Brewchin

Just realised that I automatically filter out obvious scams, as I genuinely didn’t register the contents of either of those spam boxes…

That arrangement has existed for over 30 years, and it’s now an unconscious scan. 😒

But I think the point remains in the middle of the page, that it will run through the standard bullshit FOMO timer, and then start downloading the expected binary.

And it’s not VLC doing any advertising. They’re just choosing to use a shit download site to host the binary for that OS and download method

First indication of fake I’ve seen so far, based on OP’s detail-light post. I’d assumed the FOMO timer would eventually download the genuine binary.

So, share with the class…

Gonna need a bit more info than you’ve provided.

What I will note, from the information that you’ve provided, is that you shared an internet exchange screenshot showing a couple of low key ads (with the usual opt out bullshit links), so any ads are not on the VLC site - it’s on their download partner site, a la 1995 - and they’re probably the most tame ads (repeat: not benefiting VLC) that I’ve seen in 30 years.

tl;dr: Late-stage PSTN/POTS dialup configuration of binaries hosted on a third party (pre-CDN) download site -who are free to inject whatever spam they like - (but have been astonishingly restrained here) along with the download link.

Don’t know its correct name, but we called it Paper Asteroids or Pen Wars? 🤷‍♂️

It works by placing a ballpoint pen (eg. a Bic) vertically on the paper held up by a fingertip, then moving your finger back and away from the direction you’re aiming until the pen tip slides/rolls itself and the pen drops onto the paper. You draw a small ‘x’ where there resulting line ends.

Your opponent then does the same thing. And you repeat from your previous ‘x’. You’ll each end up with a series of —×—× over the page.

I seem to recall there being two ways to play:

• Have your line hit the other player’s leading/current ‘x’. I think this is the normal way, but it’s hard.
• Have your line hit any mark the other player has made. Much easier, but doesn’t make much sense.

Either way, it was a fun and cheap way to entertain yourselves during a class break years before everyone had dopamine slabs in their pockets. 😄

Used to play this in primary school. First time I’ve ever seen it mentioned anywhere outside of that time and place. 😄

You know this is the internet right? Nothing is beyond the realms of possibility if money is involved. Did Jackass teach us nothing?

Is this “if PornHub monetised and incentivised content creators like YouTube does”?

Also: The pasta - cooked or raw? 🤡

A much better reply that my planned “it’s intentional” response. Enjoyed that - thanks for sharing.

Genuinely amazed one (in particular) of my university housemates didn’t come up with this abomination.

He’d be devastated to see this… 😅

The Green brothers are interesting and thoughtful. They try to be an overall positive influence on the internet, even aside from their vlogbrothers thing.

FTA: The IDs leaked were from people appealing age verification.

That’s different from the age verification process, which goes through a third party provider.

In short, the leaked IDs were from a standard shitty support platform (Zendesk, Salesforce, etc), not the much-advertised “safe and private” age verification system.

This kind of malicious compliance is exactly what this dogshit Think Of The Children Act needs. Convenience is everything to the majority of population.

If other major sites and resources do this, then the pressure from the people impacted by it will force UK PLC to un-fuck this awful legislation.

This is the most cooker meme I’ve seen (to date) on Lemmy…

It certainly removed my ability to say “Companies are shoehorning AI into everything! I wouldn’t be surprised if they do it with Notepad…” as a form of mockery. It was one of the first damned victims.

Edit: I’m genuinely surprised technical people (with appropriate rights on their PCs) still use it, though. I switched to Notepad++ nearly 20 years ago.

In case anyone is unaware of the point of this: it’s about the UK’s (for now) new age verification law, where you have to be 18 to have a credit card.

This really is the least-worst implementation of this I’ve seen so far, providing you have (or can get) a CC.

And at least it lets you continue buying games/content until this awful law gets repealed or rewritten by competent adults.

Doubling down on the batshit. Everyone knew VPNs were going to be the low effort workaround to this authoritarian batshittery.

I get what the (well meaning, I think) people lobbying for this are trying to achieve, but everything from the lobbying to legislation to enforcement seems to be happening in the worst way imaginable. Almost like it’s an intentional “You want to see how badly can we do this? Hold my drink! YOLO!!”

For me, the tell was UK PLC leaving it up to the sites themselves to decide who/how the verification would be done. Classic bad management “I don’t understand the slightest thing about any of this, but HOW HARD COULD IT BE?!” response. It’s like the “series of tubes” stupidity all over again.

I swear “How to disable AI in x…” is all our lives now. 😬

By “that shit”, do you mean every website/app that may contain age-restricted (not just sexual) content? Because that’s what comes into force in the UK next week.

I’ve been dreading this for decades. 🤬

It’s not just Reddit, nor are they the first to roll it out early.

Doesn’t every Instagram user automatically have a Threads account now? (Even if they’re unaware of it.)

Meta faking Threads user count that way on top of what’s happened with X user count would explain this “milestone” quite easily.

I’ve been using SelectSpecs for 15 years. I think they drop-ship from SE Asia.

Mostly to have a spare set, but for the last year or so they’ve been my primary pair.