Live data from Hacker News

uBlock Origin 1.41

github.com

141–150 of 189 posts

Re: uBlock Origin 1.41

#141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep I use this to block the stack exchange top block thing on the desktop site. I get sick of dismissing it all the time.

Sorry, what exactly is this "top block thing", on which StackExchange site? I didn't manually block anything from these sites, but don't see any annoying block near the top. Well, the main "stackexchange.com" has a dialog-box-like element titled "StackExchange Q&A Communities are Different. Here's how:", with a bunch of content, and a [Learn More] button. You can close this with the X in the top right corner. Is this…

I assume they mean the useless "Closed, duplicate" (which almost never links to a duplicate) or "Closed, opinion" box. I forgot I can remove them with UBlock Origin.)

Re: uBlock Origin 1.41

#142
post #73

It is a pity that Apple decides to castrate Safari's API in such a way that uBlock Origin won't function. It is the best AdBlock out there in my opinion. Works especially well for certain dirty pages with nasty ads.

Apple introduced content blocking in Safari in iOS 9 with privacy in mind. Essentially, content blockers started off as filter lists that Safari would use. Even with the more recent support for WebExtensions, this wouldn’t allow uBlock Origin because uBO gets to see every network request made, intercept it, match the requests with the blocking rules and prevent or allow them. Granted that uBO is trustworthy and has never siphoned off browsing behavior to other systems. But that risk exists with almost every extension of this kind on other browsers.

I use Firefox with uBO, and am not supportive of Apple’s position on not allowing uBO. But I see the value in controlling what information browser extensions can see, capture and possibly exfiltrate.

Re: uBlock Origin 1.41

#144
post #52

Thank you Raymond and all others involved with uBlock Origin. It makes the internet bearable for me and other family members. Every time I use the "YouTube" app on my elderly relatives TV and see how often it is interrupted with adverts I count my blessings that this add-on exists.

Tangential question to anyone reading this: How does uBlock Origin block in-video ads that are in video format? I thought all those are embedded in the video stream and served from the same hosts that serve the video. If not, how has YouTube not changed the way it serves the video to disable such blocking functionality? Note that this is not about text ads that may be overlaid in the video or text ads elsewhere on the YouTube page.

Re: uBlock Origin 1.41

#145
post #144
post #52

Thank you Raymond and all others involved with uBlock Origin. It makes the internet bearable for me and other family members. Every time I use the "YouTube" app on my elderly relatives TV and see how often it is interrupted with adverts I count my blessings that this add-on exists.

Tangential question to anyone reading this: How does uBlock Origin block in-video ads that are in video format? I thought all those are embedded in the video stream and served from the same hosts that serve the video. If not, how has YouTube not changed the way it serves the video to disable such blocking functionality? Note that this is not about text ads that may be overlaid in the video or text ads elsewhere on th…

I imagine that encoding the ads into videos would be too expensive. Ads change often and are personalized, so the video streams would also need to be personalized and couldn't be cached and served from a simple edge CDN anymore. Instead each ad is it's own stream which is loaded (or in this case, not loaded, so instead of blocking playback entirely it just skips the ad).

Re: uBlock Origin 1.41

#146
>By default, at browser launch uBO waits for all filter lists to be loaded before unsuspending network activity so as to ensure web pages are properly filtered at launch.

Fun Fact: uBO might wait, but Chrome DGAF and will load pages without waiting for all extensions to properly load.

Re: uBlock Origin 1.41

#147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I'm just about to start shopping for TVs, like LG generally and would love it if I could root it, you know if there is any list of compatible models somewhere? I did some browsing and could only find which webOS versions that are vulnerable, but not which LG model runs what version ("out of factory" version at the very least).

If you buy any retail model today, it will be compatible.

Great, thanks for the reply!

Re: uBlock Origin 1.41

#148
post #2

This is always the first addon/extension I add to a browse; installing uBlock is like "sudo apt update && sudo apt update -y" on a freshly installed system -- you're asking for trouble if you don't secure things as soon as possible.

The worst thing is that Firefox removes all add-ons if it was not used for a while. One can disable this by setting disableResetPrompt to true, but it's annoying e.g. when you set up an ad blocker on your mom's laptop only to find it being removed a few months later.

Don't get me wrong, but that implies she is not using Firefox as her daily driver.

Changing the icon to, shudder, the edge icon might help and call it "Internet" and maybe she will use it. Most people do not really know, or care, that their browser is.

I do this with very un - techsavvy people and install uBo and they have a fairly safe time online.

Re: uBlock Origin 1.41

#149
post #127

Block Element is a quite a useful feature of uBlock Origin. You can right click on individual things in a website's UI and make them go away using the "Block element ..." context menu command added by uBlock. This is useful for not only getting rid of ads, but anything that distracts you or tricks you into clicking on it. For instance, in Reddit, if you find yourself accidentally clicking on switching to New Reddit (…

The eyedrop (permanently hide element) is great for getting through most cookie walls without accepting anything. The filters (custom rules for hiding stuff) is great for personalizing your browsing. Eliminate scores on Reddit, YouTube video cards containing keywords for stuff you don't want to get spoiled, Tweets types that don't interest you like "Stuff your follows such as "You might like", etc.

Don't they just assume using the site without accepting is the same as accepting all?

Re: uBlock Origin 1.41

#150
post #149
post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The eyedrop (permanently hide element) is great for getting through most cookie walls without accepting anything. The filters (custom rules for hiding stuff) is great for personalizing your browsing. Eliminate scores on Reddit, YouTube video cards containing keywords for stuff you don't want to get spoiled, Tweets types that don't interest you like "Stuff your follows such as "You might like", etc.

Don't they just assume using the site without accepting is the same as accepting all?

Some probably do, but any GDPR-compatible website won't.
Post reply on HN