mctoasterson

joined 1 year ago
[–] mctoasterson@reddthat.com 2 points 1 day ago (3 children)

What are the prevailing sentiments about Bloombergs NY tenure, these days?

This whole "selectively frisking people" schtick was his invention.

[–] mctoasterson@reddthat.com 1 points 1 day ago

I think they should have included "ad free YouTube" as a perk for their YouTube TV service, which I had for a short while. Instead they wanted you to pay an extra subscription cost for YouTube Premium to get rid of ads.

The dark pattern game they play with the "skip" options and the increasing amount and random placement of ads is really offputting.

[–] mctoasterson@reddthat.com 19 points 1 day ago (2 children)

On the one hand I understand they aren't serving billions of hours of video for their own health. Not sure how one can justify the expenditure as a "loss leader". But at the same time, the ad experience is horrendous.

In the last month I have consumed YT on desktop browser, mobile, and regular TV. Guess which is by far the worst experience?

On desktop, you can use an alternate browser or do a reg edit to re-enable manifest v2 plugins (for now) in Chrome, and continue blocking (for now). On mobile you can use alternate apps and frontends.

TV viewing of YT is the worst experience, as there are no native alternative apps and DNS ad blocking doesn't block YT ads. The native YouTube app (on Samsung and LG TVs at least) is horrendous. You get midroll ads sometimes mid-sentence as the content presenter is speaking. Sometimes you get pre-roll ads, disruptive mid roll ads, and then wash it down with a POST-roll ad at the end of the video. Depending on how the content is structured it is disorienting as to whether the video has ended or not.

Say for example its a 30 minute video. I would rather they show 5-7 minutes of predictable ads at the beginning of content, so I can at least have the same experience as broadcast TV, and make an informed decision to get up and use the restroom and feed the pets while the ads roll. Then once the content starts, don't randomly interrupt it.

Imagine the YT model applied to broadcast television. The quarterback drops back to throw a deep pass towards the endzone, and suddenly you find yourself watching an undskippable ad for diarrhea medication, while the football is in the air.

And we wonder why people have ADD.

[–] mctoasterson@reddthat.com 7 points 2 days ago

Basically any VPN YouTubers shill is not going to result in a net gain in privacy (depending on your threat model) because many of them sell your data themselves, eagerly log traffic and comply with warrants, etc. Also their server IPs are usually known and blocked from various services.

[–] mctoasterson@reddthat.com 25 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Microcenter is the answer. But never ever give up the box. One day you may need to daisychain VGA to DVI to HDMI through a series of adapters.

[–] mctoasterson@reddthat.com 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I mean $10 for a Wish.com Bugout clone with a serviceable locking mechanism is pretty awesome. Can't say I love the safety orange coloration, but if you're looking for a beater folder I dunno how you'd do much better than this at the pricepoint.

[–] mctoasterson@reddthat.com 17 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Wait til you read about Gandhis sleeping habits in his old age.

[–] mctoasterson@reddthat.com 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

I realize this is Lemmy so it is a race to make the most edgelord anti-US comment. I would be remiss if I didn't remind people of the shocking naivety of this mentality.

It seems many on this board believe that the US would get destroyed, western values would be undermined and some magic communist utopia would just naturally arise the world over in the aftermath. Wrong.

The conflict being described here would be a world war in which multiple large scale nuclear strikes would be deployed. Whatever country you are shitposting from wouldn't be immune from first order effects, let alone follow-on effects of such a disasterous exchange. Millions would die. You would be better off perishing in the initial salvos than struggling to survive in whatever Mad Max scenario your country devolves into in the resulting hellscape of nuclear fallout, zero international deterrence, likely cessation of emergency services on a local level, and all non local supply chains and communication channels being broken.

So, be careful what you wish for, and don't hasten the day.

[–] mctoasterson@reddthat.com 2 points 5 days ago

Actually getting training is also a joke. I have worked for a dozen companies at this point, everything from small contracting companies to Fortune 500.They all pay lip service to training but very few of them actually follow through and pay for (or even partially subsidize) your continued professional development.

I paid for 100% of a job-related Master degree while working, and the employer did not pay for any of it, nor provide any time off to work on it, etc. They also declined a pay raise of any kind once I finished and had the credential. Needless to say I peaced out and got a different job immediately.

I've always had to eat the full cost of my professional development and I only got "paid" for it by jumping ship to a new job for more money.

[–] mctoasterson@reddthat.com 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

laughs in Graphene OS

[–] mctoasterson@reddthat.com 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

While this is cool in some ways, handing your phone over during a law enforcement encounter should be an absolute last resort and avoided at all costs.

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