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Vietnam bans unskippable ads

saigoneer.com

651–660 of 835 posts

Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#651

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> iOS: - uBlock Origin now exists - Settings > Apps > Safari > (General) Extensions > uBlock Origin Lite https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ublock-origin-lite/id6745342698 - Alternatively, use Orion Browser (Kagi) - Pros: a bit better ad blocking - Cons: more buggy https://apps.apple.com/us/app/orion-browser-by-kagi/id1484498200 I'd also recommend installing Firefox, logging in, but use Safari. That way you can export a t…

How reliable are cronjobs in termux? Does they get killed if you're low on memory? Perhaps you could share these scripts somewhere? I'm sure other people would find inspiration from them. Personally I use Nextcloud for all my phone and computer backups, it's working well for me.

  > How reliable are cronjobs in termux?
I mean it is no systemd... cron is cron. As long as termux is running they run. Just make sure google doesn't kill it and that it starts on boot. I haven't really had issues tbh.

  > Does they get killed if you're low on memory?
Honestly, no idea. I've never pushed my device that hard. 8GB is quite a lot for a phone.

  > Perhaps you could share these scripts somewhere?
I should have posted with my realname account. I did put them in my dotfiles but I can't share that repo without doxing myself. Is there something you're specifically interested in?

  > Personally I use Nextcloud
That seems like a good route too. Would you recommend this over my setup? I find my current setup pretty easy tbh but hey, nothings perfect and it can always be better, right?

Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#652

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Luckily the recommendation system does work to some extent. I'm glad I don't get to see any of that stuff on my youtube. Opening the front page in a private view is a scary place of hyper-optimised drama and attention seeking. It's scary imagining people getting sucked into that :/

> Opening the front page in a private view is a scary place of hyper-optimised drama and attention seeking. Huh? Opening the front page of youtube in a private view (with no existing youtube history) shows you a completely blank page.

The blank page where it asks you to enter a search? This is a recent change I think. I want to say the last year or 2.

Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#653

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arguably, the advertiser is not merely a third party whose interests the service provider must consider, but rather the actual paying customer (and much more of the second party) whose interests the service provider must satisfy to make revenue. That to me puts into perspective the absurdity of this business model: the user is not the customer, the product or service itself is not the product but only a means to keep…

Yes, I mean from the consumer perspective. You're right that the user of an entirely ad-funded service isn't the real customer. They're still at least somewhat the customer when they're still providing some of the revenue though.

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Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#654

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How reliable are cronjobs in termux? Does they get killed if you're low on memory? Perhaps you could share these scripts somewhere? I'm sure other people would find inspiration from them. Personally I use Nextcloud for all my phone and computer backups, it's working well for me.

> How reliable are cronjobs in termux? I mean it is no systemd... cron is cron. As long as termux is running they run. Just make sure google doesn't kill it and that it starts on boot. I haven't really had issues tbh. > Does they get killed if you're low on memory? Honestly, no idea. I've never pushed my device that hard. 8GB is quite a lot for a phone. > Perhaps you could share these scripts somewhere? I should have…

> Just make sure google doesn't kill it

That's what I mean. How can you make sure of that?

> Is there something you're specifically interested in?

No, I already have a setup that's working for me.

> Would you recommend this over my setup?

Well, it depends. Nextcloud is a full Google Workspace replacement basically, including files sharing, office, notes, kanban, calendar, emails, chat, video calls, photo management. I use it for my business (and it's great) so I just use some spare storage for my own backups.

Probably overkill unless you want the other features.

Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#655

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How reliable are cronjobs in termux? I mean it is no systemd... cron is cron. As long as termux is running they run. Just make sure google doesn't kill it and that it starts on boot. I haven't really had issues tbh. > Does they get killed if you're low on memory? Honestly, no idea. I've never pushed my device that hard. 8GB is quite a lot for a phone. > Perhaps you could share these scripts somewhere? I should have…

> Just make sure google doesn't kill it That's what I mean. How can you make sure of that? > Is there something you're specifically interested in? No, I already have a setup that's working for me. > Would you recommend this over my setup? Well, it depends. Nextcloud is a full Google Workspace replacement basically, including files sharing, office, notes, kanban, calendar, emails, chat, video calls, photo management.…

  > How can you make sure of that?
https://netzro.github.io/posts/2025/Jun/08/setting-up-cronie...

Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#656

It's nice to read a case of government intervention making things better for the public rather than just more surveillance and control. And from Vietnam of all places.

I'd make the case that turning their citizens into consumers like America has done could be considered a national security risk.

Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#657
post #553
post #13

I've often wondered whether the world would be better without ads. The incentive to create services (especially in social media) that strive to addict their users feels toxic to society. Often, it feels uncertain whether these services are providing actual value, and I suspect that whether a user would pay for a service in lieu of watching ads is incidentally a good barometer for whether real value is present. Don't…

People don't care. Youtube has an option to watch it without ads, most people don't. I refuse to watch ads and pay for the ad-free versions of the streamers. Lots people won't pay. Would the average person pay $10/m for ad free social media? Or pay for add free search? Pretty sure there are search engines that you can pay that are ad free. What needs to be regulated is ads that you can't avoid. You can avoid online a…

Yeah but people also get addicted to things like cigarettes and gambling. Sometimes people need a little help to avoid harmful things.

Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#658
post #114

As much as this may have unintended consequences, I can appreciate the motivation. I can't let my kids play iPhone games unless I turn the device into Airplane mode. Almost all these pay to play mobile games have 60 second interstitials after each level that can't be skipped. It's insane. I've taught my kids how to force kill the game and reload to get out. Definitely depressing compared to the PC shareware days I gr…

At this point, I've just decided that I'm going to actually pay for my games on iPhone.

Stardew Valley cost me $15 on iPhone a few years ago, which is a lot for an iPhone game, but I don't regret it at all. It's a direct port of the PC version, meaning it's a complete experience, but also not a single ad. No attempts to get me to spam my friends, no prompts for me to buy gems to make my crops grow faster, no need to watch an ad to unlock fighting in the mines. It's a game that I paid some money for and then I got to play. What a concept!

I have a borderline-irrational hatred for ads and will very actively go out of the way to avoid them. I understand the whole "no free lunch" economic theory, so you could argue that they're a necessity in some cases, but at this point I'm in a stable enough position to justify paying a few bucks to play games uninterrupted.

Outside of Stardew Valley, I play Binding of Isaac and Organ Trail. Both of them cost a few bucks but both also give you a complete, ad-free experience.

Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#659

I am shaken to my core (sorry, wife hates that phrase, so I have to use it everywhere) at how many posters here see ads. I'm of the opinion that if you're seeing ads on your hardware, which you paid for, your computer is broken. That advertisements are always evil, always wrong, and never morally just. And everything possible should be done to avoid, remove, or deface them. To that end: Andriod: - Root your damn phon…

Yeah, it's crazy. Imagine if you let people into your home every day to slap advertising posters on to your walls. This is obnoxious shit and I don't understand how people tolerate it.

I'm beginning to wonder if many people are not comfortable with simply being content. They actually want someone to come and tell them why they aren't happy. Ads do that for them.

Re: Vietnam bans unskippable ads

#660

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's absolutely wild to me that people can have experienced any amount of the Internet and not think "word of mouth" will absolutely wholly suffice to fill the role of informing people about products. Of course many, many people would create and maintain all kinds of lists and review all kinds of products without being paid to. We know this would happen because it has, and it does, even with the noise of advertising…

The early web very quickly gave rise to curated directories of information and stopped working on word of mouth. Yahoo was a directory before it was a "search engine". AOL was a curated walled garden. Web rings were a thing, great for playful discovery, terrible for finding a specific thing. Heck for that matter, web ring banners are arguably just interactive "banners ads". Word of mouth also requires a high degree o…

> The early web very quickly gave rise to curated directories of information and stopped working on word of mouth.

Weren't those better before ads got involved?

> Web rings were a thing

Aren't those literally word of mouth?

> Otherwise you get things like youtube "review" channels that are just paid reviews.

That would be illegal under the laws we are discussing, presumably.

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