Your new handle is: @user-yt5ny8xi8d

Seriously?  The handle "ig_foobar" is spam/scam?  How did they even manage to reach that conclusion?

Either it's a really dumb algorithm, or Alphabet employees are maliciously targeting people who hurt their feelz.

AT&T was to serve as an example to all:  "dont play ball with us, we will destroy you"  ( true, in the long run they were not obliterated, but they DID screw them, and hurt them badly.. and fractured the industry for decades, some would say it still is to an extent )

Has there been a breakup of that magnitude since?

Thu Aug 15 2024 09:14:31 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

Sounds like the DOJ is looking for a bribe, doesn't it.

https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2024/08/14/doj-considers-breaking-up-google-following-landmark-antitrust-ruling/

DEW IT!

Number 2 they have. Have they done number 1?  Apple clearly has.    Not defending them, just not sure if they have put up the wall.  Not sure 'cost' is considered a barrier. that is normal operation everywhere.

And that's reason #0021859834958729435 why libertarians should all die in a fire

its sort of what i tell people.

" Ya, its uncool  But its their place, they can do it if they want, just like you can at your house with your guests.  Don't like their rules, move on. "

Thu Aug 01 2024 11:27:42 EDT from nonservator

It's a private company, sweetie! Don't like it? Just start your own nation-state!

It's a private company, sweetie! Don't like it? Just start your own nation-state!

Legal? Yes. Slimy? Also yes.

Man people are stupid. "YT is removing subscriptions from accounts, they are breaking the law"  um no, idiot. Their house, their rules. 

or the "they are trying to ban pro 2A channels and cut off their revenue, they are violating the constitution"   Well, no, read the Constitution again. 

Well last night's test. going from 4K to 1080p  -> Original 4K file 78G..   1080p file..  9G              Took all night..   But there is no rush..

Copied it over to my media server and will have to test with the cats tonight if its 'good enough' but i don't see why not.. 

lol its brain dead easy to descale video.  Just never cared to look, mostly used it to rip DVDs.

Running a test now, see how much smaller it gets.  My TV isn't fancy 4k, so its silly to store that kind of file. 

Im sure if looked around i could find some other channels, but the one we normally watch is only 4K bla bla bla.   But if i go too low, they don't look real enough for the cats i guess and they ignore it. Not sure what their threshold is, its hard to ask them directly :) .   Even i i record them myself with bird feeders out in the back yard, it has to be as good as my camera can do or i get a ' eh, whatever ' and they move on.   I tried an old camera i had, since i didn't want to leave the good one outside unattended ( not theft concerns, but a squirrel might knock it down ), but no, the video was ignored totally. 

Tried just compressing these as is but no dice. Next im going look at a way to reduce quality a tad.. as storing a bunch of 50g video files out on the NAS hurts.   I'm sure handbrake can do it, but never had to before, and just not looked too close, yet.

Sun Jul 28 2024 17:05:27 EDT from nonservator

Is that the only format they offer? I almost always ytp-dl a medium quality copy, or even audio only. -F to list available formats, -f to pick a specific one. And you can mix and match whatever video and audio streams you want, like "-f 239+255", and ffmpeg will combine them for you. (Yes, this works on Windows too.)

Is that the only format they offer? I almost always ytp-dl a medium quality copy, or even audio only. -F to list available formats, -f to pick a specific one. And you can mix and match whatever video and audio streams you want, like "-f 239+255", and ffmpeg will combine them for you. (Yes, this works on Windows too.)

I normally do on stuff *I* want.

But these cat videos. often times they are 50+GB...

Sun Jul 28 2024 14:47:31 EDT from nonservator

Download video like God intended. Streaming delenda est.

Download video like God intended. Streaming delenda est.

Not heard of that one.

I had to quit using it via TV app. When i changed my YT to no longer track history, it bumped me out, and cant get back in at all, even anonymously..    Oh well. It was mostly just to let cats watch mice and birds.  I can get them that stuff other ways and drop it out on my jellyfin server.  Early on there were no commercials in those so it worked out ok, but just before i locked myself out they started to.. Cats would lose interest and wander off before the commercial break was over so was about to give up anyway..

I guess i could stream it from desktop where ads are blocked and i can login, but not worth the trouble when i can just download the video.

Sun Jul 28 2024 14:12:34 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

 The television app seems to be aware of whether you have a physical remote control. If you don't, it plays shorter ads. If you do, it plays longer, skippable ads.

lol well no. but yes.

I was testing by copying links into FF and they worked ( and yt-dlp, which also still works ). So i went ahead and logged in via FF, hit the first video, nope same result. Grrr..     But if you copy/paste the link into Chrome even it works, logged in or not don't matter.  On a whim i did open in new tab. THAT works too..   Tho who knows for how long.

should not be this hard to avoid crap.

Should have tried this before i posted..  but it appears FF is still doing ok with UBO, at least as of this moment, so its the changes they are making in chrome.  

****ers

Well it was. 

Looks like they have broken it to an extent. Unsure how bad.   Start video.  Get a black loading screen ... then a full screen ad that sits there.( i assume should be a video ).  then it pops to the video. 

Might be done and stick with yt-dlp.  Unless UBO can fix it in the next few days.

Sat Jul 20 2024 12:20:52 EDT from Nurb432

Ublock origin is still going strong in blocking YT garbage for me. 

But yes, anyone who is on another platform, go there instead.

Ublock origin is still going strong in blocking YT garbage for me. 

But yes, anyone who is on another platform, go there instead.

The problem is there are a couple of channels that dont exist anywhere else.

Ill keep it for those.  Wont be commenting there anymore.

Wed Jul 17 2024 06:19:22 EDT from darknetuser

Time for everyone to move on. 

You are late in reaching that conclusion, but welcome anyway

And apparently if you have a channel that has any sponsorship from a company that is in the gun industry, your YT channel will get wiped if you dont stop.  

Time for everyone to move on. 

and lol2..   a rant about how fast comments are being deleted...      gone.

they win. im done.

Lol one today:

Comment about the Trump shooter: "cop saw him in area but had no gun"  One dude said ' backpack '      My comment "or the gun was on the roof waiting"

Instantly... it was gone.   

Never mind. he just got shot. i bet they yanked videos due to that. 

Sat Jul 13 2024 18:31:36 EDT from Nurb432

Interesting. YT recently let trump back on. i re-subscribed. He was posting videos of his campaign stops. They would show up in my subscription feed as they came out. ( I turned off view history, to reduce tracking so 'home' is now blank, and i dont get those stupid suggestions anymore that would fill the page ) I did a refresh a bit ago to see what was new in subscriptions, all of his vanished from the list, tho still in my notices. They are screwing with stuff again. YMMV of course.

Interesting. YT recently let trump back on. i re-subscribed. He was posting videos of his campaign stops. They would show up in my subscription feed as they came out. ( I turned off view history, to reduce tracking so 'home' is now blank, and i dont get those stupid suggestions anymore that would fill the page ) I did a refresh a bit ago to see what was new in subscriptions, all of his vanished from the list, tho still in my notices. They are screwing with stuff again. YMMV of course.

Actually i think its also targeting individual people.

Had one instantly hidden a bit ago in a gun channel. It had no trigger words ( pun intended ) nor did it qualify for any other 'rule'.  Oh well.  Rarely commented anyway, so whatever, no loss.

Guess im on yet another list.  lol

Wed Jul 03 2024 14:13:10 EDT from Nurb432

Looks like YT has got to the point of deleting posts with 'words' in them. Even if within context of the actual video posted. 

 

Not that post often, nor do i leave it up long. But it is annoying. 

I think the "private company" ship sailed long ago with just about everyone in the corporate sphere. Let alone El Goog and their fellow Silicon Valleyites Facefuck, who were created and bankrolled by the military-industrial complex (you know, what we used to call the deep state until everyone decided they loved Big Brother).

But deleting relevant comments that are within context of the video, and in these cases just due to a word?

One example: video of a car thief dropping a baby off in an underpass on the side walk, then speeding away, after mother was hanging on the door for several miles and finally fell into the road.

While it had more text, the comment was similar to " while that does not excuse his actions, he could have just tossed the baby out the window or killed him like will often happen in these cases"   Instant deletion.    Tried it a different way. Again, gone.  Replaced "killed" with "******" and it stayed. 

I have seen other example of non-bad comments, within context, political statements, but if its against the wrong party, its gone faster than you can blink. If its against the correct party, it stays.   Far too fast for people to be reporting and then being deleted. 

"shoot" is another. You can say it totally out of context of firearms, but the word alone can get it gone.  "well shoot, i didn't think of...." poof.   ( and a variety of other words like that, 2A channels struggle not to be demonetized due to 'words', even from comments and not the video )

I realize its a private company, their house thier rules, bla bla, but it can still piss me off that they use free speech laws to their advantage and make tons of cash and influence people, but don't feel like extending same to thier customers.

Looks like YT has got to the point of deleting posts with 'words' in them. Even if within context of the actual video posted. 

I wish Instagram would do that.

That, by itself, would go a long way to making the platform usable again.  What started as a nice photo sharing site turned into "Facebook in square boxes of text".  I'd love to see it turn back.

Didn't realize you could do this, but i turned off my view history so it no longer suggests crap.

But, it also logged out my TV and to get back in it gives you a QR code to some 3rd party place to register and login.. no thanks.    *delete*  ill get videos for my cats elsewhere.   commercials were getting unbearable, and cats lose interest and walk away before they ended

And on that TV box, i'm stuck with the app, as have yet to get a browser to install, so no ad block. It used to be just Android, and worked well, then it got 'upgraded' to 'googleTV' and has sucked ever since.  Its about to go into the trash. The only nice thing is it was also a chromecast.. so wife could stream from her phone, painlessly 

Looks like YT has got to the point of deleting posts with 'words' in them. Even if within context of the actual video posted. 

Not that post often, nor do i leave it up long. But it is annoying. 

They will just blame AI farms and then government will crack down on non 'authorized' companies running it.

Google is now pushing 'ai features in gmail, docs and more' 'try free for 2 weeks'.   

Out of habit I do use drive every so often for temp storage.  I dont rely on it, just convenient sometimes.  So got a popup today.

Need to get into the habit of using my next cloud box instead. 

Pretty much the only engines other than Chromium/Blink that work with most websites are Gecko, Firefox's engine, Goanna, Pale Moon's engine, which forked from Gecko, and Webkit, Apple's engine, which forked from KHTML, KDE's engine (KHTML is no longer maintained).

Mon Jun 03 2024 07:28:18 EDT from Nurb432

Right, sort of my point.. most people have used that code base.

There are a couple, but i doubt they are 'up to standard' ( mostly set by google in effect it seems.. grumble ). 

Sun Jun 02 2024 22:43:17 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

What's not Chromium? The current favorite seems to be Pale Moon.

 

Right, sort of my point.. most people have used that code base.

There are a couple, but i doubt they are 'up to standard' ( mostly set by google in effect it seems.. grumble ). 

Sun Jun 02 2024 22:43:17 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

What's not Chromium? The current favorite seems to be Pale Moon.

Manifest V3 rolls out next week.

I wonder how much damage it will cause, and how many users they lose before they back off the war on ad-block. Enough to matter?  Rumors EFF will sue.. ( be pointless, other than raising awareness )

I also wonder if it will be baked into chromium, ChromeOS ( i assume yes to both ) and if that translates down stream to things like Edge, Brave and others based on chromium source, or if its possible to roll back to v2 in source ( i doubt it )

Other than FF, what else is not based on chromium that is a viable option for us Linux people these days?  ( viable as in actually will work on 'todays web'. i know plenty of ones that just wont be functional are out there ).

Yes, the entire 'cord cutting' nonsense, was just that, nonsense. All people did was switch from one protocol to another, some even kept the same physical cord. Really cutting the cord = no more 'TV'.. 

I also agree about substitutes.  While its got way out of hand, the original concept of what YT was, is still useful in this world.  And i still dont mind if they make a buck, just dont flood me or be stupid about it.

Long ago i started to keep copies of stuff i liked so already in that 'hue disk use' boat.  I have seen too many things get taken down, or services vanish ( not that UT will vanish, but it might become pay only someday, so in effect vanishing for me as i will refuse ), or even if its still there, "now, where was that video from 2 years ago" and if you search you get garbage results to sort thru and if you are not careful and get into incognito mode to search, it adds the results to your suggested list.

Bad thing for me is other than a couple of subscriptions, i dont wnt most of what they put out, just bits and pieces.  I guess if its scripted, who cares, no more physical effort, but its a waste of bandwidth/space/etc waiting for me to review and delete the garbage.

But that said, so far ublock is still going strong.. 

Tue May 28 2024 19:18:09 EDT from zelgomer

agree, and that's why i recently started using scripts to slowly and methodically download videos and playlists I think I may want to rewatch after it's gone. Plus it has the added benefit that I can watch them now sans ads. Only problem is that it is consuming more disk space than I ever imagined using in my entire life.

Not seen it yet. But reading that YT now causes audio drop outs and videos to just skip to the end if you have a blocker.

Eventually they are going to kill the platform.  Sure, gotta pay the bills, make a buck, but when you go overboard at the expense of your customers. You go away.

Myself i did have plans on looking into that at some point. Just not got around to it yet. 

I'm in the boat of 'i have nothing to worry about if they listen but it still is wrong'.   ( i do nothing wrong to be reported for, and i'm already on several government lists anyway )

Sun May 26 2024 06:58:15 EDT from darknetuser

If you have a Pixel phone you should be running GrapheneOS on it instead of stock Android, precisely because of this sort of crap.

Friend has a pixel phone. ( i do to.. had to move away from the unlocked non NSA invaded Chinese phones due to radio issues and it was the lesser of evils of the options i had.   long story, for another time )

Wont do all details, but he was in a physical discussion with someone about some basement issues at a remote site, while on site.  He then started getting 'targeted ads' for basement repair/water/etc.     He had his phone with him...  

The listening all the time that copilot is going to start doing, may already be here.  

Dammit. I'm gonna have to put my SearxNG instance back up.

You should. I miss it. I had to adjust to use something else lol.
The marginalia search engine was deploying countermeasures to remove AI produced content from their search results. Too bad Marginalia does not work with Searx(NG) as far as I know.

Ok, I'll do it.  It might be a couple of weeks but I'll do it.  Tonight I finished converting www.citadel.org from a virtual machine to an LXC container.  When I got the SSL certificate I made sure that search.citadel.org was one of the subject alternative names attached to it.

Tho related to the email thread, it is gmail..

Every week or 2 i go in to clear out the inbox on my gmail of all the garbage.  I dont actually use it, but its needed for my Chromebook .. ( and i suspect YouTube, tho that is irrelevant now ). I also have a few old mailing lists that go there that i dont care about enough to change. AND anytime i get a text message it goes there... 

its empty. not one message for a week. not even spam.   

Tried a test from my home account.. never made it ( no bounce message either ).   Tried from the office, it got thru, so the account itself isn't disabled or something. 

I guess those changes they did recently really broke things for the rest of the world. Build that garden wall .. 

Not really. I tend to ignore them all. Been too much fake for too long to pay attention to them.

Sat May 18 2024 15:13:43 EDT from darknetuser

Have you noticed the avalanche of cheap listicles,reviews that only cover the basics of the item, and automatically generated reviews? T

I get the impression they are going it make it 'less appealing' or 'harder' to look for the actual source so that most people wont bother. Not just a little blurb at the top, but active steering away from sources.   I would suspect tho that perhaps some ad blockers will help filter it out.  Donno. Not there yet.

AI in our daily lives is just getting started. Not that its new,  but we have not seen anything yet, so dont get your hopes up that its just a fad, any more than the internet was, or electric light..... The Cylons are coming... 

I heard Wendy's is replacing their drive thru order takers with AI....  Which may not be a bad thing, since so many of them are kids that are nearly illiterate and incomprehensible anyway...

( and i know i have said it before, while i DO totally agree that just like with humans, their training can be easily manipulated and in many cases is and one must use caution, its not all of them, some are far 'better' than others )

Fri May 17 2024 11:20:07 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

Some search engines are already including "AI" summaries at the top of their search results.

I'm really hoping the "AI" craze dies down soon because I'm sick of it. The summaries are awful and usually just ripped from the first couple of search results anyway. And as everyone knows, the "AI" is only trained from "approved" sources that have "disinformation" removed from them.

Dammit. I'm gonna have to put my SearxNG intance back up.

I consider it fair use. No different than if i read the original myself, and then tell you a summary. 

I'm a hard core 'knowledge should be free and not just for the elite' advocate. 

Thu May 16 2024 20:37:07 EDT from zelgomer

Another angle to look at that one: where does it get its info from to generate the results? Like I said on some other thread around here: AI is automated plagiarism.

If I ran a website on the clear net, at this point I'd be tempted to block search engine crawlers.

Still looking for something 'hard' to reference, but was reading that several news outlets are pissed at googles plans to soon give you AI driven results first, instead of links to sources like it does now.  

"google is going to put us out of business as no one will click a link to read a story if its already there in black and white" ( paraphrased slightly )

Also ripe for that word i hate, 'disinformation' as you cant just believe what an AI says without research ( any more than you can a person, or a single news source )..  Even me, the AI promoter I am, knows this. AI is not infallible and its datasets can be easily manipulated during training.. 

Everyone should be prepared to defend their hill, whatever it takes. If not, is it really theirs ?

I know i have been called silly for thinking it, but i still predict walled gardens for email, someday. 

and related, but not google, last week a pro Palestine protest on a college campus police action and arrests, called in by the school staff...  arrests including omar's daughter. 

When even the fundamentally woke entities like google and colleges are getting tired of it.. its a good sign.

Sat Apr 20 2024 11:50:15 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

It's a start. Maybe we've hit the peak of this nonsense.

Well. they just fired them.. Im impressed.  28 of them at this point.

Well that sucks, i do happen to agree with google this time, on forming a business alliance with Israel.

 "Google staffers wearing traditional Arab headscarves barged into the California office of the company’s top cloud executive, while other workers staged a sit-in at the company’s headquarters in New York City to protest the tech giant’s ties to the Israeli government on Tuesday. 

The pro-Palestinian employees, part of a group called “No Tech for Apartheid,” used social media accounts on X and Twitch to post images and live video of their takeover of the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based office of Thomas Kurian, the CEO of Google Cloud."

Pictures of them being hauled out by cops, all wearing masks so they cant be ID'd and fired on the spot.

This has been reported. 

I was trying to download a file from Google Drive with Pale Moon and a new tab opened up but wouldn't load. I tried Firefox, no dice. I tried Safari, nada. I tried Chrome and it magically worked. GRRRRRRRRRRR! Screw you Google, screw you!

PS: Please share your files with something other than Google Drive.

No idea, only saw a small snippet.. where the idiot gets up and starts yelling.

Wed Mar 06 2024 04:19:22 EST from darknetuser

2024-03-05 13:48 from Nurb432
Some engineer during a meeting stands up and starts yelling and
waving his finger ' i wont be a part of feeding bla bla genocide
caused by Israel' 

Time to be firing someone. For a variety of reasons. 

Please, tell me the meeting was at least tangentially related to the subject.

Some engineer during a meeting stands up and starts yelling and waving his finger ' i wont be a part of feeding bla bla genocide caused by Israel' 

Time to be firing someone. For a variety of reasons. 

Ya, they all have their walled chat. Sucks too.  Be nice if everyone could just play nice together. Im sure email being 'open' is a thorn in their side, grinding away at the likes of Google and Apple. And why i was figuring at some point, they will wall off email, somehow. At the least have some sort of hybrid where all the cool features are internal.  if they dont make it ot the point of "if you want to send mail, you have to have an account here"

But with the popularity of gardens like FB and X.. people may just accept it, this time...

( and is it just me is loading time really poor today around here? )

Tue Feb 13 2024 09:22:44 EST from IGnatius T Foobar

I

Of course the walled garden systems would prefer if no one self-hosted.
They all shut down federated XMPP 

I expect it to get worse. 

Walled garden mail systems will become the norm. " for your safety " of course. ( and to make it easier to monitor )

Mon Feb 12 2024 20:13:16 EST from nonservator

Email in 2022 is anti-competitive. 

Just a reminder:

https://cfenollosa.com/blog/after-self-hosting-my-email-for-twenty-three-years-i-have-thrown-in-the-towel-the-oligopoly-has-won.html

"Hey, I get it. Surely my little conspiracy theory is exaggerated. Some guy on Hacker News will tell me that they work as a SRE on Gmail and that I'm super wrong and that there are 100% legit reasons as to why things are this way. Okay. Do something for me, will you? Please unread this last section, I retract it. I just needed to get it out of my system. Thanks for indulging me. Done? Good. Everything else above is a fact. Email in 2022 is anti-competitive. The Gmail guy can go explain himself to the US Senate or the European Commission."

That would be a good thing.

Mon Feb 12 2024 18:15:38 EST from IGnatius T Foobar

I've been giving some consideration to writing a HOWTO document and maybe even a walk through video.

Fastmail have been around for years, are affordable and reliable, and support U2F hardware keys. Only downside is they're in Australia, but nobody's perfect.

I would love it if they made it mandatory by law to have a Google account, just so I could tell them to fuck themselves up their retarded assholes.

So read a bit more, i guess the one advantage (?) is its tied into your google account. So it can ( if you let it.. its not required ) read all your email, chats, browser history, bla bla  so its 'tailored' to you. But ya, still cant be trusted. Between censorship/fact manipulation, and they also have to push their ad revenue.

And its replacing the 'hey google' voice assistant ( whatever that was called.. )

Sat Feb 10 2024 11:56:18 EST from IGnatius T Foobar

Got an email from Goolag proudly announcing that "Bard" (their AI thing) is now called "Gemini"

Sorry Goog, but it's still opinionated and censored, I'll go somewhere else.

I saw that too, but via a tech news letter i get.

Supposed to be new and improved. But ya, ill stick with my local models, even if its slower..

Sat Feb 10 2024 11:56:18 EST from IGnatius T Foobar

Got an email from Goolag proudly announcing that "Bard" (their AI thing) is now called "Gemini"

Sorry Goog, but it's still opinionated and censored, I'll go somewhere else.

Well that is new. Just got a survey from a YouTube channel ( that i did subscribe to ). Sent to my regular email, not gmail which of course is what is used to login to YT. But it had the right user name. How odd.

lol. i rarely comment on YT as i rarely even look at comments, most of them are idiots. that and 1/2 the time i do, i get a warning that i 'said bad things'

I did this morning, statement similar to to 'Biden cheated'  by the time the next comment came in, mine was deleted by YT.  You can tell its election season.

if we lose this election, it will happen. 

We get to pay for the privilege of being force fed propaganda. 

Tue Jan 23 2024 09:49:57 EST from IGnatius T Foobar

 a "services fee" on your Internet bill 

i suspect the big ones are.  Just fancy accounting to make it look like they are barely breaking even, for tax reasons.

One difference is that the media companies do get paid for access to their "cake" via the ad revenue stream.  In the case of your cake no.  Unless you got paid to put an ad on there or to use certain ingredients ( ad placement ), its a loss for you. 

Its one reason the FCC started regulating broadcast TV/radio, which we did rely on out of practicality, to protect us "consumers" who paid via our time on seeing advertising, so it was a level playing field. And yes, to grow power, but sticking with the legit reason at first.  its all out the window now, but .. 

Sure, that's possible, but they'll have a more interesting time doing that when I don't have an account.

They dont need to sue, they can just turn off service. 

Sat Jan 20 2024 10:45:42 EST from nonservator

"terms of service" are bullshit. I didn't agree to anything. If they disagree, they can sue me.

"terms of service" are bullshit. I didn't agree to anything. If they disagree, they can sue me.

I know i have said it before, but im ok with some ads. I know they have to pay the bills and make a buck or 2 extra. And people like me that wont buy a subscription ads are the only way... Nothing in life is free.. I understand that. 

But once they flood me, f-em. 

It seems tho that regular chromium does not get effected ( with the same ad block extension however ) which is what Brave is based on too...  So i donno.   

So YT is broke again. In Chrome. Update. Still broke. Switch to stock FF ( also has ublock origin ) works. 

My days for chrome may be coming to a close.

Messages yes.   Hotspot, yes. Music, not anymore ( long story.. but bought a standalone mp3 player again ).  video, never really did. ( not including my security cams in this ) I dont do games. e-mail, once in a blue moon, and normally when im waiting on something.  Web, rare. Mostly if im stuck somewhere and am bored. Weather, yes. ODB motoring, sure.  Maps, not often, as i try to know where im going before i get there. But it does come in handy sometimes if i dont have mt tablet with me ( now THAT i do most things with.. video, music, web, etc, and often use the phone for the network ) Back before my smart watch broke, calendar notifications  ( which is fine, it was short term use anyway, i prefer real mechanical watches )

Camera is the big one.

And of course the curse of modern times: MFA machine.

As far as video: I have used them to stream video from home to a TV at a remote location or something ( i carry a streaming device with HDMI. sort of like chromecast but not google and it makes its own network ). So again, just a network device. 

To an extent that is true, but when i had a phone with Android One on it, it was perfect. No bloat. Regular updates, etc.  

Mine is just a portable data device. I rarely use it to talk .. 

Mon Jan 08 2024 19:23:10 EST from darknetuser

Nowadays, I think the best smartphone experience requires a degoogled Android ROM.

It makes a world of a difference.

Of course, best phone experience is using a dumbphone instead, because it doubles as a horse toy you can use for making calls after the darlings get tired of it.

While nothing is perfect, I had the exact opposite experience.  *shrug*.  Of course i did it far before that. Perhaps 10 years earlier. 

Of course none match my Palm T/X, but having mobile data is what got me a phone in the first place.

Sun Jan 07 2024 21:47:35 EST from LadySerenaKitty

In 2021 when I switched from Android to my first iPhone (iPhone 11), the aggravation and annoyance at my phone dropped considerably.

In 2021 when I switched from Android to my first iPhone (iPhone 11), the aggravation and annoyance at my phone dropped considerably.

Not for the unwashed masses. They would have no clue and just figure "this is how it is now...  i have to watch 100 ads to see my 20 second cat video, or pay to only see 10, and i have to have my cat video"

Their only realistic options are to move to another browser that can still support the needed plugins, that they get from their respective walled-garden-store. And that is IF we can get the news to them... Even getting 3rd party extensions and side loading on android which is easy, are beyond most people.  Of course if they use iOS they have even more hoops to side load and way beyond them. it was a pain in the ass even for me.. and every update broke it... bla bla ( i assume iOS can still be jail-broken.. i have not cared since the iPhone 3s days... my first, and last, iOS device. never again. i will go without a phone before i do that again ) 

And yes i know i know, "we dont care about them"  but we need to, their lack of knowledge enables the crap that those of us who can have to work around.. With each round being harder than the next.

Hey, look at me, sticking up for the little guy for a change....

Sun Jan 07 2024 17:48:44 EST from IGnatius T Foobar

On the contrary. It will make more people install a PiHole to block ads at the network edge, or even an ad-blocking HTTP proxy for even more fine grained filtering.

The more the Empire tightens its grip, the more star systems slip through its fingers.

Right, not a traditional extension but it is based on chromium engine like Edge is, so will get the change too, assuming it isn't running on a dedicated fork and wont merge after the 'breakage' ( but then it falls behind, so i dont see that happening..  going to have to be a workaround/undo event ).  

FF and Safari will be the only viable options if it cant be worked around.

Sat Jan 06 2024 09:45:08 EST from IGnatius T Foobar

I don't know what Brave is doing to add its "built in security" but since they are a downstream browser and not just an extension, hopefully they have access to APIs that extensions don't.

If not ... this *is* an arms race, so we'll see other solutions. If we have to get our Internet through ad-blocking proxies, so be it.

Remember this spring they disable the features most blockers use to read data.  I forget the term now bla bla version x of bla bla, ( and too lazy to go look ) and they of course claim its more secure..  

And i thought brave is based on chromium. So it will effect them too.  Unless someone comes up with a patch to roll that piece back. ( for however long that works )

As far as ublock, make sure you are fully updated with all the filters. i have not seen it in a while now.  

Wed Jan 03 2024 15:02:29 EST from IGnatius T Foobar

IGoogle ought to tread carefully. 

been working again, without hiccups. Wonder if they ran out of ideas and gave up, leaving it at the last version.  Other than the coming nuclear option this march of course.  ( at least with chromium engine.. and we all switch to FF )

Interesting.

Tonight YT hard blocked me due to my ad block, on Chrome.. Updating didnt help, i guess today's 'fix' isn't in yet.

Works fine on Firefox ( thought id start looking at it again, i have a feeling this spring i need to move back to it ). Same ad-block plugin ( mainly wanted to see if it was there.. and tried it for the hell of it ). Even Chromium seems to work.

the one that amazes me the most is when they watch/listen to vidoes that last about 10 seconds at most..  for hours...  Just hearing it in the distance drives me up the wall.

Yes, i agree with this one, most out in the 'sticks' are good people and just stuck.   They live in poverty and cant really leave, but if they tried, they would be executed.  And rebellion isn't practical either, that also means death.

Not all of course, but most of them.

And i also know a few that were able to get out. They are good people.  Of course again, not all that come are good, but they do exist.  Trick is weeding out the bad and putting them back on the plane. 

Wed Nov 29 2023 21:24:20 EST from zelgomer

I have to believe there are many more still stuck in the old country. 

yes sorry, dont beat me. 

Sun Nov 26 2023 12:49:06 EST from LadySerenaKitty

 

*first paw..

Sat Nov 25 2023 17:54:49 EST from Nurb432

Yes. Aside from the stupidity of it, its destroying destroying peoples brains and will contribute to the general collapse of societal abilities.  Been a few studies on it.   I'm watching it happen myself first hand.. It programs in an attention span of a flea.. and you cant multitask.. at all..   Its amazing, and scary, the damage its doing. 

 

 

 

China is an island nation.  Do you mean the ungoverned territory of West China?

Sat Nov 25 2023 17:25:11 EST from IGnatius T Foobar

Also, I believe TikTok should be shut down via nuking the entire nation of China off the map.

*first paw..

Sat Nov 25 2023 17:54:49 EST from Nurb432

Yes. Aside from the stupidity of it, its destroying destroying peoples brains and will contribute to the general collapse of societal abilities.  Been a few studies on it.   I'm watching it happen myself first hand.. It programs in an attention span of a flea.. and you cant multitask.. at all..   Its amazing, and scary, the damage its doing. 

 

Yes. Aside from the stupidity of it, its destroying destroying peoples brains and will contribute to the general collapse of societal abilities.  Been a few studies on it.   I'm watching it happen myself first hand.. It programs in an attention span of a flea.. and you cant multitask.. at all..   Its amazing, and scary, the damage its doing. 

Sat Nov 25 2023 17:25:11 EST from IGnatius T Foobar

Also, I believe TikTok should be shut down 

A 2nd thought on the above.  I wonder if YT will also detect things like PiHole and tell you to f-off.  

ya i can get around it, but not sure about the wife and her phone...

Ill have go to back to that eventually im sure. I was running PiHole for a bit but i had zero luck with it blocking embedded video ads, and it was one more layer of headache for me to maintain for no real advantage since i had ublock origin running too ( and back then a separate dedicated YT blocker, which YT has since then been removed and blocked from running ).  it also didnt touch FB ads.  But there is a dedicated plugin for that to remove them, as well as other features.  So.. between the 2 main issues i was having anyway i dropped it.  But i can see it returning, in the near future. 

Wed Nov 22 2023 04:47:37 EST from darknetuser

I have been recommending running LAN-wide adblockers for a long time so you don't need to depend on browser's capabilities.

But what about stack... oh wait, wrong subject...

A heap occurs when you add the 149th grain of sand to a tiny pile.  I've done it.

Sat Nov 18 2023 18:44:11 EST from nonservator

How many grains of sand do you have to have before it's a heap?

How many grains of sand do you have to have before it's a heap?

Most people will just put up with the ads.  they do now. 

Sat Nov 18 2023 14:03:18 EST from nonservator

[Accelerationism intensifies] No more half-measures. They want to kill what's left of the Internet? Okay, fine. Do it, faggots. No skin off my ass. And then what?

[Accelerationism intensifies] No more half-measures. They want to kill what's left of the Internet? Okay, fine. Do it, faggots. No skin off my ass. And then what?

But. Cat videos??

Sat Nov 18 2023 10:36:43 EST from nonservator

The Web needs killing, so I hope it dies as quickly as possible.

The Web needs killing, so I hope it dies as quickly as possible.

They way i'm reading this, early next year google is going to in effect remove the ability for *any* plugin to block ads as it restricts what a plugin can 'see', including what is needed to detect ads.  Of course its under the excuse of security. but we all know why they are doing it.

Source - > https://www.pcmag.com/news/rip-ublock-origin-google-proceeds-with-plan-to-shake-up-chrome-extensions

Sounds like my days of general web use is about over.  Sure, there is Firefox, for now. I do expect Google to infiltrate the web enough with 'extras' that unless you use their engine, you dont function.  And of course any chromium engine based browsers will be off the table too.

I'm also glad my career is slowly winding down. I'm really sick of this industry. I wonder if WWIII will knock us back decades and we get to start fresh..    nah, who am i kidding, it will only make it worse.

Could do that with YT-DLP too..  As long as you dont delete the original files a regularly scheduled cron/whatever job to download their channel would result in new ones being added to the folder. And it does work in places like Rumble too.

Just a random thought early in the morning, being 1/2 asleep...

Hmm so i wasn't even able to recover my mothers legit account on FB, yet spam bots create them constantly.  Today on YT, one single video had at least 1000 bots..  The only comments were the spam bot. its insane.  Not that i normally read comments, but it has a key word in them and caused me to notice )

How the hell do they create these things?

wow.  YT changed the anti-blocker algorithm mid video a bit ago.. Actually kicked me out.    ( and no, there was no embedded ad in the video )

i should stick mine out on GitHub or something.   its simple does what i want. 

https://oleksis.github.io/youtube-dl-gui/

Cross-platform front-end in wxPython

from the big list still at https://old.reddit.com/r/youtubedl/wiki/info-guis

The new Louis Rossman and co all-in-one app is GrayJay:

https://grayjay.app/

I'm still not entirely clear on the "sovereign identity" aspect which so far comes across like a vague sort-of-blockchain, sort-of-decentralized.

So far the daily game of whack-a-mole is being won by uBO, so im not having to ditch things..  Yet.

And YT-DLP is still working. ( man, i wish i had made that simple GUI for it long ago..   no more starting a venv, typing bla bla, then more typing. now its copy/paste, push button and wait )

I had just ran across that same page. lol. Going to read it this evening. 

Not 'officially'. Last I knew:

"But Google doesn’t publish RSS feeds for channels—or at least they don’t make them easy to find with a clickable button. Luckily there are two easy workarounds."

https://danielmiessler.com/p/rss-feed-youtube-channel/

https://www.ghacks.net/2022/08/01/how-to-subscribe-to-youtube-rss-feeds-without-third-party-services/

i didnt know YT did that.

Thu Oct 26 2023 11:52:34 EDT from nonservator

How about using an RSS feed for "subscriptions"? I imagine even if El Goog shuts that down, Invidious instances will still support RSS.

How about using an RSS feed for "subscriptions"? I imagine even if El Goog shuts that down, Invidious instances will still support RSS.

For me its more about subscriptions, so i see what is new from them.  I dont really use the 'suggested feed' much as in my case its way off ( especially for music. once in a while its right, but most of the time they get it way wrong )

Thu Oct 26 2023 09:46:00 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

The thing that keeps me coming back to "real" YouTube is the feed. I know it's heavily manipulated, but the curation of videos I might like to watch is actually pretty useful.

Blocker updated, now working again.

But in preparation, wrote a little GUI wrapper around yt-dlp using tkinter, as im too lazy to type. 

Might be sooner than i thought. They have ramped it up, as i expected. .. 

Wed Oct 18 2023 17:04:23 EDT from Nurb432

Oh and Mr doom and gloom himself  : Glenn Beck

"The world is ending freak out! Buy patriot food and gold bars! "

Wed Oct 18 2023 17:27:41 EDT from Nurb432

ISean Hannity which isn't terrible but still not a go-to for me. They also have that jerk Levin.. screams and yells repeats himself and pushes his books, and soooooo many commercials. He may be correct, but his delivery turns many off.

 

I listened to radio in the 70s, 80s, early 90s. 

Mostly talk radio, as i listened to alternative music that was not played around here. Cant stomach top 40 or the so called 'classic rock' crap. monotonous noise.   But for the most part once Rush stopped, i quit. Now if i listen its just for traffic reports and even that, less so as by the time they report it thru all the commercials, im sitting behind the wreck.  Tho there is a local station that is ok, has a couple of local guys that are not terrible if they stay away from religion, and national people like  Sean Hannity which isn't terrible but still not a go-to for me. They also have that jerk Levin.. screams and yells repeats himself and pushes his books, and soooooo many commercials. He may be correct, but his delivery turns many off.

perhaps 15 years ago local college station started "moving alternative", but not what i consider alternative. Until you start playing things like kristin hersh, L7, veruca salt, rockbitch, bikini kill, or even something as tame as Tapping the Vein, kidney thieves or even screaming females, you are not alternative.  Hell, at least try playing sonic youth or something that is commercial-alternative ( and id not even hope for bandmaid or Yakui The Maid or something as that is wayyyyy too far for most, but at least try...  )  But at least it was a step in the right direction i guess.

Wed Oct 18 2023 16:58:50 EDT from darknetuser

I am more radical than you because I "remember" radio shows from the 1930s.

Main difference in my mind was that sponsorships were more professional. You didn't get an ad in the show. You got an unique explanation of the week as to why product X was nice and could be useful to you. Hell, sometimes they came with genuinely useful advice about regulating your furnaces or whatever, THEN told you "by the way, buy our 100% American coal."

Not heard of that. If my blocker fails down the road, ill try it.. 

Wed Oct 18 2023 16:54:26 EDT from darknetuser

Just use an Invidious instance like yewtu.be. Problem solved.

I think in the old days, that is how it worked. it wasn't really 'blocked' but 'hidden'. Then over time it went more to actual blocking, so easier to detect.   I have a blocker thing for Zukerbook, and that is how it works.  It has an option to show that something was blocked, optionally why, and you can click to view it if you want. Of course that means its doing more client side processing, and FB can kill my browser tab when it floods me and the blocker struggles to keep up... ( i have hit 60% CPU at times..  on a 8 core xeon.. )

It's going to be a game of cat and mouse forever, just like spam and spam blockers.  Except I would argue that advertisements for fake viagra are far more tolerable than the crap Google is trying to push.

The next step will of course to build ad blockers that download the ads and fool the site into believing they were shown.  I supposed on YouTube the goolagers will respond by measuring the delay between serving the ad and serving the video, which seems simple enough until you realize that they may have come from different servers thousands of miles away from each other.

In the end they'll just end up pissing off their users and hastening the end of YouTube's near-monopoly position.

Now that the 'block ad blockers' popup with YT is spreading, my blocker has come up with a work around.  Of course its a moving target, but at least they are on it. 

You mean this one? 

Tue Oct 17 2023 09:46:12 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

ya

Mon Oct 16 2023 15:35:33 EDT from LadySerenaKitty

HTML bloat, CSS bloat, JS bloat, so a page that should be 57K is now 7MB, and then there's about 250MB of ads on top of that.  Oh, and you can't even fucking tell what's an ad versus what's content.

Then websites wonder why nobody goes to them.

 

HTML bloat, CSS bloat, JS bloat, so a page that should be 57K is now 7MB, and then there's about 250MB of ads on top of that.  Oh, and you can't even fucking tell what's an ad versus what's content.

Then websites wonder why nobody goes to them.

Mon Oct 16 2023 08:12:53 EDT from Nurb432

Sad thing is i would be ok with the occasional ad. Even the embedded placements that some channels do.  I understand everyone has to pay the bills. But just dont smother me in the crap and feed me more ad than content.

I still remember timing airwave TV back in the old days before i stopped watching.  You get 30 seconds of show, for 3 minutes of ad.  Radio is just as bad. "Hi we are back, and we are going to talk about how such and such sucks, but now lets have a word from our sponsor" "oh, and buy my book!"

Sad thing is i would be ok with the occasional ad. Even the embedded placements that some channels do.  I understand everyone has to pay the bills. But just dont smother me in the crap and feed me more ad than content.

I still remember timing airwave TV back in the old days before i stopped watching.  You get 30 seconds of show, for 3 minutes of ad.  Radio is just as bad. "Hi we are back, and we are going to talk about how such and such sucks, but now lets have a word from our sponsor" "oh, and buy my book!"

I know we will all adapt, and get by. I am just not looking forward to the hassle. 

Mon Oct 16 2023 07:14:19 EDT from nonservator

To effectively block the command line downloaders, they wouldn't just have to break Youtube, they'd have to break what's left of the web. Go on, faggots. Do it. No skin off my ass. It'll be premium entertainment.

To effectively block the command line downloaders, they wouldn't just have to break Youtube, they'd have to break what's left of the web. Go on, faggots. Do it. No skin off my ass. It'll be premium entertainment.

Now its every time i open a video, and now there is a timer before it lets me close. Sort of an increasing nag, in effect.  I expect in a few days the timer will be gone again, and ill be done with their interface. The tiles still work, so i can get urls for YT-dlp. But if that quits too....

This time it was as i started the first video.  Debian 12, x86, updated. Latest Chrome. ( yes yes i know. )  Ublock origin installed. ( since the other YT blockers are gone now, per another rant thread  )

I was able to hit the X and it played this time. Yesterday it just kept popping up at first.

2099366784@Uncensoredhttp://uncensored.citadel.org/readfwd?go=Google%20Overlords?start_reading_at=2099366760Fri, 13 Oct 2023 02:28:30 -00002099366760@Uncensored

As well as yewtube which replaced mps-youtube and doesn't rely on an API.

Oh and im using yt-dlp since still being actively worked on. 

Thu Oct 12 2023 17:09:13 EDT from nonservator

as long as youtube-dl works, nothing else matters

Not sure i can use it now, if this continues.    

1 - i cant see the video at all to see if i want it ( i know, "DL and see"... but extra hassle )

2 - Not sure i can copy a URL out when the popup happens since it loaded at launch, on top of the "tiles".  Ill try it next time.  After a few repetitions of it not letting me past the 'tile screen' at all as it kept popping up, it did finally let me close the popup. i was able to see 2 videos, then it popped back up, but i could close the warning that time.  ( had not got around to posting yet, as it just happened )

Thu Oct 12 2023 17:09:13 EDT from nonservator

as long as youtube-dl works, nothing else matters

as long as youtube-dl works, nothing else matters

Now YT is scanning for ad blockers and will refuse to work unless you disable them or buy a subscription. ( at least for me, YMMV )  just started this afternoon. 

Guess i'm done with YT. 

To me, WHATWG seems like a cartel. Do you think that's an accurate characterization?

Consolation with web apps is that at least in theory, your front end does not even have to know the platform ... 

Fri Sep 29 2023 08:53:09 EDT from zelgomer

I would. I hate my browser, and I hate having to use it for anything. Any application implented in the browser is several times heavier and slower and more buggy than the same app implemented as an .exe.

I think we still could have app delivery and have it mostly server side, not pushing so much of the work onto the client.

Would it be quite the same? No.  But i think it would have worked.

I might still be using vSTA ..  By now we would have a basic render engine for a (nonclient) browser.

Tue Sep 26 2023 17:36:00 EDT from msgrhys

If client side processing never became a thing, I would be able to throw something like NetBSD on a 30 year old machine and get by just fine.

And I say this as a 20 year old.

If client side processing never became a thing, I would be able to throw something like NetBSD on a 30 year old machine and get by just fine.

Many will disagree, but i think the downfall started with client side processing.

Only so many people had the resources needed to manage engines that could support it.  And i think things ' changed '. The web was not the same

Like hardware and operating systems in the 80's before PC monoculture razed the landscape, the World Wide Web used to be a lot more diverse. Alanis levels of irony are seen in the hindsight that shows us the web was far healthier at the height of Microsoft's Internet Explorer dominance than in [CURRENT YEAR] where El Goog and its countless Chromium-based offspring rule the roost. Anyone else remember OffByOne?

https://archive.org/details/offbyone-evolt_browsers

"The Off By One Web Browser may be the world's smallest and fastest Web Browser with full HTML 3.2 support. It is a completely self-contained, stand-alone 1.1MB application with no dependencies on any other browser or browser component. For Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT and Windows 2000." No SSL or JavaScript support.

Or the original Opera that was truly its own unique engine and browser, beloved by many until it was hollowed out and turned into yet another Chromium skinsuit.

Now the nest is overflowing with shit, and yet only a few dare try to take wing and fly away. Since none of the right people have the level of financial resources required, we're forced to rely on the handful with sufficiently weapons-grade autism to offer an alternative. Like Ladybird from the SerenityOS guy, where the browser is just another aspect of an entirely new OS. Me, if I had money or autism to throw at the problem I'd split it between a brand-new ground-up engine, and a fork of Lynx to bring it as truly up to par with the current web as possible - maybe easier if PhantomJS were resurrected and updated?

Pale Moon is the browser I use. It started as a rebuild and then fork of Firefox but has diverged significantly since. Its developers didn't like the direction Firefox was going. In particular they wanted to maintain support for XUL-based add-ons rather than implement Google's WebExtensions. I originally used it because it ran better on my older hardware, but its "old" interface has grown on me and I now use it on all my machines.

Isn't that an Anime character? 

Mon Sep 25 2023 22:29:08 EDT from msgrhys

Ever heard of Pale Moon?

Ya home machine. But, one ad-block still works. One of the older ones. Its working.

And it seems was only 60% correct:

• Removed from store
• Disabled in browser but NOT actually removed. you can turn it back on if you want. i misinterpreted the message.

Mon Sep 25 2023 21:50:11 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

I am assuming this is not your work machine, since you had the option of installing an ad blocker before.

Just don't bother with the Google build of Chrome at all. You should be running Brave. It has a very good ad blocker built in. And I suppose you could also be running an ad blocking proxy if that's more convenient for you.

Ever heard of Pale Moon?

OH and they just killed off zlibrary link finder

Grrrrrr

Guess i'm done with chrome.  They are blocking and removing one by one any ad blocker from the store.

Is there a 3rd party store for chrome plugins like there is for android apps that they dont like?  Not searched for one yet just thought id ask.

Grrrr

Thu Sep 14 2023 14:46:20 EDT from nonservator

I forget where the discussion was about Tucker Carlson and whether he was visible on Rumble, but if you go to https://rumble.com/c/TuckerCarlsonOfficial now, you get "410 - Gone". 

Yeah, no good search engines and no good web browsers.

I forget where the discussion was about Tucker Carlson and whether he was visible on Rumble, but if you go to https://rumble.com/c/TuckerCarlsonOfficial now, you get "410 - Gone". Same for TuckerCarlsonTonight. The account "TuckerCarlsonTonightTheFiveJesseWattersPrimetimeGutfeldUnfilteredwithDanBongino" doesn't look very legit, especially with that ugly AI-looking profile picture.

PS: Sorry for ruining the fact that as I post this, Google Overlords has 666 messages. Although Ig might have hardcoded that just for fun.

Sorry, i should have specified google chrome. Not google search.   

I worked around it, and enabled YT blocking in another, but wonder how long before they declare that one bad and yank it too. 

Wed Sep 13 2023 21:43:22 EDT from nonservator

Yeah, it's not like you'd be giving up a search engine that actually works - no such thing in [CURRENT YEAR]. And for everything else there are equal or superior options, some free and/or self-hostable with little effort.

Yeah, it's not like you'd be giving up a search engine that actually works - no such thing in [CURRENT YEAR]. And for everything else there are equal or superior options, some free and/or self-hostable with little effort.

Wed Sep 13 2023 16:39:00 EDT from Nurb432

Google just blocked my ad-block plugins.

Do you mean you cannot install them? What browser are you using?

Google just blocked my ad-block plugins. 

F-ers .

Setup your own stable diffusion instance, and you can make horse pictures until the cows come home. So to speak.

Mon Sep 11 2023 17:52:03 EDT from darknetuser

So I did some searches for horse pictures and realized I have soooooo many of the ones showing up in the results page already in my collection.

Looking for some **dog** memes today. google:  "Memes about groups of people might be disturbing or hurtful"  I guess no more memes for you serfs, google knows best.   

So sick of this crybaby society we live in now. People need to grow a pair.

The masses have no clue.

( yes i know, "we dont care about the masses" but their actions do effect the rest of us too )

Mon Sep 11 2023 08:35:00 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

Isn't everyone who cares about privacy using Brave or some other privacy-respecting browser by now?

Grrrr. The end of what was left of privacy.

"this feature will track the web pages you visit and generate a list of advertising topics that it will share with web pages whenever they ask, and it's built directly into the Chrome browser"

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/09/googles-widely-opposed-ad-platform-the-privacy-sandbox-launches-in-chrome/

Cool.

When it comes to tech I am absolutely an accelerationist. Do it, faggots. Oh no, please Br'er Fox, don't t'row me in dat briar patch.

Sorry, with so many threads after a while things like that tend to be forgotten and i do repeat sometimes.    But sometimes its with new people too, which makes it worse.  

Fri Aug 11 2023 03:24:12 PM EDT from darknetuser

2023-08-08 14:54 from Nurb432
i added a pihole to mine, but it didnt stop the in-line ads. 

I am aware. I think you have mentioned it a couple of times already.

i added a pihole to mine, but it didnt stop the in-line ads. 

Tue Aug 08 2023 02:05:34 PM EDT from darknetuser

Suggestion:

Set an adblocking proxy in your http network. Then set your TV to use the proxy. If your TV won't use the proxy, force it to use the proxy (Mikrotik is great for benevolent MITMs) and use a proxy with https interception.

Hmm didnt know brave did that.  Ill have to suggest that as a better option to the spouse.

I dont do that stuff on my phone. Only desktop or tablet, and they both have proper ad block plugins ( and i use browser only )

Sat Aug 05 2023 11:16:11 AM EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

And yes, I do use adblock. The problem is that the browser is not
where I tend to watch YouTube videos. It's usually on my phone or on my

TV (controlled from my phone).

Yes, I have the same issue. We watch videos on the big screen and you can't easily block ads. Fortunately, the ads they show on Chromecast or Roku or whatever, are MUCH more tolerable than the ones they show on mobile or desktop.
Less than ten seconds each and they tend to be from major brands.

On mobile, I don't use the app. Just the web site, using an ad blocking browser (Brave). The occasional accidental launch of the app, and the inevitable long-form ad that appears, is a jarring experience.

cool. ill have do that for the wife .

Fri Aug 04 2023 10:01:11 PM EDT from nonservator

Newpipe is still working on my old phone with no cell service, available through F-Droid.

Newpipe is still working on my old phone with no cell service, available through F-Droid.

Not having a supported browser, that will make it harder. Tons of blocker plugins for those.    

The YT android app i had given the wife a while ago, is long gone. YT went after them, didnt have the $ or energy to fight.

Is it really? Or is it just optics and a 'designed' loss leader of the upper level alphabet organization?  ( having a tax write off BU to use is not to be underestimated in the larger picture )

Sun Jul 30 2023 06:00:42 AM EDT from darknetuser

Maybe, but then there is the fact Youtube's business model seems to be crashing, so if you kick moar of your audience out I would not call it a success either.

I donno. like most things, if you can stop the 'unwashed masses' its considered a success. 

Sat Jul 29 2023 10:22:33 AM EDT from darknetuser

As far as blocking, their YT BU is already going after extensions.

Tue Jul 25 2023 06:41:34 AM EDT from darknetuser

And they are doing a bad job at it.

That first mozilla/browser FAQ comes to mind: "Oh no, please don't, whatever will we do without you."

Its just a matter of time.  And expect more than one of those.  Really they could do it now, anyone remember " only works with IE " messages we used to get? That precedent is set.

As far as blocking, their YT BU is already going after extensions.

Tue Jul 25 2023 06:41:34 AM EDT from darknetuser

Subject: Google wants to DRM the web

So somebody at Google filled a proposal for a protocol that could allow websites to only serve trusted web browsers.

In this context, "trusted" means it is backed by Google Play or an equivalent service. With the decline of ad revenue this past years I can imagine they would use this to disallow browsers that support adblockers.

Around the time i was talking about cutting ours off, "we have cell phones.. " ( i had 3rd party VoIP anyway ) one of our relatives decided he needed an extended stay in a local prison.  So, moving our line to fiber VoIP got rid of the extra bill. ( and was far cheaper ) .

Reason being: At the time, they were not allowed to call cell phones from prison.  Unsure if that is true now. its been a while.

Wed Jul 19 2023 09:18:55 AM EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

For the purpose of this conversation, dedicated digital voice still counts as a "landline" -- it doesn't have to be POTS. And it's definitely true that a lot of people still have them because it comes in a bundle. Sometimes it's actually more expensive *not* to have it. But I think that's changing. I'll talk about that more in the broadband room; this is more of a conversation about the cultural implications.

Most people find themselves asking, why do I have that number in the first place? It's because you've had it ever since you moved into that home, or at least into that area code, decades ago. Someone is probably still calling it. But if you are a household of more than one person, most people are going to call your mobile number because it belongs to a specific person rather than a household.

Tue Jul 18 2023 09:33:13 PM EDT from zelgomer

Does anyone under 70 years old even *have* a landline anymore?

Yes, I know a few gen Xers who still have landlines. One of them, I don't know why. I think he gets it as part of a bundle, so he considers it so cheap as to be near negligible, and he thinks one day it might save him in a pinch. The other guy still has a landline because he actually refuses to own a mobile phone. No, I would not consider him normal

Guilty as charged and quite pleased about it. Hell, I remember how pissed a buddy of mine was when Ameritech finally tricksied him out of his grandfathered dedicated DSL. He'd hung onto it for years in addition to his cable line just so he could have all his heavy downloads on the fatter pipe, and because he liked having a real dedicated line. But of course all it took was the equivalent of one misplaced comma and down the memory hole it went.

Tue Jul 18 2023 18:08:37 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

Does anyone under 70 years old even *have* a landline anymore?

I (age 59) do. 

But I think I would be just fine with no phone at all.

If i had not just 'done it' and moved our house number to VoIP a few years ago when we finally were able to get fiber ( and ditch comcast ), we would still have it i think. 

Tue Jul 18 2023 06:08:37 PM EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

It might also have to do with the fact that a mobile number can receive text messages, and a landline can't. If the developer of a service is lazy and insists on relying on text messages for number verification, that disqualifies landlines.

Does anyone under 70 years old even *have* a landline anymore?

I have been blocked " we do not support VoIP connections"

Why the hell not?

Fri Jul 14 2023 02:07:28 PM EDT from nonservator

"Has anyone else been blocked from signing up to services by trying to sign up using a non-mobile phone number? I actually have a proper business line forwarded to me for business calls, but providers including google like to block such lines."

Oddly, I remember when it was mobile phones that were considered untrustworthy.

"Has anyone else been blocked from signing up to services by trying to sign up using a non-mobile phone number? I actually have a proper business line forwarded to me for business calls, but providers including google like to block such lines."

Oddly, I remember when it was mobile phones that were considered untrustworthy.

Thanks for the info.  I have used DuckDuckGo a bit in the past but don't like it cause it's just Bing mostly.  I will play with YaCY for sure as it sounds promising.  Yandex is ok, I like it a lot better than google and duckduckgo for sure.  I am using Brave browser as of earlier tonite and so far am quite pleased.  Hopefully Brave search will prove to be pretty decent as I have heard.

Sun Apr 30 2023 08:22:17 EDT from Nurb432 Subject: Re: De-centralized search engines

What is wrong with YaCY? 

Not distributed but how about duck duck go? not perfect but better.

And as silly as it sounds, something like yandex, While still a huge corp i have found it less restrictive/biased ( for non-Russian things anyway, i cant comment about in-country bias ) than google.

 

Sun Apr 30 2023 12:40:44 AM EDT from thesirdotcom Subject: De-centralized search engines

Does anyone know of any good de-centralized engines like Ya-cy that are live now to the public?  I recently have decided to migrate away from the goolge/bing padded-cell and discover new things for a change.  Obviously it is difficult to find such things nowadays!  I can think of no more fun I had than in the early 90s accessing the web through a telnet connection to wustl.edu library and using Lynx.  Things only went downhill from there.  No images, but lots of information that shaped me which would never happen now.

 

"news"?

Id call it propaganda :)  

Thu May 11 2023 07:22:00 PM EDT from IGnatius T Foobar Subject: Re: De-centralized search engines

 being force-fed MSN News.

To me Yandex seems to do a better job with 'sensitive subjects' than US based ones. Which is ironic. However, for general topics ( like code help, or how to bake a cake ) US based ones seem better.

Need a decentralized one that provides a meta-search of the big ones + its own bots to avoid the censorship/bias. 

Thu May 11 2023 01:58:46 PM EDT from nonservator Subject: Re: De-centralized search engines

Yandex does not obey + or - any more than the cucked search engines of the West. Absolute trash.

Yandex does not obey + or - any more than the cucked search engines of the West. Absolute trash.

Sturgeon's Law rules the universe.

Personally, I use DuckDuckGo most of the time and have not noticed any bias in results. Sometimes I find something useful, sometimes not.

actually,  i have found lately i dont hardly bother with search anyway.  Or much of anything else online

Perhaps its apathy, or just not giving a damn anymore, but its all crap. everything. everywhere.

To be fair, "riddled with ads ", well that is how google pays the bills..  No ads = no google search.   Sounds like someone wants a free lunch.

But, of course promoting left-wing censorship, complete with talking points, that another issue.

Tue May 09 2023 07:55:19 AM EDT from nonservator Subject: Re: De-centralized search engines

Thom Holwerda, mincing faggot of OSNews.com, on "What Happens When Google Search Doesn't Have the Answers?":

"Search on the web is in a terrible state right now. Searching for anything on Google is a horrible experience, with results riddled with ads and an endless stream of SEO’d garbage content of low to no quality. Alternatives, such as DuckDuckGo, aren’t much better, and tend to promote garbage anti-science and fascist nonsense if you’re not careful enough."

Thom Holwerda, mincing faggot of OSNews.com, on "What Happens When Google Search Doesn't Have the Answers?":

"Search on the web is in a terrible state right now. Searching for anything on Google is a horrible experience, with results riddled with ads and an endless stream of SEO’d garbage content of low to no quality. Alternatives, such as DuckDuckGo, aren’t much better, and tend to promote garbage anti-science and fascist nonsense if you’re not careful enough."

never heard of gigablast.  seems to be gone now.

But if they block ChatGPT, how will ChatGPT save us from right-wing fascism?

Guys? Guys! Did you hear? Twitter is under the rule of an inept petty tyrant!

Sorry, let me translate that:

TWITTUH IS UNDUH DA WOOL OF AN INEPT PETTY TYWANT!1!

At my office, i'm sure its outright blocked. Especially considering who i work for. Last year they canceled all contracts with Russian based firms. So, not even going to try there. And, just last week i heard they blocked ChatGPT...  

Tue May 02 2023 12:44:17 PM EDT from IGnatius T Foobar Subject: Re: De-centralized search engines

Funny thing about that, just today I got scolded by the corporate security goons because I used Yandex.

20 years ago id agree.

Sad state of affairs when Russia and China are less corrupt..

Mon May 01 2023 11:55:43 AM EDT from nonservator Subject: Re: De-centralized search engines

Yandex is filthy commie search engine. Use good American search engine like Google, citizen!

Yandex is filthy commie search engine. Use good American search engine like Google, citizen!

Funny thing is if you ask google about Yandex, the first entry ( for me anyway ) was a hit piece on it.. 

lol

Sun Apr 30 2023 08:35:36 AM EDT from nonservator Subject: Re: De-centralized search engines

I don't default to yandex, but I've repeatedly resorted to it and usually found what I was looking for on the first page of results, uncluttered by duplicates and spam.

I don't default to yandex, but I've repeatedly resorted to it and usually found what I was looking for on the first page of results, uncluttered by duplicates and spam.

What is wrong with YaCY? 

Not distributed but how about duck duck go? not perfect but better.

And as silly as it sounds, something like yandex, While still a huge corp i have found it less restrictive/biased ( for non-Russian things anyway, i cant comment about in-country bias ) than google.

Sun Apr 30 2023 12:40:44 AM EDT from thesirdotcom Subject: De-centralized search engines

Does anyone know of any good de-centralized engines like Ya-cy that are live now to the public?  I recently have decided to migrate away from the goolge/bing padded-cell and discover new things for a change.  Obviously it is difficult to find such things nowadays!  I can think of no more fun I had than in the early 90s accessing the web through a telnet connection to wustl.edu library and using Lynx.  Things only went downhill from there.  No images, but lots of information that shaped me which would never happen now.

Does anyone know of any good de-centralized engines like Ya-cy that are live now to the public?  I recently have decided to migrate away from the goolge/bing padded-cell and discover new things for a change.  Obviously it is difficult to find such things nowadays!  I can think of no more fun I had than in the early 90s accessing the web through a telnet connection to wustl.edu library and using Lynx.  Things only went downhill from there.  No images, but lots of information that shaped me which would never happen now.

My understanding is performance is based on the number of peers. so the more marketing we can do and get people involved , the faster it goes. And while i accept ti costs money, putting your instance on a VPS helps isolate your home network from potential issues.

Didn't mean to imply ALL problems solved as nothing comes without some bumps. I was implying the tendency for the bias you get from the commercial ones is resolved.

sort of like TOR/i2p/etc   its not perfect, but you do solve the main problem its meant to, anonymity.

Sun Feb 12 2023 05:41:21 PM EST from darknetuser

2023-02-12 17:29 from Nurb432
YaCy. Problem solved.

Yes and no.

For one, running a crawler from an IP you control is a burden on you, specially if the crawler has issues that make it look like a denial of service.

And then, the performance is not great.

Which is a pity because I want to like YaCy.

YaCy. Problem solved.

lol

Sun Feb 12 2023 06:55:02 AM EST from nonservator

There is an image here but your client software is too weak to see it

There is an image here but your client software is too weak to see it

Is there a way to mark there is an image there? Short of me typing  "Image enclosed"

Sat Feb 11 2023 12:36:50 PM EST from IGnatius T Foobar

Remember that we don't all see the images.  Some of us are old-skool and spend most of our time in the text client :)

Remember that we don't all see the images.  Some of us are old-skool and spend most of our time in the text client :)

Oh sorry, didnt realize you guys meant the actual image i posted. i thought you meant what was the subject they were getting ready to suppress. 

That i forget..  moved on since then. 

I forget now. that was a month ago. 

Tue Feb 07 2023 05:51:13 PM EST from darknetuser

What is going on this time? I must be missing something important.

Got to get ahead of the facts. Dont want the masses seeing the truth.

Tue Feb 07 2023 09:44:09 AM EST from IGnatius T Foobar

They've also started another "anti-misinformation" campaign, suggesting that there are some actual truths on the way which they want to suppress.

They've also started another "anti-misinformation" campaign, suggesting that there are some actual truths on the way which they want to suppress.

Lol Never seen this one before.

Google freaking out and doing damage control for their puppeteers? 

2099312418@Uncensored

"And nothing of value was lost."

What the F-  

Watching a video on YT. It asked for control of my mic. F-off.

Nothing is really free in the long run. 

Surprised they allowed it at all.

Wed Jun 22 2022 12:59:23 PM EDT from IGnatius T Foobar Subject: Re: Google Workspace

To back up what Kitty posted earlier ... word is starting to get out that Google has begun informing small business owners that they are looking to discontinue the free tier of G Suite.

[ https://tinyurl.com/5n6ex2em ]

Can't say I'
m surprised at all, of course ... hopefully more people will return to the time-honored tradition of having your own mail server.

Yes, it does work ok, tho I prefer jitsi if i have a choice.   I can host my own server.

Google Meet does work ok, it is perhaps the least sucky Google tool. Our local office was a pit, with only one rest room per sex, there was ALWAYS somebody at the urinal next to u and frequently others waiting, so i was glad they closed that office building and declared us permanently remote, so that was a benefit of the merger. There was a time where we had themed Google Meet meetings, like 'wear purple' day, but it quickly got to the point where everybody turned off their cameras.

Similar, and sort of hard to explain.. 

I was part of agency X.  It did more than IT but we were the IT department.

Governor decided he didnt like that, 'centralize' IT.  So the current central IT, agency Y had to absorb everyone else with a new legal charter. They basically did nothing and everyone hated to deal with them. ( they mostly did mainframe stuff, and inter-agency network and things )

Our team was the first in line to be consolidated, and we were to be the 'model' as we won awards and stuff. Within a year all our management was pushed out, the old guard pretty much took back over and made the place suck again. Never did really recover from that, and the 'old ways' still rule even 15 years later.

at least its not Microsoft tools.

Fri May 20 2022 09:50:03 PM EDT from Woodpusher

Our company "merged" with another company, but the other company got 51% of the merge weight, then they proceeded to destroy our corporate culture and forced us to use sucky Google tools.

Our company "merged" with another company, but the other company got 51% of the merge weight, then they proceeded to destroy our corporate culture and forced us to use sucky Google tools.

Well you know you have us core people that will stick around for the ride. 

Sun May 15 2022 01:32:03 PM EDT from IGnatius T Foobar Subject: Re: Google Workspace

Citadel will, but it's a roadmap item because I've got so much to modernize first.

sovereign net-citizen? 

Well, I'm not down for paying Google Workspaces' lowest-tier $6/mo for the 6 domains I use for mail.  I'd much rather pay $10/mo to DigitalOcean for that one VM I have, which was already set up for other projects.  From my perspective, those other projects are paying for the VM and I'm still getting free mail service.

Oh, and welcome to the party.. 

That isn't a new announcement tho.  Just no one paid attention when they first said it. Now that D-day is coming, people are listening. Also, my understanding is you will get to migrate your data over to the free tier, but you will lose your custom domain name, unless you pay up. ( which really is no different than anywhere else, mail hosting isn't normally free. ) So it isn't as bad as it sounds.

So Google announced they're gonna start charging a monthly subscription for Google Workspace.  To absolutely no-one's surprise, there's now a bit of an exodus going on.

So now that I not only got Citadel to build on FreeBSD, but also got it running on FreeBSD, I pointed the MX records for all my domains to my Citadel server.  Now Google Workspaces is annoyed at me, is telling me that I need to have 5 MX records all pointing to Google's mail servers.  The new subscription model is what made me patch Citadel for FreeBSD.  You did this, Google.  You made me get Citadel running on FreeBSD, and now you wanna complain about my MX records not pointing to you?

Just like elections, subscriptions have consequences.

That is the future anyway, for most people.   Another 5 years, i bet 90% of the world will be in that boat. 

Just dev guys and gamers will be left with hardware.  ( and with stuff like steam perhaps even gamers will slowly move cloud too )

in 1980s i never dreamed we would be going back to the old mainframe days, at least conceptually.  Thought it was a one way trip.. i guess someone hid the roundabout and we didnt notice it.

Sat Apr 16 2022 10:47:35 AM EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

. Don't think of it as a computer; think of it as a terminal.

Perhaps, but even with 'people like us' a lot of what we do does not need extras.  We read mail and watch just as many cat videos as the rest of them, and being that lots of us live on our phone, if you are in the android ecosystem, its just a convenient extension to that.  But, now that it has a supported Linux sub-system ( like windows does now too i guess ), it is ok for power users too.  Assuming you dont get a 99 dollar special, as while it would technically work, it would not be as clean as a higher end model.

Sat Apr 16 2022 10:47:35 AM EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

You guys are power users. You're not the target market. Chromebooks are for:

I tried DEX once.  Also tried the Motorola thing when it first came out.  Wasn't happy with either.  But it was a while now, it was mostly apps didnt like doing it. Might be better now.    I thought about using my pinephone that way, but it was too slow. ( the Pro, i bet i could, has the same chip that i have in several devices )

As far as the Chromebook reference designs:

I have had 3 "real" Chromebooks personally over time. 4, if you count the Pixelbook, and i honesty cant see anything that was identifying about them from one to the next.  Unlike android makers ( and i guess windows too ), no extra items installed and its "just" ChromeOS. No 'strange' peripherals either as all the devices have to be certified by google. Other than the logo ( and of course you get a big fat ChromeOS logo too ) they were all the same.  Ignoring the fact mine were progressive generations, (upgrades) and different sizes, if you grab 2, they will 'just work' and you wont know the difference.

And for me, if i turn on android and Linux support, it would meet 100% of my needs. ( i can even install a windows VM if i wanted.. ) But i felt it was cheating, for this experiment. I wanted to keep it at the level most people would.  However, i guess most would turn on android too, as they have a phone. Turning Linux on, perhaps not.  Actually, now that i think about it, Android support may have been on by default, i cant remember now.  Its on with this tablet, i just didnt use any android app on purpose. ( like vpn, or integrated netxtcloud. i used the webapp )

And no, im really not getting a % of chromebook sales :)  I just have found that now it does all 3, i really do like them and think a lot more people could migrate to ChromeOS and not 'lose' anything.  Other than the baggage that comes with OSX and Windows.

Oh, and unlike Microsoft, i dont see any ads on my machine unless an android app does it, its never the core OS.  Ads in the freaking start bar, even enterprise? Really Microsoft?

Sat Apr 16 2022 03:07:39 AM EDT from ParanoidDelusions

It has something called DEX which docks it to monitors and keyboards - and yeah - it could easily replace 99.9% of my computing needs. 



And usually - that is where shit breaks because the developers are developing for some reference design. 

Hell, I've got a Galaxy Note 10+ with 1TB of storage and 8GB of RAM. 

It has something called DEX which docks it to monitors and keyboards - and yeah - it could easily replace 99.9% of my computing needs. 

But... it is that .1% that is the deal-breaker - I really considered just using it exclusively at the job for the Amazon seller. It totally would have worked for almost everything. 

But there is something more to it than that - and I think that is true with Chrome, too. There were things I needed like dual monitor setups, the ability to have multiple browser windows open and seamlessly cut and paste info between those and a local spreadsheet - the ability to manage files on my machine and mapped shares from an explorer... other things that ChromeOS, Android... they're not GOOD at. File management in particular, on Android - is a mess - in part because you're typically locked OUT of the root system, and every Android manufacturer has a different scheme for where your U

Tue Apr 12 2022 18:51:16 EDT from Nurb432

And related to google..

 

 

ya, it was a silly experiment, and i knew it would work on paper, but i was curious what it would 'feel' like actually doing it, as if i would in theory drag my tablet around during the day at work, then plug in at night and only use it..

And related to google..

Last weekend i tried going 100% ChromeOS  Actually, even my latest 99 dollar tablet + a USBC hub so i can have a real keyboard, mouse and monitor.  ( but really you dont *have* to.. )

Only ran into a couple of issues

• VPN.  It requires android apps. And while mine can do it, i felt it was cheating for the weekend. So no pirate streaming, or coffee shop access.
• No downloading of youtube videos for backup.   Might have been able to if i tried, but it wasn't out of box. If i didnt want to download, worked fine tho.

Sure, there would be some things i cant do, like 3D modeling, coding, etc without using the Linux subsystem ( again cheating in this context ) but for an average weekend, which would be most people on an average day i didnt even notice the difference.   And yes, RDP to a desktop somewhere, would also be cheating this weekend, tho practical in the real world if your device didnt have the horsepower.

And ya, add android and linux to the mix, and its more than 99.9% of people would need. Hell, you can even install a windows VM inside Linux via KVM, if you *had* to, and had an X86 machine. .( this was ARM, so not running windows unless you wanted to use QEMU emulation, and were a masochist .. )

ya, it was a silly experiment, and i knew it would work on paper, but i was curious what it would 'feel' like actually doing it, as if i would in theory drag my tablet around during the day at work, then plug in at night and only use it..

Fair enough. 

At least, it isn't illegal... YET. 

Sure, there are risks of abuse for most anything and possible data requests, seizures, and such, but it doesn't make the actual act of running it illegal. 

There are still legal repercussions to running your own e-mail server - in particular, the possibility that the Government can establish reasonable cause to suspect illegal activities have been conducted on your personal e-mail server, even by parties you were unaware were doing so, can lead to broad seizure of your personal electronics - the Feds tend to take a shotgun approach and they'll confiscate anything that could possibly be used for electronic storage or transmission of data. There are other hassles and liabilities involved, not the least of which is that bad actors find public faced web servers an irresistible draw - and most people do not have the skill or experience to run a truly secure public e-mail server from their home. 

It is too bad that bad actors on BOTH sides make it unreasonable for the *average* person to host their own servers. 

Mon Mar 28 2022 09:15:00 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

I am asked from time to time whether it's legal to operate your own email server. There are a lot of non technical people who assume you need some sort of license or government permission to do that.

This started around 2015, when rumors surfaced that a former White House cabinet member was storing confidential government secrets on an email server located in the bathroom of her home, literally about 15 miles from where I am right now. (This rumor turned out to be false. The server in question was actually in a small data center in New York City.)

Odd, i have never been asked that before.

The companies: You are competition. Means less revenue and we cant track. Must stamp it out.

Soon, governments : Wait, that means personal freedom and inability for us to track, we must stamp it out. 

Not too long git hub bans any email server code..  "unacceptable content" 

Sat Mar 12 2022 09:28:30 AM EST from IGnatius T Foobar

Yeah. Actually it looks like it was just one message from one of our mailing lists that was blocked at the door by Goolag. However, everything else still ends up in recipients' spam folders.

I'm sure the big players want to make it harder and harder to run your own email server.

May the fleas of a thousand camels infest their mother's jockstraps. "Just run your own email server!"

When the Mozilla Foundation are explicitly anti-free speech and anti-crypto, I no longer give a shit if El Goog take over the web. If anything, that will accelerate the death of both.

I agree, for many of us, "just toss Linux on it" is the correct and best answer. But for the unwashed masses its a simple exit plan from the Microsoft walled garden.  ( or apple's, as its running fine on a 2016 PBP ) 

About an hour ago I dug out the x86 flip notebook i bought last year for ChromeOS, where it didnt have the flip drivers ( dammit )..  Booted fine, but still no drivers for the "flip to tablet mode", darn.  Shut down with intent to update the Debian install on it before i put it away, but it froze solid. Now i'm trying to drain the battery so it shuts off.  arrgh.

Its soooo odd hearing the apple chime then seeing the "ChromeOS" boot banner popup on the screen..

Just today tried to boot flex on my 'new' shop owned ( intel ) powerbook, with the stupid ass keyboard that requires special drivers..  Not even a video bleep on that one..  no loss, was just curious if google had workarounds for the newer apple lockdown of hardware. I guess not :). 

This was kind of my feeling, too. 

And... I'm not making a judgement on if that kind of thing should be allowed to happen. 


I just - being a guy who elicits strong emotions in strangers - feel it is in my best interests to avoid places on the Internet where not only are there people who can call for bad things to happen to people they disagree with... 


But there are arguably members of those communities who can effect such bad things happening. 

You may feel confident in your ability to avoid those kind of unpleasant encounters with the more reactionary, more dangerous parts of the Internet - and I'm not saying you shouldn't be allowed to go to those sites... 

I'm saying that preventing people *less skilled than I am* at identifying and avoiding those kinds of experiences from *finding * those places unintentionally is probably not the *worst* policy. 

The whole thing about the VP of a VR company getting "virtually gang-ra

Sun Feb 20 2022 13:43:30 EST from Nurb432

i looked it for 30 seconds, and that was what i got out of it.   They were clearly supporting, even asking, for bad things to take place to people they dont agree with.   Uncool. 

Sun Feb 20 2022 09:03:38 AM EST from ParanoidDelusions

The argument of those trying to shut Kiwi Farms down has consistently been that it does directly incite people to commit crimes.

 

ok, so "ChromeOS Flex" IS Neverware's "cloudready"..  Im installing the beta now on a macbook, and its not even been re-branded in the installer yet.  Not a problem of course, just an observation.

One nice thing is you can now create the installer from the normal ChromeOS recovery tool and dont need the special Neverware installer.  ( and why the hell wont that work on Linux? Really Google? )

And i heard  you can install it on Apple M1 hardware... 

This.  Exactly.  Sure, it's bad speech, but it's far from the worst of the internet.  Everyone who doesn't agree with its existence is free to ridicule them, but should respect their right to exist.

Sun Feb 20 2022 14:16:28 EST from darknetuser

I found it recently while searching for some information which has been censored everywhere else.

It seems Google and friends are removing a lot of entries from their search results so I think places like this are very important.

I don't know why people is so outraged by the existence of this thing. The most popular website in my country is more rude, more porn and worse behaved and nobody cares.

I am starting to think English speakers are becoming pussified.

i looked it for 30 seconds, and that was what i got out of it.   They were clearly supporting, even asking, for bad things to take place to people they dont agree with.   Uncool. 

Sun Feb 20 2022 09:03:38 AM EST from ParanoidDelusions

The argument of those trying to shut Kiwi Farms down has consistently been that it does directly incite people to commit crimes.

 

The guy who runs Kiwi Farms has written articles literally about how futile his attempts to create, basically his OWN ISP - have been. 

That there is always some single point upstream where he can be shut down - and at each step, it becomes more expensive to become THAT part of the chain - and at some point, you just can't become that part of the chain unless you get an approval from a consortium of groups that then become the single chokehold on your access. He has spent tons of money trying to become independent of upstream providers - and still feels vulnerable to censorship. 

The argument of those trying to shut Kiwi Farms down has consistently been that it does directly incite people to commit crimes. This may or may not be true. I've seen evidence both ways... but in any case - it feels like a dangerous site to be associated with - because some of the people who frequent the forums are dangerous, and some of the people who want to shut it all down are dangerous. 

Sat Feb 19 2022 14:46:01 EST from DutchessMike

I don’t see anything futile about it - it’s still running. Bad speech is still speech, and as long as he isn’t directly inciting people to commit crimes, I’m fine with it.  I was just pointing out that it was hours of reading bad ideas and the diligence of the sysOp to keep it up and running. 

 

 

Fri Feb 18 2022 08:19:28 ESTfrom ParanoidDelusions

And lots of battles to try and cancel it - leading to the guy just basically setting up his own ISP and realizing how ultimately futile that is? 

I think I've looked at it - and it seemed interesting - but also dangerous on multiple different levels and from multiple different directions. 

 

From reading I get the impression its different, but it may end up being just a re-brand in the end, which i agree, is still ok.

As of this afternoon they do still offer neverware's branded product ( and still free for home use ). I have used it in a couple of cases, and "sold" a couple of people on it instead of buying a new windows laptop.  ( in my case one attempt, was a failure, but not anyone's fault as i took a chance and knew it. Turned out no 'rotation/flip driver' for a "flip" laptop that i bought last year to get more storage than in had in my RK3399 Chromebook, with intent to go Chrome OS on it.. but without flip properly working, i just stuck with linux and just gave up on 'tablet mode'..  Might try flex on it .. who knows. 

Ironically after all the gyrations, and a failed attempt to upgrade my storage situation with the lenovo that was on sale ( nice device, but no SD slot.. wtf ) i ended up with a 12" Pixel book..i7, 16gb ram 512g SSD.. Still may carry the lenovo daily at the office to piddle and watch movies at lunch, since its 10" but when i need to type and have decent horsepower, the pixel book comes out.   ya ya, i have too much hardware laying around.  Its a sickness, i know.

Sat Feb 19 2022 04:34:13 PM EST from IGnatius T Foobar

Is this the new version of "CloudReady" from Neverware, the company they bought at the end of 2020? Or ... oh, I see there's something called "Chrome OS Flex" now. It's probably the same thing.

Good for them. I share the hope that there will be a large fleet of hardware left behind on which people try Chrome OS, which for many can be a gateway to "real" Linux; either way, it gets them off the Windows plantation.

Now that Microsoft will kill off millions of PCs here with WIn10, Google is stepping up with ChromeOS for "generic" machines that Microsoft left behind. Even more so than when they bought Neverware a couple of years ago.

But, they better make it free for home use, or they will lose out. Currently its in beta and you get it from the Enterprise site.. so i worry they may miss this boat by being greedy.

(oh and i heard Win11 soon will *require* internet connectivity to work, at all. So if you use anything Microsoft, they can monitor, track, mine, and report your actions.)

I don’t see anything futile about it - it’s still running. Bad speech is still speech, and as long as he isn’t directly inciting people to commit crimes, I’m fine with it.  I was just pointing out that it was hours of reading bad ideas and the diligence of the sysOp to keep it up and running. 

Fri Feb 18 2022 08:19:28 ESTfrom ParanoidDelusions

And lots of battles to try and cancel it - leading to the guy just basically setting up his own ISP and realizing how ultimately futile that is? 

I think I've looked at it - and it seemed interesting - but also dangerous on multiple different levels and from multiple different directions. 

Isn't that like a "site that /4Chan users are afraid to go to? 

Like - doxing, nationalism, online harassment campaigns - are the claims... 

And the site is like, "We just believe in liberty..." 

And lots of battles to try and cancel it - leading to the guy just basically setting up his own ISP and realizing how ultimately futile that is? 

I think I've looked at it - and it seemed interesting - but also dangerous on multiple different levels and from multiple different directions.  

Thu Feb 17 2022 10:24:01 EST from DutchessMike

I was trying to catch up on all the things I missed since I was away, and someone mentioned KiwiFarms - a site I never heard of.  Then I went down the rabbit hole of reading all of it.  Not sure who provided the reference (I can't find the post) but *thank you*!  Hours of ridiculous reading.

Found it - thank you nonservator!

I was trying to catch up on all the things I missed since I was away, and someone mentioned KiwiFarms - a site I never heard of.  Then I went down the rabbit hole of reading all of it.  Not sure who provided the reference (I can't find the post) but *thank you*!  Hours of ridiculous reading.

Son in law pays for 'youtube tv'.

Was over there a couple of months go, couldn't find one thing interesting, to me.

Fri Dec 24 2021 11:26:30 AM EST from IGnatius T Foobar

YouTube's "free with ads" movies are nice, if you have an ad blocker :)

I hope they put on more of them.

Have you read this?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2021/08/28/stop-using-google-chrome-on-windows-10-android-and-apple-iphones-ipads-and-macs/ 

Exactly. 

Sun Aug 08 2021 16:48:54 EDT from zelgomer

 

Sat Aug 07 2021 21:20:10 EDT from ParanoidDelusions

I won a voucher for a free Epson ink cartridge. 

 

That makes sense.  Google wronged you, so you're entitled to a free tracking device.

Sat Aug 07 2021 21:20:10 EDT from ParanoidDelusions

I won a voucher for a free Epson ink cartridge. 

 

That makes sense.  Google wronged you, so you're entitled to a free tracking device.

I won a voucher for a free Epson ink cartridge. 

I was ( unwillingly ) part of a class action like that.

Company i worked for, the board ran a scam on the IPO, made millions then went bankrupt 6 months later. They pocketed millions.  As they had been around since the dark ages, we all bought stock when we were given the chance just before IPO.

Fast forward 15 years i get a letter in the mail "class action, the board is now in prison, we won the suit and you are entitled to get get a refund for your stock purchase, if you have your *original* sales receipt.  All unclaimed proceeds by default go to the attorneys who represented you in court"  "oh, and you have 7 days to comply"

So we got screwed twice. 

Sat Aug 07 2021 09:48:25 AM EDT from ParanoidDelusions

Yes, but sleep well knowing that a group of attorneys made millions getting you that $2.15. 

 

Yes, but sleep well knowing that a group of attorneys made millions getting you that $2.15. 

Fri Aug 06 2021 18:21:00 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

OOOOHH! Google has been found guilty in some sort of class action lawsuit regarding privacy and Google Plus profiles.

As a member of the class action, I have been awarded $2.15 !

I'd argue that the evil committed by the wealthy and powerful just tends to be more vivid. 

The vast majority of evil, by definition, in the world - is caused by the lower 98% of the population, in much the same way that insects represent far more biomass on Earth than all of humanity. 

And the science backs this up. The LOWER you are in that bottom 98% - the more likely you are to be involved in criminal activity. Violence, drugs, sexual exploitation and abuse, theft, fraud... the lower economic levels of society globally are far more engaged in the majority of EVIL than the 1%. 

But you just very rarely see it. 

Sun Jul 25 2021 15:55:50 EDT from darknetuser

2021-07-23 14:22 from IGnatius T Foobar
Again, it's a false dichotomy.  Choose between destroying Gates or
Page/Brin, or choose between destroying Microsoft or Google.

If we're eliminating a founder, I'd choose Gates, no doubt about
it.  If we're eliminating an entire company, Google would be a far
more worthwhile kill, because Microsoft isn't nearly the threat they

used to be.

Remember though, that whoever ended up on top would be the most evil

anyway.  Wealth and power attract evil people.

Consider yourself thumbed up.

Wait, does that count as an insult in this place?

Again, it's a false dichotomy.  Choose between destroying Gates or Page/Brin, or choose between destroying Microsoft or Google.

If we're eliminating a founder, I'd choose Gates, no doubt about it.  If we're eliminating an entire company, Google would be a far more worthwhile kill, because Microsoft isn't nearly the threat they used to be.

Remember though, that whoever ended up on top would be the most evil anyway.  Wealth and power attract evil people.

of course that analog modem is being converted to digital along the way :) 

I assume the carriers are not blocking anyway.. not hard to detect a modem

"Yeah, then cheer for their deaths using a PDP-8 to connect to some BBS via analog modem! YAY!"

I'd use carrier pigeons if I had to. However, Silicon Valley has long passed the point where they contribute anything of value to Western civilization.

What is wrong with that?

Sun Jul 18 2021 05:44:45 AM EDT from darknetuser

Yeah, then cheer for their deaths using a PDP-8 to connect to some BBS via analog modem! YAY!

Until they can fix themselves. Which is coming soon...

*cough* Tesla resonator *cough*

Mon Jul 12 2021 11:50:10 AM EDT from LoanShark

2021-07-12 09:41 from nonservator
We've been waiting for California to crumble into the sea for how
long now?

just send a nuke into the San Andreas... ;)

We've been waiting for California to crumble into the sea for how long now?

Oh, id have to get out of IT totally. ( of course we were talking the collapse of the industry anyway )

Problem with my non-IT skills is that i dont have a 30 year verifiable career wrapped around them, so not technically 'experienced', on paper, and if you have the choice between someone about to retire and a kid out of school, which one do you chose?  Sure i can whip out parts off a mill with the best of them, or paint cars, hell even build houses like my dad and grandfather did, but when you cant show commercial experience, sorry for your luck.

And if the entire industry was gone, you would have a LOT of out of work IT people, so that would making doing that on your own a non-starter too.

Other problem is a couple of my skills are very specific and only something a national government could exercise. 

Sat Jul 10 2021 01:54:48 PM EDT from ParanoidDelusions

Trust me - at our age, if you're male and white and in IT - it is a tough sell. 

 

LOL

Rules for thee, but not for me. Serfs. Get back to work!

https://www.cnet.com/news/googles-hypocritical-remote-work-policies-anger-employees/

Trust me - at our age, if you're male and white and in IT - it is a tough sell. 

Sat Jul 10 2021 07:43:07 EDT from Nurb432

Not saying i dont have other skills. But when you're mid 50s and the entire market collapses where you have been for 30+, it would be tough unless i stuck my shingle back out and went on my own.

Sat Jul 10 2021 07:40:03 AM EDT from nonservator

Without getting into legalistic specifics of the wish I would present to this theoretical djinn, I anticipate you could easily find gainful employment in the void that would follow.

 

Not saying i dont have other skills. But when you're mid 50s and the entire market collapses where you have been for 30+, it would be tough unless i stuck my shingle back out and went on my own.

Sat Jul 10 2021 07:40:03 AM EDT from nonservator

Without getting into legalistic specifics of the wish I would present to this theoretical djinn, I anticipate you could easily find gainful employment in the void that would follow.

Without getting into legalistic specifics of the wish I would present to this theoretical djinn, I anticipate you could easily find gainful employment in the void that would follow.

I would, only due to the fact id have to find another career. And at my age, that would not be trivial. 

( unless you really JUST mean the valley, and not the entire industry )

Fri Jul 09 2021 08:28:17 PM EDT from nonservator

Quite honestly, we've reached the point that if all of Silicon Valley were wiped from the face of the earth, I wouldn't shed a single tear, and would in fact perform a celebratory dance.

Agreed. Our industry is full of brilliant and terrible people. 

Fri Jul 09 2021 20:28:17 EDT from nonservator

Quite honestly, we've reached the point that if all of Silicon Valley were wiped from the face of the earth, I wouldn't shed a single tear, and would in fact perform a celebratory dance.

Quite honestly, we've reached the point that if all of Silicon Valley were wiped from the face of the earth, I wouldn't shed a single tear, and would in fact perform a celebratory dance.

This hasn't been about the "founders". You're changing the goalposts. 

It was, from the start, who has more POTENTIAL for evil and who should be a bigger concern to our society. 

Bill Gates or GOOGLE. 

Google is objectively a bigger threat to society than Bill Gates. Not that Bill Gates isn't a threat - but Google, the company Alphabet - is one of the more present dangers to the fabric of our society - today... along with Amazon and Facebook. 

Thu Jul 08 2021 15:59:37 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

That's a false dichotomy. If I could choose to eliminate *Microsoft* or Google, I would choose Google as well. I'd prefer to eliminate Amazon or Facebook, though.

If I could choose to eliminate Bill Gates or the *founders* of Google, the choice is easy. Bill Gates. Anyone who does not choose Bill Gates deserves to die along with him.

💯

Thu Jul 08 2021 00:09:18 EDT from nonservator

If I could choose to eliminate Bill Gates or Google, I would absolutely choose Google.

If I could choose to eliminate Bill Gates or Google, I would absolutely choose Google.

Oh... I was hoping to be there when the gates of his mansion are stormed and he is forced to watch his entire family dispatched. 

Evidently, his family is not hip to being part of that party - so we'll have to settle for him and whatever intern he is banging that night, as it seems his supply of Jeffery Epstein supplied playthings has probably dried up. 

Wed Jul 07 2021 13:51:10 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

I find your lack of hatred for Bill Gates disturbing. Let's just agree that I am right.

Possibly. Gates certainly has evil ambition of inexhaustible supply. 

But he has become a caricature, himself - and exposed. Regardless of what you think of Gates - Google, Facebook, Twitter and Amazon are the actual threat. 

It is actually quite disturbing that your fanatical hate for Bill Gates is so complete that it has distracted you to the present and worse threats to your ideals. 

Sun Jul 04 2021 16:22:10 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

You've got it exactly backwards, of course.

Google's success attracted people with a lust for power.  Larry Page and Sergey Brin were probably authentic when they first said "don't be evil" but they were corrupted by the power and wealth, and then they became surrounded by people who continued curating evil within the company.

Microsoft's evil came directly from Bill Gates.  Gates was born evil, became more evil, and continues to be evil.  He has been a power hungry God-wannabe his entire life.  The market dominance of Microsoft allowed him to consolidate and expand his evil.  Eventually, he outgrew Microsoft -- which has undeniably become LESS evil after his departure.  And he is now doing even BIGGER evil things, like culling the global population.

It is undeniable, inarguable, irrefultable FACT that Bill Gates is the Worst Person In The History Of The World.  More evil than Stalin, Mao, Hitler, Obama, and Bin Laden combined.  Google's evil is opportunistic.  Gates' evil goes to the very core of his being.

You've got it exactly backwards, of course.

Google's success attracted people with a lust for power.  Larry Page and Sergey Brin were probably authentic when they first said "don't be evil" but they were corrupted by the power and wealth, and then they became surrounded by people who continued curating evil within the company.

Microsoft's evil came directly from Bill Gates.  Gates was born evil, became more evil, and continues to be evil.  He has been a power hungry God-wannabe his entire life.  The market dominance of Microsoft allowed him to consolidate and expand his evil.  Eventually, he outgrew Microsoft -- which has undeniably become LESS evil after his departure.  And he is now doing even BIGGER evil things, like culling the global population.

It is undeniable, inarguable, irrefultable FACT that Bill Gates is the Worst Person In The History Of The World.  More evil than Stalin, Mao, Hitler, Obama, and Bin Laden combined.  Google's evil is opportunistic.  Gates' evil goes to the very core of his being.

There are so many problems with your and Ig's position. 

First, you're consistently conflating Gates with Microsoft. Microsoft - everything they did that you dislike about them - was about corporate GREED. Solely. Being the dominant player in every technology market - if not by bringing a better product, then by torpedoing your competition in some way that makes you the only alternative - was only done for the WEALTH of the corporation. Bill Gates wealth was a side effect of that. They and Intel are the poster children of every "Greedy Technology Corporation" in every 80's movie ever. 

Second - Google, Facebook, Amazon - all buy into all the SJW, Environmental, Earth First, Fair Trade, blah-blah-blah sustainable vegan Identity Politics boolsheet philosophy of eradication of most of the planet and total control over who are left... 

And they're actually executing the technologies to put that into place. 

And they've built this FAR MORE EVIL and authoritarian

Not sure anyone said they were *good*, just its a different kind of evil. One is about world domination, eradication of most of the life on the planet and total control over who are left.

 

The other, "we want more money" go forth and breed more customers..

Not sure anyone said they were *good*, just its a different kind of evil. One is about world domination, eradication of most of the life on the planet and total control over who are left.

The other, "we want more money" go forth and breed more customers..

Mmkay. 

Wait. 

We'll talk about it in the Alphabet City Corp Re-education camp in China while we're doing forced labor for Amazon. 
"That Bill Gates was TERRIBLE, man. Now, pick up the pace on packing those boxes!" 

I agree, the founders may have been ok, but between getting a piece of the golden goose, and staffing changes over the years, the "evil bar" got moved a bit.

They are still not as bad as some of the others, as i agree its mostly money driven and not "social engineering", but i still dont trust them and any transaction i enter with them, i go in with that understanding.  Same for Amazon, its about the cash for the most part. As long as Bezos' market value goes up, i dont think he cares about you personally. And unlike a Gates, neither want to kill you off, as cant make much money off dead people... and even that money, is basically one shot, not ongoing income.

Tue Jun 29 2021 05:14:07 PM EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

Quite frankly, I think Google's evil is opportunistic. I think their intentions at first really were "don't be evil" but the money and power attracted lots of power-hungry people.

Not at all what I am suggesting. 

I'm saying that they had LESS ambition to achieve evil. 


Maybe as a Christian you think that those who take part in evil are restrained by their morality - that their conscience *prevents* them from being as evil as they could possibly be. 

I think most frequently, the evil do not achieve their full potential for evil because of - incompetence at being evil. 

Microsoft was actually fairly mediocre at being evil. Oh, maybe it didn't seem that way at the time - but in the long-haul - they were second rate at all of the "evil corporate excesses of 80's tech companies." They peaked out at um... killing Netscape by bundling IE and generally being incompetent about enabling user experience at the sacrifice of sound security. That is their major claim to fame among the hallowed grounds of evil corporations. 

Which pales in comparison to the evil of a company building its reputation on "Do no evil," then dropping t

Sat Jun 26 2021 15:55:33 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

If you're suggesting that Microsoft's evil was limited by its conscience and by less-evil ambitions, and not by the amount of evil they were capable of performing ... you're totally off your rocker.

If you're suggesting that Microsoft's evil was limited by its conscience and by less-evil ambitions, and not by the amount of evil they were capable of performing ... you're totally off your rocker.

Absolutely not. 

This is the same kind of "whataboutism" that Democrats make about Republicans - in the sense that, "If the Republicans HAD the capabilities to be as corrupt and authoritarian as the Democrats, they WOULD be." 

That *may* be true - but the present threat of authoritarian evil does not come from the Republicans - they do not have the influence or political power to enact their most oppressive desires. 

Likewise - Google is a far bigger evil in the world than Microsoft ever was. Microsoft may have had evil AMBITION - Google has manifest capability to execute their evil on an unprecedented scale - along with Facebook and Twitter. 

Your last sentence says it all... 


Hitler minus *success* is just your local serial killer. Hitler *with* success is - HITLER. Evil isn't just about the ambition to do evil, but the success and scope of actually doing it. 

Sat Jun 26 2021 11:46:46 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

I don't know if I'd agree with that.  Look at the kind of god-complex things Gates is doing now.  Microsoft was just as evil as Google is now.  Google is just more successful at it.

I don't know if I'd agree with that.  Look at the kind of god-complex things Gates is doing now.  Microsoft was just as evil as Google is now.  Google is just more successful at it.

Windows would have won with the device with an interface that looked like Windows, if they had embraced leisure computing instead of avoiding it. 

That is the #1 reason Apple won. They imagined it as a consumer device, while Microsoft insisted that it be branded as a professional device and distanced from casual and leisure computing. I worked for Intel back then, and had discussions with Intel and Microsoft about this. Microsoft did not want Windows Mobile/CE to be perceived as a "gaming" platform or an "entertainment" platform. 

Apple started with a music player and then made it a portable video player and gaming platform and then all the consumers who had them insisted that they be able to use them for business. 

It was like the Indians not realizing until too late how many white people were going to be coming. I was ahead of the curve with this - having HP and Compaq iPaq PDAs and really pushing the limits on them, then writing for Tech Republic as a mobile device c

Tue Jun 22 2021 10:39:06 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

I doubt it. The original Android prototypes looked more like a Blackberry than an iPhone. Google won by using a design largely imagined by Apple but with an open ecosystem. They were fortunate in capturing that side of the market at a time when Microsoft still had their minds stuck in the idea that people would be willing to use a phone with an interface that looked like Windows.

We're fortunate that mobile evolved the way it did. It was one of the things that broke the monoculture computing was in at the beginning of the new century.

They would have *been* Apple - only, without Steve Job's Apple Sauce for the faithful to guzzle. 

Tue May 11 2021 19:37:30 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

It would be silly to expect the entire Android ecosystem to behave as if it were a single vendor. If they had locked everything down and sold it themselves they wouldn't have beaten Apple.

...Well if the Chrome browser tells me my Chrome browser isn't tracking... it must be true.

Vivalidi, while based on chromium, is supposed to prevent that from working. 

Good for them.

Personally i would have zero issue with what google is doing on tracking,  IF it was optional and opt-in only.   I think opt-out anything should be illegal. 

Google is running a Chrome "origin trial" to test out an experimental new tracking feature called Federated Learning of Cohorts (aka "FLoC"). According to Google, the trial currently affects 0.5% of users in selected regions, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, the Philippines, and the United States. This page will try to detect whether you've been made a guinea pig in Google's ad-tech experiment.

https://amifloced.org/

In theory i should be tracking pixel with a slight delay as its android One..  But reality may be different. 

I think this is both the advantage and the liability of Android. 

It could be that your phone - either the manufacturer or the carrier modified the phone for that network - adding their own camera.  I mean, even when the Nexus phones were supposed to be "The Google experience," I remember there being differences between the phone on Verizon and "unlocked" that caused controversy. I can't remember the exact details now... But... this was from a time period when companies and corporations were far less blatant and arrogant in their "screw you, we decide and you just buy it and shut up," approach to the market. I imagine things have only gotten worse. 

Mon May 03 2021 08:12:54 EDT from Nurb432

Perhaps i lagged behind due to vendor or something, but i didnt get that as an integrated piece until my phone updated to 11

Mon May 03 2021 06:14:09 AM EDT from zooer

Lens has been part of the camera app options for a while, if they moved it to automatic detection for QR codes that is different.

 

Perhaps i lagged behind due to vendor or something, but i didnt get that as an integrated piece until my phone updated to 11

Mon May 03 2021 06:14:09 AM EDT from zooer

Lens has been part of the camera app options for a while, if they moved it to automatic detection for QR codes that is different.

Lens has been part of the camera app options for a while, if they moved it to automatic detection for QR codes that is different.

It was a regional credit union, I recognized the name but not the logo.

Or you have a small customer base. 

there are millions of logos, im sure we dont know them all :)

Fri Apr 23 2021 08:27:22 EDT from zooer

 

If people don't recognize your logo, it probably isn't a good logo.

 

Wed Apr 14 2021 02:17:54 PM EDT from Nurb432

When it was a separate app, for me it was mostly miss.  After i noticed it was part of photos, figured id give it a try again.  Myself, i dont really need something like that, but it was there, a new toy.

I use Lens for QR codes, when I need to find something or translate something.

The other day I saw a logo in the window of a building that has been empty for  a while.  I didn't recognize the logo, I used Lens to try to identify what was business was moving into the building.  Lens was useless, no help whatsoever.  I took a picture, uploaded the image to Google Image, it found the logo as the first link.

If people don't recognize your logo, it probably isn't a good logo.

When it was a separate app, for me it was mostly miss.  After i noticed it was part of photos, figured id give it a try again.  Myself, i dont really need something like that, but it was there, a new toy.

Seems i'm not the only person that noticed it was censoring, others have commented out on Reddit. 

Wed Apr 14 2021 13:55:40 EDT from zooer

Google Lens is either hit or miss.  I have had luck with some things, no luck with others.

Google Lens is either hit or miss.  I have had luck with some things, no luck with others.

"That is a picture of a military assault rifle with full automatic and a 1,000,000 round clip! Local Red Flag Authorities have been alerted that you are a possible extremist. Expect a visit. Your Google Overlords." 

Wed Apr 14 2021 08:16:46 EDT from Nurb432

Latest version of Google Photos ( for android ) had lens built in.  So decided to play with it some.  It actually did pretty well, even correctly identifying locations based on bits of images of buildings. 

 

Then i tried an AR-15.  Nope.  Tec-9, Nope.  Seems they are censoring that stuff.

Latest version of Google Photos ( for android ) had lens built in.  So decided to play with it some.  It actually did pretty well, even correctly identifying locations based on bits of images of buildings. 

Then i tried an AR-15.  Nope.  Tec-9, Nope.  Seems they are censoring that stuff.

I should have taken it and done screen captures to show the predetermined bias. But it pissed me off and i closed the section. So no way to bring it back.

Fri Apr 09 2021 11:10:10 EDT from ParanoidDelusions

Wow. I hope I get that survey question. I think they've already made up their mind about me, though. 

Thu Apr 08 2021 15:28:36 EDT from Nurb432

So on YouTube, i got a survey to take basically saying 'how racist are you'  really? F- them.

 

Wow. I hope I get that survey question. I think they've already made up their mind about me, though. 

Thu Apr 08 2021 15:28:36 EDT from Nurb432

So on YouTube, i got a survey to take basically saying 'how racist are you'  really? F- them.

So on YouTube, i got a survey to take basically saying 'how racist are you'  really? F- them.

Yes.

Just kidding. people at work do that to me all the time. ask 2 questions, 'yes'..   I agree with you on it.

Wed Feb 10 2021 20:23:18 EST from IGnatius T Foobar

You agree *with* Slashdot, or you agree with me *about* Slashdot? It's amazing that the site is still around and there are still people having the same lame-o conversations there that they were having 20 years ago, over topics that no longer matter. They haven't just jumped the shark, they've launched into space and jumped forward in time to a future where sharks are extinct.

"and dont lose that bitcoin, it really does become something, eventually.. Just be patient "

I still kick myself over that.  "it will never make it out of the darkweb for buying drugs" as i deleted my wallet and password with several full coins in it.     Or "that internet thing will never catch on with average people"  when my mother offered to help fund a small dial-up ISP .. 

Wed Feb 10 2021 10:11:36 EST from IGnatius T Foobar

It would be fun to go back in time 25 years and tell myself "in 2021, ZDnet is readable, Slashdot is still around but they are a pathetic joke"

Ya, i had forgot about the register. I used to read it too, but lost interest.  I'm sure it was the same reason, just wasn't as 'obvious' to me at the time other than 'this sux now'.

I agree with slashdot. The mighty has fallen.

Wed Feb 10 2021 10:11:36 EST from IGnatius T Foobar

I eventually made The Register my daily read, because they were Linux-friendly but not Linux-focused, and the snarky tone of their writing was fun. But lately the Reg has become intolerable -- way too much social commentary. I suspect they may have promoted Kieren McCarthy to an editor or something because it's jam packed with San Franciso values instead of technology reporting.

ZDnet is, ironically, readable now that the Microsoft monoculture is over.
It would be fun to go back in time 25 years and tell myself "in 2021, ZDnet is readable, Slashdot is still around but they are a pathetic joke"

Ya, i remember that. And have never been back since :) 

And i agree, if they want to 'mega audit' code they bring in and refuse to incorporate anything they dont like, great, But dont tell ME what i can do with MY code unless i work for you and its code i created on your dime.

Sat Feb 06 2021 10:52:05 EST from IGnatius T Foobar

f-them 

Wow. When did Google appoint itself the Grand Poohbah of Open Source Oversight?

If they want more supervision of open source code that they make use of in their own systems, then they need to provide that review as it enters their doors. They don't get to boss around upstream unless they're paying us.

By the way, I realized something fun over the last couple of weeks. You know how 20 years ago we avoided ZDnet because they were Microsoft shills?
Nowadays their site is actually readable.

https://spectator.org/google-justice-department-renata-hesse/

"We stayed quiet when reporters uncovered that former Google CEO Eric Schmidt started pushing the Biden administration to appoint Google’s allies to top federal government positions. We stayed quiet when the then-president-elect named a swath of Big Tech alumni to his transition team, including a former Facebook director as his transition’s general counsel. We even stayed quiet when he named Ron Klain, a former executive council member to Silicon Valley’s Washington, D.C., trade group, as his chief of staff.

"But with former Google lawyer Renata B. Hesse now the reported front-runner to head the Biden Justice Department’s antitrust division, we can afford to be silent no more."

f-them 

https://www.zdnet.com/google-amp/article/open-source-google-wants-new-rules-for-developers-working-on-critical-projects/

Game of Thrones is Dallas in Middle Earth - for sure. 

Which is an interesting take on the genre. Far more focus on the daily routine lives of the characters - who are mostly entitled folks trying to navigate power in their society during a time of social upset and conflict. 

They are a society in social and technical decline. They have memories of their society being not unlike it is, but more powerful, with greater technology - and legends of greater magic. They can't explain how the older society did things they are no longer capable of doing, especially in construction engineering. Those feats of construction happened before their history. There is evidence of some sort of cataclysmic event - vast barren wastelands and a cracked moon. The maps of Westeros and Erros are huge - I think they're the Americas and what is left of Africa and Asia - and it is possible that the Earth has tilted on its axis and its orbit has changed, accounting for deep winters that only happen a decade

Thu Jan 14 2021 09:56:34 EST from IGnatius T Foobar

There are more than a few authors/writers who deliberately blur the line between sci-fi and fantasy using exactly that rationale, that an age of magic rose up after an age of science collapsed the society.

Game of Thrones was neither.  That was more like a soft porn soap opera with dress-up costumes.

There are more than a few authors/writers who deliberately blur the line between sci-fi and fantasy using exactly that rationale, that an age of magic rose up after an age of science collapsed the society.

Game of Thrones was neither.  That was more like a soft porn soap opera with dress-up costumes.

I'm surprised they didn't figure out a way to fit Samuel L Jackson in as a motherfuckin' Ranger. 

And maybe have Legolas invent breakdancing. 

The problem with high fantasy as a genre, is there are a lot of tropes and cliches, and a lot of it doesn't hold up well through time. Some of it gets too weird. 

And... it has kind of gotten to the point where metal got, as far as arguing about what genre a piece is in. Is Game of Thrones "high fantasy"? 

It is tied in with the fortunes of AD&D - which has been incredibly diluted because of the 5th edition's popularity with the SJW crowd. Now they're getting so granular they're talking about... 

"Low Fantasy/Low Magic" to "High Fantasy/High Magic"... and even that is twisted from what I'd consider high fantasy... 

By their definition, I think Game of Thrones would be "Low Fantasy/Low Magic". Outside of dragons and wights, there aren't a lot of monsters, adventures, FANTASY. The dwarfs are

Wed Jan 13 2021 18:06:47 EST from darknetuser

Oddly, the Hobbit is a *terrible* movie franchise. They did all the

things wrong with that one. 

Agreed.

High Fantasy, as a book genre, as plenty of good stuff in it, but also plenty of bad stuff. You need to know which pieces are the good ones or else you risk running into Scott Bakker and having your brain ooze from your ears.


The Hobbit was a nice tale for what it was. A tool for sparkling the imagination of kids with cool heroes, a daunting threat on the land etc etc etc. They turned the movie franchise into a multi-hour-long joke. "Mercenary goblins. No more than a hundred. We can manage." Seriously?

Also, there are a lot of characters. Don't try and keep track of all of them. The important ones, you'll come to know. 

So, it is important, though it is boring. Shire folk are fat, happy, simple, white suburban folk. They garden, they have little hobbies. They've gt 1st world problems, like nosy in-laws and competition to keep up with the Tooks... but mostly they like to sit around and drink and eat, and occasionally the riskier ones will hang out with a wizard and blow off fireworks and smoke some pipeweed. They lead an idyllic lifestyle, and Jackson wanted to spend a lot of time on establishing that about them. More than the books do, really. Rather than showing, the book really tells you this about them and their lifestyle. 

The book also kind of assumes you got introduced through the Hobbit, so you know a lot of this already. The Hobbit introduces the Shire lifestyle and culture more fully, with the meeting with the dwarves and Gandalf as kind of a bridge... 

In both cases - once you get out of the Shire... things are far less like a quaint English subdivision of ajoined houses full of comforta

Tue Jan 12 2021 16:16:58 EST from Nurb432

Problem i have with movies is if it doesn't reach out and grab me in the first 20 mins or so, and i dont binge it, ill never go back and finish the series. has to be a commitment at that time. 

 

Problem i have with movies is if it doesn't reach out and grab me in the first 20 mins or so, and i dont binge it, ill never go back and finish the series. has to be a commitment at that time. 

Tue Jan 12 2021 15:23:28 EST from ParanoidDelusions

If High Fantasy isn't your thing, don't try and force yourself. But maybe start off with The Hobbit. Jumping right into the Lord of the Rings is a heavy chunk of Fantasy fiction to bite off. 

Honestly - as a genre - most of it misses by a pretty wide margin. LoTR is a classic piece of literature, though.  Also... the movies, you can watch them over a period - you don't have to binge them. But - they're not nearly as good as the books. 

Oddly, the Hobbit is a *terrible* movie franchise. They did all the things wrong with that one. 

 

Tue Jan 12 2021 12:46:20 EST from Nurb432

I should read those someday. been meaning to since i was a kid. But i'm more of a scifi kind of person.  Wife bought the DVD set years ago, thinking id like that stuff, but i think its like 12 hours.   

 

If High Fantasy isn't your thing, don't try and force yourself. But maybe start off with The Hobbit. Jumping right into the Lord of the Rings is a heavy chunk of Fantasy fiction to bite off. 

Honestly - as a genre - most of it misses by a pretty wide margin. LoTR is a classic piece of literature, though.  Also... the movies, you can watch them over a period - you don't have to binge them. But - they're not nearly as good as the books. 

Oddly, the Hobbit is a *terrible* movie franchise. They did all the things wrong with that one. 

Tue Jan 12 2021 12:46:20 EST from Nurb432

I should read those someday. been meaning to since i was a kid. But i'm more of a scifi kind of person.  Wife bought the DVD set years ago, thinking id like that stuff, but i think its like 12 hours.   

 

I should read those someday. been meaning to since i was a kid. But i'm more of a scifi kind of person.  Wife bought the DVD set years ago, thinking id like that stuff, but i think its like 12 hours.   

Sat Jan 09 2021 00:09:55 EST from ParanoidDelusions

Even Frodo fails. Sam is the hero. Unsung. The books, the movies, both say this. Blatantly. "They'll sing about his faithful gardner."

No. They won't. They'll sing about brave Frodo. Frodo lives. 

The whole meta quality of "facing Trumped up charges," is about to go next level.

Sat Jan 09 2021 13:29:30 EST from Nurb432

Honestly i dont want it.  With extreme power comes constant attack ..  

Honestly i dont want it.  With extreme power comes constant attack ..  

Even Frodo fails. Sam is the hero. Unsung. The books, the movies, both say this. Blatantly. "They'll sing about his faithful gardner."

No. They won't. They'll sing about brave Frodo. Frodo lives. 

Again, The Tolkien world nailed this - with Gladrieal. The one who refuses the ring, is probably the only one who could wield it. 

Sat Jan 09 2021 00:06:27 EST from ParanoidDelusions

The guy you want in power is the guy who refuses it. The guy you get in power is the guy who accepts it. It is one of those universal paradoxes. 

Fri Jan 08 2021 20:02:40 EST from Nurb432

I dont think i would, 

The guy you want in power is the guy who refuses it. The guy you get in power is the guy who accepts it. It is one of those universal paradoxes. 

Fri Jan 08 2021 20:02:40 EST from Nurb432

I dont think i would, 

I dont think i would, as i have had limited power and it never got into my head. Even backed away from it intentionally. I'd like the opportunity to find out about massive power tho :)  

Thu Jan 07 2021 17:36:48 EST from ParanoidDelusions

Pretty sure they all stray.

The taste of power is intoxicating, and the desire to go too far with it is irresistible.

Pretty sure they all stray.

The taste of power is intoxicating, and the desire to go too far with it is irresistible.

I'm pretty sure everything you need to know about our current situation, Tolkien described in Lord of the Rings.

Thu Jan 07 2021 17:08:50 EST from Nurb432

Right, that is why i hate to sound like i'm bashing the idea as i do feel they serve a good purpose when they are properly run and not just a power/cash grab.   Just so many have strayed from the true mission and are now as evil and corrupt as everything else.

 

Wed Jan 06 2021 13:31:02 EST from IGnatius T Foobar

It could be argued that unions are bad for both the workers and the companies, and by that standard, Google deserves to be unionized. So do all of the silicon valley pigopolies.

It's a shame that real unions, as they came to be during the industrial revolution, no longer exist. They could lead the fight against offshoring. They could lead the fight against censorship. They could lead the fight against corruption.

 

Right, that is why i hate to sound like i'm bashing the idea as i do feel they serve a good purpose when they are properly run and not just a power/cash grab.   Just so many have strayed from the true mission and are now as evil and corrupt as everything else.

Wed Jan 06 2021 13:31:02 EST from IGnatius T Foobar

It could be argued that unions are bad for both the workers and the companies, and by that standard, Google deserves to be unionized. So do all of the silicon valley pigopolies.

It's a shame that real unions, as they came to be during the industrial revolution, no longer exist. They could lead the fight against offshoring. They could lead the fight against censorship. They could lead the fight against corruption.

Yup. I don't see any problem with workers using their collective bargaining power to counter the consolidated power of the companies they work for, in general. It is in specific application that Unions tend to fall down. 

Wed Jan 06 2021 13:31:02 EST from IGnatius T Foobar

It could be argued that unions are bad for both the workers and the companies, and by that standard, Google deserves to be unionized. So do all of the silicon valley pigopolies.

It's a shame that real unions, as they came to be during the industrial revolution, no longer exist. They could lead the fight against offshoring. They could lead the fight against censorship. They could lead the fight against corruption.

Oh, I agree. It would have been bad for the industry. Equality Initiatives and Offshore Outsourcing - in retrospect - I would have rather seen the companies pay for it through the teeth. 
I like to tell this story. I joined Intel in 2001 on an aggressive initiative to turn Intel into a "100% eBiz company by 2003." The idea was that Intel was still doing a lot of their business on paper - and they wanted every transaction, from every supplier, every vendor, every customer, to be handled electronically - even internal acquisitions - through Intel managed systems. 

So, I'd deploy a server in the datacenter, it would get stable. A few months later, I'd be walking through one of the buildings in Folsom - and a whole department that used to be busy and bustling was empty and abandoned - like a ghost-ship. Things would still be sitting around on empty desks - it looked like the rapture might have happened, in just that group. 

That happened 3 or 4 times before I correlated what I wa

Wed Jan 06 2021 07:49:58 EST from Nurb432

I have worked in union shops before ( not in a union since i was IT, just at companies who were ) and i think we ( IT people ) were/are far better off without one in the long run, regardless of why it never happened.

While i totally agree unions had their place at one point, now they are mostly oppressive overhead that often hurts both businesses and members.  I have seen a couple of companies go bankrupt solely due to the union. I worked at one place where the union tried to force themselves in, and the hourly workers told them to get off the property.

Now they dont have to be pointless and could still provide value, but from the ones i have seen, that isn't happening anymore.

Tue Jan 05 2021 22:02:41 EST from ParanoidDelusions

I've heard compelling arguments that the IT industry got effed because it resisted unionization because it was primarily a bunch of libertarian minded white males. 

 

I have worked in union shops before ( not in a union since i was IT, just at companies who were ) and i think we ( IT people ) were/are far better off without one in the long run, regardless of why it never happened.

While i totally agree unions had their place at one point, now they are mostly oppressive overhead that often hurts both businesses and members.  I have seen a couple of companies go bankrupt solely due to the union. I worked at one place where the union tried to force themselves in, and the hourly workers told them to get off the property.

Now they dont have to be pointless and could still provide value, but from the ones i have seen, that isn't happening anymore.

Tue Jan 05 2021 22:02:41 EST from ParanoidDelusions

I've heard compelling arguments that the IT industry got effed because it resisted unionization because it was primarily a bunch of libertarian minded white males. 

 

I am shocked, shocked, to find El Goog following Cthulu and swimming further to the left.

(maniacal laughter intensifies)

Someone else said: "It's like watching your worst enemy dating your crazy ex. And then you remember your ex has copies of all your keys and knows all your passwords."

I've heard compelling arguments that the IT industry got effed because it resisted unionization because it was primarily a bunch of libertarian minded white males. 

But, I think we were effed either way - it was just about how we were going to take it. 

Tue Jan 05 2021 17:13:59 EST from IGnatius T Foobar

I heard about this earlier in the week. For a brief, fleeting moment I hoped that this union was being formed to resist Google's suppression of employees who didn't toe the line of "typical Silicon Valley mentality". Unfortunately, it's exactly the opposite. They're hyper-hippies who want Google to cancel all of its military contracts.

Just when you thought it couldn't get any weirder.

The snake eats itself. 

Tue Jan 05 2021 15:12:06 EST from zooer

Google's employees formed a union. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/01/04/google-union-cwa/

Google's employees formed a union. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/01/04/google-union-cwa/

Well, the ads must go on... 

Sat Dec 26 2020 14:31:31 EST from IGnatius T Foobar

It was their authentication system that broke, so anything requiring authentication was locking out users. The ad system doesn't require authentication, so ads were served anyway.

So pretty much a complete crash this morning, worldwide. EXCEPT ads.. go figure..  The error i was getting was funny " not connected to the internet" um, google you are NOT the internet, as much as you may think you are.

Also interesting that people reported that some things worked in incognito mode. Sounds like their tracking service took a dive, so everything else was dead without that feed of data. Bad coding.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/14/22173803/gmail-youtube-google-assistant-docs-down-outage

So... 

Part of me says that abuses like this leads to innovation. What all the big social media companies are doing is trying to control and manipulate market forces and ignore the market demand. We've seen MySpace and Digg fail to understand this and go from dominance to irrelevance. Verizon has fought this for decades, and has generally lost. People in the 80s and 90s thought we needed to do all kinds of drastic things to deal with Microsoft - and eventually, it was their inattention to responding to market demands that undid them. 

Specifically - Microsoft was so entrenched in a "we need to appear professional-grade," mindset that they largely considered mass-consumer markets secondary. With Windows CE and PDAs, as they began to morph into smartphones - Microsoft insisted on being Corporate Oriented and actually actively discouraged casual/leisure consumer-use models for these platforms. I was at Intel, arguing loudly that we needed to be promoting that market with things like t

Sat Dec 12 2020 16:08:32 EST from IGnatius T Foobar

.. their dominance of the space is so complete that anyone banned from YouTube is essentially locked out of reaching any significant audience for video publishing.

Simply repealing Section 230 is *not* the answer. As Styx and others have pointed out, that would simply lead the giants to aggressively police their posts with AI, basically treating wrongthink as spam and blocking it, while smaller sites would essentially be snuffed out. It would basically be a massive chilling effect, which is exactly what the beasts of silicon valley would need to cement their positions.

Look instead to H.R.8922, the "Break Up Big Tech Act of 2020"...  

Yup. I don't care if Tulsi is a democrat... but the big guys are abusing it, and this bill hits the correct solution...

Reddit cares so much. Until they find out you're not one of them, then you're not human and less than the shit on their shoes.

So - wait... being that you can make these private groups that send to google contacts and create a kind of social media stream... 

Is there a way to abuse this to make Citadel more "social media feature rich" while leveraging Google and Android's ecosystems, servers, apps and APIs? 

I mean - if I'm getting my mind around Citadel - it is really just a message store, and WebCit is just a web based email client - that is presenting the message store in a non-traditional manner. 

There are inboxes, and there are users - and there are collaboration rooms and groups... but it is all basically e-mail? 

Just clever e-mail. 

It seems like it would be super clever to abuse Google doing all the work to add enhanced features to Citadel in a way that they would prefer we didn't. Of course, the issue with Google, is when their clever ideas don't achieve their goals, they leave the customers who adopted those clever ideas in the lurch - and also, they use thei

Sat Dec 12 2020 07:20:57 EST from zooer

 

Anyway... according to this article Google+ never really went away and social media is being used to keep you within a singular bigtechs boundaries. 

https://www.computerworld.com/article/3600593/google-plus-second-coming.html

I got this from Reddit: 

Sat Dec 12 2020 07:20:57 EST from zooer