6 ms·

> The web today, without an ad blocker, is just as land-mined as it’s always been. No dude. From this comment I would say that you're either too young to have

> The web today, without an ad blocker, is just as land-mined as it’s always been. No dude. From this comment I would say that you're either too young to have living the toolbars that parents is mentioning, or too in your own bubble to know the kind of people who would fall for it.

nneonneo 4y ago
Extensions are potentially worse - they can be quite hidden while still doing naughty things to your browsing history or even the pages you visit.
- ipaddr 4y ago
  That's what toolbars did.
  - j16sdiz 4y ago
    and toolbars are not sandboxed. Back in those days, nothing (except java) in the browser is sandboxed.
- sdfghswe 4y ago
  Oh you think that all "toolbars" are visible. That's so endearing.
StrangeATractor 4y ago
Anyone else remember having their mom's boyfriend getting you to remove the animated porn lady walking on top of the windows bar while explaining that he had no idea how that got there?
- jorvi 4y ago
  VirtuaGirl. I made a good chunk of money in my small town being the computer repair guy (well, kid). Just you referring to that blight brought up memories of my entire digital youth. Having my parents shepherd my and my PC to friends so we could LAN, Hamachi (virtual LAN), Kazaa, Limewire / Frostwire, Azareus / uTorrent, uHARC compressed games, jailbreaking iPhones, writing my own hooks for d3dx9.dll for cheating on games.. good times. Specifically with Azareus vs. uTorrent I remember being amazed how a program that was a few hundred kilobytes could principally do the same thing as one that was a few hundred megabytes big, and with 1/10th of the RAM consumption to boot. It’s given me a lifelong impression of Java being a sluggish crappy language, which isn’t factually correct.. but first impressions last. Strangely enough I have a feeling we (‘90s kids) were the last generation where every kid had to learn at least some digital nimbleness. These days even the cracks and jailbreaks are one-click and work without a fault.
  - tyre 4y ago
    starting digital life on Parental Control AOL with only keywords true hardmode
    - brewtide 4y ago
      So many blank discs to tape over and save things on in the mailbox. Then the unlimited supply of coasters following. I knew a guy that had a free trial of AOL for 5 plus years because he's call and threaten to cancel his service - which eventually turned into "listen, Ive been with you folks for 3 plus years now, and I'd really hate to cancel my service now but..." Bam, another free 6 month window. I still find it hilarious. Who else rocked qlink ? We're getting there now...
  - monetus 4y ago
    The cracks back then were packaged into almost a single click too, along with some great music. The site seems to be gone now, but keygenmusic.net had been a great archive. https://archive.is/MeJP5 https://archive.is/MeJP5
    - boomboomsubban 4y ago
      The music was always too loud to appreciate. Nothing caused me to throw my headphones off more.
      - monetus 4y ago
        You've made me remember doing the same, thanks. Damn were those brutally abrupt.
    - Scoundreller 4y ago
      Gamecopyworld is still a thing and still the same great interface and ad riddled mess.
  - StrangeATractor 4y ago
    Hamachi, now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time. I'm going to guess you're in your early- to mid-30's.
- BeFlatXIII 4y ago
  …and then it reappears the next week? Yes.
- uchhs 4y ago
  Where I live moms have husbands, not boyfriends.
  - CleaveIt2Beaver 4y ago
    I don't know if you realize this, but moms are actually people, and can exist in all sorts of situations. Go figure.
INTPenis 4y ago
I think it kinda evens out because while the web is better, more people are using it. If I look at just the experience I've had these last 20 years I'd say nothing has changed overall. Because my mom got her Samsung phone infected from official Google ads. And who do you report that to? They don't care. If she didn't have someone who could identify she had a malicious program and reset her phone she'd just live her life with constant ads popping up randomly.
HeavyFeather 4y ago
VirtuaGirl wasn’t nearly as bad as that quiet extension mining bitcoins and syphoning your dad’s passwords in the background. Flashy != dangerous. Heck today viruses don’t even limit themselves to restarting your computer, they encrypt your files and blackmail entire hospitals. So yeah no, things did not get better at all.

nneonneo 4y ago

Extensions are potentially worse - they can be quite hidden while still doing naughty things to your browsing history or even the pages you visit.

ipaddr 4y ago
That's what toolbars did.
- j16sdiz 4y ago
  and toolbars are not sandboxed. Back in those days, nothing (except java) in the browser is sandboxed.
sdfghswe 4y ago
Oh you think that all "toolbars" are visible. That's so endearing.

StrangeATractor 4y ago

Anyone else remember having their mom's boyfriend getting you to remove the animated porn lady walking on top of the windows bar while explaining that he had no idea how that got there?

jorvi 4y ago
VirtuaGirl. I made a good chunk of money in my small town being the computer repair guy (well, kid). Just you referring to that blight brought up memories of my entire digital youth. Having my parents shepherd my and my PC to friends so we could LAN, Hamachi (virtual LAN), Kazaa, Limewire / Frostwire, Azareus / uTorrent, uHARC compressed games, jailbreaking iPhones, writing my own hooks for d3dx9.dll for cheating on games.. good times. Specifically with Azareus vs. uTorrent I remember being amazed how a program that was a few hundred kilobytes could principally do the same thing as one that was a few hundred megabytes big, and with 1/10th of the RAM consumption to boot. It’s given me a lifelong impression of Java being a sluggish crappy language, which isn’t factually correct.. but first impressions last. Strangely enough I have a feeling we (‘90s kids) were the last generation where every kid had to learn at least some digital nimbleness. These days even the cracks and jailbreaks are one-click and work without a fault.
- tyre 4y ago
  starting digital life on Parental Control AOL with only keywords true hardmode
  - brewtide 4y ago
    So many blank discs to tape over and save things on in the mailbox. Then the unlimited supply of coasters following. I knew a guy that had a free trial of AOL for 5 plus years because he's call and threaten to cancel his service - which eventually turned into "listen, Ive been with you folks for 3 plus years now, and I'd really hate to cancel my service now but..." Bam, another free 6 month window. I still find it hilarious. Who else rocked qlink ? We're getting there now...
- monetus 4y ago
  The cracks back then were packaged into almost a single click too, along with some great music. The site seems to be gone now, but keygenmusic.net had been a great archive. https://archive.is/MeJP5 https://archive.is/MeJP5
  - boomboomsubban 4y ago
    The music was always too loud to appreciate. Nothing caused me to throw my headphones off more.
    - monetus 4y ago
      You've made me remember doing the same, thanks. Damn were those brutally abrupt.
  - Scoundreller 4y ago
    Gamecopyworld is still a thing and still the same great interface and ad riddled mess.
- StrangeATractor 4y ago
  Hamachi, now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time. I'm going to guess you're in your early- to mid-30's.
BeFlatXIII 4y ago
…and then it reappears the next week? Yes.
uchhs 4y ago
Where I live moms have husbands, not boyfriends.
- CleaveIt2Beaver 4y ago
  I don't know if you realize this, but moms are actually people, and can exist in all sorts of situations. Go figure.

INTPenis 4y ago

I think it kinda evens out because while the web is better, more people are using it. If I look at just the experience I've had these last 20 years I'd say nothing has changed overall. Because my mom got her Samsung phone infected from official Google ads. And who do you report that to? They don't care. If she didn't have someone who could identify she had a malicious program and reset her phone she'd just live her life with constant ads popping up randomly.

HeavyFeather 4y ago

VirtuaGirl wasn’t nearly as bad as that quiet extension mining bitcoins and syphoning your dad’s passwords in the background. Flashy != dangerous. Heck today viruses don’t even limit themselves to restarting your computer, they encrypt your files and blackmail entire hospitals. So yeah no, things did not get better at all.