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Brave Improves Its Ad-Blocker Performance with New Engine in Rust

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Re: Brave Improves Its Ad-Blocker Performance with New Engine in Rust

#111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is this necessarily true? All Rust gives you is safety -- no data races and better memory safety. But since data races and use-after-free are undefined behavior in C++ anyway, C++ compilers can still aggressively optimize by assuming those two don't happen. It's true that some compilers disable optimizations on certain undefined behavior to prevent unintuitive behavior ( https://blog.regehr.org/archives/140 ) but…

For one, in typical code, the Rust compiler can make more aggressive optimizations because every `&mut` is guaranteed not to alias. The C++ equivalent, from the optimizer's standpoint, is `T * restrict`, which is rarely used (and harder to use correctly) by comparison.

But is it used? From what I remember aliasing information provided was not used by LLVM. Did anything changed?

Re: Brave Improves Its Ad-Blocker Performance with New Engine in Rust

#112

Can you use your own block list in Brave? Last time I checked on mobile I couldn't see how to. If not that seems like a major downside compared to other browsers.

I switched to Kiwi Browser recently from Brave (after their bottom tab bar drama). Kiwi allows extensions so you can install uBlock Origin and add your own lists.

Re: Brave Improves Its Ad-Blocker Performance with New Engine in Rust

#114
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's still terrible. If I'm a Youtube content creator who doesn't want anything to do with Brave, they're still going to remove the ads that I want on my videos to monetize my content, and hold any of the BAT that Brave users contribute to me hostage.

Is uBlock terrible?

Yes? Generating and serving content isn't free. If you don't want the ads, don't visit the page or pay for an ad-free version.

Re: Brave Improves Its Ad-Blocker Performance with New Engine in Rust

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For one, in typical code, the Rust compiler can make more aggressive optimizations because every `&mut` is guaranteed not to alias. The C++ equivalent, from the optimizer's standpoint, is `T * restrict`, which is rarely used (and harder to use correctly) by comparison.

But is it used? From what I remember aliasing information provided was not used by LLVM. Did anything changed?

I believe the code miscompilation bug in LLVM that was blocking enabling it was fixed. That said, it's gone back and forth now several times as new bugs get discovered. The code paths in GCC and LLVM for noalias optimizations aren't particularly battle-tested because C and C++ basically don't use them.

Re: Brave Improves Its Ad-Blocker Performance with New Engine in Rust

#116
post #95
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See https://brave.com/faq/#unclaimed-funds for a description of their current and past policy. Currently: "If a publisher has not verified ownership, then a user’s contributions will be held in reserve inside the browser for 90 days. The browser routinely updates an internal list of all verified publishers to determine whether a property can receive contributions. At the end of the 90 day period, any contributions ma…

That's still terrible. If I'm a Youtube content creator who doesn't want anything to do with Brave, they're still going to remove the ads that I want on my videos to monetize my content, and hold any of the BAT that Brave users contribute to me hostage.

The user owns their computer. You own yours or at least the party you have entrusted your content does.

If people don't want to look at your ads they wont. Don't like it charge money.

Re: Brave Improves Its Ad-Blocker Performance with New Engine in Rust

#117
post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is uBlock terrible?

Yes? Generating and serving content isn't free. If you don't want the ads, don't visit the page or pay for an ad-free version.

It's not just that I choose option C to continue watching and not pay. I in fact opt out of the entire decision making process. I'm not going to figure out what sort of ads you have or whether I should or shouldn't block them because life is short and I have other better things to do. I'm just going to turn on ublock and just keep swimming.

If you don't put out videos tomorrow because of this I will watch someone else's content. If you produce something truly unique put it out there for money and I will make an informed choice on whether I want to pay for it.

Re: Brave Improves Its Ad-Blocker Performance with New Engine in Rust

#120
post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is uBlock terrible?

Yes? Generating and serving content isn't free. If you don't want the ads, don't visit the page or pay for an ad-free version.

Is it unethical to avoid looking at billboards?

If not, what if I had a special pair of glasses that obscured such billboards or other physical advertising? It's not possible today, but not that hard to imagine in the near future.

How are these situations different from blocking ads on the web?

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