Technology Chit-Chat

[JudasIscariotTheBird]

I just followed a link that a friend posted on Facebook, and the site didn't like my AdBlock being on. Fine, that's common.

But then I see a link at the bottom for "Block AdBlock". So I click it.

Someone made a Chrome extension that ....blocks AdBlock? Do people think that AdBlock is some virus or feature that isn't able to be easily turned off?

uBlock is mildly better than AdBlock. AdBlock is a bit of a resource hog, and isn't very up-to-date.

[Sammy Sofa]

I just followed a link that a friend posted on Facebook, and the site didn't like my AdBlock being on. Fine, that's common.

But then I see a link at the bottom for "Block AdBlock". So I click it.

Someone made a Chrome extension that ....blocks AdBlock? Do people think that AdBlock is some virus or feature that isn't able to be easily turned off?

uBlock is mildly better than AdBlock. AdBlock is a bit of a resource hog, and isn't very up-to-date.

uBlock Origin, ScriptBlock, Privacy Badger and HTTPS Everywhere is the combo that I found works best for me.

[The Logan]

I just followed a link that a friend posted on Facebook, and the site didn't like my AdBlock being on. Fine, that's common.

But then I see a link at the bottom for "Block AdBlock". So I click it.

Someone made a Chrome extension that ....blocks AdBlock? Do people think that AdBlock is some virus or feature that isn't able to be easily turned off?

uBlock is mildly better than AdBlock. AdBlock is a bit of a resource hog, and isn't very up-to-date.

uBlock Origin, ScriptBlock, Privacy Badger and HTTPS Everywhere is the combo that I found works best for me.

Out of curiosity, will using these stop websites from saying "Hey, would you stop using that ad blocker?"

[Sammy Sofa]

Sometimes.

[BigbadB]

I didn't even know there was a Blockbuster Video around still

https://roadtrippers.com/magazine/last-blockbuster/

I'm going up there and cutting up some fake Blockbuster cards since I don't have any Blockbuster membership cards left to cut up.

[CyHawk_Cub]

[minnesotacubsfan]

hearing David Bowie call the interwebs an alien life form makes my day

[Bertz]

uBlock is mildly better than AdBlock. AdBlock is a bit of a resource hog, and isn't very up-to-date.

uBlock Origin, ScriptBlock, Privacy Badger and HTTPS Everywhere is the combo that I found works best for me.

Out of curiosity, will using these stop websites from saying "Hey, would you stop using that ad blocker?"

Unfortunately, if anything this is a thing that's going to get more common and harder to get around. Ad networks are being judged more and more not just on delivery, but on viewability. That's going to trickle down to sites, who are going to do what they can to replace that revenue. For instance, Weather.com, which in my experience has been among the most shameless mainstream sites in terms of the number of ads it serves, asks you if you'll turn off your ad blocker, and then follows up with an "are you sure?"

Also, more broadly, expect in the next year or so the number of sites you have to log into with an email to access content to explode.

[weis21]

My girlfriend dropped her iPhone and initially the camera wasn't working but then it wouldn't charge and long story short it's dead as hell, apparently.

She attempted to upgrade her iCloud storage capacity and back it up but the phone passed away before it could finish.

She dropped it off at some repair shop and the guy said he'd take a look but was pretty sure she was just out of luck. Is there any (reliable/easy/safe) way to salvage the photos and videos from her phone? I don't know what version of the iPhone it was but it was a pretty recent version (more recent than mine).

You are are the smartest people I know so I turned to NSBB first.

[Sammy Sofa]

uBlock Origin, ScriptBlock, Privacy Badger and HTTPS Everywhere is the combo that I found works best for me.

Out of curiosity, will using these stop websites from saying "Hey, would you stop using that ad blocker?"

Unfortunately, if anything this is a thing that's going to get more common and harder to get around. Ad networks are being judged more and more not just on delivery, but on viewability. That's going to trickle down to sites, who are going to do what they can to replace that revenue. For instance, Weather.com, which in my experience has been among the most shameless mainstream sites in terms of the number of ads it serves, asks you if you'll turn off your ad blocker, and then follows up with an "are you sure?"

Also, more broadly, expect in the next year or so the number of sites you have to log into with an email to access content to explode.

Along these lines, has anyone else tried out the new-ish Chromium browser Brave? I just started using it last week, and I'm really liking it performance-wise and privacy-wise over both FF and Chrome. It has a lot of built in tools that do the work of the extensions I listed above, but you can also opt to use those instead if you want. It requires a bit of patience to tweak everything and get permissions/exceptions/etc. fine tuned, but it's worth the effort, IMO.

[Thurman Merman]

Can anyone tell me why internet videos are slow, choppy, or low def when im viewing them on my phone? Whether its from Twitter, or on Deadspin (RIP), or from anywhere else, when i click to play the video, it usually starts out low def, and sometimes, like 15 seconds later (if the video is long enough), it will switch to hi def, and i can then restart the video and it will be fine. Lately, some videos have been so bad they they basically dont play. Its not an internet thing, as it happens whether im on my really good wifi, or using data. And im pretty sure its not the quality of my phone, as I originally thought it was my older Pixel phone, but when i got a new Pixel 3, it was still happening.

I just want to watch sports highlights, and i pretty much cant watch any of them anymore. Thoughts? Anyone else having this problem?

[jersey cubs fan]

Can anyone tell me why internet videos are slow, choppy, or low def when im viewing them on my phone? Whether its from Twitter, or on Deadspin (RIP), or from anywhere else,
................................................
I just want to watch sports highlights, and i pretty much cant watch any of them anymore. Thoughts? Anyone else having this problem?

Sure, sports highlights.

[cl smooth]

for those into music/production, this is a game changer:

https://pitchfork.com/news/deezer-relea ... al-tracks/

French streaming platform Deezer has released an AI tool called Spleeter that can quickly isolate vocal and instrumental tracks and separate a song into two, four, or five separate audio tracks. The software was originally developed for research purposes, but was released on Monday, November 4, as an open-source package on GitHub.

While many techniques exist to isolate vocal tracks (also known as “stems”) from a mixed-down audio file, most are difficult, time-consuming, of low-quality, or some combination of the three. Spleeter is an audio separation library built on Python and the machine learning platform TensorFlow that can do it at many times the speed of the original audio. The blogger Andy Baio sampled the software with a selection of songs, comparing them to stems from the studio as well as other audio-splitting tools like PhonicMind and Open-Unmix.

[The Logan]

for those into music/production, this is a game changer:

https://pitchfork.com/news/deezer-relea ... al-tracks/

French streaming platform Deezer has released an AI tool called Spleeter that can quickly isolate vocal and instrumental tracks and separate a song into two, four, or five separate audio tracks. The software was originally developed for research purposes, but was released on Monday, November 4, as an open-source package on GitHub.

While many techniques exist to isolate vocal tracks (also known as “stems”) from a mixed-down audio file, most are difficult, time-consuming, of low-quality, or some combination of the three. Spleeter is an audio separation library built on Python and the machine learning platform TensorFlow that can do it at many times the speed of the original audio. The blogger Andy Baio sampled the software with a selection of songs, comparing them to stems from the studio as well as other audio-splitting tools like PhonicMind and Open-Unmix.

There's going to be so many of these now and I love it...

[muntjack]

My god, it's Eric Cartman

[Ding Dong Johnson]

for those into music/production, this is a game changer:

https://pitchfork.com/news/deezer-relea ... al-tracks/

French streaming platform Deezer has released an AI tool called Spleeter that can quickly isolate vocal and instrumental tracks and separate a song into two, four, or five separate audio tracks. The software was originally developed for research purposes, but was released on Monday, November 4, as an open-source package on GitHub.

While many techniques exist to isolate vocal tracks (also known as “stems”) from a mixed-down audio file, most are difficult, time-consuming, of low-quality, or some combination of the three. Spleeter is an audio separation library built on Python and the machine learning platform TensorFlow that can do it at many times the speed of the original audio. The blogger Andy Baio sampled the software with a selection of songs, comparing them to stems from the studio as well as other audio-splitting tools like PhonicMind and Open-Unmix.

There's going to be so many of these now and I love it...

You sonofabitch.

[JudasIscariotTheBird]

http://www.tesla.com/cybertruck

The obvious observation is that its a mashup of a Delorian and the Batmobile from the Nolan movies, but I want more creative takes.

[jersey cubs fan]

http://www.tesla.com/cybertruck

The obvious observation is that its a mashup of a Delorian and the Batmobile from the Nolan movies, but I want more creative takes.

[Sammy Sofa]

Given what we know about Facebook, this whole "post a pic of yourself in 2009 and 2019" seems like an exercise in collecting data for nefarious face identification software.

[Bertz]

Given what we know about Facebook, this whole "post a pic of yourself in 2009 and 2019" seems like an exercise in collecting data for nefarious face identification software.

Yup. Fun thing kind of tied to this happened to me this week. I was featured in a post on my company's Instagram page on Monday. I was mentioned by name in the caption but was not tagged. Thursday morning my buddy sends me a screenshot from his phone, and the picture was one of the first things recommended in the Explore tab when he was browsing Instagram.

So basically Instagram shadow tagged the photo automatically, and then the algorithm proceeded to share it out like normal.

[cl smooth]

Given what we know about Facebook, this whole "post a pic of yourself in 2009 and 2019" seems like an exercise in collecting data for nefarious face identification software.

Yup. Fun thing kind of tied to this happened to me this week. I was featured in a post on my company's Instagram page on Monday. I was mentioned by name in the caption but was not tagged. Thursday morning my buddy sends me a screenshot from his phone, and the picture was one of the first things recommended in the Explore tab when he was browsing Instagram.

So basically Instagram shadow tagged the photo automatically, and then the algorithm proceeded to share it out like normal.

Related:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicolemartin1/2019/01/17/was-the-facebook-10-year-challenge-a-way-to-mine-data-for-facial-recognition-ai

[minnesotacubsfan]

I love the Tesla truck. anyone who doesn't can die at the hands of the zombie apocalypse that I will comfortably drive through in a CyberTruck

[WrigleyField 22]

I love the Tesla truck. anyone who doesn't can die at the hands of the zombie apocalypse that I will comfortably drive through in a CyberTruck

Until the zombie lightly taps your side windows.

[minnesotacubsfan]

I love the Tesla truck. anyone who doesn't can die at the hands of the zombie apocalypse that I will comfortably drive through in a CyberTruck

Until the zombie lightly taps your side windows.

you mean with a brick?

[jersey cubs fan]

I love the Tesla truck. anyone who doesn't can die at the hands of the zombie apocalypse that I will comfortably drive through in a CyberTruck

Until the zombie lightly taps your side windows.

you mean with a brick?

or a softball