Have we just become numb to ads?

Online I use multiple browser extensions and settings to avoid showing ads. In the offline world there is no way to avoid them but I think I pretty much can ignore them.

I also intentionally do not buy anything I remember seeing an ad for.

The URLs mentioned in their blog article all have a wrong certificate (different host name).

I am sure if they fix it Google’s system would reclassify the sites as safe.

Please go see a doctor if you think you have skin cancer.

has led to a lot of the same moderation rot on Lemmy

Almost as if the platform wasn’t the problem.

This bit is awesome:

There isn’t enough money to do this without diverting most of the money that exists to doing it, and even if that were to happen, there isn’t enough time to do any of the stuff that has been promised in anything approaching the timelines promised, because OpenAI is making this up as it goes along and somehow everybody is believing it.

I’ll always prefer physical media over streaming for things I like.

It’s mainly Bluray nowadays, but also some older DVDs.

Let me introduce you to UY Scuti.

FreeCAD: Pros: free, open source. Cons: workflow as rough as sandpaper, constantly crashes.

It has a learning curve (like all software), yes. But I cannot confirm the crashes.

• Mail with all the bells and whistles (been there, done that – but I just want this to work and not care about details).
• Dynamic DNS because I just need to tell someone my non-static IP so they can connect that with my domain name.

Thanks! I just prefer simple UIs.

(Screenshots resized due to not wasting too much space.

Here’s a small one of how a website would look like.

Here’s a larger one of how my new tab page looks like (including multiple tabs to show how the tab bar looks like).

// Enable userChrome.css
user_pref('toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.stylesheets', true);


// Warnings
user_pref('browser.aboutConfig.showWarning', false);


// Style
user_pref('browser.tabs.inTitlebar', 0);
user_pref('browser.theme.content-theme', 1);
user_pref('browser.theme.toolbar-theme', 1);


// Extensions
user_pref('extensions.activeThemeID', '[email protected]');
user_pref('extensions.pocket.enabled', false);
user_pref('extensions.screenshots.disabled', true);
user_pref('extensions.getAddons.showPane', false);
user_pref('extensions.htmlaboutaddons.recommendations.enabled', false);


// Zoom
user_pref('toolkit.zoomManager.zoomValues', '.5,.3,1,1.2,1.3,1.5');
user_pref('devtools.toolbox.zoomValue', '1.4');
user_pref('browser.zoom.siteSpecific', false);


// Privacy
//
// Basically do not leak URLs, IPs, etc. to external services
user_pref('browser.safebrowsing.malware.enabled', false);
user_pref('browser.safebrowsing.phishing.enabled', false);
user_pref('security.OCSP.enabled', 0);
user_pref('browser.contentblocking.category', 'custom');
user_pref('app.shield.optoutstudies.enabled', false);
user_pref('browser.urlbar.trending.featureGate', false);


// DoH explicitly off
user_pref('network.trr.mode', 5);
user_pref('network.trr.default_provider_uri', '');


// Cookies
user_pref('network.cookie.cookieBehavior', 2);


// AdBlock
user_pref('browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.showSponsoredTopSites', false);
user_pref('browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.feeds.section.topstories', false);
user_pref('browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.feeds.topsites', false);


// Remove weird URLS
user_pref('toolkit.shopping.ohttpConfigURL', '');
user_pref('toolkit.shopping.ohttpRelayURL', '');
user_pref('browser.partnerlink.attributionURL', '');
user_pref('browser.privatebrowsing.vpnpromourl', '');


// Do not track
user_pref('privacy.trackingprotection.enabled', false);
user_pref('privacy.trackingprotection.emailtracking.enabled', false);
user_pref('privacy.trackingprotection.socialtracking.enabled', false);
user_pref('privacy.trackingprotection.cryptomining.enabled', false);
user_pref('privacy.trackingprotection.fingerprinting.enabled', false);
user_pref('privacy.donottrackheader.enabled', true);


// Beahvior
user_pref('general.smoothScroll', false);
user_pref('signon.autofillForms', true);
user_pref('signon.firefoxRelay.feature', 'disabled');
user_pref('browser.download.manager.addToRecentDocs', false);
user_pref('security.tls.version.min', 1);
user_pref('browser.profiles.enabled', false);


// UI features
//
// https://github.com/yokoffing/Betterfox/blob/main/user.js
user_pref('browser.discovery.enabled', false);
user_pref('browser.shell.checkDefaultBrowser', false);
user_pref('browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.asrouter.userprefs.cfr.addons', false);
user_pref('browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.asrouter.userprefs.cfr.features', false);
user_pref('browser.preferences.moreFromMozilla', false);
user_pref('browser.tabs.tabmanager.enabled', false);
user_pref('browser.aboutConfig.showWarning', false);
user_pref('browser.aboutwelcome.enabled', false);
user_pref('browser.uidensity', 0);
user_pref('browser.urlbar.trimURLs', false);
user_pref('browser.urlbar.showSearchTerms.enabled', false);


// Telemetry
//
// https://github.com/yokoffing/Betterfox/blob/main/user.js
user_pref('datareporting.policy.dataSubmissionEnabled', false);
user_pref('datareporting.healthreport.uploadEnabled', false);
user_pref('toolkit.telemetry.unified', false);
user_pref('toolkit.telemetry.enabled', false);
user_pref('toolkit.telemetry.server', 'data:,');
user_pref('toolkit.telemetry.archive.enabled', false);
user_pref('toolkit.telemetry.newProfilePing.enabled', false);
user_pref('toolkit.telemetry.shutdownPingSender.enabled', false);
user_pref('toolkit.telemetry.updatePing.enabled', false);
user_pref('toolkit.telemetry.bhrPing.enabled', false);
user_pref('toolkit.telemetry.firstShutdownPing.enabled', false);
user_pref('toolkit.telemetry.coverage.opt-out', true);
user_pref('toolkit.coverage.opt-out', true);
user_pref('toolkit.coverage.endpoint.base', '');
user_pref('browser.ping-centre.telemetry', false);
user_pref('browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.feeds.telemetry', false);
user_pref('browser.newtabpage.activity-stream.telemetry', false);
user_pref('breakpad.reportURL', '');
user_pref('browser.tabs.crashReporting.sendReport', false);
user_pref('browser.crashReports.unsubmittedCheck.autoSubmit2', false);
user_pref('app.shield.optoutstudies.enabled', false);
user_pref('app.normandy.enabled', false);
user_pref('app.normandy.api_url', '');


// Disable AI bullshit
//
user_pref('browser.ml.enable', false);
user_pref('browser.ml.chat.enabled', false);
user_pref('browser.ml.chat.shortcuts', false);
user_pref('browser.ml.chat.sidebar', false);
user_pref('pdfjs.enableAltText', false);
user_pref('pdfjs.enableUpdatedAddImage', false);

and

@namespace url("http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul");


/* Tabs styling */

#TabsToolbar {
    background-color: #cccccc !important;
    --toolbarbutton-inner-padding: 0 !important;
}

.tabbrowser-tab {
    padding: 0 !important;
}

.tab-background {
    margin: 0 !important;
    border-radius: 0 !important;
    background-color: var(--toolbar-bgcolor) !important;
    box-shadow: none !important;
}

#alltabs-button {
    display: none !important;
}

#tabbrowser-tabs {
    min-height: unset !important;
}


/* secondary label indicators */

@font-face {
    /* copy font file to same directory as this CSS file */
    font-family: 'SymbolsNerdFont';
    src: url('SymbolsNerdFont.ttf') format('truetype');
}

.tab-secondary-label {
    display: none;
}

.tab-text::before {
    font-family: SymbolsNerdFont;
    padding-right: 0.25em;
}

.tabbrowser-tab[soundplaying] .tab-text::before { content: ''; }
.tabbrowser-tab[muted] .tab-text::before { content: '󰝟'; }
.tabbrowser-tab[activemedia-blocked] .tab-text::before { content: ''; }

/* unselected tabs */

.tab-background:not([selected]),
.tab-icon-image:not([selected]) {
    opacity: 0.4 !important;
}
.tab-text:not([selected]) {
    color: #555753 !important;
}

#tabbrowser-arrowscrollbox {
    min-height: var(--tab-min-height) !important;
    max-height: var(--tab-min-height) !important;
}

scrollbox[part="scrollbox"] {
    gap: 2px;
}

and

/* Style about:home and about:newtab */

@-moz-document url-prefix(about:home), url-prefix(about:newtab) {
    .logo-and-wordmark {
        background-image: url(REPLACE_ME_WITH_YOUR_FAVORITE_IMAGE.jpg);
        background-size: cover;
        background-position: center;
        aspect-ratio: 16/9;
        border-radius: 1em;
        position: relative;
        width: auto;
        height: auto;
        max-width: 80%;
        max-height: 60vh;
        margin: 0 auto;
    }

    .logo-and-wordmark .logo {
        display: none !important;
    }

    .logo-and-wordmark .wordmark {
        position: absolute;
        right: 2em;
        bottom: 0.5em;
        --newtab-wordmark-color: #eb8819;
    }
}

So … Basically just another preconfigured Firefox with extensions?

Getting a burner phone and account and only tun it on when you want to check the messages is a good start. Do not use any of your real information.

When I left FB a decade ago they didn’t force a phone number for the messenger, thy basically just requested all possible permissions.

Even after years of being used as a meme template, this stock photo is still as aesthetically pleasing as a Renaissance painting.

They would lose likely 98% of their player base.

I’m going to voluntarily read other people’s AI slop.

Came here to say that.

Here’s trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bgrNm7rdeo

Or just yolo it, if you have some money to burn.