https://www.pcmag.com/news/linux-is-now-on-mars-thanks-to-nasas-perseverance-rover

Companies wonder why people use adblockers; this is my experience trying to read this article on mobile without an adblocker:

Picture of the outside of the building.

Three paragraphs, each composed of a single sentence.

Ad.

Two paragraphs, each composed of a single sentence.

Ad.

A teaser block trying to get me read another article on their site.

Ad.

A stock photo of a public bathroom with mirrors.

A teaser trying to get me to follow them on Google News.

A single sentence with eight words.

Ad.

Another sentence, which is a quote from a school admin.

Ad.

Two paragraphs, each consisting of one sentence each.

Teaser block trying to get me to read more articles on their site.

A stock photo of some social media platform logos.

A trending block with links to more articles on their garbage site.

Two more paragraphs, each consisting of one sentence each.

A distracting carrousel of images that are links to more articles on their site.

Two more paragraphs, one of which actually has two sentences!

Links to their social media.

Is that the end of the article? I think so, but I’ve missed things before, so better keep scrolling a bit just in case.

Related articles section.

Ad.

Ad that looks like a link to another article.

Ad that looks like a link to another article.

Ad that looks like a link to another article.

Link to another article.

Ad.

Comments section.

Editors pick section of articles.

Ad.

Ad.

Okay, pretty sure I’ve read the entire article now, but let’s keep scrolling to see how far this bullshit goes.

Ad that looks like a link to another article.

Ad that looks like a link to another article.

Link to another article.

And then the following pattern SIX times:

Ad.

Link to another article.

Link to another article.

Link to another article.

Ad that looks like a link to another article.

FINALLY a whole bunch of links to other articles, some of which are promoted by Taboola, whatever the fuck that is.

And the entire time there was a red popup for “breaking news” taking up 1/5 of the screen.

For those keeping track at home, the article was a total of fourteen sentences, one photo of the school, and two stock photos. And no photo of a bathroom without mirrors.

Why not both!

Maybe I’m misunderstanding, but surely you aren’t grouping this guy with the likes of Veritasium, Smarter Every Day, Steve Mould, or Cody’s Lab (just to name a few)? “Content creators” is a pretty broad brush.

Edit: I think I understand now. The quotes are air quotes; you don’t mean all content creators, but ones that create garbage content, like reaction videos, malicious pranks on strangers, etc., and call themselves “content creators”, right? If that’s what you meant, then sorry for my initial assumption!

For anyone looking for good YT channels, here are some more of my favorite actual content creators: Simone Giertz, Steve Wallis, Matthias Wandel, and Vice Grip Garage.

I’ve been cursed with his gift my whole life. Grammatical errors and spelling errors and typos stand out to me like neon signs.

Are you sure about that?

The search service on my computer crashes from time to time and the troubleshooter gets it working again without having to reboot (I hate rebooting).

What kind of idiot uses that on their luggage?

you now have a useless device in your brain

I think that if you are one of the first to volunteer for this, then you probably wouldn’t notice.

I apologize if I put words in your mouth.

Fortunately, it’s actually pretty easy to download a copy of Wikipedia and it’s not even that big. For YT, it would be a pretty massive undertaking. I suppose a good way to start would be to download all the content from channels that you found interesting; I’m pretty sure there are tools that facilitate that. Then, ignoring licensing and copyright issues, hosting the content would depend on how big the data is. Maybe something like Plex or Jellyfin? I kinda want to try it now with a smaller channel just to see.

I don’t think the centralization of information is necessarily a good thing. Besides, having information on different sites is why search engines exist. When I need to learn how to replace, let’s say a toilet shut off valve, I start with a search engine, so it doesn’t matter to me if I find a video on YouTube, Vimeo, or some other service, as long as I don’t have to sign up to view it.

The convenience that YouTube offers is a centralized place for entertainment, like Netflix used to be, and like we’ve had to do with streaming, we’ll adapt if we must.

YouTube was an amazing idea that changed the world, but now it’s being squeezed for every penny that Google can get, a company that found “Don’t be evil” too restrictive. It’s just another example of what happens when a company has to be more profitable every year in order to be considered successful.

Thanks. I can almost taste the eye rolls.

I think it needs more finger guns.

Those are so infuriating. Especially when it’s for some random website that you’ll likely never have a reason to visit ever again. Does anyone actually subscribe? I highly doubt it, though who knows what old people do (I used to do end-user tech support and I’ve seen some shit). I’ve come across a couple of stores offer a small discount if you subscribe, which is at least a legit reason to do so, but this discount is so small that I even then I don’t bother.

Or they missed the /s after the bit about it being a great opportunity.

Your sheets must be tie-dyed at this point.

Damn, that’s a nice printer you have had there.

We need a law that makes it illegal for someone to cause you to lose your beloved printer, despite the way it may look. We need an anti-discrimination law to protect them because they can’t protect themselves. We can call it the Stand Your Ground Act…wait.

Anyone who buys a color laser printer should be aware that the initial cartridges, at least from HP, are not as full as refills, so you will have to replace them fairly soon and it is expensive. That being said, the refills will last a looooong time.

Also, and the main reason why I purchased one, the printer will just work, even if you don’t print anything for a couple of weeks, or months even. I went through a couple of inkjets (not the cheapest ones), which would constantly get dried out, a head clogged, etc, before I said “fuck it,” and sprung for a laser. My wallet isn’t that happy, but it sure is nice not gambling on whether the damn printer will actually print.

I think the main point is that the policies have so many exclusions in the fine print that you are unlikely to get them to pay even if something does happen. That seems pretty scammy to me. But I guess there is something to be said for the peace of mind you get when you buy it, eh? Even if it’s unfounded.

Nah. I burn it all the horse and blue bagle trumpet chain.

It’s by far the most popular PC game distribution in the world. Yes, people launch games and then browse while waiting.