https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman ... s-and-macs
We've talked about Ad Blockers a few times. I understand the attraction to some features about Google's Chrome browser that other browsers cannot address, but the question in my mind has always been, "Is it worth it?" Blocking ads clears some of the clutter while playing games, and that alone might be a justification for using them. Blocking third party tracking cookies goes hand in hand with the blocking of ad rendering, but that cookie censoring is addressing the wrong issue. The reason I claim that to be the case is because there are other identifying aspects of your web presence that go beyond cookies and are in fact more valuable as far as tracking your web activity goes. Those "other" items are what data brokers use to construct a unique profile of your browsing activity. Accumulating information for those profiles is what places like Google and Facebook do to generate BILLIONS of dollars in revenue. They are selling personal information about you, and for the most part without your consent.
A lot of attention is being given to privacy these days, even to the point where the federal government is conducting investigations into those high tech companies who are profiling us. Most noteworthy are the browsers we all use in that those platforms are the main method of collecting data about us. Everybody seems be be jumping on the privacy bandwagon these days and doing things to cut down or eliminate the invasion of our web browsing privacy; everybody but Google and their Chrome browser. The article I link to explains Google's attempt at preserving our privacy by implementing a technique they call FLoC. Well, the short and the long of it is that FLoC is a flop and Google frankly doesn't have any means to protect your privacy when using their browser. They don't want to because collecting information about you is their source of revenue.
So, blocking ads is fine, and if that is being done to cut down or eliminate tracking of our private activity on the Internet, then we are being misled. The ads are the end result and not the cause of the problem. The browser itself, Chrome in this case, is the threat.
FLoC
Re: FLoC
Well, I have several web browsers on my computer, I keep three in my upper panel for easy access.
Google Chrome, Firefox, and Opera. I also have Chromium which is what Google is built up from.
I would have to look to see what the others are I have installed, since I rarely if ever use them.
I do use Firefox for a few things I do, but for my main daily project, Firefox has overly high CPU usage, often running at 100%.
One part of my main daily project, on Firefox does not have a Memory Leak issue, while the same main daily project does on Google Chrome. But it runs ten times faster on Google Chrome, so when the Memory Leak loads up, I just reload the project which brings it back down again. Firefox is dead slow due to the high CPU usage. Opera does the same thing as Firefox.
I don't really do much on-line anyhow for their built in spyware to affect me much.
About the only thing I use Google Chrome for is playing Farm Town and visiting a couple of web sites like this one.
For other things I normally use Firefox. One place I use I normally use Opera for them, since they have a feature that works best on Opera. But neither Opera or Firefox allow tab scrolling, which is a necessity for me for my main daily project.
Google Chrome, Firefox, and Opera. I also have Chromium which is what Google is built up from.
I would have to look to see what the others are I have installed, since I rarely if ever use them.
I do use Firefox for a few things I do, but for my main daily project, Firefox has overly high CPU usage, often running at 100%.
One part of my main daily project, on Firefox does not have a Memory Leak issue, while the same main daily project does on Google Chrome. But it runs ten times faster on Google Chrome, so when the Memory Leak loads up, I just reload the project which brings it back down again. Firefox is dead slow due to the high CPU usage. Opera does the same thing as Firefox.
I don't really do much on-line anyhow for their built in spyware to affect me much.
About the only thing I use Google Chrome for is playing Farm Town and visiting a couple of web sites like this one.
For other things I normally use Firefox. One place I use I normally use Opera for them, since they have a feature that works best on Opera. But neither Opera or Firefox allow tab scrolling, which is a necessity for me for my main daily project.
Re: FLoC
The article was more or less an FYI. You have mentioned in the past that you favored Chrome in some instances and you also mentioned that you liked to use ad blockers. It's pretty hard, if not impossible, not to be tracked on the Internet. The problem is that it has become chronic surveillance. Most of what we do on the public net is harmless, but there are things that are nobody's business. The work you do, for example, should be between you and your employer without Facebook and Google looking over your shoulder and then selling what they know to a third party. Google is not up to par with other browsers, but it does have a legitimate concern. They exist only because they do collect all they can about people who use their products. They are, after all, an ad agency. If they stop tracking, they effectively stop income.
You are right about FireFox being a resource hog. I only use it on Linux, and that's because it's the default browser there. Since I don't do Linux very often it's not a big deal. I use WaterFox on Windows and it is my default browser. It looks a lot like FireFox but is stripped down and runs a lot better on fewer resources. I don't know if it would do you any good, but you might check it out some day to see if it maxes out your CPU or not. I don't see any CPU problems here, but WaterFox (all browsers actually) does use a lot of RAM.
You are right about FireFox being a resource hog. I only use it on Linux, and that's because it's the default browser there. Since I don't do Linux very often it's not a big deal. I use WaterFox on Windows and it is my default browser. It looks a lot like FireFox but is stripped down and runs a lot better on fewer resources. I don't know if it would do you any good, but you might check it out some day to see if it maxes out your CPU or not. I don't see any CPU problems here, but WaterFox (all browsers actually) does use a lot of RAM.
Re: FLoC
Firefox has had a few name changes when it was used with a Linux Distro, so many I forget them all.
It has only given me the burning up 100% of CPU when doing a couple of things associated with opening links.
But it releases memory when you close the tabs like it should. Something Google Chrome is not doing.
Of course Google says it is the launch page I'm using that is not releasing the memory, hi hi.
If that were the case, why does it release memory on Firefox and Opera, but not on Chrome?
Just remembered another problem I was having with Firefox.
When I open up to 8 links in tabs on Firefox, they don't start, so I have to go to each tab and hit reload.
Again, it is blamed on the website I'm visiting, which in this case seems logical, since the tab opens and hows the link in the url bar. Some of them open and some don't. But usually if I reload the first tab, the rest may or may not reload on their own.
I don't say or do much on social media, other than sending a birthday greeting or watching a video or two that I always watch if it appears, and to play Farm Town. If it were not for Farm Town, I probably wouldn't bother with Farcebook at all.
It has only given me the burning up 100% of CPU when doing a couple of things associated with opening links.
But it releases memory when you close the tabs like it should. Something Google Chrome is not doing.
Of course Google says it is the launch page I'm using that is not releasing the memory, hi hi.
If that were the case, why does it release memory on Firefox and Opera, but not on Chrome?
Just remembered another problem I was having with Firefox.
When I open up to 8 links in tabs on Firefox, they don't start, so I have to go to each tab and hit reload.
Again, it is blamed on the website I'm visiting, which in this case seems logical, since the tab opens and hows the link in the url bar. Some of them open and some don't. But usually if I reload the first tab, the rest may or may not reload on their own.
I don't say or do much on social media, other than sending a birthday greeting or watching a video or two that I always watch if it appears, and to play Farm Town. If it were not for Farm Town, I probably wouldn't bother with Farcebook at all.
Re: FLoC
I think FIreFox, the browser, has had the same name ever since it evolved from Netscape. The parent company is Mozilla, and they have their fingers in a lot of pies. WaterFox is maintained by a guy who once worked for FireFox. He took the essential parts from the Mozilla engine and tossed everything else out. Those essential parts, however, are quite a few in number so that the load on your system resources is not reduced a whole lot. But it is reduced.
I don't know what Mozilla did, but that problem with not opening all the tabs is a recent development in my experience. They can tell you it's the server side and not their browser, but then I'd ask why they have a setting in the browser to restore the previous session. The truth is that no web page has instructions to the browser to begins the loading process. The browser issues the request and gets the data from the server or from it's own cache. I suppose if you land on a page that redirects you to some other page, then there could be an issue loading related to the server side. Generally, however, it's the client's job to issue requests to load web page content. It became an issue for me sometime this year. Firefox and it's derivatives always worked well prior to this year. All I know is that they are using the chrome model now. What could go wrong there?
I don't know what Mozilla did, but that problem with not opening all the tabs is a recent development in my experience. They can tell you it's the server side and not their browser, but then I'd ask why they have a setting in the browser to restore the previous session. The truth is that no web page has instructions to the browser to begins the loading process. The browser issues the request and gets the data from the server or from it's own cache. I suppose if you land on a page that redirects you to some other page, then there could be an issue loading related to the server side. Generally, however, it's the client's job to issue requests to load web page content. It became an issue for me sometime this year. Firefox and it's derivatives always worked well prior to this year. All I know is that they are using the chrome model now. What could go wrong there?
Re: FLoC
I used Firefox for many many years. Mainly because I didn't like Netscape at all.
But around 2009 I think it was, I started having problems with it and tried Google Chrome, it worked and had features Firefox didn't have. So I've been using either Chromium or Chrome ever since. Although I do keep others around for certain tasks.
I still use Firefox when I need to load 25 tabs of short duration, about 6 times in a row.
Then I go back to Google Chrome again to handle what I used Firefox to download for me.
Google Chrome has been giving me so many problems lately, I've been trying Opera for some of what I do. Doesn't seem to help though. Seems all the browsers have the same problems with that lousy WebGL since HTML5 Canvas is so bad and slow.
They should have never got rid of Flash Player, it worked! Even Googles own version of Flash (forget the name of it offhand) worked better than the original Flash, and with much more security.
But around 2009 I think it was, I started having problems with it and tried Google Chrome, it worked and had features Firefox didn't have. So I've been using either Chromium or Chrome ever since. Although I do keep others around for certain tasks.
I still use Firefox when I need to load 25 tabs of short duration, about 6 times in a row.
Then I go back to Google Chrome again to handle what I used Firefox to download for me.
Google Chrome has been giving me so many problems lately, I've been trying Opera for some of what I do. Doesn't seem to help though. Seems all the browsers have the same problems with that lousy WebGL since HTML5 Canvas is so bad and slow.
They should have never got rid of Flash Player, it worked! Even Googles own version of Flash (forget the name of it offhand) worked better than the original Flash, and with much more security.
Re: FLoC
It's my understanding that you can still use Flash. It is no longer maintained and just about all browsers do not allow it by default. But, it can be made to work if you don't mind the security risks. It seems as if the world of browsers has moved over to the Chrome engine. There are a few that have their own engine, and I think Opera may be one of them. I used Opera for all my administration tasks for a long time, but then they "improved" the browser and a few critical things stopped working, such as bookmarks. So I ditched Opera and now use Google's Chrome to do the administration. That browser sucks even worse than Microsoft's brainchild, and that's a shame. Google used to be the cutting edge. Now they are struggling just to do ordinary things. Edge is actually pretty good. It's biggest problem is in the settings. Way too many choices and not very clear about what many of them do. If they allowed changing the default search engine away from Bing, I might even recommend using it. LOL
Re: FLoC
Yes, one can use Flash for things they have, but not for playing a game only available with WebGL now.
We never hear much about Lynx anymore, but it is still around, it was probably the first and longest in history.
Netscape ended and Chrome took it's place.
Opera has been around almost as long as Lynx.
Mozilla appeared about the time MacIE ended, hi hi.
Then Phoenix became Firebird, and changed to become Firefox.
Mozilla became Sea Monkey which I used for a long time.
Then came Safari and a few others.
There was a short lived one called Camino which was something else first.
After Camino ended, it about the time Edge appeared.
There were a few others I've tried, but they never seemed to be up to par with the rest.
And a few of them don't have a version for Linux based machines.
Lynx is only a text based web browser, normally used by web page programmers to test things on the website.
I didn't remember all that, just looked at a history page, hi hi.
We never hear much about Lynx anymore, but it is still around, it was probably the first and longest in history.
Netscape ended and Chrome took it's place.
Opera has been around almost as long as Lynx.
Mozilla appeared about the time MacIE ended, hi hi.
Then Phoenix became Firebird, and changed to become Firefox.
Mozilla became Sea Monkey which I used for a long time.
Then came Safari and a few others.
There was a short lived one called Camino which was something else first.
After Camino ended, it about the time Edge appeared.
There were a few others I've tried, but they never seemed to be up to par with the rest.
And a few of them don't have a version for Linux based machines.
Lynx is only a text based web browser, normally used by web page programmers to test things on the website.
I didn't remember all that, just looked at a history page, hi hi.
Re: FLoC
I don't know about that history of browsers you quote, but I can say there were and are dozens more than those on your list. I believe that when Netscape succumbed to IE the unemployed developers went over to, or actually created, Mozilla. Mozilla and FireFox always seemed like the same thing but they technically are different. It's like Linux and all the distributions based on its kernel. A lot of browsers were following the Mozilla model. Chrome seems to have replaced much of what Mozilla developed and is the #1 engine for browsers these days. It's true that not all browsers have a Linux implementation available. My favorite, WaterFox, does have a Linux version but it was a pain in the drain to install as I recall. I am sticking with whatever the default browser is for a given OS because nothing in Linux Land is compelling enough for me to make it my default. I could change my mind some day, and I'll let you know all about it should it happen. LOL
Re: FLoC
The default browser in most popular Linux Distro's is Firefox ESR.
I've never had trouble installing a different browser on any of my Linux machines, regardless of the OS I was using.
But then too, I don't have to compile them, just use Gdebi to install a .deb of the browser.
We didn't have that luxury when I was using CentOs which all required rpm files I think.
I've never had trouble installing a different browser on any of my Linux machines, regardless of the OS I was using.
But then too, I don't have to compile them, just use Gdebi to install a .deb of the browser.
We didn't have that luxury when I was using CentOs which all required rpm files I think.
Re: FLoC
The problem with WaterFox, if I recall correctly, was that it was not in any repository for the popular Linux distros. Finding a Linux version involved downloading from an FTP server, or Github, which all by itself is a pain in the ass. To be honest I don't recall the file format which was downloaded, but it was not a .deb file. Therefore APT was useless. For that reason the installation had to be done manually and, of course, that required installing Linux modules just to complete a manual install. I am pretty sure I ran into some dependency problems too, but eventually got the browser installed. In Windows I just download the .exe file, click on it, and am done. While WaterFox is my preferred browser, it's not so good as to justify all the trouble I had to go through to get it into a Linux OS. It is just a watered down version of FireFox after all.
Re: FLoC
I just lost my entire LONG message AGAIN, and this time I was not touching the keyboard at all.
I only reached up to scroll down a little bit more. Did not touch either mouse button, only the scroll wheel.
Dang, it was an excellent message too. I was not knocked out of the system, but it jumped back to the previous page.
I only reached up to scroll down a little bit more. Did not touch either mouse button, only the scroll wheel.
Dang, it was an excellent message too. I was not knocked out of the system, but it jumped back to the previous page.
Re: FLoC
You do indeed provide a lot of valuable information from time to time, and I'm sorry to learn that it got blown away this time. I'm slowing becoming convinced that your system, probably the mouse, is demonically possessed. I've run across a slew of Konqueror packages, probably when using Mageia or some other Fedora variant, and can say that I was not impressed with the browser. It's not bad, but there was nothing special about it to make me want to use it. Browsers have evolved considerably over the years in response to the demands of WWW surfers. You would think that they do much more than they actually do just by looking at them, but the truth is they merely call up software from the client machine in order to accomplish a lot of things. It's great that you have so much experience with a variety of browsers. Now, if we can only find a way to get browsers to recall deleted text entries ...
Re: FLoC
I honestly do think it was the wireless mouse that caused the page change.
They have TWO unwanted buttons that pinch my fingers every time I left click.
It is possible I bumped one of these buttons as I moved my finger over to make room to get to the scroll wheel, which stands about a foot taller than on their old wired mouse. Heck, maybe I pushed down on the scroll wheel, since everything on this mouse is so touchy.
Logitech's original wired thumb ball mouse was ergonomically correct, comfortable to use, and never gave me any problems.
Their new design for the wireless is lower, much less finger room, and way to sensitive on the buttons. Even the track ball sticks out further so when you make a move to the right, it sometimes jumps up a tad, which makes it feel weird.
They should have just left well enough alone, and stuck with their wired version instead of discontinuing it!
I had brought up like three different points in my original post that I managed to lose, hi hi.
But I'm not blaming it on phpBB this time, hi hi.
They have TWO unwanted buttons that pinch my fingers every time I left click.
It is possible I bumped one of these buttons as I moved my finger over to make room to get to the scroll wheel, which stands about a foot taller than on their old wired mouse. Heck, maybe I pushed down on the scroll wheel, since everything on this mouse is so touchy.
Logitech's original wired thumb ball mouse was ergonomically correct, comfortable to use, and never gave me any problems.
Their new design for the wireless is lower, much less finger room, and way to sensitive on the buttons. Even the track ball sticks out further so when you make a move to the right, it sometimes jumps up a tad, which makes it feel weird.
They should have just left well enough alone, and stuck with their wired version instead of discontinuing it!
I had brought up like three different points in my original post that I managed to lose, hi hi.
But I'm not blaming it on phpBB this time, hi hi.
Re: FLoC
All the gaming mouses I've used in the past had extra buttons including the scroll wheel that is also a push switch. Some of those extra appendages were dedicated and could not be changed but more often than not those buttons can be programmed to do what you want with them. I programmed all mine to be disabled. LOL I don't do any serious gaming to require the execution of macros, but there might be some things I normally do that can be put into a button's memory. For example I have a browser dedicated to a news feed. I can program one of the mouse buttons to open that browser and bring up the feed. I could do that, but I hesitate because I don't need to see that news feed while I'm typing messages to you. And I'm certain that would happen.
I've toyed with the idea of using a trackball/mouse but when I went looking at them nothing readily available looked compelling. The Logitech mouse I use with the laptop is at least 30% smaller than the gaming mouse on this tower. My fingers are cramped there, but a small mouse is the ideal thing for a laptop especially when on the road. Plus there are no extra buttons to contend with.
I've toyed with the idea of using a trackball/mouse but when I went looking at them nothing readily available looked compelling. The Logitech mouse I use with the laptop is at least 30% smaller than the gaming mouse on this tower. My fingers are cramped there, but a small mouse is the ideal thing for a laptop especially when on the road. Plus there are no extra buttons to contend with.
Re: FLoC
Well, I finally figured out what key combo is knocking me out.
When I was typing my response, I managed to hit the ALT key while typing the letter X, and poof, I was logged out.
Back in the days of XP I had a 7 or 9 button mouse. It was handy at first, but then like you, I set all of them to Disabled, except the three main buttons.
I have a tiny little optical mouse, wireless, that I used with my little netbook when I use it.
Lately, I've been looking all over the house for where I put the bag with it in it.
I think the housekeeper put it away somewhere that still eludes me, hi hi.
I've had several ball-type meeces. The first one was a center ball, the second was one with a HUGE ball, didn't like that one at all. Then when Logitech came out with the Thumb-Ball Mouse, I've used that ever since. I loved them to pieces. Bought a case of six of them, and wore them out one after the other. Shame they quit making them! I'm not to fond of the wireless model.
You may find this silly, but I took an old floor pedal button and tied it to my mouses left mouse button.
This was back when I was doing a lot of graphics work, namely photo restorations. I could move the cursor around using the arrow keys, and simply tap my foot to set the point. It saved me from taking my had off the keyboard and moving it up and over to the mouse. I used it more often when I was doing pixel by pixel editing which could wear your arms out real fast.
When I was typing my response, I managed to hit the ALT key while typing the letter X, and poof, I was logged out.
Back in the days of XP I had a 7 or 9 button mouse. It was handy at first, but then like you, I set all of them to Disabled, except the three main buttons.
I have a tiny little optical mouse, wireless, that I used with my little netbook when I use it.
Lately, I've been looking all over the house for where I put the bag with it in it.
I think the housekeeper put it away somewhere that still eludes me, hi hi.
I've had several ball-type meeces. The first one was a center ball, the second was one with a HUGE ball, didn't like that one at all. Then when Logitech came out with the Thumb-Ball Mouse, I've used that ever since. I loved them to pieces. Bought a case of six of them, and wore them out one after the other. Shame they quit making them! I'm not to fond of the wireless model.
You may find this silly, but I took an old floor pedal button and tied it to my mouses left mouse button.
This was back when I was doing a lot of graphics work, namely photo restorations. I could move the cursor around using the arrow keys, and simply tap my foot to set the point. It saved me from taking my had off the keyboard and moving it up and over to the mouse. I used it more often when I was doing pixel by pixel editing which could wear your arms out real fast.
Re: FLoC
Thank you for reporting the alt-X discovery. Pressing that key combination here does absolutely nothing. I will test it out in my Chrome browser and report back if something happens. I don't have an explanation for why that key combination works the way it does for you, but you can check the key bindings in Debian if you have them enabled some way.
The foot pedal idea is brilliant and I'm not surprised you would come up with something like that. I am surprised that you chose to use the arrow keys to navigate the work in progress. I have that option on the Windows 11 setup but I can't convince myself it's a good idea. Back before mouses were invented that is exactly how text editors worked, i.e., using the arrow keys or their alpha equivalent. I never did like vi either. LOL
EDIT
I tried the alt-X keys on my Google Chrome browser ... it logged me out just like it does for you.
Microsoft Edge also logs me out with that key combination.
CCleaner browser logs me out as well.
FireFox does not, which makes sense because this browser (WaterFox) is a derivative of it.
It must have something to do with the Chrome browser engine not being used by FireFox. As evidence I present the user agent strings for Waterfox (top) and Chrome (bottom):
The foot pedal idea is brilliant and I'm not surprised you would come up with something like that. I am surprised that you chose to use the arrow keys to navigate the work in progress. I have that option on the Windows 11 setup but I can't convince myself it's a good idea. Back before mouses were invented that is exactly how text editors worked, i.e., using the arrow keys or their alpha equivalent. I never did like vi either. LOL
EDIT
I tried the alt-X keys on my Google Chrome browser ... it logged me out just like it does for you.
Microsoft Edge also logs me out with that key combination.
CCleaner browser logs me out as well.
FireFox does not, which makes sense because this browser (WaterFox) is a derivative of it.
It must have something to do with the Chrome browser engine not being used by FireFox. As evidence I present the user agent strings for Waterfox (top) and Chrome (bottom):
- USERagent.JPG (116.28 KiB) Viewed 2753 times
Re: FLoC
On my keyboard, the lower row of keys below the letters, like CTRL, ALT, Spacebar, etc. are all about 1/16th inch higher than they should be. Out of a case of 6 keyboards, the last 2 out of the box were like that, but also a little nicer looking too. They all have the same part and order number, but made on two different runs I suppose.
I'm also sitting just a tad lower than normal, because my seat cushions are wearing out, getting flatter, hi hi.
I'm on the latest version.
Google Chrome
Version 93.0.4577.63 (Official Build) (64-bit)
User Agent:
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/93.0.4577.63 Safari/537.36
I'm also sitting just a tad lower than normal, because my seat cushions are wearing out, getting flatter, hi hi.
I'm on the latest version.
Google Chrome
Version 93.0.4577.63 (Official Build) (64-bit)
User Agent:
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/93.0.4577.63 Safari/537.36
Re: FLoC
It's the Chrome/93.x.x core of that browser which functions differently than does the core of FireFox browsers. That is the reason why you are being logged out inadvertently. It won't happen if you switch browsers to FireFox. My Google browser updates itself, but I happen to know the versions and functionality differ between Linux and WIndows. Apple probably has a third version for all I know.