Petition to the government against AI data centres:
We, the undersigned, citizens and residents of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to:
1. Cease all incentives, subsidies, and permit accelerations for AI data centres;
2. Revoke permits and supports for AI data centre projects that have not been rigorously and transparently vetted by the local community;
3. Commission a detailed study for public release on negative externalities associated with existing AI data centres in Canada and elsewhere;
4. Require that all AI infrastructure projects be initiated and sought out by local communities, and be put through a transparent and democratic approval process; and
5. Subject AI products to genuine taxes as well as enforceable regulations around safety, transparency, and power and water use effectiveness.
You can have any animal for a pet. Any complications such as “keeping the animal healthy and happy” and “the time and effort it would take to keep happy and healthy pet” and “keeping yourself uneaten” and “the pet I want is kind of extinct” have all been solved perfectly. You don’t have to think of that.
at some point in your life you are going to do or say something racist, sexist, or otherwise bigoted. Your goal is not perfection, your goal is to be the kind of person that the people you've hurt feel safe being honest with when that happens.
I don't usually talk about stuff like this but I need to spread the word. the EU is trying to fast-track the return of chat control 1.0 (mass scanning of all communications including encrypted messages).
If you live in the EU I am begging you to contact your representatives and tell them not to let this fucking thing through. a vote is gonna happen on July 9th where they will need a majority of 361 MEPs to be able to stop it.
Learn about the EU Chat Control proposal and contact your representatives to protect digital privacy and encryption.
Gothic literature must be cursed to forever be misinterpreted by mainstream public because how did this happen
Dracula book: an evil count who only sees the world as a resource to be drained for his own pleasure is stopped by the group of people who deeply care for each other
Dracula in media: a tragic romantic hero, main love interest of one of the protagonists who must be liberated from her dull little life
Frankenstein book: any human has capacity for evil when completely abandoned and shunned by the world and the people who brought him into it
Frankenstein in media: don't play God because it's against nature's laws
Jekyll and Hyde book: repression and only caring about external appearances can cause your worst impulses to indulge themselves in dangerous ways if ignored for too long
Jekyll and Hyde in media: what if there was two of the same guy but one of them was evil and gross?
About ten, fifteen years ago I wrote a story about a guy living in a Capitalist dystopia. His walls, furniture, and tableware are all covered in smart displays. Basically animated wallpaper. It's sold as being able to turn your room or objects into anything - A nice forest view, outer space, a fantasy realm... but the companies that run this stuff keep sneaking ads in.
It gets so bad he's always being woken up by adverts that offer insomnia cures and better bedding that play when he tries to sleep.
So he buys the ad-free tier, and it's great... for a few months. And then he starts getting adverts from 'premium partners'. So he goes up a level... and the same thing happens.
So he jailbreaks his wallpaper and sends all the ad servers to 0.0.0.0 and voila... he can sleep.
Until this SWAT team blows his door off and drag him off to jail. The Ad companies are suing him for loss of revenue for the products he' notionally have bought if he'd watched their adverts, based on some weird 'The average consumer buys X products with an average value of Y' calculation.
The judge is like 'well I dun wanna annoy the sponsors' so he RICO's this guy's house and possessions and sends him to jail.
... which is a nice relaxed non-volent offender jail for the corporately disenfranchised. But because these people have no money... there's no ads and now he's happy because the only place he's free... is in prison.
Which at the time was a bit much and now it's like: Called it.
Elon's suing companies for not advertising because he's losing revenue. He's also cranking the price of Ad Free Twitter. Disney and Amazon play adverts on their paid service when services used to be free because of the adverts... and now you have to pay to watch the adverts or go up a couple of tiers.
And google's going around freaking out about ad-blockers.
DuckDuckGo's Browser to Block YouTube Ads by Default
DuckDuckGo now blocks most video ads, including on YouTube! Try it on desktop or mobile today.
TL;DR:
duckduckgo has joined Brave in blocking ads on YouTube by default
It seems that it’ll be also blocking video ads in general but YouTube is the focus
iOS, Windows, and Mac is on by default, but android is gonna be default later, with users able to turn it on in settings
It’s based filter list from Ublock origin, which is open source
full thing
“The browser is using filters from the uBlock Origin ad blocker to detect and block commercials on YouTube's website. “
DuckDuckGo says that
“DuckDuckGo now blocks most video ads! Use our free browser to get the full YouTube experience, minus the ads.
YouTube Ad Blocking joins our powerful lineup of browsing protections that manage cookie pop-ups, protect you from invasive tracker-based web ads, and more.
YouTube Ad Blocking is already on by default for most iPhone, Windows, and Mac users!
It will be auto-enabled for Android soon, but users can opt in via browser Settings in the meantime.”
It seems that it will include video ADS even beyond YouTube, but YouTube is the main focus here
“This new feature blocks ads that run before and during your videos, letting you watch YouTube without the interruptions.”
They’ve been protecting their users from ADs for a while now
“We block tracker-powered web ads before they can load.
We have Global Privacy Control enabled by default, expressing your opt-out rights by telling websites not to sell or share your personal information.
We can even manage cookie pop-ups behind the scenes, so you don’t have to deal with the distraction.”
They are joining the Brave browser that also turn off ads by default
how to turn on
It’s on by default if your on, default for iOS, Windows, and Mac
For android, it’ll be on by default soon, but you just need to go into settings and than ad blocking
You can do this for all devices to turn it off and and on
“Please note: if you’re on a mobile device, links to YouTube videos may open in the YouTube app by default.
To enjoy DuckDuckGo’s YouTube Ad Blocking, you need to open the YouTube website in the DuckDuckGo browser. It won’t work in the YouTube app.”
how it works
Their using a community driven filter list from Ublock Origin
This is open source and updated regularly
“As with most ad blockers, using our ad blocker can lead to some additional buffering times. But once your video loads, you won't be interrupted with ads.”
The browser is using filters from the uBlock Origin ad blocker to detect and block commercials on YouTube's website. But there is a trade-of
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