4 ms·

I wonder at which point will we just stream pages as interactive video content with a text optimized codec. Most pages on the internet are bloated to the point

by sly010 8y ago

I wonder at which point will we just stream pages as interactive video content with a text optimized codec. Most pages on the internet are bloated to the point where it might just make sense. (I am not advocating, I am predicting)

bastawhiz 8y ago
At a previous job in the not-too-distant past, we needed to support IE7 for contractual reasons. I'd unironically floated the idea of launching a VM on the server running Firefox, and starting a VNC session, streamed over frames of a GIF. Clicks and keypresses would be transmitted with AJAX calls. In a later project, we played with the idea of using an asm.js-compiled Webkit to render SVG (with embedded HTML) into a canvas due to mixed browser support. Long story short, it's not inconceivable.
- dman 8y ago
  Write once, run everywhere promise of the web delivered like never before.
- tomelders 8y ago
  There was a Chinese mobile browser that essentially did this if I recall. And didn't Amazon have something like this for one of their earlier Kindles?
- yingw787 8y ago
  This is pretty crazy. I love it.
- zachrip 8y ago
  Doesn't citrix solve this problem?
- Eli_P 8y ago
  Facebook should try to adapt screamer-prank tech[0] for ads. Even if an ad missed your attention, you'd still have to pay 1 laundry bill and 1 bill for stuttering-aid couching. Jokes aside, even with rendering to canvas, ad can be blocked with image recognition. Long time ago I used Sikuli Script for UI testing automation, Sikuli recognized parts of screen and worked very fast; combine it with an app like CinemaDrape and voila. [0] (loud noises warning) https://youtu.be/469zNXTCHdk?t=10 https://youtu.be/469zNXTCHdk?t=10
- disease 8y ago
  Sounds a bit like Apache Guacamole, which is sometimes used for presenting old software to users via a web setup.
- e1ven 8y ago
  I worked on a project a few years ago to render screenshots to imagemaps, then used server side imagemap processing to click. Made modern websites work in Netscape 2 :)
paganel 8y ago
That’s what Flash was all about back in the day, more or less.
xiphias2 8y ago
Deep learning is already able to find the ads even within video content, so the cat-and-mouse game is still on :) Of course locking down the computer helps.
Changee6 8y ago
Then we would finally have implemented the interactive TV envisioned in old futurism. And the web would be dead.
loosetypes 8y ago
If you stream movies from sites like 123movies, they play a similar obfuscation game but are moving towards your hypothetical. While many players, despite deeply nested html, still point directly to where the content is hosted (ex, a file on openload.co), an increasing number take your mentioned approach and load the content as a blob so folks won't bypass their ads.
- efreak 8y ago
  IIRC you can directly download a blob from the blob internals page; I think you can also see them somewhere in the developer console, and I've got a bookmarklet that allows feeding a blob URI into it for download.
chatterbeak 8y ago
Isn't this (sort of) what the remote desktop protocols do? That may actually be feasible!

by sly010 8y ago

bastawhiz 8y ago

At a previous job in the not-too-distant past, we needed to support IE7 for contractual reasons. I'd unironically floated the idea of launching a VM on the server running Firefox, and starting a VNC session, streamed over frames of a GIF. Clicks and keypresses would be transmitted with AJAX calls. In a later project, we played with the idea of using an asm.js-compiled Webkit to render SVG (with embedded HTML) into a canvas due to mixed browser support. Long story short, it's not inconceivable.

dman 8y ago
Write once, run everywhere promise of the web delivered like never before.
tomelders 8y ago
There was a Chinese mobile browser that essentially did this if I recall. And didn't Amazon have something like this for one of their earlier Kindles?
yingw787 8y ago
This is pretty crazy. I love it.
zachrip 8y ago
Doesn't citrix solve this problem?
Eli_P 8y ago
Facebook should try to adapt screamer-prank tech[0] for ads. Even if an ad missed your attention, you'd still have to pay 1 laundry bill and 1 bill for stuttering-aid couching. Jokes aside, even with rendering to canvas, ad can be blocked with image recognition. Long time ago I used Sikuli Script for UI testing automation, Sikuli recognized parts of screen and worked very fast; combine it with an app like CinemaDrape and voila. [0] (loud noises warning) https://youtu.be/469zNXTCHdk?t=10 https://youtu.be/469zNXTCHdk?t=10
disease 8y ago
Sounds a bit like Apache Guacamole, which is sometimes used for presenting old software to users via a web setup.
e1ven 8y ago
I worked on a project a few years ago to render screenshots to imagemaps, then used server side imagemap processing to click. Made modern websites work in Netscape 2 :)

paganel 8y ago

That’s what Flash was all about back in the day, more or less.

xiphias2 8y ago

Deep learning is already able to find the ads even within video content, so the cat-and-mouse game is still on :) Of course locking down the computer helps.

Changee6 8y ago

Then we would finally have implemented the interactive TV envisioned in old futurism. And the web would be dead.

loosetypes 8y ago

If you stream movies from sites like 123movies, they play a similar obfuscation game but are moving towards your hypothetical. While many players, despite deeply nested html, still point directly to where the content is hosted (ex, a file on openload.co), an increasing number take your mentioned approach and load the content as a blob so folks won't bypass their ads.

efreak 8y ago
IIRC you can directly download a blob from the blob internals page; I think you can also see them somewhere in the developer console, and I've got a bookmarklet that allows feeding a blob URI into it for download.

chatterbeak 8y ago

Isn't this (sort of) what the remote desktop protocols do? That may actually be feasible!