Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

stuartbreckenridge.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 417 posts

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

#71

Post by abustamam »

dehrmann wrote: post #52
userbinator wrote: post #48

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.

That's not a fair comparison. A desktop wallpaper could be 8 MB for a modern OS just because of screen resolution. A 4-minute music video would probably be 100 MB.

But PC gamer isn't downloading 8mb wallpapers or 100mb 4k music videos. They're downloading ads and and other nonsense.

Plus, if I decide to download a music video, that's on me. I chose to download a 100mb file.

If I just want to read what amounts to a few paragraphs of text with some branding, I don't think it's fair to say that I'm also choosing to download 40+mb of nonsense that isn't text. Maybe in this new modern web, that is a conscious decision I make by clicking on any link anywhere, but I think the point of the article is that it shouldn't be the case.

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

#72

Post by djoldman »

I can't recommend enough limiting JS to an allowlist.

By default, I browse without JS. If I get to a website that I want to explore that requires JS, I turn it on with one click:

https://github.com/maximelebreton/quick-javascript-switcher

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

#73

Post by Aurornis »

qingcharles wrote: post #60
timpera wrote: 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.

> 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.

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

#74

Post by userbinator »

dehrmann wrote: post #52
userbinator wrote: post #48

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.

That's not a fair comparison. A desktop wallpaper could be 8 MB for a modern OS just because of screen resolution. A 4-minute music video would probably be 100 MB.

It's still useful for comprehending the scale of volume. The useful part of the article is a few KB.

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

#75

Post by perardi »

goldenarm wrote: post #7

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

> Edit : Sorry I'm asking specifically about paywalled stuff

Ah, you mean, like the NYTimes RSS feed. The NYTimes (and other paywall sites) only render the headline and one-sentence article summary. Like this:

> Not All Malls Are Struggling

> A certain type of shopping mall has become a surprising bright spot for real estate investors.

You do not…please correct me if I’m wrong…and cannot get a full-text RSS feed from the Times. Or Slate. Or [insert legacy media company here].

Which is deeply frustrating. It’s obviously a way to cut off the most blatant way for a bot to scrape the site, but c’mon, please, media tech teams, we can make private subscription RSS feeds work for podcasts, we can make it work for news. Your most engaged and nerdy and tech literate customers will go for it.

In lieu of that, I use Safari, and I have it set to automatically pop into Reader mode (https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/hide-distractions-whe...) when I hit certain websites. While I would prefer to read my news in NetNewsWire, hitting a de-shittified reader view in Safari is a decent fallback.

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

#76

Post by Aurornis »

userbinator wrote: post #48

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.

I don’t think comparisons to native compiled code for old low resolution computers are all that valid for multimedia websites.

I can take a single photo with my iPhone that is larger than a Windows 95 installation depending on my output settings.

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

#77

Post by al_borland »

timpera wrote: post #57
MBCook wrote: post #17

The title buried the lede. > In the five minutes since I started writing this post the website has downloaded almost half a gigabyte of new ads. I’m guessing this is due to autoplaying videos. *500 MB* in 5 minutes. 37 MB is petite compared to that.

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.

Even with good bandwidth and unlimited data, it’s still disrespectful.

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

#79

Post by thevinter »

qingcharles wrote: post #60
timpera wrote: 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.

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.

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

#80

Post by chuckadams »

MBCook wrote: post #40
simonw wrote: post #19

This is so upsetting. No wonder people spend more time in mobile apps than they do using the mobile web - the default web experience on so many sites is terrible .

I’ve been using the Reddit app some lately after being a longtime old.Reddit.com + blocker person. Ignoring how [ad] navigation is kinda annoying [ad] the shear [ad] number of ads [ad] they [ad] insert [ad] is insane. The only good thing is none of them seem to be animated/video. Which is an incredibly low bar, but most sites can’t even jump that.

To say nothing of all the personal data the app is hoovering up. Guarantee that every last thing you granted permissions for is something they're monetizing.
Post reply on HN