Honestly, Fuck Steve Huffman.

I’m excited to see where Lemmy, Mastodon and the Fediverse go as I believe that’s what Aaron Swartz wanted Reddit to be when it merged with Infogami; a user curated platform about anything, and a great source of knowledge.

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If you haven’t switched to Firefox yet, you’ll want to consider it this week. While Google is busy making some sketchy changes to Chrome on the road to (what else) forcing more ads upon it’s users, Mozilla is updating Firefox mobile in a big and exciting way. Starting literally today (assuming I scheduled this post correctly) Firefox on Android will gain the ability to install over 400 new extensions. Remember this post where I painstakingly described how to install an extension on Firefox mobile? Well, it’s obsolete now! Annoying for me, but still cool actually!

Using a browser instead of apps to view content gives you more control over what you see and allows you to better protect yourself. A big part of the reason “apps” became a thing in the first place was to prevent users from having control over their experience, and doing horrible stuff like blocking ads. Even though most apps are in essence just glorified single-webpage viewers, it’s often illegal to modify how it presents content the way one could with a website.

If you’re worried about Firefox sucking or being bloated, I can assure you it does not and is not. I’ve been using it full-time for three years now and it’s just as fast, if not faster than Chrome. It also syncs bookmarks and tabs across all your devices seamlessly. If you’d like to switch from Chrome and keep all your stuff, Mozilla has a guide here.

Without further ado, here are what I consider my “essential” browser extensions:

I could do a whole post on uBlock Origin, because it’s by far the most valuable extension here, but I’ll keep this brief. uBlock is known as an “ad blocker,” but it’s also much more. Simply installing it and not touching any settings will dramatically improve your web experience on it’s own; but there’s a lot more you can do.

Go into the extension’s preferences (Extensions > uBlock Origin > three dots menu > Options) click “filter lists” and you’ll see a list of lists. These are all maintained by volunteers that uBlock looks at to know what to block. Here are a few lists I recommend enabling:

EasyList – Annoyances

AdGuard – Mobile App Banners

EasyList/uBO – Cookie Notices

AdGuard – Social Media

A fun fact about the uBlock origin developers is that not only do they do the work for free, they refuse to accept any donations for their work. Talk about putting your money where your mouth is!

uBlock origin at Mozilla Add-ons

I’ve talked about LibRedirect before here. If you’ve never heard about alternative front-ends before, I recommend you check out that article, but here’s the tl;dr:

Alternative frontends are alternate, simplified, ways of viewing a website. I like using them for Twitter and Tiktok, because it strips away all the nonsense and links you directly to the content. Think of them like a filter for intentionally bloated websites (who would prefer you use the app). They’re great for when a friend texts you a meme or something, and you want to quickly view it without all the garbage.

LibRedirect is an extension that automatically redirects you to an alternative frontend when you click a link. If you’re someone like me, who doesn’t have a Twitter, TikTok or Reddit account, but occasionally wants to view content on those pages, alternative frontends greatly streamline the experience and LibRedirect is basically essential.

LibRedirect at Mozilla Add-Ons

Leechblock is an extension for helping to thwart getting sucked into mindless or distracting screen time. It’s highly customizable, which may be off-putting to some, since it takes a minute to set up, but I think of it like a “Ulysses pact” where you put in effort up front to block yourself from making an unwanted decision later on.

Some things I’ve done with Leeckblock:

Block Reddit.com (the homepage), but allow Reddit.com/whatever in case I want to access a particular thread from Google or something.

Add a 30-minute timer to sites that suck me in. When there’s five minutes left, it turns the page grayscale, letting me know time is almost up.

Delayed the loading of a page by five seconds. Just enough time to force me to think about if I really need to go there.

Allow a distracting website only during my lunch break and after work hours.

Or any combination of things! I am a big proponent using tools like this for guiding behavior, but not throwing up a wall (that could cause me to just disable the extension altogether). And I appreciate the options Leechblock has for custom-tailoring to your specific needs.

LeechBlock at Mozilla Add-ons

DF “Distraction-Free” YouTube If you’re already using LibRedirect, and/or viewing YouTube via a frontend, you may not need this one. DF YouToutube makes it easily to remove the distracting aspects of YouTube. If you’re someone who is easily derailed by all the extra shiny things when viewing a YouTube video, this extension keeps it out of sight (and mind). Technically, there’s nothing DF YouTube does that uBlock origin can’t do either, but this extension makes it a lot easier.

DF YouTube’s options

DF YouTube at Mozilla Add-Ons

Pocket/Instapaper/Push To Kindle Mozilla actually owns Pocket, and it comes built-in to Firefox. Instapaper is a similar extension. Both make it easy to save articles online later for easy viewing later (perhaps on a dedicated reading tablet). I like using Pocket for “quick” stuff, and Instapaper for more longform stuff.

PushToKindle is a similar extension that formats articles for cleanly sending to a (duh) Kindle. The free desktop version is limited to 10 articles/month, but as far as I can tell, the mobile app is unlimited.

Side note: If you’re looking for a non-Amazon e-reader, Kobo devices now have pocket built in. I have a perfectly functional Kindle I bought years ago, but if I were in the market nowadays, I would absolutely go with the Kobo for this functionality alone.

Instapaper at Mozilla Add-ons

Push to Kindle at Mozilla Add-ons

This is a simple one. You know when you go to copy a webpage to send to someone and when you paste it in the send field, it’s 1000 characters long? Most of that text is tracking information.

The ClearURLs extension trims away all that excess, leaving only the basics needed.

ClearURLs at Mozilla Add-ons

That’s it from me, please let me know if you have any I’ve missed! I’d love to hear any other essential suggestions you may have. There’s a war on for our attention out there, and the best defensive tool we have is working together!

There are tons of interviews, news, etc. and actors and actresses + show runners involved with DS9 talking about its unpopularity at the time.

With the hype of Section 31, I really wish there was a continuation of DS9 like the documentary had. It seems so weird to me that a series that was hated had a critical part of it taken for the newer series.

With Google owning VirusTotal and having Google Project Zero, I’m surprised Google doesn’t have its own equivalent to Windows Defender. AFAIK, Play Protect isn’t really that good at spotting malicious apps.

Microsoft Defender for Android (through Microsoft 365) is there for anyone paying for 365. IIRC, T-Mobile customers get Lookout Premium for free.

According to my sources, the new Windows bosses are now returning to an annual release cycle for major versions of the Windows platform, meaning Windows is going back to having just one big feature update a year instead of multiple smaller ones throughout.

Good. Despite Windows 10 with all of its privacy issues, it’s nice to see major updates released to an OS every year rather than a new version of Windows every few years.

I would like to thank you for your explanation, captain obvious.

Google doesn’t follow their own design guidelines? I, for one, am shocked! /s

I never used Evernote because I found it too limiting (in 2014). For those who use it, what exactly was/is the appeal of it, or keeps you using it? (I use OneNote for projects, google keep for short scribbles and recently, Microsoft Loop for breaking down information).

That’s not enshittification.

Link

Older Gen Z (98-2003) I believe would remember the terrible UX sci-fi themes, at least I do.

I use a userscript that will like a video (even if not subscribed) if I watch at least 80% of it. As for commenting, it really depends on the topic. Like, if someone needs help on a tutorial, yes. General videos like PewDiePie, no.

As for subscribing, a channel’s content must be interesting and not feel corporate. It always feels good when you find a new youtuber you like!

That’s debatable. Unless you have the TV button open the home screen and not the Apple TV app, Apple TV+ content when not subscribed can be seen ads.

I love that this upset you so much, you commented about it. 👏👏👏

FWIW, This is calling out FUD.

I mean… Google already does this… We know Microsoft already does this. This feels like an attempt by Mozilla to garner attention from both the press and users to promote Mozilla accounts.

You have a wording problem at the end of your comment, but exactly.

Like what you like, if something works for you and you’re fine with it or like it, what you enjoy shouldn’t matter to some fanboy

The average person won’t give a fuck about the implications of using said browsers, which “strangers on the internet” make them aware of.

I never implied that people were being bullied into using a specific browser, just that people shouldn’t give a fuck if they post a picture of their desktop and someone bitches about them using Chrome and starts circlejerking Firefox/Brave/[Insert Browser Here].

Use what you like and don’t give a fuck about strangers on the internet deem the holy grail of browsers.

Kind of funny info: The Orville is what got me into Star Trek; back in 2017, I was very eager as a Seth MacFarlane fan for the new show. After the season 3 delay (Covid-19, Fox ‘cancelling it’ and moving it to Hulu, etc., while waiting, I started watching Star Trek, starting with TOS and then TNG and this year, DS9.

There are Orville comics that are canon, and a book written by Seth MacFarlane that is also canon :)

What exactly did the hate speech say? No news publication seems to have shown a screenshot.