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Comment by alias_neo | Hacker News Reader

My wife stopped into a local supermarket (in the UK) a couple of weeks ago to grab some things, she came out slightly puzzled and said to me; something along the lines of "what a pain in the arse; all of the freezers have black glass now and I had to open each one to find out what was in them".

I was equally puzzled at why on earth they might have done this; It finally occurs to be, having read this, that they must have been screens, but they were off.

Fantastic.

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Was it possible that she was wearing polarized glasses? I had this experience with the cooler screens at a Walgreens in Miami Beach. I wear polarized sunglasses. I didn't realize the windows were lit until I got very close and took my sunglasses off.

One day it will be like the movie, "They Live", only putting the glasses on prevents the ads that have invaded every waking moment of your life from showing.

I would pay a hefty sum for AR glasses that enabled real-life adblock.

replace all ads with positive affirmations or a nature scene and you probably have a multi-billion dollar company.

I added a trivial css filter for my browser, that sets blur to images who's alt text contains the name of a particular public figure, and it's an absolute joy to not have to see some things anymore. I know it's there, but it's much more easily avoidable.

We know who it is

I keep falling for this in airports, for displays mounted on pillars or any other place where it doesn't make it obvious it's a screen. I keep thinking they put a bezel around black plastic, and then it dawns on me to tilt my head.

Not in this case, no, it was night time.

As for the polarized glasses thing; I recently found ad-blocking to be a feature of mine; I can't see the video/screen adverts on London bus stops when I'm wearing my polarized sun glasses; major win (shame it's not sunny very often).

Are they infecting us in the UK as well? I've yet to see a screen on any of our local shops yet but I've been worried this nonsense will make it to us as well.

I can't think of what else it could have been, but this would make sense based on what she described.

I haven't seen it myself, and I don't fancy a supermarket trip _just_ to check. It's also not one we frequent so it may be a while before I witness it for myself.

Write or tweet them, you might be able to head it off at the pass.

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