I don't understand technology anymore...

[Grinner]

A couple months ago, I ended up having to use a Linux installation via VirtualBox. When all was said and done, I thought it was pretty slick, so a couple weeks ago, I decided to go ahead and fix up one of my old machines with a Linux installation.

Fast forward to a couple minutes ago, I'm reading through a news website, and it gives me a message about turning off my ad-blocker. This computer has never seen an ad-blocker nor a Javascript-blocker before. I checked. I'm even getting ads on YouTube.

Any ideas? It's not particularly important, but I am sort of curious about what might cause this.

And while I'm complaining about computers, how do the user preferences in Windows 10 work? A couple months ago, I was working in Android Studio, and on a lark, I tried using the voice-activated Google assistant thing on the emulated Android device. It worked. Problem was, it hit me, that I had disabled the mic, supposedly. Do those only apply to Windows Store apps?

[Winter_Wolf]

My understanding is that several people have vocally and publicly complained that the automatic updates sometimes reset things in Windows. Specifically, creator update screwing with sound settings. Now, the people complaining were YouTube content creators who have a bit of experience by now (how much I couldn't say, but certainly more time put in than me). Just saying, it's a possibility. Frankly I'm not keen on Win 10 even though that's what's on tap for my new computer. It's missing a lot of things that I could do in Win 7 that I actually like having control over. But since it's only for gaming and I can keep my internet connection off, I'm not super worried. The day I'm dealing with sensitive info I'll be more worried.

[Trekkin]

Fast forward to a couple minutes ago, I'm reading through a news website, and it gives me a message about turning off my ad-blocker. This computer has never seen an ad-blocker nor a Javascript-blocker before. I checked. I'm even getting ads on YouTube.

Any ideas? It's not particularly important, but I am sort of curious about what might cause this.

The "turn off your ad-blocker" messages are in response to ads failing to load, not to them necessarily detecting anything specific on your end; given the complexity of some advertising setups, it is entirely possible that it randomly failed to load an ad just because a packet dropped or something, and that triggered the message.

[Delicious Taffy]

If the "Turn off your ad-blocker" messages persist, light some incense and pray to whatever gods you can think of, thanking them for your newfound lack of advertisements.

[factotum]

The "turn off your ad-blocker" messages are in response to ads failing to load, not to them necessarily detecting anything specific on your end; given the complexity of some advertising setups, it is entirely possible that it randomly failed to load an ad just because a packet dropped or something, and that triggered the message.

Or it could be that the ads in question were expecting a Windows machine with a particular browser on it--most likely Chrome these days, since it's the biggest one in terms of market share--and got confused when he tried to look at it with something else? It's not quite as bad as the days when many websites would be written to look good on IE6 and any other browser could go hang, but this sort of thing does still happen.

[halfeye]

You think you have it bad? I never did understand technology. Some of it yes, but all of it? never did, never will. Allegedly the last person to understand everything known in their time was Rene Descartes, and there were probably things he missed out on.

Basically, get over it (no offence intended). Nowadays, nobody knows everything, governments wish they did, and are chasing it pretty hard, but they never will, there's just too much information, and it's growing faster than the capacity of computers to catch up to it, let alone governments. So don't worry, be happy.

[veti]

I think most people come to this point sooner or later.

With me it happened about 9 years ago, when I installed a Linux partition on my then Windows XP machine. It worked fine for about a month, I was learning heaps about Linux, and then - for no apparent reason, the video card just burned out. So the computer could no longer be used with either OS.

I thought then "surely that must be coincidence, it can't be because of Linux?" - but the more I thought about it, the less confident I was of that. And then I realised, not only do I not know the answer with any confidence, I don't even care enough to take the time to find out. I'd lost at least one level of geekdom.

And I was fine with that. I ditched Linux and have never seriously looked back. There are only so many things I can spend my time on, and (I decided) this wasn't going to be one of them.

[factotum]

No way a hardware failure like that was related to running Linux--if it tended to destroy people's machines someone other than you would have noticed by now. However, I agree with the general point--as far as I'm concerned, the job of the OS is to allow me to run applications that I want to run with the minimum of fuss. While I have Linux installed on my laptop, that's because it came with Windows XP, I'm not going to pay to install a newer version of Windows on a machine that old, and having XP on any Internet-connected machine these days is tantamount to hanging out the bunting round the "PLEASE HACK ME" sign.

[Rockphed]

I use linux at work because that is the machine they gave me. Since mostly I am using firefox, python, and matlab, I hardly notice (except that it took me 2 weeks to figure out that if I clicked next to the path it would allow me to actually just type the path in or copy it).

My brother actually understands how computers work. He built himself a computer about 25 years ago (I was 8 at the time), but I never truly followed in his footsteps. Mostly because building a computer took money that I didn't have. And I keep meaning to install linux on my personal computer, but never get around to it.

I did fix my laptop. Only I forgot to plug the fan back in and when I finished putting it back together I just get a black screen. I'm not even sure where it is right now.

[Lazymancer]

Don't touch Win 10, unless you can't help it. It's a malware, wrapped in a spyware, inside an adware.

Seriously, logic of Win 10 is based on attempts to shape behaviour of userbase, rather than being useful. Get yourself Ubuntu or something similar - it would take a month to adjust, but you'll be saving both time and money in the long run. Also, sanity.

[Bohandas]

Don't touch Win 10, unless you can't help it. It's a malware, wrapped in a spyware, inside an adware.

Seriously, logic of Win 10 is based on attempts to shape behaviour of userbase, rather than being useful. Get yourself Ubuntu or something similar - it would take a month to adjust, but you'll be saving both time and money in the long run. Also, sanity.

Or failing that strip out as much of the default interface and questionable functionality as you can.

Youl'll need:
Classic Shell
Ribbon Disabler
and
Winaero Tweaker

(and there's a fourth one whose name eludes me at the moment that changes the window borders back to the classic design)

[gomipile]

Don't touch Win 10, unless you can't help it. It's a malware, wrapped in a spyware, inside an adware.

Seriously, logic of Win 10 is based on attempts to shape behaviour of userbase, rather than being useful. Get yourself Ubuntu or something similar - it would take a month to adjust, but you'll be saving both time and money in the long run. Also, sanity.

Really? My experience with Windows 10 has been quite good. I think it's the best OS Microsoft had made since XP for my purposes. It's certainly the most stable Microsoft OS I've ever used.

[Yora]

It's missing a lot of things that I could do in Win 7 that I actually like having control over.

I remember that feeling from when I switched from Win98 to WinXP. That one ended up being my last windows.

[Telok]

I'm working an IT job right now and I'm always amazed that Windows is so slow on business hardware and that things are constantly updating. What does not amaze me is that the constant updating breaks things. I also do some code development and huge, complex masses of code can be amazingly easy to break. Plus, after a certain level of complexity, you never really have a good grasp on what interacts with what, even if you're the only one working on the code. But really my biggest beef with the Windows OS is that there are two different 'control centers' and sets of settings, plus there is so much about the computer that even as an admin I can't control without third party hack software.

For my personal use, *nix distros all the way. For work, I'll deal with the Microsoft monopoly because I have to.

[factotum]

I'm working an IT job right now and I'm always amazed that Windows is so slow on business hardware

Yet Windows isn't slow on NON-business hardware, which would indicate to me that the hardware is at fault, not the OS? In my experience, Dell business class machines have woefully slow hard disk subsystems in them, and that makes Windows crawl and would probably make Linux crawl too, although I've not tried that particular experiment.

[Seppl]

Most ad-blockers also include the option to block anti-ad-blocker messages. They are a part of the website after all, just like the ads themselves. Usually, those are optional and must be activated manually, for example it is a special filter list¹ for the popular Ad-block Plus and UBlock Origin. So, maybe you should go ahead and actually do what those sites accuse you off. If you feel guilty, you can activate the blocker just on those sites.




¹: By the way, there should also be other optional filter lists for other non-ad-related annoyances, for example many tracking technologies or cooky disclaimers (if you live in the EU).

[Telok]

Yet Windows isn't slow on NON-business hardware, which would indicate to me that the hardware is at fault, not the OS? In my experience, Dell business class machines have woefully slow hard disk subsystems in them, and that makes Windows crawl and would probably make Linux crawl too, although I've not tried that particular experiment.

I've done it. Because of software needs I normally set up dual (or more) boots. The *nix flavors boot and run faster than Windows, especially on older hardware. I'm not really surprised, Windows runs lot of stuff in the background that isn't critical to system operation and can't be accessed or killed by the user.

Interestingly that stops at XP. We have some machines running XP because there's software that doesn't play well with more recent Windows releases, even under compatability settings. The *nix flavors run about the same speed on that hardware as XP does. And don't talk to me about virtual machines, I brought it up and management said 'no'. They're comfortable with virtual servers and vlans but not a virtual box running XP.

Besides, what is "non-business" hardware that it's so much better? The only thing I can really think of is gaming rigs, which tend to be pricy and performance optimized.

[factotum]

Gaming rigs don't have to be expensive--the machine I'm typing this on is extensively used for gaming, and it's an Athlon 860K quad-core with an nVidia 750Ti graphics card. Even when I was using a spinning rust hard drive, though (back when it was an AMD X3 triple-core with Radeon 7550 graphics) the machine was far faster than a supposedly higher spec Dell work PC.

[Bohandas]

¹: By the way, there should also be other optional filter lists for other non-ad-related annoyances, for example many tracking technologies or cooky disclaimers (if you live in the EU).

try Ghostery

[Seppl]

try Ghostery

I did not mean that I am actually looking for such a thing. I meant that any ad-blocker worth its salt comes with such lists, but many people are not aware of this as they are usually opt-in.

[Lazymancer]

It's certainly the most stable Microsoft OS I've ever used.

That doesn't say much. There was time when Windows could've been hacked by pressing "Cancel" when you were asked to enter password.

[gomipile]

That doesn't say much. There was time when Windows could've been hacked by pressing "Cancel" when you were asked to enter password.

Okay. I experience far fewer whole-OS crashes on Windows 10 than any previous version of Windows. Is that better? I had two or three whole-OS crashes per year on Windows 7 and XP, and one every month or two on 95 and 98. I haven't had a single whole-OS crash on Windows 10 in the seventeen months I've been using it.

[anjxed]

Okay. I experience far fewer whole-OS crashes on Windows 10 than any previous version of Windows. Is that better? I had two or three whole-OS crashes per year on Windows 7 and XP, and one every month or two on 95 and 98. I haven't had a single whole-OS crash on Windows 10 in the seventeen months I've been using it.

Microsoft haters gonna hate. I don't really understand why people are hating on big companies. Whereas everything can be tracked online even if you use DuckDuckGo and other OS if someone tries really really hard.

[halfeye]

I don't really understand why people are hating on big companies.

Because they have always had power the rest of us don't.

Whereas everything can be tracked online even if you use DuckDuckGo and other OS if someone tries really really hard.

These days big companies can track every interaction and they have the intention and means to do so. Someone being able to track you if that someone tries really, really hard is one thing, when you know they really really intend to track you if you go anywhere near their stuff and they don't have to try that hard because their stuff has tracking built in, that is another thing entirely, and that's where we are now.

[veti]

Yet Windows isn't slow on NON-business hardware, which would indicate to me that the hardware is at fault, not the OS?

I've always put it down to all the extra... nonsense that business machines are required to do, that personal ones generally don't. Stuff like domain registration, networking, remote monitoring and maintenance by IT, mirroring, whatever lame-ass update and antivirus solutions they mandate...

To say nothing of Outlook.

There must be dozens of processes running on my work machine that I wouldn't allow anywhere near my home machine. It wouldn't be surprising if, collectively, they have quite a noticeable effect.

[anjxed]

Because they have always had power the rest of us don't.



These days big companies can track every interaction and they have the intention and means to do so. Someone being able to track you if that someone tries really, really hard is one thing, when you know they really really intend to track you if you go anywhere near their stuff and they don't have to try that hard because their stuff has tracking built in, that is another thing entirely, and that's where we are now.

And meaning we should despise them because they have power? Really now? Because that is what I'm getting. These companies just want to sell stuff. Nothing more nothing less. And I don't hate them for that. And really now those business that collect info for ads, sell them to smaller companies that have otherwise small marketing budgets to people that want to buy products from them.

[Lazymancer]

Microsoft haters gonna hate. I don't really understand why people are hating on big companies.

Yeah. I fully agree. Just because some people have problems, how dare they voice them? Who the hell do they think they are? And those problems must be imaginary. It's not like someone important - like you - had them.

Those haters need to learn they place: be silent and wait patiently until real people start having problems.

[halfeye]

And meaning we should despise them because they have power? Really now? Because that is what I'm getting.

Despise is the wrong word, as you probably knew. Being wary of their intentions until those intentions become clear is entirely justified, because they have the power to do very bad things.

These companies just want to sell stuff. Nothing more nothing less.

They want all the money. Selling stuff is fine, if that was all of it, but you get contracts that say that anything that an employee thinks of while employed, on company time or outside that, belongs to the company, because they can.

And I don't hate them for that. And really now those business that collect info for ads, sell them to smaller companies that have otherwise small marketing budgets to people that want to buy products from them.

When it's private info that should be confidential between say a doctor and patient, getting that info via some back channel and selling it is not okay.

[NichG]

Don't touch Win 10, unless you can't help it. It's a malware, wrapped in a spyware, inside an adware.

Seriously, logic of Win 10 is based on attempts to shape behaviour of userbase, rather than being useful. Get yourself Ubuntu or something similar - it would take a month to adjust, but you'll be saving both time and money in the long run. Also, sanity.

Ubuntu also tries to shape the behavior of the userbase - no root account by default, many settings buried and hidden (ever since 14, disabling shift+numpad = numlock behavior basically requires making a startup script to call a console program to reset the Gnome flag that Ubuntu re-resets by default every time you log in...). I'm also pretty annoyed at the removal of aptitude by default combined with the integration of synaptic with the Ubuntu store.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm typing this from an Ubuntu laptop right now and I'd use Ubuntu any day over Windows 10. But lets not pretend that the opensource software community are saints when it comes to pushing users around. Python has mandatory style constraints in how you use whitespace because it encourages people to code more consistently, the GPL3 is designed intentionally to create a complex licensing mess unless you just GPL your stuff too (even if you're dealing with other opensource licenses), etc.

It's not the big guy versus the little guy. I think in general there's always people who just like to exert power over other people in petty little ways. Some of them end up heading projects in large companies, some of them end up making open-source software, some of them end up as the community busybody.

[Cazero]

Dbut you get contracts that say that anything that an employee thinks of while employed, on company time or outside that, belongs to the company, because they can.

There's a funny story about IP laws and coding. Code is intellectual property, so they need a way to guarantee they can actualy use the thing without being sued by disgruntled employees every other month.
Of course, they probably got overboard with it.