61–70 of 159 posts
My wife doesn't, simply because Android Chrome doesn't support one and she won't move to Firefox because it doesn't have an extension to translate pages with Google Translate like Chrome does :(
My wife doesn't, simply because Android Chrome doesn't support one and she won't move to Firefox because it doesn't have an extension to translate pages with Google Translate like Chrome does :(
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Both android and iOS natively let you set a custom DNS server and there are several that include adblocking (or you can host your own). It's not as good as application level blocking but it's quite effective. I recommend NextDNS as a hosted, paid, custom DNS provider.
I moved away from NextDNS due to how slowly it picked up DNS changes, it would take hours for changes to propagate - and there wasn't any way to force it to update without manually creating DNS entries. I installed PiHole on one of my servers and Tailscale makes it available on all my devices - I couldn't be happier.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I moved away from NextDNS due to how slowly it picked up DNS changes, it would take hours for changes to propagate - and there wasn't any way to force it to update without manually creating DNS entries. I installed PiHole on one of my servers and Tailscale makes it available on all my devices - I couldn't be happier.
How's the latency with pihole over tailscale? I have a feeling it would make a noticeable difference for me
Why? Because I believe they're wrong. I think it's just wrong to engage with any business and disable, sidestep or circumvent their way to make money. It's like shoplifting. It reminds of people who open up a box at the supermarket, eat the food, and then claim that the barcode was on the box so that must be what's for sale. I want the Internet to have ad supported content. I want the people who create this content t…
Also adblocking does reduce some experiences. Some sites will tell you to disable it, and that's more irritating than the ad banners.
I had conversation with my daughter on how games used to have no ads but now they're chock full of ads, but TV has no ads now but up to a third of TV was ads when I was her age. I think there's a bit of nostalgia to ads, that some shows were designed for it. Even if it's those dodgy Evony ads. I can watch Futurama without ads today, but it feels like something's missing. Netflix shows drag out, maybe because it's missing the "grind" of ads?
Why? Because I believe they're wrong. I think it's just wrong to engage with any business and disable, sidestep or circumvent their way to make money. It's like shoplifting. It reminds of people who open up a box at the supermarket, eat the food, and then claim that the barcode was on the box so that must be what's for sale. I want the Internet to have ad supported content. I want the people who create this content t…
I never understood this stance either. I am sympathetic that these venues need income generation. However, if they are losing so much money over the loss of advertising then they need to change their business model. The free market is that simple.
It's a different situation today, but it's still there. Especially teenagers. I would pay $1 for a newspaper easily, but I would never pay for online news. Maybe if it charged me 8 cents and only needed a thumbprint to pay, I would. Maybe if there was a comic section, I would.
We had a business which was basically media ecommerce. Instead of making a site about football and selling ads related to footbl fans, we'd sell shoes. We'd make recipe apps then sell hard to find ingredients.
This worked great. It made money. Good profit margin. But 80% of the work became logistics. We ended up outsourcing content creation and then became a logistics company.
As software engineers many of us play a part in creating a world that we wouldn't want to live in and then exempt ourselves from it with ad blockers leaving the ignorant or less technically inclined to fend for themselves.
It unethical to use ad blockers.
I could not imagine using the internet without an ad blocker and despite trying to live an ethical life, that's one thing I can't go without. If for no other reason, raw dogging the internet without an ad blocker is a real and legitimate security risk.
I consider it part of professional ethics not to work for ad based companies, and I have started to pay services, like wikipedia in particular, so they don't have to be supported with ads.
I do use adblockers, so much so that I basically only use android because of all the system-wide adblocking capabilities, including youtube ads. I occasionally switch off adblockers to see what the rest of the world sees. Within seconds I am shocked every single time. Some sites I use are unusable without adblockers. The youtube experience is attrocious without adblockers. Amazon products are impossible to find witho…
Can you outline how you're doing system-wide as blocking? That's news to me!
1) Android lets you install other browsers and use them as default. Some of these, like Firefox or Brave or Vivaldi, include adblocking software that works everywhere, even YouTube. Whereas on iOS, even if you install chrome, it's just a reskinned safari because Apple refuses third parties proper access to the system. https://www.howtogeek.com/184283/why-third-party-browsers-wi...
2) Android allows you root access without too much trouble, and you can install system wide ad blocking tools that way. Such as AdLock.
3) There are other system wide blocking options, such as anti-ad VPN solutions, that works on system wide data traffic.
I don't. I think adblocking is a form of petty theft. If something has too much ads, I don't use it or pay for the ad-free version. I pay for YouTube Premium. Also adblocking does reduce some experiences. Some sites will tell you to disable it, and that's more irritating than the ad banners. I had conversation with my daughter on how games used to have no ads but now they're chock full of ads, but TV has no ads now b…
I don't think adblocking is a petty form of theft, I think it's prudent, as ads are often security risks - not to mention don't include proper privacy settings but still try to track you against your will. Which is illegal in my part (EU) of the world. I'll try to support in other ways if I think your content is worth it and you provide secondary ways to pay.
I don't see the nostalgia aspect either. Shows were only "designed for it" in such a way that they frequently take breaks from the plot to show ads,. I challenge you to point to any single show where frequent ad breaks actually made the show better.
If you feel like Netflix shows "drag out", that sounds like an attention span issue. The same episode is either much shorter without 30-40% more time being spent on ads, or it's the same air time and just has more actual episode.