142 karma · joined June 22, 2009
The problem though with ad-tech is while browsers/uBO may work currently, it is a cat/mouse game and the big boys will win with their huge budgets and genius developers. Niche browsers like Brave/Orion and uBO extension are already probably getting to the point of being overwhelmed by constant breakage of YT/Twitch/Etc ad blocking.
It was exactly as you described - with Elon Musk looking like he was "live" and the chat was busy and full of people saying "it worked for me. Thanks Elon!" type stuff. Even the channel had used ElonMusk in its name. I honestly thought I was just lucky and happened to catch a billionaire, who is also a known crypto supporter, being generous and trying to get more people into crypto as well by giving some away to the lucky few who caught him live.
What stopped me obviously is me not actually owning any crypto and not being able to get some instantly and without large fees, but also a few things that didn't feel right in the gut. Like the channel was something like "ElonMusk3239". I thought "surely Twitch would make sure the real one didn't need to have the 3,239th account with his name".
Also the website the link directed you to in the chat looked a little to simple and supposedly showing in real-time all the lucky people getting double along with all the crypto addresses - ALL without any sort of signup or verification, etc. You just submitted everything right there and boom you would get double back. Reminded me of those "free VBucks" website my son has come across before.
The final reality was when the channel got taken down while I was watching and another popped up within a minute in the Live Chat area again but with another ElonMuskxxxx name. Then that would get taken down and again another popped up. That is when I realized Twitch was currently in a battle with some group trying to scam crypto.
Definitely one of the most realistic looking scams I've seen in a while.
I thought I escaped it by isolating from my wife/son in our home but I started to show early symptoms Wednesday morning waking up with splitting headache. I went and got tested that afternoon. By Thursday night I was having itchy throat, chills, fatigue and body aches. Feeling pretty crappy and a crazy symptom I also have been having is uncontrollable hiccups past 24 hours that come and go.
The test I took Wednesday came back negative but the OTC Rapid I did today was positive. I am going for another PCR tomorrow to confirm as the first one was done possibly too early after exposure with no symptoms.
IF this is the Omicron that went through our vaccinated group like butter, we are going to be in a very bad spot by mid-january.
By Monday my wife and another one of the wives was feeling symptoms. Tuesday my son stayed home from school with sore throat and by bedtime we were rushing him to the hospital with a 103 fever. He tested positive while at the hospital. Since then every single person in that car has also tested positive through PCR.
I thought I escaped it by isolating from my wife/son in our home but I started to show early symptoms Wednesday morning waking up with splitting headache. I went and got tested that afternoon. By Thursday night I was having itchy throat, chills, fatigue and body aches. Feeling pretty crappy and a crazy symptom I also have been having is uncontrollable hiccups past 24 hours that come and go.
The test I took Wednesday came back negative but the OTC Rapid I did today was positive. I am going for another PCR tomorrow to confirm as the first one was done possibly too early after exposure with no symptoms.
IF this is the Omicron that went through our vaccinated group like butter, we are going to be in a very bad spot by mid-january.
I couldn't ask for a better son as he has been on the Straight A or A/B honor roll from Kindergarten to present day with very little help from us or supervision. He is also pretty active with soccer at age 5 and baseball from 7+ (heck of a player and currently is playing in two leagues as his choice) as well as joining us for bike rides/hikes once in while.
Me, I went through the typical route of Atari 2600, Commodore, Intellivision, Nintendo. Got my first IBM PC at around age 12 and spent countless hours on all those without parents ever limiting me whatsoever (well did get my IBM taken away for two weeks when I racked up a $200 phone bill with my first modem - not knowing it was by the minute back then). Sure I wasted a lot of time on those with games but I also had a huge interest in how they worked by taking them apart, learning DOS, BBS's, hacking/phreaking etc etc. Made me who I am and my career in IT. We didn't have the filth/addiction stuff like Tik-tok, Instagram, blah.
Anyway, From 1st to end of 5th grade he has had an xBox and iPad, and any restrictions to either have been on an as-needed basis - which we have had to do very little over the years (few cases of 1-2 day grounding from devices, etc). During this time he was all about Fortnite/Minecraft/Roblox with friends (sometimes a whole Saturday spent on the headset with friends) and Youtube.
When he started 6th grade recently (Middle school here) we got him his own iphone, which he has asked for a year prior. More to be able to call/text him as Discord was getting tiring and he was staying home alone more often. The pressure put on by all the other parents having given their kids phones by now (Some of his friends have had phones since 2 years ago at age 9) also mounted so we didn't want him to feel left out socially at middle school. Plus he got his own gaming PC to leave the limits of console gaming as well as for his remote learning all during covid.
With the phone and his older social circle the inevitable has started to happen - Social Media (youtube channel), short videos junk Tik-Tok, hits/likes etc. I hate this part personally as I have none of it myself so I've put in screen-time on his phone to limit Tik-Tok to an hour a day and his phone games to 2hrs. Plus phone is disabledfrom 10:30p to 8:30a. He hates the restriction and I'm having to extend it a few hours a week or he just goes on his PC/Ipad to "extend" his time himself. I really don't want to spend all the time locking all these down as I feel it is futile anyway. Youtube is impossible to block without blocking his Google Apps for remote learning. I can block the tik-tok app on his phone but he just then goes in the browser or his PC browser. On and on. I don't have the time NOR the need/desire to go full network guardian mode on him, knowing he will just out-flank me anyway somehow when he learns of VPN's or that our neighbor has an open wifi (need to talk to them about that). I'm sure he knows about porn from friends but I have seen zero evidence on his devices for now, but realize that will be next in few years. Ugh.
I just wish I could get him to be more like I was at that age and tinker/learn more rather than just consume like the majority of other kids. I'd spend a weekend trying to get my BBS setup or newest DOS installed he doesn't have similar interest. I tried to get him to build a PC with me for work and he just watched for 10 minutes and made bathroom excuse never to come back. The videos him and friends watch is just complete mindless junk and idiots doing stupid memes and stuff. Nothing creative or constructive. It is a very hard thing to get them away from once drawn in.
But last week (would have been 3 weeks after shot) I awoke in the middle of the night with pretty a bad chest pain like you describe. Felt like it was in middle of my chest and was quite painful. I had to physically sit up in my bed for about 5 minutes hoping it would subside. I got up and got some water and hoped it didn't get worse as I started contemplating what I should do if it does.
I was so tired though I just propped myself up with pillows and slept sitting up against the headboard because laying down seemed to make it come back worse. I eventually fell asleep and when I woke for the day I still felt a small amount of pain still. Went about my day normally and it seemed to go away later in the day.
I would think I am out of the window by now after 4 weeks to which I am in any danger from what I'm reading on news sites? I've been the gym since that episode and have done cardio fine. My wife suggests I take some low-dose aspirin for next few days.
If you dig into some settings and follow tech news, I have begun to question some of Mozilla's controversial settings, deals with 3rd parties and their political blog posts. I also have a problem with the CEO making $3m per year yet a continued market share decline since she came on.
Just a few of the things off the top of my head that I feel betray my trust of Firefox (all of these pertain to default Windows install):
1) Enabled by default all of your website DNS requests going to Cloudflare with a "promise" this information is not being used or sold. We all know how solid this promise has been for other large tech companies. All under the promotion that DoH protects you from your own ISP.
2) Upon install, FF installs a scheduled service that runs daily. From what I've found out, that service is sending back to Mozilla what your default browser is on YOUR PC (why is that their business). This scheduled service remains on your PC even after uninstalling Firefox and continues to run daily.
3) Enabled by default are Browser Studies and testing a clean install one is already installed and active called "F100 Snippets". Studies allow the Firefox team to install stuff right to your browser whenever they want, to gather telemetry .
4) "Recommended extensions" enabled by default. Got a nag for a recommended extension after few days of browsing. So FF must be scanning your browsing history in order for this to work?
5) this result: https://brave.com/brave-tops-browser-first-run-network-traff... . While it was from 2019 so needs to be updated, but upon first-run I was shocked at the results for FF here.
6) Firefox on Android has a known tracker embedded and enabled by default called Leanplum. From Mozilla's own website they state "Leanplum is a mobile marketing vendor"
I'd love to support and use FF solely again, but I think they need some serious shaking up, starting with a new CEO (who allows this stuff).
I paid for full version of AdGuard Pro late last year after my 6 month Android/Oneplus phase ended and I went back to iOS. It has worked REAL well and allows me to just use native Safari. I'm happy with this setup. I used to use free Firefox Focus as the content blocker before, but it would go long time between updates.
The only annoyance with Adguard Pro on iOS (and probably the same for all app based content blockers on iOS) is it is clunky to whitelist a site as they aren't integrated with the browser. You have to open the app itself, dig into the whitelist area and then manually type in/paste the domain name to add it. Brave and FF Focus you can do it right from within the browser, same as it was with FF/ubo on Android.
Also, AdGuard on iOS doesn't acknowledge specific pages only within a domain. For example; mlb.com is loaded with ads, their highlight videos show a 15 sec ad for literally every highlight. I have AdGuard enabled and the experience is so much better. BUT the "Standings" page doesn't load with AdGuard enabled and I can't just disable it only for that page.
Regardless, the small price to pay for AdGuard on iOS is well worth it.
Throughout any city there are only so many public baseball fields (all run by the city). A set of fields covers so many square miles and a league set by residency gets access only to those fields in their close vicinity. Obviously you will have fields in poor areas as well as upper class areas, and from experience, the condition of those fields can vary widely. Naturally without boundary restrictions everyone would be signing up only to the nicest area leagues, leaving the poor ones to falter and those parks rundown even more.
Having a "try-out" system for kids (6-12) doesn't work for a wide variety of reasons.
Obvious one is safety. Mixing ages is dangerous and a try-out system would encourage it due to size of player pools. Doesn't matter how good a 7 year old, he cannot compare to a 12 year old. The worst 12 year old is still good enough to really injure a 7 year (or 8/9). At 46' (LL pitching distance)it has just about reached my ADULT limit of reaction time on a few occasion tossing to a 12 year old batter.
Other reason would be lack of balance in the teams and the leagues. You'd end up with super teams as some teams become loaded with talent (add in the above factor of no residency and you'd have the loaded super teams end up in the nicest areas) and cut those kids not good enough (ending up in the poor areas to play). The not good enough kids would have huge blow to their esteem as well as the fun of playing baseball as they would routinely not make a few try-outs each season and falter down to the bad teams. Those bad teams would eventually play the super teams and have no chance. Not fun to be part of losing all the time while the better kids always win and get to play in nicest parks.
For those who don't have kids and experienced youth sports, many of the answers to your questions might not be obvious. It isn't "just kids playing ball". You do that with your group of friends. Playing for LL you are getting an organization that works hard at providing an organized, equal and fun baseball experience with your surrounding communities. They have the criteria in place that they do to try and deal with the many chances of having overzealous parents and coaches cheat/manipulate and ruin the experience for kids and parents.
What the OP brought up and what they are doing with the data IS a concern though. One I never thought about when I signed my son up. It is SAD world we are in IMO in which data is worth THAT much that it is becoming the norm for companies to make a lot of extra money in harvesting it. Something has to be done about this. It is everywhere now it seems. From a simple app installed on my phone to Even Little League is now a possible data theft/ Broker threat willing to sell your info or lose it in a hack?
I was so impressed with it I tried to rationalize just keeping Ipfire duties but transferring it to a much less power hungry device but couldn't find anything that was modern and wasn't a hobbyist kit (like the Apu2). Other than their own licensed devices that were out of their budget (smallest one is $390 and still needs a separate wifi AP).
I was a natural tinkerer and enjoyed electronics and taking stuff apart starting around age 8. Read Byte magazine as an interest. Christmas of 1982 (I was 10) my mom had to take out a loan at work to finally get me the new IBM PC that I had been asking for. I took that sucker apart completely on first day I had it when my parents went to the grocery store and boy were they livid when they got home. Two days later I had it completely back together. I spent so much time on that PC - I'd read the manuals, ask to go to book store every chance I got so I could read more on it and other computer books they had, etc.
My spring of 1983 I had heard of modems that could communicate through the phone line to these BBS's and I could download cool programs/games/etc. I asked mom for a modem and again eventually got a new Hayes (my mom was awesome thinking back because all this stuff was expensive at the time).
When Wargames came out summer of '83, I was already doing stuff with BBS's but this movie introduced me to the concept of "hacking". I spent many nights and days mass dialing just like David did in the movie - Until my dad got the phone bill one month and took my modem away for a bit.
I just remember always being into tech/PC's/electronics and never tiring of it. It was so cool to download a game and have my friends over to play it. I was the "computer kid" of the neighborhood as everyone else just had an Atari. Used to have One on One: Dr. J vs. Larry Bird tournaments on my PC for us all.
As I got older into HS and after I just never let go of my interest into tech. I could easily do it without feeling like it was work. Got into programming/installing cell phones into cars in early '90s to eventually a company that built custom PC's for businesses then got into IT support. Have tinkered with it all at different stages all along the way too - Linux, BeOS, Solaris, on and on. That progressed to Network support and eventually Network Consulting and all things tech.
Thanks for all your work Firefox devs!
I have been a tinkerer all my life. I've installed and played with pretty much any OS you can think of (From BeOS to Solaris to Linux. Even DragonFlyBSD - which I wish would take off as I like the community). I will always continue to play and check Distrowatch, but I have started to value time more and more as the years add up {sigh}.
So with that, my love child though is, and always will be, Microsoft OS's. Started with DOS as a 10 year old and each new one I've enjoyed better than the last with Win10 being the best yet. Although I do deep down wish it wasn't full of telemetry and such, I don't get caught up in the FUD. I disable most of it and with the rest I just hope Microsoft uses it well/privately and that I am helping to make Windows better.
For YEARS this was my main annoyance with FF of not having a general zoom added to all webpages and was the only browser that didn't. FF would remember your set zoom for sites (provided you didn't check "site preferences" in clearing history) but it just became so tedious to have to manually zoom pages you haven't visited before.I even tried to resort to some clumsy add-ons that tried to makeup for lack of system wide zoom
{FF as default browser user since Opera died and went to being chrome. Although I do test others out once in while like Brave/Vivaldi/EdgeChrome I'm still loyal}
I don't know how younger people do it but I can't see any other way to get my preferred news in one organized headline only in an outline-like place. Maybe I am just old school but I really like RSS as I am able to get through headlines from tech, finance, etc on daily basis and go through them quickly. Anything that pikes my interest I click on the headline and it takes me to the site to read whole article. One of my favorite things to do while winding down in bed.
RSS though is like a foreign language to the under 35 crowd when I have brought it up or they have seen me using it. So it is already dead in that sense. They just prefer to get their news through Instagram/Facebook feeds or just visiting their few preferred websites directly.
Opera was and actually continues to be a pioneering browser with many "firsts" over the years. I was an avid user of it for a decade but I am saddened that it has become surrounded in controversy with a shady Chinese owner and predatory loans and stopped using it two years ago.
https://www.engadget.com/2020/01/19/opera-accused-of-predato...
After having a TKL, I don't know how any gamer can use a full size. Now I can't see myself going back to full size even if I stopped gaming, despite me constantly eyeing the Logitech MX Keys everytime I'm in Best Buy. The mechanical switches (brown) have grown on me finally; this after having went through a mechanical phase years ago only to not see what all fuss was about. The noise I have drowned out and the the smooth presses are pleasure to type on.
I have looked far for a lower profile scissor switch TKL that can handle gaming (NKRO and backlighting) but doesn't exist. The only negatives of mechanical keyboards are a) the noise which I mentioned and b) the tallness of them. I would never consider having a mechanical like this in the work place because of the noise.
FYI this is the keyboard I have. Highly recommended for the price. Held up for a year now so far of daily use. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DFBKYT5/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_0...
The other 5% reason is malicious ads/tracking. I'd actually be open to not running adblockers anymore if these two reasons were eliminated from the web. I'd be fine with small non tracking ads from non cringe worthy gigantic ad networks that invade basically every webpage I visit nowadays.
PS - Ublock Origin actually doesn't block these two networks (Taboola/Outbrain) by default - you have to enable Fanboys Annoyance list to do so.
Then the actual shopping started and reality set... I visited all Chevy dealers in a 30 mile radius of my house, about 4 of them. It quickly became very apparent how this car was just a thorn in GM's side and I got the feeling they did not want to sell this car if they could help it.
First dealer I went to for a specific one they had I wanted. When I got there I was told it was at their spillover lot and they couldn't get it that late (7p). But they had one exactly like it just different color right outside I could test drive. The salesman finding the keys for it were a "challenge" and I waited 20 minutes for him to locate them. In the meantime while waiting he asked me if I would be interested in any other of their models, some they have "below wholesale" deals for that would be better than the Volt to own. After telling him no, we got the keys and went to the car outside. I get in to start it, drive it around and notice that we are on the combustion engine the WHOLE time. He didn't know what I was talking about as I explained what the dash was showing - that the main battery was dead and needed an over night charge. He comes back to look for a battery charger and I again tell him he doesn't understand as it isn't a starter type battery typically in cars that needed a charge. I frustratingly left.
Second dealer would not go more than $1k lower from sticker on the one I wanted. Wouldn't budge. I showed him how far off he was to Truecar pricing, explained that these things aren't selling well and here I am for a deal I can feel good about. He then tried to suggest I would be better off in the used Volt market for the price I was trying to get, which wasn't out of realm to what others were getting deals at on Forums. I left.
Other two dealers didn't even have that many Volts on hand but said they could order. Again we got to prices and I'd order one if right for me and they both told me same as above that this city this car is a premium and there are no discounts given, best they could do blah blah. Especially if they have to order one. I was able to test drive one fully charged at one of these dealers though.
The test drive was with my son this time. Him with me realized just how compact this car was, and he wasn't getting smaller. My previous car was a 2007 Mazda3 and it felt roomier inside. With my seat all the way back for my desired driving position, we would not be able to fit a second kid back there. I'd have to scoot pretty far up for him to sit behind me. The quality of the interior actually impressed me and the tech is very cool, but this car even felt smaller than the new Cruze model they had in same showroom.
The size of this car is what ultimately made it fail IMO as well as them just not wanting to sell/push for it compared to even the Cruze or Malibu. It seems like they were more interested in selling the Equinox, Malibu and pickup trucks as those dominated the lots. Buyers as a whole have started to want more room and larger vehicles as evident in the sales numbers past few years in USA, and compact cars were a dead man walking. This is what this car was. A Subcompact car with a 33k sticker price that a majority would take one look at and wonder who hell buys this when the Cruze is 20k. It takes a LOT of miles/gas to make up that difference.
There is also the 7.5k tax credit that would, on paper, drop this car down in price, but still more than a fully loaded Cruze and in some cases I could get a bigger Malibu for not much more (this all at the time over a year ago). To get that tax credit means you have to owe the IRS that much in taxes, which we never come close to each year. You owe less that 7.5k, your tax credit is less! You owe nothing or get refunds each year (us) you get ZERO credit.
I then started to look at used market and started to notice these things were asking prices of more than what new would cost with a full tax credit and there were also very few of them in my area to choose from that had low miles. Basically all ridiculously overpriced enough to where even expert negotiating would be hard pressed to get me a good deal.
In the end, I just ended up realizing the Volt wasn't for me, no matter how much I wanted it. I'd be sacrificing space and my wife even asked how I could even think of getting such a small car as my last one was small enough. It was priced as premium from dealers who were oblivious to how poor it was selling it seemed and didn't want to move it regardless. I'd have to really change up our W4's so we could maybe even get the full tax credit. Plus with the poor dealership mentality of this car all in my area, I even questioned how well they'd handle warranty issues or repair when I eventually needed them.
The Bolt was so new at the time so it wasn't an option/available in my area and any that were in next state over were MSRP and no budge. I'd be highly interested in the Bolt if I was doing it all over right now, but in the end I moved on from the Volt never to really think again about owning one. America has moved on from compact cars as well. I have one year left on a lease and next year i will look at the Kona and Bolt but also in a segment I thought i'd never want to drive - the compact SUV. CX-5 or Rav4 types. I want an EV bad but it is hard to justify from a economic standpoint still in 2019.
Dell has history of making some of the best membrane keyboards. I had a SK-8115 for 3 years, then used one of their Taiwan RT7D5JTW Quietkey keyboards for 7 years and then I went through my mechanical phase for a year. Only to end up back on a Dell membrane.
I've also had good effect with Canvas Blocker. Decentraleyes is another good concept privacy add-on to look into as well.
- Whole Home DVR. Once you have the main Tivo unit, you simply can add Tivo Mini's to other TV's throughout the house that tie into the main unit. Having access to the same UI and same shows for all TV's is huge for us and guests. It also allows watching a show on one tv, pausing it and then continuing from same spot on another TV.
This feature was actually main reason I decided to switch off our cable provided DVR service for Tivo. The cable company was charging a lot more for this ability because had to rent each box, etc.
- Amazon/YouTube/Hulu apps and MLB.TV app built in. Can watch Amazon prime movies right through Tivo. YouTube. MLB has the best streaming tech of any sport and Tivo has the interface built in. Can watch all games on my TiVo and phone for $25/mo.
I will stick with our Tivo setup + Cable until something more convenient comes out for cutting the cord that has everything I need. Right now nothing does without using multiple devices and hacks.
At least DDG offers in their options to scramble the URL but one has to know about that feature AND enable it. It is in their settings under Privacy and you have to turn OFF GET (2nd option). https://duckduckgo.com/settings#
The range is solitude for me. Just me, my little area, outdoors among beautiful scenery and working on swing/shots/short game/etc vs that little darn white ball. It is 1-2 hours (or longer if wanted. I used to do 3-4 hours) of concentration and learning as well as being physically active.
I actually go to the range more than I play. I would like to play more but it requires more time, money, socializing. The range is on my terms as I can stay as long or short as I like and getting better is stimulating. To me, nothing beats the sound of perfect compression of the golf ball and headed towards your target on nice trajectory.
But on the other hand, Golf can be very frustrating. Also like fishing, it takes patience, money and good understanding of the equipment to be good at it.