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µBlock for Firefox

github.com

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Re: µBlock for Firefox

#91
post #39
post #5

I have been using µBlock for 3 weeks now.(previously adblock plus). There is one irritating thing it has that almost makes me go back to adblock again. It is often blocking the false positives. So if developer has named one of their assets file with social media names like "twitter/facebook/etc", it blocks the file right away. Since it does not have custom configuration options for each site, you can either disable µ…

Similarly, it blocks all FB, Twitter buttons across all websites and there seems to be no way to white list those across all websites. Am I missing something?

In its options, select 3rd-party filters, and under Social, uncheck Fanboy's Social Blocking List.

Re: µBlock for Firefox

#92

It seems like, if one were an evil web developer, one could thwart blockers like these with a few nasty tricks. Server-side: on each request of a resource, salt all linked resource URIs and encrypt (after the host name) before sending the final document to the client. The resources can still be fetched, because the server can decrypt any requests, but the client has no way of knowing whether a particular resource is…

And in response, blockers could then create lists of hashes of ads (pictures) instead of URIs and block those ?

Re: µBlock for Firefox

#94

If the author is here, please turn off the counter by default. We're blocking distracting things in our browser, we don't need another pointless distracting thing in our browser toolbar.

Counter opinion: I like the number because if there's a website working not quite right, I can easily see the number and disable uBlock to test out if that's the cause.

Re: µBlock for Firefox

#95

It seems like, if one were an evil web developer, one could thwart blockers like these with a few nasty tricks. Server-side: on each request of a resource, salt all linked resource URIs and encrypt (after the host name) before sending the final document to the client. The resources can still be fetched, because the server can decrypt any requests, but the client has no way of knowing whether a particular resource is…

Messing with the URIs isn't going to work because most ads are from ad networks and their domains can be blocked. And no ad network is going to trust some system where they need to rely on the client server to not lie about ad impressions.

Adblock mostly misses self-hosted ads anyway.

Re: µBlock for Firefox

#96
post #67
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where do you get the filter list to modify /etc/host ? Or Is there a easier way to get the filter list from ABP or mu-block ?

Quite a few sources actually. Beware, some of them can be too restrictive. If the hosts file is too big, it can also impact performance. http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.zip (too restrictive) http://hosts-file.net/download/hosts.zip (ad-servers n tracking only) http://hosts-file.net/ad_servers.asp http://pgl.yoyo.org/as/serverlist.php?hostformat=hosts&showi... http://sysctl.org/cameleon/hosts.win http://www.malwared…

curious about the performance issue. Would the impact on performance be larger than a similarly sized block list in a browser plugin?

I have a netbook, so always want to keep an eye out on performance.

I wonder if there's a GUI application which enables these hosts sources to be tweaked, searched, whitelisted etc

Re: µBlock for Firefox

#98

Does this also work for Firefox on Android? EDIT: it seems that it's not compatible with Firefox 35 on my Android. Oh well, more patience required :-)

Bluhell Firewall does work on Firefox for Android, if you're looking for an ad blocker while you wait for µBlock.

And so do Adblock Plus and Adblock Edge. The reason I am interested in this is because of much lower resource consumption than either of those.

I haven't tried Bluehell Firewall though. Can you comment on its performance as compared to Adblock Plus/Edge?

Re: µBlock for Firefox

#99

If the author is here, please turn off the counter by default. We're blocking distracting things in our browser, we don't need another pointless distracting thing in our browser toolbar.

Counter opinion: I like the number because if there's a website working not quite right, I can easily see the number and disable uBlock to test out if that's the cause.

Seems already configurable:

-> Settings -> Show the number of blocked requests on the icon

Re: µBlock for Firefox

#100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no law. I work at a newspaper. We are digitally aware and head towards a digital distribution. That means infrastructural changes and that costs money. Those advertisers pay the bills. They provide the means for us to reach you. Subscription models are (currently) not enough. I'm not trying to guilt anyone into anything but this will be a an interesting field to watch in the coming years. How will journalism…

It seems like if you're interested in making money online with advertising with "journalism" there's strong pressure to turn yourself into BuzzFeed.... that is, low effort, cheap tricks, information pornography.

No, I am genuinely interested in how to fund real journalism. How do we go about getting money for people to expose the aggregation of wealth and power against the interests of the plebeians. (note: plebeians is used here not as a derogatory)
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