>First, we’ve discovered that about a quarter of all the internet connection in or out of the house were ad related. In a few hours, that’s about 10,000 out of 40,000 processed.
>We also discovered that every link on Twitter was blocked. This was solved by whitelisting the https://t.co domain.
>Once out browsing the Web, everything is loading pretty much instantly. It turns out most of that Page Loading malarkey we’ve been accustomed to is related to sites running auctions to sell Ad space to show you before the page loads. All gone now.
>We then found that the Samsung TV (which I really like) is very fond of yapping all about itself to Samsung HQ. All stopped now. No sign of any breakages in its function, so I’m happy enough with that.
>The primary source of distress came from the habitual Lemmings player in the house, who found they could no longer watch ads to build up their in-app gold. A workaround is being considered for this.
>The next ambition is to advance the Ad blocking so that it seamlessly removed YouTube Ads. This is the subject of ongoing research, and tinkering continues. All in all, a very successful experiment.
>Certainly this exceeds my equivalent childhood project of disassembling and assembling our rotary dial telephone. A project whose only utility was finding out how to make the phone ring when nobody was calling.
>Can confirm, after small tests, that RTÉ Player ads are now gone and the player on the phone is now just delivering swift, ad free streams at first click.
>Some queries along the lines of “Are you not stealing the internet?” Firstly, this is my network, so I may set it up as I please (or, you know, my son can do it and I can give him a stupid thumbs up in response). But there is a wider question, based on the ads=internet model.
>I’m afraid I passed the You Wouldn’t Download A Car point back when I first installed ad-blocking plug-ins on a browser. But consider my chatty TV. Individual consumer choice is not the method of addressing pervasive commercial surveillance.
>Should I feel morally obliged not to mute the TV when the ads come on? No, this is a standing tension- a clash of interests. But I think my interest in my family not being under intrusive or covert surveillance at home is superior to the ad company’s wish to profile them.
>Aside: 24 hours of Pi Hole stats suggests that Samsung TVs are very chatty. 14,170 chats a day.
>YouTube blocking seems difficult, as the ads usually come from the same domain as the videos. Haven’t tried it, but all of the content can also be delivered from a no-cookies version of the YouTube domain, which doesn’t have the ads. I have asked my son to poke at that idea.
reblogging for study later AND to spread the info.
Seriously, get and run PiHole if you can. It changes your internet experience so much for the better. I get shocked when I visit a website when I’m someone else’s network, by just how many ads the internet is flooded with now. Take back control.
1. It has people giving pictures (from inside bathrooms and changing rooms!!) Of the people they’re submitting as trans, and what the fuck?
ALT
2. I need to share this excerpt (paragraph breaks my own):
Reactions to the form’s release were immediate and predictable: multiple users started flooding in fake reports. One person submitted a report of “beavers” in their bathroom at 3 AM.
Another posted a picture of a character from The Bee Movie, an allusion to other snitch forms against transgender people that were flooded with scripts for that movie. One person reported Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders as a trans person.
Another reported an allegation of Representative Matthew Gaetz harassing girls outside of a locker room.
The reactions were remarkably similar to other attempts to target transgender people using snitch forms. In February, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita released a snitch line to report schools.
Instead, it received copies of Godzilla holding a trans flag. In March of 2023, the Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey launched a website for reporting gender affirming care clinics. Within a month, the website was taken down after being flooded with the “Bee Movie” script.
In Virginia, Governor Glenn Youngkin launched a tip line to report “divisive teaching practices.” That tip line received very few legitimate reports, and instead was flooded by “GenZ for Change” activists.
The website was taken down quietly a the end of the year. After Freedom of Information Act requests were submitted to the state for reports, Youngkin initially but then relented after being sued. In a batch of 350 emails obtained of thousands submitted, accusations submitted included “sympathy to immigrants” and dissatisfaction with the epic poem “Beowulf”
We did it yall!! The UTAH WEBSITE IS DOWN
ALT
This trend of people OBSESSIVELY minding EVERYBODY ELSES BUSINESS?
Desperately needs to STOP.
‘… But-BUT?!?!… What if I’m in the Bathroom &… One of… THEM… ATTACKS ME?!?!’
I don’t know?… WHAT IF… A chunk of rock falls out of the sky, punches through 3 floors of the building, and decaps you while passing through the bathroom on its way to the Subbasement? WHAT IF… You sit down to lunch at usual place in Break Room? And get hit by an out-of-control Cement Truck that’s already plowed through the parking lot outside, and blasts thru wall your sitting in front of which doesn’t seem to have slowed it down much? WHAT IF… THE ENTIRE fucking UNIVERSE just says, ‘Fuck-THIS!…’ & puts up a ‘Going out of Business’ sign?
‘WHAT IF…’ doesn’t give you leave to dictate what other people CAN or CAN NOT do. Long as they aren’t NEGATIVELY IMPACTING YOU (And, NO: Your precious Fee-fee’s/Sensibilities DON’T count)?
Rare images of a leafcutter bee sharing its nest with a wolfspider:
These photographs were taken in Queensland, Australia, by an amateur photographer named Laurence Sanders.
The leafcutter bee (Megachile macularis) can be seen fetching freshly-cut leaves, which she uses to line the inner walls of her nest. The wolfspider moves aside, allowing the bee to enter the nest, and then simply watches as the leaf is positioned along the inner wall.
After inspecting the nest together, they return to their resting positions – sitting side-by-side in the entryway to the nest.
The bee seems completely at ease in the presence of the wolfspider, which is normally a voracious predator, and the spider seems equally unfazed by the fact that it shares its burrow with an enormous bee.
This arrangement is completely unheard of, and the images are a fascinating sight to behold.
ALT
ALT
ALT
ALT
ALT
ALT
ALT
ALT
