8 ms·

This is the problem with "news" stories like this... and why I hate them. We would have no way of knowing if this happened or not. It's plausible, but plausib

This is the problem with "news" stories like this... and why I hate them. We would have no way of knowing if this happened or not. It's plausible, but plausible isn't the same as "it happened". One could say at best its value is as a cautionary tale to other parents, but I'm willing to bet that if you're a parent you've probably seen the potential for this sort of thing develop in your child already... of course that's speculation, too :-) (As an aside... who the hell decided that autoplay video/audio was legit?! Yeah, I'm an old guy... and once upon a time that sort of thing was avoided... but really.)

sosodaft 10y ago
Relevant (a statistical look at internet stories): http://slatestarcodex.com/2016/12/12/might-people-on-the-internet-sometimes-lie/ http://slatestarcodex.com/2016/12/12/might-people-on-the-int... (Autoplay is the scourge of the internet and sites that autoplay audio or video should be treated the same as, say, sites that use the blink tag)
- yellowapple 10y ago
  > sites that autoplay audio or video should be treated the same as, say, sites that use the blink tag At least <blink> didn't cause my browser to spontaneously start making noises.
yellowapple 10y ago
"and once upon a time that sort of thing [autoplay video/audio] was avoided" It was? I remember websites showing off their ability to make your browser automatically play background music as early as the late 90's / early 00's.
- sbuttgereit 10y ago
  I'm not suggesting that it didn't ever happen at all; it certainly did on things like personal/vanity sites, some artsy-fartsy sites, but not on the more professional/commercial sites. Professionally, I remember being in design meetings ~'96/'97 where someone would say, "hey, we could...[blast audio/video]" and the more in the know people would down the idea as being bad form [without regard to the bandwidth issues at the time]. That's the attitude I miss.
scrollaway 10y ago
> It's plausible, but plausible isn't the same as "it happened". I don't entirely disagree but really, in the context of a fairly trivial matter for anyone who isn't the person in question, what's the difference? For example, I found a 20 euro bill on the ground at the ATM the other day. It makes no difference to you whether that's true - it only makes a difference to me and the person that lost the bill. At best it serves as a cautionary tale to those that don't pay attention to their money at the ATM. If the story is plausible (that is, possible and not unlikely) and isn't particularly exceptional (such as, "click here to find out about obama's secret slave trading circle"), what's the difference? That is, what is the concrete difference, to you and anyone commenting here, whether that child really did that or not? It's not unlikely enough that it would not occur. And we've seen a lot of very real stories about children stealing credit cards to spend hundreds or thousands on mobile games. And if you don't believe those either I can give you a personal account: When I was a kid I repeatedly broke the parental phone lock to call expensive numbers on the TV. This is an iteration of the same thing.

sosodaft 10y ago

Relevant (a statistical look at internet stories): http://slatestarcodex.com/2016/12/12/might-people-on-the-internet-sometimes-lie/ http://slatestarcodex.com/2016/12/12/might-people-on-the-int... (Autoplay is the scourge of the internet and sites that autoplay audio or video should be treated the same as, say, sites that use the blink tag)

yellowapple 10y ago
> sites that autoplay audio or video should be treated the same as, say, sites that use the blink tag At least <blink> didn't cause my browser to spontaneously start making noises.

yellowapple 10y ago

"and once upon a time that sort of thing [autoplay video/audio] was avoided" It was? I remember websites showing off their ability to make your browser automatically play background music as early as the late 90's / early 00's.

sbuttgereit 10y ago
I'm not suggesting that it didn't ever happen at all; it certainly did on things like personal/vanity sites, some artsy-fartsy sites, but not on the more professional/commercial sites. Professionally, I remember being in design meetings ~'96/'97 where someone would say, "hey, we could...[blast audio/video]" and the more in the know people would down the idea as being bad form [without regard to the bandwidth issues at the time]. That's the attitude I miss.

scrollaway 10y ago

> It's plausible, but plausible isn't the same as "it happened". I don't entirely disagree but really, in the context of a fairly trivial matter for anyone who isn't the person in question, what's the difference? For example, I found a 20 euro bill on the ground at the ATM the other day. It makes no difference to you whether that's true - it only makes a difference to me and the person that lost the bill. At best it serves as a cautionary tale to those that don't pay attention to their money at the ATM. If the story is plausible (that is, possible and not unlikely) and isn't particularly exceptional (such as, "click here to find out about obama's secret slave trading circle"), what's the difference? That is, what is the concrete difference, to you and anyone commenting here, whether that child really did that or not? It's not unlikely enough that it would not occur. And we've seen a lot of very real stories about children stealing credit cards to spend hundreds or thousands on mobile games. And if you don't believe those either I can give you a personal account: When I was a kid I repeatedly broke the parental phone lock to call expensive numbers on the TV. This is an iteration of the same thing.