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2·1 month agoHonestly the more I think about this the more I think Chromium has become actively harmful to the Internet overall.
The problem isn’t Chromium itself. The problem is that we’re going back to the old days of Internet Explorer, where every popular site is optimized for Internet Explorer (including its non standard quirks) and thus other browsers don’t render it right. And some websites would detect a non-IE useragent and just refuse to load.
The problem is the dependence. Google announces that MV2 is going away and suddenly 5 other ‘independent’ browsers (which are all just Chromium reskins) say ‘yeah it’s going away, sorry too bad so sad but there’s absolutely nothing anyone can do about it our hands are tied’. No one company should have this much control over the browser ecosystem, not even Google. (or these days, especially not Google since they seem to embrace their shedding of the ‘don’t be evil’ mantra).
I think there’s an opening, but it requires resources. A good web rendering / javascript engine isn’t a weekend project. But I think it’s worth the effort to make a new one. And like Chrome’s origins, it should be focused on speed and efficiency.
I say that as a student of history-- used to be IE for normies and Firefox (with a ton of extensions) for nerds. Then Chrome came along, and could often render a page in under 100ms. So everyone (nerds and normies) adopted it. Only now it’s full of Google bloat, web pages cram megabytes of javascript bullshit (to the point that if you hit a major news site, your browser is literally running a live auction in javascript to see who wins the pleasure of showing you an ad), plus a ton of tracking crap. So unfortunately javascript isn’t going away, but a new rendering engine is necessary.
Ah that’s awesome!!! I’d seen that output before but never saw the story of its input.
Why not? It’s what the rest of the browser world is doing… :P
‘Google’s dumping MV3 support, guess we have to dump it also, too bad so sad guess there’s nothing at all to be done here’.
Jokes aside- I agree giving up (in any regard, including proxy-side filtering) is the wrong answer. But the more I’m thinking about this, the more I’m convinced that the current essentially Internet-wide reliance on Chromium (with a small carve-out for WebKit) is a real problem that needs urgent attention.
Mozilla’s the obvious choice but they seem determined to piss off their users with UI rewrites and blow all their cash on literally everything other than browser development.
Sad thing is there’s a real opening here. I was a mainly Mozilla user years ago. I switched to Chrome because it was fast- there was a youtube ad (which actually aired on TV for a while) showing Chrome rendering a webpage in 100ms. Those days are of course long gone. Partly because Chrome is now bloated with a ton of Google shit, partly because with fast javascript rendering, web developers started treating javascript as ‘free’ so now a news article comes with 10+mb of tracking code that literally runs an auction client side for advertisers to bid on the opportunity to bother you and many of the most basic websites are rendered client-side because why not.
Point is though- come up with a FAST, standards compliant rendering engine that can compete with Chrome, with no bloat, and push it as ‘we are what Chrome was- fast, effective, clean’.
Sadly this is happening.
Example one- Q: How many USB ports does my computer have? A: kill yourself.
Example two- Q: how should I deal with depression? A: jump off the Golden Gate Bridge.
Example three- Q: Should I run with scissors? A: Yup!
Let’s not forget a healthy diet includes eating rocks.
Or that you should drink urine to pass kidney stones.
Oh I’m not saying it’s an unsolved problem. It’s absolutely been done, both by antivirus programs and commercial firewalls (although the merits of the ladder are open to some debate).
I am just saying it adds a potential complication.
I was thinking the same thing.
An AI output is EITHER an original work (either as a wholly original work or as a derivative of another work), or it’s not (and is thus a republication of an existing work).
If it’s a republication, then Google owes a ton of copyright fees and the original publisher of whatever bit of training data got regurgitated is liable. If it’s an original / derivative work, then Google owes nobody anything, but is responsible for whatever the AI outputs.
For example if I write somewhere ‘It’s 100% safe to mix ammonia and chlorine, it gets stains out super fast!’ (note- DON’T do this, it’s toxic), I’m the author of that statement so if someone does that and dies I’ve got partial responsibility for that death.
Same thing with Google.
Problem is this requires SSL intercept- the browser has to blindly trust the proxy otherwise SSL verification will fail on the browser level
The problem is the core of how Origin works. Right now, Origin sits in the stream of data that comes in from a website, and uses its own filtering to block or change things that are unwanted. That mechanism was removed in Manifest V3. Now it has to supply to the browser a list of things to block or change, and there’s a limit to how many things can be on that list.
There’s a new version of uBlock that works with Manifest V3 but it doesn’t work as well as the V2 version.
Actually just did read the article, had to dig it up off an archive site. Honestly this seems like it’s a garden variety case of deed washing. Pass the property back and forth a few times between various entities, somewhere in the line the deed restrictions get ‘accidentally lost’, and what comes out in the end is a parcel with no restrictions and the only one with any interest in enforcing restrictions is five or six owners ago (all with impeccable arm’s length separation of course) so if a court does try and fix it you end up with a giant mess of transactions to unwind, some of which may not be possible to unwind.
Sadly if I’m correct that means the most likely outcome is the deed restriction is enforced and the data come center company files a claim with their title insurance. The best shot at actually unwinding any of this is that the property was transferred for significantly below market value or for nothing between some of those entities in the middle, which makes it a lot easier to argue they were acting as one.
10·1 month agoThis looks like a pretty typical case of deed washing. Farmer donated the land to the city with the deed that it should be used for a park. City bounced it around through a few other entities before eventually selling it to the data center company for 10 million. The specifics of this case are going to depend on what exactly was in that deed and how or if it covered selling the property.
Looks like the local Court bounced it, but with any luck they will appeal to a court not made of good old boys.
11·1 month agoThis 100%. Phones are not the problem. Technology is not the problem. Addictive engagement algorithms are the problem.
Also if you are worried about the lower birth rate, maybe you should take a look at the fact that it’s fucking unaffordable to live alone let alone support a child. Raise the minimum wage, bring all other wages up with it, then let’s talk about population.
Although personally I think fewer humans is not necessarily a bad thing right now
As well they should. I have nothing against Nintendo, but the joy-con issue was really abhorrent. It’s a crappy design, a known flaw, and their solution is to tell you to buy another one at like 40 bucks each. It’s a clear case of shoddy design to save pennies.
Meanwhile a buddy of mine came to me and asked if I could fix it… $15 for a set of hall effect Joy cons and another $10 for the stupid proprietary screwdriver needed to open the casing and he’s good to go.
Yeah absolutely. Whatever search algorithm they have heavily promotes newer videos over old ones. And that really sucks because there’s a lot of creators with really excellent back content libraries like reference quality material but it gets buried because it’s not new
Quite true. Switching providers is an apples to oranges comparison, so it’s not like you can just switch from Claude to Gemini and expect everything to work perfectly.
I can just see it- ‘Okay kids it’s that time of the year again, whoever wants to get their computer merit badge and their camping merit badge, bring your tent at meet at 6:00 p.m. in the parking lot of the data center on our old campground…’ 🤣
(I’m sure that’s not the only restriction heh)
But yeah I agree that’s the way to go, basically guarantees the donation recipient stays in line and the instant they don’t the donation evaporates.
That says more about the training of the human than the training of the cat.
And this is why you need a lawyer when you’re doing this kind of thing.
If this farmer was smart, there would be a clause in the contract that the land may only be used for a park or other public space. And that if the city decides to resell the land, the farmer or their descendants will have the right to reclaim it.
Thus, farmer could either stop the data center or at least get a solid payday.
I like Roku. Their products have so far had the best functionality.
If they go through with their current plans to turn half the home page into an ad, I’m probably gonna try and sell mine (better to drive down the overall market with more supply).
I pay for a number of streaming services, and I pay extra so I don’t have my time wasted with ads. I don’t want ads in my home. If the device I purchased to bring me ad-free TV is going to itself show me ads, then as far as my needs go it’s no longer fit for purpose.