WTF Bites
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And yeah. Ad blockers. And tracking blockers. On everywhere, because the ad companies have fucked the poodle too god damn many times now.
In addition, I've been loving this curated /etc/hosts file. Kills off ads in so many other non-browser programs! (Like MS Minesweeper, etc)
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And yeah. Ad blockers. And tracking blockers. On everywhere, because the ad companies have fucked the poodle too god damn many times now.
In addition, I've been loving this curated /etc/hosts file. Kills off ads in so many other non-browser programs! (Like MS Minesweeper, etc)
I've got a router that has a curated ad blocker in the DNS lookup.
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@Polygeekery said in WTF Bites:
They reinvented everything that everyone hated about cable, but with a higher cost. There is no way this in tenable. It quickly becomes death by a thousand cuts.
When they started doing that, I just said "fuck no". I pay my extra for Showtime (on top of the base cable cost). That's enough (ok, still too much...). Of course with current content, I'm getting closer to saying "cut the cable" and just reverting to just my Kindle.
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ads in so many other non-browser programs! (Like MS Minesweeper, etc)
Booting into Windows is a pain already, and I have zero intention of launching Minesweeper (even just to find out), but do they really have fucking ads in fucking Minesweeper?
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@cvi in computing, everything gets worse all the time.
INB4
<del>
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ads in so many other non-browser programs! (Like MS Minesweeper, etc)
Booting into Windows is a pain already, and I have zero intention of launching Minesweeper (even just to find out), but do they really have fucking ads in fucking Minesweeper?
On the main screen where you select the game. Not in the actual game play. (At least that's what I assume the video-looking window frame is for) Also, there's some "Oh, you died. Watch a video to keep playing" (click, pause, no video, game continues)
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On the main screen where you select the game. Not in the actual game play.
Well that's a miss. Don't the cards have backs?
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Also, there's some "Oh, you died. Watch a video to keep playing"
Talk about increasing the stakes in Minesweeper game play. Back when I last played it, you'd just lose the game, no big deal.
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Also, there's some "Oh, you died. Watch a video to keep playing"
Talk about increasing the stakes in Minesweeper game play. Back when I last played it, you'd just lose the game, no big deal.
Well, that really applies more to the Adventure mode. When you're 97 levels deep, just a little more is nice...
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Also, there's some "Oh, you died. Watch a video to keep playing"
error_bot feature requests is
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@Polygeekery said in WTF Bites:
So many fucking ads.
It's really sad, TBH. YouTube really doesn't know me all that well...
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there were significant currents in the support cable from the difference between the grounds
Did you take advantage of the free power?
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@Tsaukpaetra said in WTF Bites:
It's really sad, TBH. YouTube really doesn't know me all that well...
You're too weird for Google to figure you out
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@TimeBandit said in WTF Bites:
@Tsaukpaetra said in WTF Bites:
It's really sad, TBH. YouTube really doesn't know me all that well...
You're too weird for Google to figure you out
... Maybe.
But you'd think the most basic of things you'd expect them to track would be somewhat accurate. I mean, look at this!
BMW? Cleaning services?!? COMBAT SPORTS?!?! FISHING?!?!?!?!?!?!
You'd think it would know I actually don't care about these things, but every few months I have to go in again and say, "Hey fucker, I don't care about these things!"
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@Tsaukpaetra said in WTF Bites:
Oh, I forgot you could get this. But your list raises more questions than it answers, and not for the reasons you mention (nor because you're @Tsaukpaetra...
). My list only has 8 items and it really sticks the most basic stuff -- so basic that it doesn't even know that I'm French and only lists English as language (and that's despite e.g. my Google email account is 99% in French, and perhaps half of my searches are in French, and quite a few websites I regularly visit are in French...), and it also manages to get my work domain completely wrong. I know that I turned off quite a few ad personalisation settings over the years, and I don't use e.g. the Youtube app, so it probably has few material to work with (though that would mean that Google actually has working ad personalisation settings! 
), but still, I would expect it to know more about me (especially given what it knows about you). Did you voluntarily tell it some of those things? (by more than just e.g. browsing for them)Also I notice a conspicuous lack of ponies.
You'd think it would know I actually don't care about these things, but every few months I have to go in again and say, "Hey fucker, I don't care about these things!"
What I wonder is why you care about what it thinks you care about... Why don't you let it serve you whatever ads it wants? Don't tell me you're actually looking at the ads??
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I actually just got a mail that includes the phrase "do the needful".
Also bonus WTF: Even with Google with site:thedailywtf.com, I can't find the original Daily WTF article that made this phrase memetic (all I can find is comments and forum posts from after it became memetic).
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@Medinoc Clearly putting down insufficient effort. Please do the needful and locate the origin of the meme.
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https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/do-the-needful doesn't even mention TDWTF. Pffshsft!
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Did you voluntarily tell it some of those things?
If I could do so, maybe I would be forced to be more irrationally incensed when it didn't remember that.
I must assume the outdoors-ey stuff was caused by location history (since a prior work space was next door to a popular hunt-and-game store?) but still, literally every Google Ad Rewards survey I have to tell it "Yeah literally none of the five places you're asking if I have visited did I even come close to..."
Also I notice a conspicuous lack of ponies.
Weird, isn't it? Especially considering my YouTube browsing habits...
What I wonder is why you care about what it thinks you care about...
I'd rather it know enough about me that it reaches into creepy territory than it missing the mark so remarkably bad that I might as well be an alien.
Why don't you let it serve you whatever ads it wants?
Because it only wants to serve me the same two ads ever? You'd think that with such a lucrative and diverse portfolio of advertisers it's making all its revenue over, that it could find something unique for me for each video, but no. Always the fake fake no-it's-actually-real mobile games, and Mint Mobile ads.
Don't tell me you're actually looking at the ads??
I might if they varied at all at any point!
For fucking sake I would be happy if it started showing those fat-shaming ads once in a while!
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@Tsaukpaetra said in WTF Bites:
I'd rather it know enough about me that it reaches into creepy territory than it missing the mark so remarkably bad that I might as well be an alien.
:but_why:
I don't get why you care about something that you did not ask for, and that is just noise...
Because it only wants to serve me the same two ads ever?
But again, why do you care? Are you actually waiting for those ads (and hoping each time to get a new one)?
A lot of people hate ads (or at least dislike them). Another lot of people are globally neutral -- seeing ads as something of a necessary evil. Yet another group might actually think ads are a good thing (in exchange of free content). But even that last group is not interested in having ads, and AFAIK never care about the ads they get.
Thank you for proving once more how unique you are, I guess...
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@Tsaukpaetra said in WTF Bites:
I'd rather it know enough about me that it reaches into creepy territory than it missing the mark so remarkably bad that I might as well be an alien.
Quite the opposite. I'd much rather Google know as little about me as possible (except YT recommendations) and that what it thinks it knows is utterly wrong.
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Another lot of people are globally neutral -- seeing ads as something of a necessary evil.
That's me... except when the ads try to interrupt what I'm doing at a point I'm not prepared for it. That brings out the rage.
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@dkf I think most people are in that same group, globally indifferent but oscillating between (strong) hate when an ad is obnoxious or at the wrong time/place, and actual agreement when ads are fairly discreet but enable e.g. a small side-project website to keep ticking along.
Then on top of this "soft middle," I've seen a few people who actively hate ads so much that they can endure pain to avoid them, but this thread is the first time I see someone who seems to care about ads.
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this thread is the first time I see someone who seems to care about ads.
Well, there's @blakeyrat, but I'm not sure he cared about the ads themselves as much as the analytics data that enables them. In either case, he got quite irate at people who block them.
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@Tsaukpaetra said in WTF Bites:
What I wonder is why you care about what it thinks you care about...
I'd rather it know enough about me that it reaches into creepy territory than it missing the mark so remarkably bad that I might as well be an alien.
Huh. I'd rather it thinks I'm into whatever a Kardashian is, horoscopes, modern art, and dogs, than it know anything about me. Except maybe for making me paranoid that it's just presenting those to keep up appearances when in fact knowing more about me.
Or just what @HardwareGeek said.
seeing ads as something of a necessary evil
That might have been applicable if the ads came without being so intrusive, having a history of being a malware vector, trying to induce negative behavior, and coming without Big Brother surveillance. As it is, they're plain evil.
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I'm into whatever a Kardashian is,
The Cardassians (/kɑːrˈdæsiənz/) are a fictional extraterrestrial species in the American science fiction franchise Star Trek. They were devised in 1991 for the series Star Trek: The Next Generation before being used in the subsequent series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Discovery.
HTH HAND
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@error huh, I thought that’s the Calrissians.
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I'm into whatever a Kardashian is,
The Cardassians (/kɑːrˈdæsiənz/) are a fictional extraterrestrial species in the American science fiction franchise Star Trek. They were devised in 1991 for the series Star Trek: The Next Generation before being used in the subsequent series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Discovery.
HTH HAND
I liked the way Honest Trailers did this:
...and the Kardashians, omnipresent leather skin tyrants bent on galactic domination - oh, sorry,what's that? Oh! Sorry - and the Cardassians, omnipresent leather skin tyrants bent on galactic domination. Eh... not sure which one I prefer.
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@error huh, I thought that’s the Calrissians.
No, that's a dialect of Spanish.
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Today in Visual Stupido: editing a JSON file. After each character I type, this thing comes up and spins for a while:
and it enters the character twice. It also caches my keypresses, so as I type whole words normally without pausing in between letters, it caches my keyboard input and does this for every single letter.And that's the story of how I spent 5 minutes waiting, only to delete
""PPOOWWEERR__BBIIand start the line over
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@hungrier Visual Stupido update: It's now doing the same thing for arrow key navigation. I think it's time to exit and restart
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it enters the character twice. It also caches my keypresses
Type half as hard.
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My domain registrar has started asking me some pretty random questions as part of the login process, like as a form of MFA it now has asked what town is associated with my account...
...which, if I didn't have domain protection on, you could look up via WHOIS records.
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WTF of my day: So, I wanted to update Rocket.Chat.
Now, we've had that for a while now and, as that whole thing is based on Meteor, I originally built it from source (basically
git pullfollowed bymeteor build, followed by some directory shuffling and a service restart).
Then they only published the built binary. And of course, the proper Node version was always a bit of a moving target.So I noticed that now they also offer a
snappackage. Apart from the minor annoyance that this thing bundles its own MongoDB (I've got a 3-server replica set, thankyouverymuch), it promised to make updates much easier.Okay, announced a maintenance period during which service would be spotty, made a snapshot of the servers touched by this and then installed the snap.
Nice, the default install runs.
Now for switching over to the production database (with the existing data) instead of the included one. How does one do that? Oh, easy: Simply use
snap setto set two environment variables for the MongoURI to the database and an OpLog (the latter is mandatory).And here's where we hit a snag. You see, a MongoUri is basically just a normal URI like
mongodb://user:pass@192.168.0.1/oplogdb?replicaSet=rs01&authSource=adminThe latter part
authSource=adminis necessary because MongoDB does not seem to have a standard location for authentication data. You simply will not be able to connect. Yeah, I know.Anyways, someone at RocketChat was clever and added a validation routine to the
snap setcommand. It will thus not accept what it deems an invalid MongoUri.And the part
authSource=foois deemed invalid...Oh, but only for the OpLog. The "normal" database accepts that part just fine.
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I think it's time to exit and restart
The optimal time to exit and restart Visual Stupido is after about two hours of use, or one day of sitting idle.
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I think it's time to exit and restart
The optimal time to exit and restart Visual Stupido is after about two hours of use, or one day of sitting idle.
I may start doing that, given how many random problems I get just using it normally
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The optimal time to exit and restart Visual Stupido is after about two hours of use, or one day of sitting idle.
Another fine Microsoft software, I see
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I think it's time to exit and restart
The optimal time to exit and restart Visual Stupido is after about two hours of use, or one day of sitting idle.
I may start doing that, given how many random problems I get just using it normally
I might have been a bit exaggerating with two hours, but restarting it occasionally just because does help.
I also often restart it to make sure changes to the project and other meta stuff was actually written out to the disk, because it is otherwise quite easy to miss it. Because there is no save for the project and solution, just a save all, which should save those too, but I learned not to trust it too much. Maybe it works now, maybe not. The solutions were always a bit broken.
@TimeBandit said in WTF Bites:
The optimal time to exit and restart Visual Stupido is after about two hours of use, or one day of sitting idle.
Another fine Microsoft software, I see
It has had fairly good releases and it has had really crappy ones. The current one, I am not using it too much.
Strangely enough the node-based Visual Stupido Code seems to be quite a bit more stable than the .нет-based Visual Stupido.
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Rocket.Chat.
Primary problem identified.
MongoDB
Secondary cause identified.
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@Gern_Blaanston Made in China, too, I'm sure. Burning down your house has never been easier!
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@error huh, I thought that’s the Calrissians.
No, that's a dialect of Spanish.
ITYM Armenian.
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@Gern_Blaanston said in WTF Bites:
WTF is "2100 Joules" even supposed to mean in this context? "We included a big-ass capacitor for no reason other than to make sure if it doesn't go up in flames it will at least zap you with the bullet energy of a big game rifle when you least expect it"?
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@LaoC generally that's supposed to be the surge rating. That is, if a surge delivered less than that, it wouldn't get through to damage the plugged in stuff. Theoretically. But probably it will.
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ads in so many other non-browser programs! (Like MS Minesweeper, etc)
Booting into Windows is a pain already, and I have zero intention of launching Minesweeper (even just to find out), but do they really have fucking ads in fucking Minesweeper?
Cast your mind back 10 years to the days of Windows 8 and Windows Phone. Metro-mania is running wild and Microsoft needed software that ran on the Windows Runtime, would scale properly on all sorts of devices, and took touchscreens into consideration. Instead of writing these games themselves they hired others to do it and let them use phone-style monetization to make more money.
I use the versions that came with Windows XP instead.
