from the so-you-thought-it-was-your-computer? dept.
Microsoft has begun testing promotions for some of its other products in the File Explorer app on devices running its latest Windows 11 Insider build.
The new Windows 11 "feature" was discovered by a Windows user and Insider MVP who shared a screenshot of an advertisement notification displayed above the listing of folders and files to the File Explorer, the Windows default file manager.
[...] As you can imagine, the reaction to this was adverse, to say the least, with some saying that "File Explorer one of the worst places to show ads," while others added that this is the way to go if Microsoft wants "people ditching Explorer for something else."
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Microsoft has spent a lot of time and energy over the last few months adding generative AI features to all its products, particularly its long-standing, long-struggling Bing search engine. And now the company is working on fusing this fast-moving, sometimes unsettling new technology with some old headaches: ads.
In a blog post earlier this week, Microsoft VP Yusuf Mehdi said the company was "exploring placing ads in the chat experience," one of several things the company is doing "to share the ad revenue with partners whose content contributed to the chat response." The company is also looking into ways to let Bing Chat show sources for its work, sort of like the ways Google, Bing, and other search engines display a source link below snippets of information they think might answer the question you asked.
Related:
Even the FBI Says You Should Use an Ad Blocker (20221227)
Microsoft Explores a Potentially Risky New Market (20220420)
Microsoft is Testing Ads in the Windows 11 File Explorer (20220314)
Sen. Ron Wyden Calls for an Investigation of the Ad-Blocking Industry (20200115)
Windows 10 App Starts Showing Ads, Microsoft Says You Can't Remove Them (20191215)
Microsoft Experiments with Ads in Windows Email (20181117)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by looorg on Tuesday March 15 2022, @08:11PM (15 children)
Who taught this was a great idea? The Redmond cabal sitting around wondering how to increase profit (or how to screw their install base even more), since they must be going broke or something. The solution was apparently to show ads in Explorer and it's not really selling out as it's offering the users a new feature that they really really want ...
I guess not upgrading to Windows 11 is just sounding better and better all the time. Are they trying to drive customers away or are they betting on that their users are sheep and will do or run whatever they are presented with?
Not even the various free operating systems have as far as I can recall as I type this sunk so low as to start pushing ads on their users yet. But an operating system you apparently pay for (or are supposed to) now feels they need an alternative revenue stream? If this goes down well it's the slip and slide down the hill. What will be the next great feature ...
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Gaaark on Tuesday March 15 2022, @08:28PM (8 children)
I've been off MS products since 1999: you should try it... we have cookies!
Haven't looked back since. More relaxed, less fecking around, less upgrade anxiety (I'm on rolling release)... the Good Life.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --
(Score: 5, Funny) by stretch611 on Tuesday March 15 2022, @09:57PM (2 children)
I don't know what wimpy distro you are using... but damn the cookies... mine has FREE BEER!!!
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 16 2022, @01:44AM (1 child)
No hookers?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 16 2022, @03:02AM
Nah, that's OpenBSD.
(Score: 5, Informative) by mhajicek on Tuesday March 15 2022, @10:08PM (4 children)
I'd love to, but as a CNC machinist, I need professional grade 5 axis CAM software, and that only exists for Windows. There used to be a couple that had Linux versions, but they stopped years ago, and what is available for Linux doesn't come close to professional grade. And no, I can't write my own; that would take dozens of professional programmers about a decade to make something comparable.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 16 2022, @05:58AM (1 child)
This
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 16 2022, @09:32PM
Is Why
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Thursday March 17 2022, @09:58PM (1 child)
Write the company and complain... nicely! :)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Thursday March 17 2022, @11:03PM
They do not care, and have told me so.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by sjames on Tuesday March 15 2022, @10:07PM (2 children)
It can't happen with Free software. The ad code would be ripped out and tossed in the bit bucket before the repos even finished syncing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 15 2022, @10:16PM
》The ad code would be ripped out and tossed in the bit bucket before the repos even finished syncing.
... and then Github would helpfully merge it back in for you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 16 2022, @08:50PM
Google is proving with Chromium that ripping malware out of deliberately evil code is an exercise in futility.
(Score: 2) by RedGreen on Tuesday March 15 2022, @10:57PM (1 child)
"Are they trying to drive customers away or are they betting on that their users are sheep and will do or run whatever they are presented with?"
What from the virus delivery system that has masqueraded as an OS for decades, they will gladly run the latest incarnation to be infested at will.
"Not even the various free operating systems have as far as I can recall as I type this sunk so low as to start pushing ads on their users yet."
Must have missed this little gem, the KDE clowns, the we never met a bad idea we would not adopt if presented as the new shinny to start chasing crowd. Have indeed adopted it.
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/22/01/22/1751259/kde-powering-qts-new-framework-lets-developers-bring-ads-into-their-apps [slashdot.org]
Those people are not attacking Tesla dealerships. They are tourists showing love. I learned that on Jan. 6, 2021.
(Score: 4, Troll) by owl on Wednesday March 16 2022, @03:44AM
The debacle was was Vista taught them that the majority of their user base are sheep, and the sheep will continue to thank them by paying them for the privilege of a beating every other day.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 16 2022, @01:31PM
Who? The group that drives Windows development : Marketing!
Look at the crap they have pulled. Now they are installing WebView2 everywhere they can in the Windows ecosystem - more spyware and a legal headache - without proper controls. They really do need to be sued into the ground.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday March 15 2022, @08:16PM (14 children)
Be sure to pirate either Windows Professional or Enterprise. Set group policies that block that crap.
At some point in time, Redmond will eliminate the ability to set useful group policies, but it still works at this point.
Alternatively, use DISM to remove the advertising nonsense from your installation media, though that is less reliable than group policy. You may uninstall now, but a future update can very well put it back.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 15 2022, @08:23PM (13 children)
Yeah. Whatever you do, and by whatever means necessary, JUST KEEP USING this crapware excuse of an Operating System.
Windows users are like abused wives, I swear to God.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday March 15 2022, @08:36PM (1 child)
More like abused mistresses, if you want to make a proper comparison. Wives have some legal rights, mistresses have none.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 15 2022, @08:37PM
... but they can still boil your bunnies.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by cmdrklarg on Tuesday March 15 2022, @09:31PM (10 children)
I understand your sentiment, however the reality is that many businesses use software that is exclusive to Windows (my company's ERP system for one). Moving everything to Linux would be a herculean, if not impossible task.
Besides, it's what puts da eats on my table...
The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday March 15 2022, @10:09PM (2 children)
"Oooh! Ahhh! That's how it always starts. Then later there's running and screaming."
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday March 17 2022, @03:01PM (1 child)
That Jurassic reference isn't terribly on point, but it's a great reference nonetheless.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Funny) by Gaaark on Thursday March 17 2022, @10:02PM
More on point than you think: how many companies using Windows today are now spending money on "hacker" insurance, or are spending money on getting their data unencrypted, etc.
How many are ruing the day they got hacked.
How many are spending good money trying to not get hacked again while still using Windows.
Running and screaming. and dying. ;)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --
(Score: 3, Interesting) by sjames on Tuesday March 15 2022, @10:12PM (3 children)
Step one, tell your software vendors that support for Linux going forward is strongly preferred. If it's a new piece of software make it a requirement.
That might not carry a lot of weight in a small business, but lat a large corporation do it and be amazed how quickly vendors start doing anything it takes to check that box.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by mhajicek on Tuesday March 15 2022, @10:17PM (2 children)
Speaking from experience, this carries nearly zero weight. Their competitors don't support Linux, so they don't need to. The few companies that did, have dropped it to save development and support costs.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 16 2022, @01:26AM (1 child)
You don't bug your existing vendor, you are correct that they don't care.
Every time you get a sales call pitching a competitor you ask if THEY support Linux, that you are looking for an exit from Windows and would be willing to switch app vendors to do it. Eventually you should expect an up and coming, scrappy, one to at least do a winelib port.
Of course in some industries you would get a distorted market and it won't happen. Kinda like the zero email clients supporting seamless endpoint encryption out of the box.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by mhajicek on Wednesday March 16 2022, @06:17AM
Up and coming scrappy CAM companies have crap software. It isn't until they're well established that their product reaches a suitable level, and even then not always. And usually, the moment they look like they'll pull it off, they get bought up and shut down.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 17 2022, @09:22AM
One alternative would be to help the ReactOS guys get ahead with their OS.
They had some serious progress in the last years.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 17 2022, @06:36PM
your company is fucking retarded if it uses an ERP that requires Windows.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 20 2022, @03:04PM
To survive as a business you need to look further than yesterday.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by turgid on Tuesday March 15 2022, @08:21PM (21 children)
Let me get this straight, you pay good money for an inferior product (Windows) and they make you watch adverts?
That's your money and your network bandwidth and into the bargain you get an insecure and sub-standard OS that is an impediment to getting work done.
Are people still buying Microsoft shares? If so, why?
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Gaaark on Tuesday March 15 2022, @08:31PM (9 children)
Yes: people don't realize how SIMPLE AND EASY it really is to switch off MS. Once you do it, you find all your headaches disappear. Been there since 1999 and haven't looked back. Now i enjoy going to my computer instead of dreading it like i used to.
I'm more secure, more relaxed and the idea of "What shit is coming next" is gone.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --
(Score: 3, Insightful) by MostCynical on Tuesday March 15 2022, @08:58PM
my personal computers have debian
work computers come with windows, and whatever programs they give me .. they suck, but I am not paying - they are paying me..
I agree with Gaaark - why would you inflict windows, voluntarily, on yourself?
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 3, Informative) by cmdrklarg on Tuesday March 15 2022, @09:36PM (2 children)
My home system? Sure, I could probably do it. I have my HTPC running Mint, seems to work well. My main box is still Windows, but it's been beaten into submission so it does what I want.
My workplace ecosystem? Don't even go there...
The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by SDRefugee on Wednesday March 16 2022, @03:54AM (1 child)
"Beating it into submission" is NOT a one-time project. With all of the new "versions" and "updates" that MS keeps shuffling down the pipe, things you've "beaten into submission" have a VERY nasty habit of reverting to what MS wants, NOT what *you* want.
Windows paid my bills for a 20 year sysadmin career, and when I retired in 2010, I decided enough was enough and moved my personal systems over to Linux, having begun my Linux "journey" around 1994 or so, with Slackware. I pity the poor folks that, for one reason or another, HAVE to use the abortion that is W10/W11.
America should be proud of Edward Snowden, the hero, whether they know it or not..
(Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Wednesday March 16 2022, @03:33PM
Yep, agreed... I've had enough experience with MS BS that it is relatively simple for me to beat it into submission.
Setting up the Mint PC just the way I wanted was a bit of an ordeal however. Making UI tweaks in Mint was a pain in the ass, as one had to figure out whether I could do it in a GUI or had to edit a config file. Scaling the screen to what I wanted to see on the 65" 4K screen so I could read the text from 20 feet away was a real treat.
I am experienced in dealing with Windows; Linux not so much. I'm sure I could get there if I put my mind to it, but for now it's something I dabble in at most.
I've already messed with Win 11 a bit and I'm not impressed. I'll learn about it so I can help users out, but I'll not be making it my daily use OS.
The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by RedGreen on Tuesday March 15 2022, @11:24PM (4 children)
"I'm more secure, more relaxed and the idea of "What shit is coming next" is gone."
Nah that shit does not go away no matter the OS, went to linux in 99 like you, then macOS in 2008. The same garbage happens in both even now I switched back to the linux same deal at the start of the year. Every upgrade you need to be wondering what the assholes are going to break with this one. First it was the pulse audio garbage freezing my computer all the time, then I discovered a decent replacement with the pipewire only for them packaging clowns to leave out a critical file in the upgrading that disables the sound without it. Or the firmware update daemon with the critical error all the time on upgrade, why the hell you need a daemon running all the time to upgrade firmware once a year maybe is beyond me, let alone why the bug is not fixed. Same as the upower package and its constant nagging over my mouse battery being low, a stuck in your face no way to dismiss constant warning for the months it will take for the battery to finally need to be recharged. The patch for that sits around for years according to the bug that reported it with the patch that still to this day works to get rid of the damn thing when I compile that patched package and install my version. Only good thing is with the source I get to solve the problems, like the latest with the linux-firmware package which fails to install because some /lib/firmware/ath11k/WCN6855/hw2.0/regdb.bin.dpkg-new file or directory is missing. Touch the file nothing happens, create a directory it is removed by the package and the error still persists. I have put it on hold until next week or so when it will get upgraded yet again with the busy work them clowns do.
Those people are not attacking Tesla dealerships. They are tourists showing love. I learned that on Jan. 6, 2021.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 16 2022, @03:07AM (3 children)
"Unstable" is only meant to be tested by debian developers; even they don't use it.
(Score: 2) by RedGreen on Wednesday March 16 2022, @12:27PM
""Unstable" is only meant to be tested by debian developers; even they don't use it."
The packages are meant to install without problems they are not guaranteed to work to work together. When a package fails to install and it is reproducible then that is piss poor development by a bunch of clowns not doing basic testing, ie. making sure said package they produce installs without errors. OH it is them idiots at ubuntu doing it.
Those people are not attacking Tesla dealerships. They are tourists showing love. I learned that on Jan. 6, 2021.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 16 2022, @08:56PM (1 child)
That would be "Experimental". "Unstable" is for alpha testers, "Testing" is beta, "Stable" is release, and "OldStable" is extended support.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 16 2022, @09:35PM
"Your Mom" is the oldest.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 15 2022, @08:32PM (9 children)
> Are people still buying Microsoft shares? If so, why?
Because share price has very little to do with technical decisions made by companies.
Hint -- look at earnings projections, and if they are met.
tl;dr Follow the money.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Tuesday March 15 2022, @08:35PM (8 children)
Even if these technical decisions are so crazy they are likely to tank the entire company?
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 3, Insightful) by isostatic on Wednesday March 16 2022, @12:34AM (7 children)
I've spend 22 years without windows so I don't see the attraction, but clearly some do. My understanding of the product over the years, from Vista to 8 to whatever they have now is it gets more and more user hostile, but it seems like it's a boiling frog. Windows users complain and then adjust, just like they will this time.
Continue to buy MS and Google shares and you'll be fine, just don't use them yourself.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 16 2022, @01:27PM (2 children)
It used to have a pretty interface
(Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Wednesday March 16 2022, @03:36PM (1 child)
They jumped the shark completely when they foisted the Windows 8 GUI on the world. Completely skipped that abomination.
The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 16 2022, @04:06PM
Didn't they just relabel it, run some ads showing people loved it and pushed it out as windows 10?
(Score: 2) by stormreaver on Wednesday March 16 2022, @02:16PM (3 children)
I'm on my 23rd year without Windows. Kubuntu has some infuriating failures (Dolphin, Akonadi, KDEPIM, and the slow murder of the once-unparalleled Konqueror file manager), but it is still worlds better than the systemic failure that is Windows.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Thursday March 17 2022, @11:53AM (2 children)
My main complaints with linux is the constant change of stuff that worked just fine. Ubuntu replacing /etc/network/interfaces with netplan for example. It's not that the replacement systems are worse (you could argue in many cases they are objectively better), but when you have something which just works and then it changes and doesn't give you any benefits it's frustrating.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Thursday March 17 2022, @10:13PM (1 child)
Ubuntu used to be the standard and i recommended it. Now, it is a, hrmmm, to be nice....hrmmm.... let's just say they seem to experiment a lot and it's gotten worse over time.
I use Manjaro now: yes, it is systemd but it Just Works. Fast and stable: the opposite of Ubuntu.
When i retire, i'll probably distro-hop for a while to see what else is there (systemd-less), but for now i'm happy.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Friday March 18 2022, @12:03PM
On my desktop Ubuntu just works. It was easier to sell Ubuntu than Debian to management back in 2006, and now we've got c. 2000 ubuntu machines. It's a right pain when things change. The removal of debbian-installer in 2204 and the replacement of an ill-defined subiquity semi-automated method (still not clear if it can sort raid partitioning as part of the preseed equivelent - or indeed how to do a preseed equivelent), breaking our build CD which has worked with barely any change for over a decade, is the latest in a long list of disappointments. Of course it's not just ubuntu, redhat and pottering's messes, BIOS worked adequately for decades, but it was replaced for reasons. The common job progress now is work for 2 or 3 years at a company then jump ship before they discover how crap you are. Those of us who
1) Still deal with real hardware (because of human interfaces)
2) Actually stay at the same company for a career
Are few and far between. The SV motto of "Move Fast and leave shit behind for the next guy" is all that matters.
/grandpa rant.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by choose another one on Wednesday March 16 2022, @02:29PM
[NB: I actually hold a few MS shares, they've done pretty well for me. Not as well as Amazon (although I've had those for longer) and not as well as if I'd bought Tesla instead, but definitely a lot better than a lot of stuff I could have bought.]
I bought MS shares only a few years ago, _after_ it was already clear to me that Windows was on the way out.
Don't get me wrong, Windows will take a long long time to die, "legacy" software does, but it's been terminal for some time. And MS will milk the legacy cow, with its usual (lack of) grace and aplomb, for many years - BUT it ain't there main business any more. If you work in MS I suspect assignment to the Windows team is now the death-knell for a career, probably has been for some time.
MS now makes its money, and its growth, elsewhere. Azure was actually a laughing stock when they first launched it, they were behind Google and possibly Oracle too, but Azure rapidly became No.2 to AWS in cloud and seems likely to stay there. MS Office is still the defacto office solution, it's still difficult to find all the critical features in any one other competing platform, and the bigger you are the more likely some part of you workflow will rely on one of those features. Then add on the integrated Enterprise ecosystem now built up around Office (Exchange/Outlook, SharePoint, Dynamics CRM, etc.) and it becomes really really hard to fond a competing proposition (even if when you look under the hood all the individual components are horrific legacy kludge city). Now factor in that the whole lot is now mostly subscription revenue with no risky developing of new features to get people to pay for upgrades (just: "Nice little business IT system you got there, be a shame if it suddenly stopped working..."). ShareHolder proposition was, and still is, solid.
Windows though, is dying.
- .Net / C# ? - yep, one of the better bits, but already native elsewhere now
- App store / apps? - watch it all disappear once Windows runs Android apps psuedo-native - MS already supports it's own Apps better on Android than on Windows (See e.g. Office Lens, or don't see it, on Windows)
- legacy win32 Applications? - will be containerised in some way into some sort of MS-fine-wine - watch it happen on Windows itself first
- Hyper-V? well it's ok, it 's solid, it works, but Vmware or Linux or..., Linux-all-the-way-down or Windows-all-the-way-down, who really cares?
- NT Kernel? - had it's day, will be retired once the other layers can be shifted off elsewhere, who wants the expense of kernel-level programmers just for you own thing anymore?
- Hardware / device drivers? - AH. THIS is the canary guys. At some point MS, probably along with Intel/AMD and maybe some major HW Mfrs, is going to come out with a device-driver ABI layer _for Linux_. Linux purists will hate it, Linus himself will call it rude words, Stallman will have a fit before remembering it's GNU/Linux except it isn't because it's only the kernel which is a teeny tiny piece of the puzzle and he'll then disappear to write his own pur one before realising maybe he tried that before..., but much of the rest of the Linux world will go "holy shit, drivers, for everything". And that'll be it, that's the Last Trump, End-of-Days for Windows.
And MS Share Price will probably go _up_ on the news. Really.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Gaaark on Tuesday March 15 2022, @08:43PM
How about just ditching MS shit for something else: Linux, BSD, shit...even DR-DOS (okay, i liked DR-DOS but yeah, just kidding not kidding).
Think differently, don't follow the crowd, give a shit about yourself and your mental health and say "Fuck MS".
Damn, dude, just do yourself a favour. (And before you complain, remember, i've been doing without since fecking 1999 and my wife uses what "just works" which, more and more, is my linux box because her Windows box is shite.
Microsoft is a shite company that doesn't give a shit about you and seems to constantly be fecking you up the arse, so why should you keep using their products???
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Snotnose on Tuesday March 15 2022, @08:45PM (14 children)
I'm old. Old enough to remember when FM radio stations bragged about how long they went between ads. Some even played whole albums, with just a DJ saying "smoke a doob while I flip this puppy over".
Clear Channel changed all that. Suddenly it was "our job is to deliver ads". Didn't help they overpaid for a bunch of stations and went bankrupt because of it. Half because they overpaid and had to run a lot more ads, half because the listeners went all "WTF with all the ads?" on them and listened to non CC stations. Of which there were few left, so we all went to massive CD holders in our cars that held 30+ CDs. This would be the 90s, the tech changed but radio just got worse.
Then mega marts started playing "hey shoppers, save 30% on foo in bar aisle. Today only, don't miss out!" over their PAs.
Followed by ads on the mega mart floors advertising stuff. We won't mention the ads on the shopping carts themselves cuz, really? How desperate are you?
Then the cheepo main channel + 3 digital TV stuff. 69-1 is my OTA for channel 69, although it doesn't show up in anything on my TV I can hit "channel 69 please". You have that main channel and 3 parasite channels showing 20+ year old shows. Except you've doubled the ads shown 20+ years ago. Why? It can't cost you that much to show Barney Miller, so why do you need to ruin the show with ads? Especially when the algorithm is more like "8 minutes, ad time" instead of some minimum wage slave 10 years ago watching the show and pushing a button that indicated "this would be a good ad break".
All that said, my main worry is I'll wear out the mute button on my multiple remotes needed to watch TV nowdays.
Of course I'm against DEI. Donald, Eric, and Ivanka.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Tuesday March 15 2022, @09:11PM (4 children)
Watching TV is easy. There's not much worth watching, but when there is, and when it is on a channel with ads, just set the PVR to record at the start of the programme. When the first ad break comes on, pause the TV and go and do something else for a few minutes. Then forward over the ads. In fact, just record it and watch it later, and forward over the ads.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 5, Insightful) by stretch611 on Tuesday March 15 2022, @10:06PM (2 children)
Even easier...
Download the one or two titles that are actually any good from a pirate site (or bitorrent, etc)
(Except for live tv,) the pirate usually does the work of removing the ads for you. You do not even need to pay for cable or streaming fees.
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday March 17 2022, @02:10AM (1 child)
Netflix is the legal answer, Amazon is the ugly stepchild, and Disney is the Family friendly answer.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 17 2022, @06:42PM
no! all three are anti-white Jew rats. Or are you so brainwashed you don't notice it in every fucking thing they put out?
(Score: 2) by RedGreen on Tuesday March 15 2022, @11:28PM
"In fact, just record it and watch it later, and forward over the ads."
Nah others do that for me, I have not watched a TV show on a TV broadcast for at least a decade, the torrents I get are all add free in beautiful HD.
Those people are not attacking Tesla dealerships. They are tourists showing love. I learned that on Jan. 6, 2021.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Immerman on Tuesday March 15 2022, @10:00PM (4 children)
I gave up television almost 20 years ago, mostly because the ads were annoying and I realized that between the choices of watching increasingly long and frequent (and loud) ads, and channel surfing so that I rarely actually watched an entire show... reading a book or lounging in a hammock were much more satisfying options.
Once TV was out of my life I started noticing radio ads much more. Whether that was a reduced tolerance or increasing ads I couldn't say - but gradually I just phased that out of my life too.
The convenience and lack of ads in streaming services managed to lure me back into watching "TV", but the moment they start showing ads, I stop paying for a subscription. At this point Youtube videos are responsible for most of the ads I see - and I'm seriously considering an ad blocker as their frequency and length continue to grow. I wouldn't mind paying a modest premium to get rid of the ads - but not when they charge more than services where my money is going to actually pay to create/license the content.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday March 15 2022, @10:13PM
I rarely watch TV anymore, so i'm amazed by the number of ads there are when i DO have to watch it: i like to get shows and movies from other sources so i own them and can watch them when i want without all that crap.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --
(Score: 2) by SDRefugee on Wednesday March 16 2022, @04:05AM
You think they were annoying 20 years ago, you aint seen NOTHING compared to today. If its not 50 dozen drug ads (Ask YOUR doctor if pileashit is right for YOU), then theres the ENDLESS car insurance ads with their stupid slogans (You only pay for what you need.. Duh.. pretty much ANY car insurance company has that..) and their stupid actors (I'm looking at YOU, Flo). My mute button gets a royal workout whenever I decide to watch some old funny shows (Night Court/WKRP in Cincinatti/MASH)...
America should be proud of Edward Snowden, the hero, whether they know it or not..
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 16 2022, @09:10AM (1 child)
I typically download youtube videos to avoid the ads. That and because I tend to get a collection of vids to watch later.
(Score: 1) by Retian on Friday March 18 2022, @04:29PM
Same here but I'm also always blocking ads when I watch in a browser. There's so much stuff I want to watch maybe months down the line or later but YT is notorious for taking down vids with little to no explanation or recourse or even apparent logic to it so making my own copy guarantees I'll be able to enjoy it later, even if I don't have internet access at the time.
I haven't found an ideal option for Android but WinX YouTube downloader works well for Winblows and lets me download entire playlists at once if I choose. The only downside is that the every so often Google will fuck with something on the YT back end to drastically limit your download speeds while using it so you have to put up with that for a few days until a patch is out.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 15 2022, @10:58PM
The real problem with Clear Channel's radio stations is that they have some kind of inhuman defective algorithm telling them that a limited number of songs in rotation and zero DJ personality is what sells. Advertisers want "safe", so they buy ads on those stations. Result? Beige radio.
I'm lucky to live in an area with community radio, and it absolutely kicks CC station ass. The DJs say things that would never fly. They introduce me to musicians I've never heard of, and they only play "underwriting spots" which are kind of like the PBS support ads--clumped at the beginnings and ends of actual shows put on by, get this, *volunteer* programmers (not called DJs, because they can play music or talk depending on various things).
(Score: 3, Interesting) by isostatic on Wednesday March 16 2022, @12:31AM (2 children)
I don't watch TV other than BBC for events (no adverts), just netflix, prime, apple, disney etc.
The 'trails' you have to skip annoy me, but not enough to stop completely.
Between pihole and ublock origin I rarely see adverts online, at least obvous adverts. I live in the country too, although we do have half a dozen busses a day pass the front of the house, but they don't have adverts on the sides.
The only time I really get adverts is if I go to London and have them on the tube
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Thursday March 17 2022, @11:17AM (1 child)
There are ads on BBC, but for their own upcoming programs*. They seem to go on for ever, just like the ITV ones. Now I don't watch TV other than by pre-recording so I can fast forward the ads. People who sit through ads must have a lot of time to waste.
* They don't actually tell you when they are coming, so they are useless anyway. Or maybe the idea is that you sit glued to their broadcast until they happens to come up.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Thursday March 17 2022, @11:37AM
I only watch live TV for a specific live event which starts at xx:00, thus I tune in at xx:00. The adverts are before it
(Score: 5, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Tuesday March 15 2022, @10:33PM
Microsoft loves advertising. Anyone remember the Channel Bar in Internet Explorer 4.0?
The entire point of Windows 8 Metro was to get people used to "cloud" shit that constantly communicates with Microsoft to do anything at all. They got rid of any local help files and make you go to their web site. They can insert advertising if they have not already. That retarded "lock screen" has already been used for advertising. Now even logging in directly to your own computer is on the cutting block in favor of their glorious "Microsoft Account".
If you want to see what a proper desktop user interface should look like, take a nice long look at Microsoft Windows 95. Proper drop-down menus, no webby shit, no cloudy shit, no voice assistant listening to you, you don't have to use the Search to find everything by typing in names as it is all mostly logically laid out doesn't change around every five minutes when they push out a new "update". No need for a "Focus mode", it just doesn't fuck around in your face in the first place.
This is just bull-mother-fucking-shit and I'm beyond tired of it.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 16 2022, @02:51AM (3 children)
Valve's Proton on Void Linux x86_64. Path of Exile is almost playable and has a good chance of playing smoothly on my next gaming rig (which I will build as soon as the $1k RTX-3060 sticker shock wears off). Civ VI doesn't even try, but Civ IV looks like a go--I'll take next month off to play a quick test game.
Sounds like VR is only if you also have Valve's HMD, which is fine. With my current HMD, I'm "trusting" Zuckerfuck to see my collection of sideloaded yaoi sex games.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 16 2022, @03:17AM
Yikes but thanks for the info, brah.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by stretch611 on Wednesday March 16 2022, @10:07AM (1 child)
Civ VI was the first civilization that I didn't play for a week straight and missed many hours of sleep. I still find Civ V much better than VI.
But the point of my post is actually this...
While you will need Proton for Civ IV... Both V and VI (as well as the ton of DLC) all run with native linux.
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday March 17 2022, @02:08AM
Civ IV was the pinnacle of Civilization. Civ II was preferred to some extent, but Civ IV is super awesome. Civ V and VI require too much waiting per turn. Maybe when I can run it on a Quantum computer and get 1 second Computer turns.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 16 2022, @10:36AM (2 children)
Micro$oft has you run like a rat through a maze of advertising just to find your work window.
Same thing they do in Supermarkets, place the Pharmacy or essential services at the BACK of the store where they hope you buy on the way in or out.
Want to start the computer?
We have some ads you need to watch first.
Want to do some work?
We have some ads you need to watch first
Want to shut down the computer?
Sorry, we have some ads you need to watch first.
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Thursday March 17 2022, @01:35PM (1 child)
Like to reach the toilets at motorway services you must walk pass everything in the hope that you impulse buy it.
But worst of all are Ikea stores where the route through is a lengthy zigzag that takes you past every shitty item they sell. A staff member I spoke to once said the walk through was over half a mile.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 18 2022, @01:15AM
Right as they were opening a new store in my city and just coming off a holiday work stint at Sears (having just been purchased by K-mart... Sears itself was already a clusterfuck, the K-mart thing even then was an obvious death knell... the county was littered with shuttered k-mart parking lots as a result of that!
Long story short they weeded out all of us who they didn't want to interview, then dumped us all in a 30 minute long orientation/propaganda video. I'd seen a few people leave and considered doing it myself, but since I really wanted/needed the job I stayed around. Long story short, obvious propaganda for anyone with a brain, and they of course tossed us all out with no plans to call us back in the 2-4 weeks they promised. I never personally shopped at Ikea as a result of that, and only went in once when a friend needed help carrying stuff for his own move out into an apartment.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 16 2022, @12:19PM
I'm testing FreeBSD to replace my Windows machine. I can run the few pieces of Windows software that don't have *nix equivalents on Win7 in VirtualBox, and Microsoft can go fuck themselves and their ads.
(Score: 2) by digitalaudiorock on Wednesday March 16 2022, @12:26PM
Aside from the fact that reading this stuff makes me glad to have been using Linux since the early 2000s, even there I haven't used any "file explorer" in at least 15 years, and don't miss anything about them. I do most everything from a terminal window, and with tab completion etc find it to be many many times as easy and fast frankly.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 16 2022, @01:17PM (1 child)
Start Windows 11... open My Documents... open 2025 tax folder...
NO I DON'T WANT TO BUY ANY BLUE LED COCKRINGS!
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 16 2022, @07:08PM
You know, they only show advertisements for those if you have previously expressed an interest or already have content locally (discovered via indexing) terminology they have associated marketing tags with your ID that will follow you everywhere, regardless of if they are for professional use or the pursuit of hobby related blue LED cockrings!
I wanted purple, and they offered me blue and red... maybe you'll get green if keep complaining, though. Lots of stuff in that region when lit up all green like that takes on a rather unappetizing hue, so I'd be careful were I you!
(Score: 2) by srobert on Thursday March 17 2022, @02:31PM
At work I have to use Windows. My personal computers are all Linux. When working from home on my laptop Windows is run in a VM on workspace 'A', where I get to see all the cluttered chaos of MS Windows with all its ads and disruptive updates and broken things. When I toggle over to workspace 'B', I'm greeted with the serenity of Xmonad, which does exactly what I want and nothing that I don't want.