Can't Stop the Signal. Poison It | Hacker News Reader

Can't Stop the Signal. Poison It

blog.digitalgrease.dev

58 pointsrmadriz21 comments

Wasn't there a startup that basically did this, but instead of for privacy purposes, it was for creating fake influencer profiles you could use for marketing campaigns? This project feels like a great way to get your accounts banned from various platforms, because this is basically doing that, and platforms have at least a vague interest in banning such things. It tries to hide itself, but doesn't do a good job at it. MockLocationProvider can be easily detected, and so can UA/canvas spoofing. All of this basically screams "I'm running a bot farm", so expect it to be first in line when sites want to do a bot crackdown.

Not often you encounter a site that makes scrolling choppy.

I'm pretty sure that's because the entire <main> of the site has an 8px Gaussian blur on it:

  .site-main[data-astro-cid-bpoqdqeq] { 
    backdrop-filter:blur(8px); 
  }

Why, exactly? The page looks visually identical when I disable that rule, but the performance skyrockets. I realize that it's probably vibecoded, but come on.

For $DEITY sake, this surprised me. Such inadequate performance on a 9800x3d + RX9070XT. How? Don't people test anything anymore?

Damn.

does it not affect the vignette effect? i can't test it (on the phone) but performance seems fine for me (and i have js jit disabled lol)

yes they should have tested the site on firefox, but idk i wouldn't expect css gaussian blur of all things to cause slowdowns in some browsers

> i wouldn't expect css gaussian blur of all things to cause slowdowns in some browsers

Gaussian blurs are extremely performance intensive. They need to be calculated for every individual pixel, and the per-pixel computation involves averaging the colors of dozens or hundreds of adjacent pixels. This site applies it to the entire <main>, which spans the entire screen's width and height on mobile, which means that it has several million pixels. That's fine if the browser only has to calculate it once, but when you're scrolling the browser has to perform those calculations for every single pixel on every single frame.

Apparently Chromium and Safari downscale the sampled texture which makes it less accurate but more performant, but Firefox doesn't do that because it prioritizes accuracy over performance, which explains why it only stutters on Firefox.

Firefox by any chance?

Ran recently into another site on here that scrolled fine on anything except Firefox. And this one seems to be fine on safari.

Firefox Android is fine albeit laggy. I don't get why one has to customize scroll behavior but I don't do mobile UX myself.

Last time i checked it's not laggy because they messed with the scroll, but because of some fancy CSS that firefox has trouble with.

Works great in my browser that hasn't been updated - except by me, mainly to keep it running - in about 10 years.

Samsung browser on Android, regularly smooth.

it's slop which is notoriously willing to fuck with scroll

don't fuck with scroll

Chrome too

It's even fucked with JavaScript disabled.

https://marcusb.org/hacks/quixotic.html more lightweight than this anvil

While I realy do appreciate the effort, and asthetic of this project, my personal approach is more extream. I run my internet browser with java script off, no cookies, or dom storage, and without any memory of page visits(no back button), and add blockers running,which meets my goal of not seeing ads, ever, is met. I have a second browser with java script, cookies, and dom storage turned on for certain research. And install and the deleet another one for online banking each time. I have also uninstalled the "play store" and most of the rest of the big tech apps, and have no accounts with those companys, now, or ever. My very brief forrays into the survielence net do of course reveal the extent to which I am tracked, but I dont care, as they cant put it to work. My other habbits of paying cash for most personal stuff, and leaving my phone behind for many activities deliniates my life in a way that leaves me feeling like I am in control.

Similar idea: https://adnauseam.io/

I've been telling people since 2018 that any and all attempts to "hide" from data collection is a pointless endeavor unless you're willing to live solo out in the woods. The future of privacy rests in poisoning the well of information about yourself, which is why I regularly and randomly make google searches for things I have no interest in and places I will never go or haven't been, prompts for topics pulled out of a hat, and shopping sites for things I don't want or need.

Why would I want to see even worse ads?

I would happily give them my dna and colonoscopy result if that meant they are gonna show me only the things I have any real chance of buying.

I like the idea (hate the site), but what does it do to my battery life?

This is a cool idea, I like it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com