tldr; There are filters to get around it.
youtube.com##+js(set,yt.config_.openPopupConfig.supportedPopups.adBlockMessageViewModel, false)
youtube.com##+js(set, Object.prototype.adBlocksFound, 0)
youtube.com##+js(set, ytplayer.config.args.raw_player_response.adPlacements, [])
youtube.com##+js(set, Object.prototype.hasAllowedInstreamAd, true)
I got a pop-up about it last night, but when I clicked ok the video played anyway. (My son pointed out that YT might choose to block the account - though when he disabled his adblocker, it still didnt work, maybe due to NoScript?). But presumably uBlock Origin will incorporate these filters, anyway?
Predictably enshittening intensifies:
Bye bye Bandcamp… downloaded my tunes and erased my account.
Edit: Pure union-busting crap; Songtradr can get stuffed. No doubt it will be a while until I find a non-streaming alternative.
Well, that’s interesting. I think Megan Gray is saying Google’s Project Mercury uses semantics instead of actual search terms, and those semantics are then transformed into a search which is showing you content which benefits Google (through advertising?).
That DOES make sense, from various perspectives. Breaking down a search into semantic tokens will be needed for these nice sidebars anyway, and while you are at it compiling that, why not actually show content which is relevant for all three parties - the searching customer, the seller searching for a customer, and the broker which translates the needs of the searching customer into the stock of the selling advertiser? Everyone wins, right? RIGHT?
To be sure, IKEA’s whole business model is kind of an exercise in subtle but persistent enshittification (I’m looking at you, Trofast). But this email I just got is a bit more explicit:
Update to IKEA Family benefits
Hi [redacted],Thank you for being a loyal IKEA Family member. We have an important update to your IKEA Family benefits. Effective 2/1/24, IKEA Family members will no longer receive 5% off in-store on all furniture and décor. All currently enrolled members, and new members, can enjoy this benefit through January 31, 2024.
Stay tuned for new ways to save throughout the year with offers and perks as an IKEA Family member.
In the meantime, continue to use IKEA Family benefits like free coffee and tea in our Swedish Restaurant (everyday!), 90-day price protection, previews of store events, exclusive access to IKEA Family member discounts, and more.
[button] Learn more
You got 5% off on all furniture and fabric?
Over here I get [random number]% off on selected “deal-of-the-month” items and on stuff in the “IKEA Family” section. Which keeps getting smaller and smaller. And free coffee.
They’ve announced that they’ll make Billy 20% cheaper, though.
The %-off thing was relatively new, I think it was an enticement to get people back in-store after the pandemic lockdowns. So I guess it’s not too surprising that it’s ending if that is indeed why they did it initially. But I wouldn’t put money on that free coffee lasting forever, either.
It’s not very good coffee. You don’t see a lot of people getting refills…
However - if they discontinue it I predict a riot.
Dr. Collier attempts to do research for a video on antimatter engines and discovers that things on the internet are getting shittier. The video on antimatter engines gets postponed:
One of the rare videos where the comment section is worth reading.
Wasn’t sure where else to place this… I’ve been a subscriber since the 2016 election. In that time they’ve already ditched KidsPost & the Sunday magazine, among other things.
William Lewis, a reporter-turned-executive who spent years working in British media and for Rupert Murdoch-owned companies, has been named the CEO and publisher of The Washington Post.
…
Lewis takes over during a tumultuous time for The Post, which has experienced a drop-off in both audience and subscribers.
…
Lewis was editor of the Telegraph when Boris Johnson wrote for the paper and reportedly served as an informal adviser to the former prime minister. Last month, he was knighted at Johnson’s recommendation. Asked in September about his relationship with Johnson, who resigned from Parliament in June, Lewis told Bloomberg News he’s not a “fair-weather friend.”
(Free link)
The Chamberlain Group, makers of garage door openers whose family also includes LiftMaster and Merlin openers, has decided to enshittify their MyQ site by actively making frequently breaking changes that prevent integrations with smart home software integrations from open source projects like HomeAssistant.
HomeAssistant has decided they will no longer keep chasing after the constant, deliberate changes. They are removing support for MyQ. That’s it. Done.
However, the story does not end there!
What’s different in this fight is that owners of affected garage door opener systems don’t have to settle for MyQ’s monopoly over their equipment. A bog-standard ESP32 chip on a carrier board, an old phone charger, a pair of wires, and some simple open source software can entirely replace MyQ with a local system that you own entirely. No clouds, no APIs, just seamless integration to HomeAssistant or to any home automation software that accepts MQTT integration. Anyone capable of installing or replacing their own garage door is already more than capable of installing any one of a number of open source replacements, including:
And there are other alternative controller kits you can add (not open source) averaging from $70-$90. Hard to say what the future holds for their clouds, but some can be reflashed with open source software.
When there are many alternatives that are not MyQ, their attempts to leverage their (imagined) monopoly seem even more short-sighted than the companies that do have total lock-in of their customers.
I’d love to see it happen more often.
New this year (at least around these parts): gas pumps with eye-bleedingly bright screens that flash ads at you and yell at you to buy soda. They have a mute button… for now.
The experience has been enshittified by the ads, but at least everything else works fine. Let’s hope they don’t slow the pump down just to feed us more ads.
They have. We now know they use semantic matching to expand searches. Typically databases have done that in the past to add in synonyms or additional spellings, Google does it to add in things you are not looking for to trigger ad spends from competitors.
As someone who once described their profession (sysadmin, at the time) as ‘professional google user’, it’s been going downhill shockingly fast. Searching for a specific error message now brings up a horde of unrelated errors in the results, making what was already hard to find nigh on impossible. Even adding quotes, it grabs stuff it thinks (usually incorrectly) is related and fills up results with that garbage. I need to find a better search engine, but since my job is now cybersecurity it’s not the pressing issue it would be had I remained in sysadmin.
