Firefox 66.0 Aims to Reduce Online Annoyances • Hacker News Board

Re: Firefox 66.0 Aims to Reduce Online Annoyances

#451

Post by macNchz » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 9:46 PM UTC

tzhenghao wrote: post #394

I think the core problem is still tab clutter. Every time I hop onto my iPad to do some light browsing, I have less anxiety. I don't keep many tabs open on mobile/tablet, but I'm already counting 8 opened here as I'm typing on my laptop. Sure, almost everything mentioned in the article is problematic. Then again, maybe it's just us programmed to hit Ctrl-T too much over a decade...

I've been using an extension called TabWrangler for years–it automatically closes tabs you haven't looked at (or pinned) for a specified period of time.

The closed tabs are saved in a searchable list so if something actually important gets closed you can find it again, but I find that 99% of the time I don't even notice that it has auto-closed hundreds of tabs I've opened over the course of the day.

I think I used to tell myself that leaving tabs open was sort of a 'soft bookmark', but now I just bookmark stuff that I genuinely want to come back to, and let the rest of the unimportant stuff I stumble across just disappear.

Re: Firefox 66.0 Aims to Reduce Online Annoyances

#452

Post by meruru » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 9:47 PM UTC

bobbyi_settv wrote: post #414

I love that we continue to refer to private/ incognito browsing as something mainly used "when you’re planning a surprise party or gift".

It's slightly amusing, but it's sad that we still have to act taboo around sexual subjects.

Re: Firefox 66.0 Aims to Reduce Online Annoyances

#453

Post by guelo » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 9:47 PM UTC

an4rchy wrote: post #159

Does this include Netflix? It's been getting really annoying to have random videos your mouse is on, as you scroll, start playing automatically.

I remember how much excitement Netflix created in the data science community when they used to run their recommendation competition. There was so much optimism that big data would bring big benefits for consumers. How naive we were. Of course the data is used to extract maximum value for the data owner, not consumers. I guess we used to think their interests were aligned; the dream of the free market: that companies will compete on who makes customers' lives better. So so wrong.

Re: Firefox 66.0 Aims to Reduce Online Annoyances

#454

Post by adrianratnapala » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 9:48 PM UTC

interfixus wrote: post #301

zhte415 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're also being sarcastic :) Websites did this 15 years ago (miss the HTMLX compliant button at the bottom of the page), and now in large part do not.

I made my first website 22½ years ago. Even as a raw beginner, I knew it was considered sloth and Very Bad Form Indeed not to specify image size in my markup.

Everything that is standard recommended practice in modern web design is Very Bad From, whether or not it is sloth.

Re: Firefox 66.0 Aims to Reduce Online Annoyances

#455

Post by meruru » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 9:48 PM UTC

derefr wrote: post #449

bobbyi_settv wrote: post #414

I love that we continue to refer to private/ incognito browsing as something mainly used "when you’re planning a surprise party or gift".

I use Incognito mainly to let my friends log into their accounts for a minute on my computer, if they desperately need to e.g. make a bank transaction or an Amazon purchase or something using some combination of my information and theirs, where I can type stuff in (e.g. my shipping address) and they can type stuff in (e.g. their login credentials.) Porn browsing, meanwhile, is much better done with a secondary dedica…

Probably a better idea to use `firefox --ProfileManager` for that. That way you don't risk exposing your bookmarks, history, active logins, etc

Re: Firefox 66.0 Aims to Reduce Online Annoyances

#456

Post by adrianratnapala » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 9:50 PM UTC

pwg wrote: post #378

rayiner wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a page load, why should latency matter once you get below 50 ms? The problem isn’t latency, the problem is that the software stack makes tons of round-trip requests to display some text and images. The modern web makes X11 seem like it was designed by a demoscene coder.

> For a page load, why should latency matter > he problem is that the software stack makes tons of round-trip requests Latency matters because of all of those round-trip requests. Each individual request incurs at least 2x the network latency value (one network latency trip out to the server, another network latency trip back). If browsers did not try to run parallel requests, then all those round trips would sum up…

> Latency matters because of all of those round-trip requests.

Well then, since it's a physical impossibility to do away with them, we'd better start working on improving the speed of light.

Re: Firefox 66.0 Aims to Reduce Online Annoyances

#457

Post by xattt » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 9:50 PM UTC

calcifer wrote: post #374

clb4mf wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some (most?) people have no eye for design and simply don't notice stuff like that. Until recently Firefox's URL bar had a THICK blue glow when it was in focus, instead of the more subtle one the rest of Mac OS has. It infuriated me. They didn't fix it for years. Why? Because nobody noticed it or cared enough, I guess.

> It infuriated me. They didn't fix it for years. "They didn't fix it" implies someone reported it as a bug. Even if no one did, if you were infuriated by it, surely you did, right?

It’s an art to craft a bug report convincing enough to address the issue.

Re: Firefox 66.0 Aims to Reduce Online Annoyances

#458

Post by adrianratnapala » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 9:51 PM UTC

pcwalton wrote: post #420

rayiner wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a page load, why should latency matter once you get below 50 ms? The problem isn’t latency, the problem is that the software stack makes tons of round-trip requests to display some text and images. The modern web makes X11 seem like it was designed by a demoscene coder.

X11 doesn't even do any image compression. X11 seems fast because everyone uses the DRI and/or MIT-SHM extensions to hack around the fundamental brokenness of the protocol, at the cost of network transparency. :)

`ssh -X` generally disagrees with you.

Re: Firefox 66.0 Aims to Reduce Online Annoyances

#459

Post by pcwalton » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 9:53 PM UTC

adrianratnapala wrote: post #458

pcwalton wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

X11 doesn't even do any image compression. X11 seems fast because everyone uses the DRI and/or MIT-SHM extensions to hack around the fundamental brokenness of the protocol, at the cost of network transparency. :)

`ssh -X` generally disagrees with you.

I much prefer the Web to that on a slow network connection.

Re: Firefox 66.0 Aims to Reduce Online Annoyances

#460

Post by XorNot » Tue, Mar 19, 2019, 9:53 PM UTC

bobbyi_settv wrote: post #414

I love that we continue to refer to private/ incognito browsing as something mainly used "when you’re planning a surprise party or gift".

I mean I use it for personal stuff at work, for disposable browser environments for testing frontend content and bugs and for quickly handling AWS environments ... By far my use of incognito for mundane tasks outstrips its use for porn.