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PC Gamer recommends RSS readers in a 37mb article that just keeps downloading

stuartbreckenridge.net

201–210 of 417 posts

Re: PC Gamer recommends RSS readers in a 37mb article that just keeps downloading

#201

To use a good point of reference that I've seen others also start using lately, an installation of Windows 95 is roughly 40MB, so in loading that page you've downloaded approximately one Windows 95 installation. Then another 10+ times with the 500MB more that came after.

Put another way, the initial page would barely fit (by itself) on the first hard drive I ever used.

Re: PC Gamer recommends RSS readers in a 37mb article that just keeps downloading

#202

I hate ads as much as anyone, but the OP article would be more convincing if it didn't itself include 6MB worth of screenshots.

Yeah, those are rather large for those of us not on retina displays.

(Is 3150x2210 a normal resolution / aspect ratio for those, anyway?)

Re: PC Gamer recommends RSS readers in a 37mb article that just keeps downloading

#203
post #21

I'm trying to migrate to 100% RSS right now, to avoid the hateful algorithmic editorialization of modern social media. And I'm shocked that almost no paid media provides full articles in RSS anymore, and force me to navigate their 37MB pages with popups all over the place. Has anyone found a solution against that ? Edit : Sorry I'm asking specifically about paywalled stuff

Maybe not considered a solution, but: print.

[deleted]

Re: PC Gamer recommends RSS readers in a 37mb article that just keeps downloading

#204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Three days into the month these phones are just ewaste. If someone needs a phone like this for email and job searching and has no other option, 2G speeds will work. It’s not e-waste for the intended purpose. It would be great if they got higher days caps, though, because let’s be realistic in acknowledging that they’re not only going to use it for Google Maps, email, and job search apps.

For those who can't understand this comment, here is what it means: "I mean, it's one banana, Michael. What could it cost? 10 dollars?"

lol, right?

Re: PC Gamer recommends RSS readers in a 37mb article that just keeps downloading

#205
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Email and chat apps will work, but everything else will slow to a crawl at best and time out at worst.

by email you mean pop3, imap and smtp or the heavy html web client?

I doubt email would work, even with imap or pop3. I get a lot of spam per day, and imap clients typically download unread messages.

I guess you could configure it not to do that, or write your own imap client with better behavior -- on your 2G smartphone.

Re: PC Gamer recommends RSS readers in a 37mb article that just keeps downloading

#207
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Downloading 500 MB in 5 minutes in the background of a random article is really disrespectful to readers on low-end devices or metered data plans (and these two groups are often the same people!). What a waste of ressources.

I've worked with a lot of people at the bottom end of society in the USA. They are given government provided phones they can use so they have access to Google Maps, email, job search apps etc. These phones come with 3GB of regular data per month. After that they drop down to 2G speed, but not in a way that will allow anything to actually load. Three days into the month these phones are just ewaste.

Here in NZ, a lot of people live with less than 1GB of mobile data / month. Once you run out, you have to pay per MB at extortionate rates.

Most people still use sms rather than RCS or Signal or anything secure so they don’t have to pay for the data (most plans have unlimited SMS now)

Of course, the whole country has ultra-fast fibre on unmetered connections (even on the very cheapest plans), so if you’re at work or home it’s fine. Just using data on the go is a non-starter for many

Re: PC Gamer recommends RSS readers in a 37mb article that just keeps downloading

#208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> cable has DVRs that let you skip commercials if you want The last time I had DirecTV several channels had managed to have unskippable ads in recordings. Paramount was egregious with this and was the first channel I saw with this "feature" enabled.

I've never seen that. That's terrible. The people who put up with streaming enshittification are ruining it for the rest of us by normalizing it.

To be fair, this was almost a decade ago.

Re: PC Gamer recommends RSS readers in a 37mb article that just keeps downloading

#209

It's not just "PC Gamer" but people making decisions behind as always. Three first people from their "Meet the Team" page [0]: Tim Clark — Brand Director (@timothydclark), Evan Lahti - Strategic Director (@elahti), Phil Savage — Global Editor-in-Chief (@Octaeder). Hopefully they can see this HN thread and people complains and do "something" about that. [0] https://www.pcgamer.com/meet-the-team/

I have professionally dealt with these types of people in my career (not these exact 3) in similar settings and I can tell you - they don't care. They care only about revenue numbers. You can walk up to them, show them this article and even this HN thread and their first question will be "how does it affect our revenue?"

They don't see it as money made through ripping off users without their consent - they think they are entitled to that money. Anything that leads to less money in the name of usability, transparency and honesty is just met with a shrug.

To them, the author of the article and the rest of us are just rambling developers who don't understand how businesses work. And they are the gold standard (they think so) for business ethics. So tell me again, do you really think they will do "something" about that?

Re: PC Gamer recommends RSS readers in a 37mb article that just keeps downloading

#210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've worked with a lot of people at the bottom end of society in the USA. They are given government provided phones they can use so they have access to Google Maps, email, job search apps etc. These phones come with 3GB of regular data per month. After that they drop down to 2G speed, but not in a way that will allow anything to actually load. Three days into the month these phones are just ewaste.

I lived for months with a 4GB roaming plan. Given, I was not using it at home since I had a wifi connection, but I rarely came close to using all my data unless I was watching YT videos when traveling or something. I share your sentiment and I agree we should be more mindful of people with metered/slow connections, but the last statement feels blown out of proportion.

If you're highly tech literate, you can get by with 4GB or even 3GB.

What you cannot do, contrary to what someone posted in this thread, is get by on 2G. So an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure in this case.

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