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

stuartbreckenridge.net

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

#231

Post by hedora »

al_borland wrote: post #88
MBCook wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why I pay to get rid of ads in things I like. Podcasts and TV are the big ones. I just started watching season 2 of Jury Duty on Amazon. I had deleted the app when they announced that as a paying subscriber I would be getting ads. Oh my God the ads are so horrible. So much worse than I remember. Also, extra kudos to Amazon for nearly doubling the price of removing the ads the week before the show came out. Ho…

> I had deleted the app when they announced that as a paying subscriber I would be getting ads. I completely cancelled Prime when they sent that email. To hit me with a monthly charge when I’m already paying a yearly fee just felt so cheap. I was already pretty unhappy with the direction Amazon had been heading; that email was the straw that broke the camel’s back. My Amazon purchase volume dropped by 60% the followi…

They just doubled the "get out of watching ads" fee. Also, most of their good content is now in the "Now playing" section, where you can't seek around or choose episodes. Of course, it also has unskippable ads, even if you paid to remove them.

I strongly recommend purchasing a USB bluray player + then buying shiny metal disks to feed it (or finding your public library, of course!)

Used + overstock disks are << $10. I go to the store and grab what I want. I typically leave with about 30 movies / TV seasons for $100. They're far higher quality than the content that is included with amazon prime, and typically cost about 10% as much as the "buy movie" price for the same film.

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

#232

Post by applfanboysbgon »

jojobas wrote: post #129
toast0 wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people are paying for their data. If a web page uses 40 mb and you have 4GB of data quota per month, you can only load 100 pages per month. Apparently the article text describes the page actually using 500 MB over 5 minutes, which means a 4GB quota can be used for less than an hour of reading. Maybe it's different if advertisers or publishers are paying viewer's data costs. But some amount of restraint might…

I mean, the utility that matters is the utility for PC Gamer of showing everyone the ads vs some people refusing to read them over data concerns. You might be paying for data, but you're not paying PC Gamer for reading them, so your opinion only starts to matter when you quit reading them over how much data they use.

A reader who hits their mobile data cap after thirty minutes on your site will not be viewing any more of your ads for the next month. But if businesses were capable of thinking more than exactly one step ahead for any action they take, the tech industry wouldn't be such a shithole in the first place, of course.

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

#233

Post by filoleg »

coryrc wrote: post #195
reaperducer wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

0 of course, but wasn't 3G all shut down in the US in 2022 to open up the airspace? One of those HN myths that comes from only being willing to Google (or ChatGPT) information, rather than encountering it in the real world. 3G still exists in rural and remote areas that no major carrier wants to serve, at least as of April, 2025 — the last time I did a round of real-world web testing. Next round is in September. Mayb…

That's weird, because it's directly contradicting that the carriers themselves say they have decommissioned it. https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/plan-ahead-phase-out-3g...

I don't believe there is a contradiction.

The FCC page you linked is talking about major carriers decommissioning 3G.

The grandparent comment is talking about rural/remote areas that no major carrier served in the first place.

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

#234

Post by hedora »

gmerc wrote: post #158

This is the cable tv final enshittification from the 90s, every second of the hour being crammed with ads because that’s the last little bit of money that can be squeezed after google took away all the attention

Over on slashdot, they're currently running a story "US Cable TV Industry Faces 'Dramatic Collapse' as Local Operators Shut Down - or Become ISPs"

I can't believe the year has finally come! I also cannot believe the year starts with a "2".

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

#235

Post by hedora »

zahlman wrote: post #202
valicord wrote: post #54

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?)

3150x2210 is sort of a normal resolution for retina displays. It's close to a native panel resolution on iOS, but they do this dumb fractional scaling thing because it was too hard to backport support for high DPI displays to MacOS X. Anyway, that resolution is so unreadable on current macos that they hide it behind a "show all resolutions" toggle. The default is 50% that (1/4 as many pixels), and they only let you go up to about 60-66% of native resolution unless you click the override.

So, the screenshot is probably a semi-upscaled image of a ~ 1920x1200 desktop.

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

#237

Post by lazide »

asdff wrote: post #179
nathanmills wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unlimited data! You make it sound so easy.

It was seemingly easy for every cell provider to give it to every teenager in america just 10 years ago. What is a few marginalized adults in 2026?

They won’t be marginalized if we don’t shit on them somehow.

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

#238

Post by charwhee »

I immediately thought of this article: https://growtika.com/blog/tech-media-collapse . These websites are losing market share to search and AI; clinging to their business model I suspect they are forced to display an inordinate amount of advertising to make up for their dwindling views. The value they provide is still there, but the advertising revenue that paid for it is not.

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

#239

Post by jazzyjackson »

filoleg wrote: post #233
coryrc wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's weird, because it's directly contradicting that the carriers themselves say they have decommissioned it. https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/plan-ahead-phase-out-3g...

I don't believe there is a contradiction. The FCC page you linked is talking about major carriers decommissioning 3G. The grandparent comment is talking about rural/remote areas that no major carrier served in the first place.

I guess what I am getting from this thread is, there is 3G service out there in the wild. However, in locations where 4G and 5G is available, 3G has been phased out

This doesn’t jibe with my experience trying to make phone calls on rural highways, where it seems there is no signal whatsoever more often than not.

I suppose this could be because ATT-Verizon-T-Mobile used to have 2G in that area (which was discontinued — 900Mhz analog voice band, also decommissioned) has moved on and left swathes of the US without signal, whereas, certain areas (commenter omits an example) never were served by major telecoms and have “evolved” their tech more slowly, so 3G is not decommissioned in those places. In that sense yes there is no contradiction. It still feels like we’ve gone backwards since there are places I used to be able to make a phone call that are now considered remote area with satellite SOS being you’re only way to reach someone

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

#240

Post by medvidek »

virtue3 wrote: post #192
what wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They’re already given unlimited data? It just gets throttled the 2G speeds. They can also just go to the local library or Starbucks for the WiFi if they need more.

Please go try and do anything on the internet at 2G speeds in todays world. You can barely even use FB messenger (you need to get messenger-lite). I only know this cuz tmobile would give you free 2g all over europe. it was JUST BARELY helpful. mostly just sms and email. google maps was unusable etc. This only got worse over the years. They now give you free 3G and it's bearable. 2G is insanely slow in the 2020+ world…

> They now give you free 3G and it's bearable

Note that many European countries have already got rid of their 3G networks completely [0]. So it's either "you have 4G/5G" or "the internet is pretty much unusable", nothing in between.

As someone living in a European country with no 3G network, my experience with mobile data is that when my phone fails to find a 4G signal and switches to 2G (pretty much only happens in remote areas, thankfully), I can as well send my packets using a pigeon carrier, they're going to arrive to the destination sooner.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3G#Phase-out

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