ring-bear

[ring-bear]

[ring-bear]

Freedom from ads is freedom of information, and frankly 25% of all internet traffic is absolutely nuts.

Companies buy and sell your data as their stock and trade all with you none the wiser. This is no accident, actively hiding their collection and disbursement of your data is paramount to this endeavor. The choice to keep (or sell) one’s data should be entirely left up to the individual. If my data is sold, why don’t I see the $$$?

>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.

>Update: All4 on the telly appears not to have any ads any more. Goodbye Arnold Clarke!

>Lemmings problem now solved.

>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.

[ring-bear]

Like we’re smart enough to be talking about the Overton window, I know we are, this is it! The window starts shifting when republicans push these ideas but the deal is sealed when Democrats become complicit and allow it! It isn’t normal if we don’t allow it to be.

But whatever I guess Wesley Bell doesn’t want things to be awkward in the cafeteria after the sessions out, it’s fine.

[ring-bear]

Absolutely! And it would not have changed if DJT had lost, we all saw Kamala take a hardline stance on being “tough on immigration” legitimizing this so-called “border crisis”. Even now Dems in my state like Wesley Bell vote to offer gratitude to ICE as recently as last week.

We ALL see that ICE has gone full secret police, establishment democrats are actively choosing to be complicit in their actions and they should be on the chopping block in the coming midterms right next to republican legislators.

[ring-bear]

God! Kirkhope is a fucking foundational composer for the N64 and had a very large hand in setting the tone for the handful of games that made said console valid despite commercial failure. To be a contributor in games like perfect dark, golden eye, and Banjo Kazooie that made them such staples in people’s eyes, is no small favor. If the N64 didn’t have such iconic titles like these it would have drifted into obscurity.

Obviously a single composer does not make or break a game, console, or fiscal solvency but what ever happened to I scratch your back and you scratch mine.

Just another sin to add to Nintendo’s rap sheet.

Fuck Nintendo

[ring-bear]

decentralize and clean up your life!!!

use overdrive, libby, hoopla, cloudlibrary, and kanopy instead of amazon and audible.

use firefox instead of chrome or opera (both are made with chromium, which blocks functionality for ad-blockers. firefox isn't based on chromium).

use mega or proton drive instead of google drive.

get rid of bloatware

use libreoffice instead of microsoft office suite

use vetted sites on r/FREEMEDIAHECKYEAH for free movies, books, games, etc.

use trakt or letterboxd instead of imdb.

use storygraph instead of goodreads.

use darkpatterns to find mobile game with no ads or microtransactions

use ground news to read unbiased news and find blind spots in news stories.

use mediahuman or cobalt to download music, or support your favorite artists directly through bandcamp

make youtube bearable by using mtube, newpipe, or the unhook extension on chrome, firefox, or microsoft edge

use search for a cause or ecosia to support the environment instead of google

use thriftbooks to buy new or used books (they also have manga, textbooks, home goods, CDs, DVDs, and blurays)

use flashpoint to play archived online flash games

find books, movies, games, etc. on the internet archive! for starters, here's a bunch of David Attenborough documentaries and all of the Animorphs books

burn your music onto cds

use pdf24 (available online or as a desktop app) instead of adobe

use unroll.me to clean your email inboxes

use thunderbird, mailfence, countermail, edison mail, tuta, or proton mail instead of gmail

remove bloatware on windows PC, macOS, and iOS X

remove bloatware on samsung X

use pixelfed instead of instagram or meta

use NCH suite for free software like a file converter, image editor, video editors, pdf editor, etc.

feel free to add more alternatives, resources or advice in the reblogs or replies, and i'll add them to the main post <3

last updated: march 18th 2025

[ring-bear]

Nah really, some folks haven’t used a YouTube to MP3 site and it shows.

Some of you guys have never burned a CD and it shows

[ring-bear]

Music in Film: Sinners (2025) dir. Ryan Coogler

[ring-bear]

LISTEN UP MOTHER FUCKERS

SEE THIS WEBSITE? 

ITS CALLED WOLFRAM ALPHA

THIS IS THE BEST GODDAMN WEBSITE FOR ACADEMIC SHIT. FUCK GOOGLE. 

THIS MOTHERFUCKER WILL LET YOU SEARCH “HOSPITAL BEDS IN CHAD VS. IRAN” 

AND IT GIVES YOU A STRAIGHT GODDAMN ANSWER 

MAYBE YOU’RE NOT INTERESTED IN DOCTORNESS OF THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES COOL SHIT 

HAVING TROUBLE WITH MATH?

HOLY SHIT

OR MAYBE YOU WANNA DICK AROUND

WHATEVER THE FUCK YOU WANT

[ring-bear]

@figgggy look at these magic street signs, you’d appreciate this

i just started playing Mafia and look how this game tells you where to go without needing to stare at the minimap, fantastic!

[ring-bear]

Mandatory click on GIF source

please don't have sex in disabled bathrooms if you're abled. we need somewhere to have sex too

[ring-bear]

hitting return early on libby when there's people waiting and feeling like a benevolent queen distributing alms to the poor

[ring-bear]

grain guy but he doesnt explode

[ring-bear]

I mean I kind of feel stupid for not seeing this coming, nothing in America has been revoked from the general populace just for the sake of doing it. Almost every time a social good is taken away, it is then pawned back to us by a privatized company. Here we go again…

[ring-bear]

It’s funny how sacabambaspis is like the funniest looking animal in every hypothetical except for that one picture that makes me feel like I’m about to be killed

[ring-bear]

Learning that people say “howdy” because I do that was troubling information

Huge fan of when my speech patterns rub off on people enjoy when thay happens