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What Happens Next Will Amaze You

idlewords.com

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Re: What Happens Next Will Amaze You

#261

Post by mozumder »

wcummings wrote: post #158
mozumder wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This method is not really for product affiliate ads (unless you have a whole shopping section of your site devoted for that...). Amazon links are for penny-chasers anyways. You're really supposed to curate display ads. But, this means you'll have to make the call to your local advertisers to actually sell the ads. ("Hey do you want to place an ad on our site for 6 months for $500? I'll take you out for pizza & beer i…

Selling all your inventory this way is incredibly unrealistic for most people.

Then focus on developing an audience. Don't even bother chasing pennies for programmatic ads.

Once you have your audience, it becomes easier to sell ads this way.

Re: What Happens Next Will Amaze You

#262

Post by patio11 »

tptacek wrote: post #228
idlewords wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some ways I can think of that help non-nerds: - lets you make backups you physically control - prevents vendor lock-in - lets you spot and correct mistakes in things like your user profile - lets you verify that things you deleted were actually deleted - promotes competition by making it easier to take your data and go elsewhere - protects your privacy by forcing vendors to keep better track internally of what user d…

You don't think these are things that mostly just nerds care about?

The most clarifying moment for this was Google's comprehensive data download, which the FB Growth team found out about and actively, scalably encouraged people to use, at which point Google got institutionally offended and pulled it. It later got restored under a scary This Is Actually An Advanced Techy Thing; Pay No Attention To The Data Behind The Curtain warning.

Re: What Happens Next Will Amaze You

#263

Post by 13thLetter »

Draiken wrote: post #139
hliyan wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's truth in that, but in Musk's case, he's already done a great deal for the world with Tesla and SpaceX. If Mars is what he wants to do with the rest of his money, that is his choice. Certainly better than what certain other billionaires are doing with theirs.

As much as I'd love to own a Tesla car and it does show a lot of innovation in the right direction, it's still a luxury sports car that only few very rich people can own. If he built an electric car for the masses, that would be a big deal for the world. Of course he's pushing inovation, but he still hasn't done "a great deal for the world". Maybe he caused some changes in the US, I'm not in a position to see that, b…

You could say the same thing about cellular telephones, which once upon a time were also luxury items that only very rich people could own. If they hadn't gone through the "here's a fancy thing for the rich" phase they never would have reached the "here's an affordable thing for everyone" phase.

Re: What Happens Next Will Amaze You

#264

Post by JeremyNT »

thaumaturgy wrote: post #131

"San Francisco is filthy and has a homeless problem it refuses to take care of and does its best to either ignore or address indirectly. It is full of tech elite who are completely disconnected from the world around them. ... I live in San Francisco." I thought this was a little hilarious. For so many people who live in the Bay Area, a favorite way to pass the time is to complain about how terrible it is. I too thoug…

> I want to hijack the bit on the EU cookie law to bring up a recent annoyance though: does anyone else here have their browser configured to block cookies by default? I do, on my main browser. Have you got any idea just how many sites completely fail to work at all with cookies turned off?

I have at various times tried to use the web this way by default, and it's frustrating to no end.

The comments from the talk about the browser being the user agent really hit home for me. The browser is all we have to fight this, and it still (mostly) does what we tell it to. There are ways to deal with cookies other than outright blocking which allow you to bypass such defective-by-design sites (e.g. "private browsing" and add-ons like self-destructing cookies).

The biggest concern I have, though, is how much computing I do on my Android telephone now. I have Firefox and uMatrix even there, sure, but it's an entire product designed to collect my data.

Re: What Happens Next Will Amaze You

#265

Post by kbenson »

rm_-rf_slash wrote: post #231
radlad wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Downvoting of this comment only makes sense to me if someone disagrees with you. And on that note, is that what downvoting on HN is for? Other link aggregators typically say downvoting isn't for disagreements; that's what commenting is for.

I've only downvoted someone once, and that was for a snarky, 5-word top-level comment that did nothing to expand the conversation - the kind of downvote that is exempt from explanation. But then there are people who silently disagree via downvote. To that I ask what the purpose must be. "I think you're wrong" - How? Why? Is it my tone? Lack of evidence? To me, downvoting without explaining is just a smug way to feel…

I find that downvotes generally account for well below 10% of my voting, and I use them mostly to denote needed correction in tone or presentation, or repeated endorsement of a "fact" without reference after it's been asked for. Even then, I'll only do so after leaving a comment or confirming someone else has a comment that covers my reasoning for downvoting. Without some explanation, it's far to easy to assume downvotes are due to disagreement on what is all to often a subjective item, which doesn't really help the discussion at all.

A Poll on people's downvoting behavior would be interesting, but as it would be self-reporting and subjective, the results would be next to meaningless if mundane.

Re: What Happens Next Will Amaze You

#266

Post by 13thLetter »

It's unfortunate how this piece goes off the rails towards the end, because it's so well-written and elegantly persuasive.

a) The parlous state of San Francisco does not strike me as relevant to the issue of how advertising violates privacy on the Internet.

b) And then when he does get on the topic he exhibits the same blind spot he's decrying in other techies -- ignoring the role of decades of foolish ideological governance and one-party rule of the city leading to its terrible social stratification, and instead deciding to blame techies for not inventing more comfortable park benches for the victims of those policies to sleep on.

Re: What Happens Next Will Amaze You

#267

Post by kaybe »

kawera wrote: post #144
fjarlq wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What blocker are you using, and what config?

Set Ghostery to block everything and opt-out of info sharing. Almost all ads magically disappear.

Basically yes. I also have httpsEverywhere and a newly added Privacy Badger, but they don't seem to change anything.

Re: What Happens Next Will Amaze You

#268

Post by forgottenpass »

Kalium wrote: post #239

> The tech industry is not responsible for any of these problems. But it's revealing that through forty years of unimaginable growth, and eleven years of the greatest boom times we've ever seen, we've done nothing to fix them. This bothers me. This bothers me a lot. There are two problems with this. First, it's not tech's problem to fix. It's a city-wide problem. Faulting tech for not solving problems that are not te…

First, it's not tech's problem to fix. It's a city-wide problem. Faulting tech for not solving problems that are not tech's to solve is at best dishonest.

Tech workers living in the city are no less of residents because of their job. Tech is no less a participant of the city than any other business sector. Your post is basically the Bystander Effect in action.

Re: What Happens Next Will Amaze You

#269

Post by Kalium »

forgottenpass wrote: post #268
Kalium wrote: post #239

> The tech industry is not responsible for any of these problems. But it's revealing that through forty years of unimaginable growth, and eleven years of the greatest boom times we've ever seen, we've done nothing to fix them. This bothers me. This bothers me a lot. There are two problems with this. First, it's not tech's problem to fix. It's a city-wide problem. Faulting tech for not solving problems that are not te…

First, it's not tech's problem to fix. It's a city-wide problem. Faulting tech for not solving problems that are not tech's to solve is at best dishonest. Tech workers living in the city are no less of residents because of their job. Tech is no less a participant of the city than any other business sector. Your post is basically the Bystander Effect in action.

Does that mean we should blame the finance industry for also not cleaning up the indigent? Because I'm on board with that.

I've seen what happens to people who advocate for things like more housing in SF. Do I need to be personally crucified in the media in order to be allowed suggest that there are major problems? Is it the Bystander Effect to note that a lot of people are trying all the things that are supposed to work and they're collectively accomplishing fuck-all? And that maybe throwing more time and effort and money into what's not working may not be wise?

But nevermind that. What do you think I should do? If you answer is to get involved in (local politics|my neighborhood group|planning board|whatever), then at what point am I allowed to give up in frustration at no problems being solved?

Right now I'd love for there to be some course of action that doesn't have a lot of precedent as a monstrous waste of time. I'll settle for being allowed to say that something isn't working.

Re: What Happens Next Will Amaze You

#270

Post by forgottenpass »

copsarebastards wrote: post #198
rm_-rf_slash wrote: post #121

Of all the recommendations in this piece, I think the right to be offline is by far the most necessary. I simply do not trust my devices not to track me without permission. I have no way of knowing whether or not my mic and webcam are on at any time and if someone in Maryland is staring at my bloodshot eyes staring at the New York Times. Every Internet-connected device should have a hardware off switch, same for came…

Tape a piece of tin foil over your webcam.

There are two groups that put tape over their webcams in large enough numbers for me to casually notice a trend. Grandparents, and people who work in infosec.
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