I use Nova for to remove the Google search bar on the Pixel desktop. And as a secondary benefit, Nova remembers app locations when I change phones.

What should I do that's hassle-free? Is there an open source equivalent that's likely to stay alive in a year or three?

Smart launcher is a pretty good replacement. It isn't a one to one but they have been pretty responsive to users asking for certain missing features.

Pricing is pretty reasonable and the team is responsive.

That's what a generic semi-forced opt in via JavaScript is for, as we learn from the cookie opt in nonsense of EU sites. It's compliance for compliance sake.

But what could an opt-in requirement for advertising possibly mean other than a compliance checkbox that 99% of users click through? It just seems like where you land if you start with the intuition that ad-supported platforms shouldn't be legal, realize that implementing that policy would ban all print media, and do your best to rescue it rather than abandon the idea as unworkable.

It’s not like print media would cease to exist if ad-supported models were made illegal. They would move to subscriptions like they had in the past.

Print media have always run ads near-universally, regardless of whether or not they have a subscription.

This kills me, and you're right - there's no escaping the ads even with a sub. Take online journalism as an example.

We're already being double-billed. Expensive subscription news like WSJ, Bloomberg and it's been a while but even FT require ad blockers even if you're subscribed.. If you're not subscribed you don't even see the ads because you can't see the full article.

It's wild that we've normalized this. There's no longer any argument in favor of an ad model when you're paying 20-30 dollars a month already - in this case, one wonders how journalism survives if they need that AND the ad revenue to pay the bills! It feels more like greed than "support."

To be honest, in the pre-internet era, paid paper copy of FT had ads too. The delivery mechanisms for ads in the internet era are trillion times nastier and more annoying, of course. By the standards of today’s web, the print ad for Cartier on the second page of paper FT looks almost classy, interesting to read.

But there's a big difference. The paper copy didn't harvest data from you, didn't infect you, didn't spy on you or steal resources from your computer or internet bandwidth.

All the advertiser knew about you was you were a subscriber to FT, and maybe what the _average_ demographic of an FT subscriber was. Nothing about you personally.

The paper copy did do that, just not as individualized. People would choose which publications to put their ads in based on data collected about their subscribers.

The job of ad men has always been just as much about were to put the ad as much as what the ad was.

"just not as individualized" is an enormous "just". Each ad is based on the total audience for a single publication. No fine-grained filtering, no personal dossiers.

And none of the rest of that list of bad things happens.

I don't pay for any content that has ads in it, full stop. I decided this a while ago when I noticed how many full page ads were in magazines. I would cancel a subscription over this.

I pay a handsome subscription sum for The Wire music magazine. The ads are an important resource in a niche marketplace.

Somewhat similar but I love my niche Instagram ads. Meta serves me endless ads for diecast miniatures, art toys, obscure manga etc. Stuff that I love and would never have found otherwise.

I was shocked to find out tonight that WSJ's net profit margin was just 3.2% in 2024. I would have thought it was a lot more. Also, surprisingly Walmart's net profit margin is only 2.85% for 2025. You would think these huge companies are making huge profits.

Maybe the big players can get by with a smaller percentage of a huge number.

I’d also expect the competition in the “big leagues” to be more aggressive, resulting in leaner margins.

Also these are huge companies. Small companies might find a niche that is small in absolute terms, but large relative to the company. That niche might be underserved, allowing the small company to make large percentage based margins.

I thought Walmart was well known as an early innovator in precise-but-low-margin business operations?

> There's no longer any argument in favor of an ad model when you're paying 20-30 dollars a month already

Sure there is. CEO needs a new yacht. He can't afford to leave money on the table. All those subscribers? They must have a lot of disposable income if they can afford to blow it on "journalism". It would be stupid not to advertise to them.

Perhaps the actual solution is to ban ads through regulation, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43595269

I am all for it but it would be hard to enforce. Ads are already hidden everywhere. Someone "review" a product? Most of the time it is a hidden ad even if the reviewer hasn't been paid with money for that. Watches a movie or a video clip? A lots of products are advertised through close ups on the logos, etc.

Even a sign on the street is basically an ad. That plastic cow or pig head telling you there’s a butcher or cheesemonger?

It’s basically an ad. Possibly one of the oldest type too!

Sings on the owners' houses aren't paid ads.

So? What argument are you trying to make? We can ban what most people consider ads while still letting reasonable store signs stay if we want to.

If there is a payment, there is a good chance to track it.

Youtubers happily do "reviews" in exchange of receiving stuff, regardless if they can keep it or not. They also know that if they are too critical they may not receive anything more and they don't have any material to review. This was already true on paper magazines.

No money is exchanged in the process.

Payment can indeed be made with goods.

This is a false argument. Regulations are effective. When was the last time you breathed in second hand smoke while eating dinner? Or inhaled lead from a passing car? Or asbestos from your neighbor's new house?

Defeatism will always be defeated

For now, it is, yes; but we must both plan for a future when that might not be the case, and advocate for effective regulations regardless.

> Take online journalism as an example.

Depends entirely the kind of journalism you are referring to and the kind of business model they want. I can't imagine 404 Media adding ads to their premium feed.

Doing actual journalism is expensive and not many people are still willing to pay to read the news. These companies are definitely not printing money. That's why billionaires can buy them on the cheap. Not for the expected profit, but for the influence it brings them.

If you can, please support serious journalism with your subscription dollars!

What are you doing out in nature if you need to be around music and feel lonely? Stay in the city, leave the country to people who want to actually get a break from the city for their mental health.

In my case, listening to other people's music damages my mental health. If I encounter someone on a trail with music (this has not happened here in the northeast to me yet) they'll encounter a string of direct to-face insults from me.

That's why the person wrote the app in the link of this thread. So that when you annoy us, we'll echo it back in your face at full volume. And you have no right to complain since you just approved not being free from us doing this to you.

Intent matters.

Unfortunately this is the most dangerous when it is most needed - on the New York City subway, especially when the train has a cell signal, when jackasses listen to reels of IG and TikTok and scroll at high volume.

It's an incredibly rude world we live in - this behavior two decades ago would have led to a fight. Now everyone is scared to tell anyone anything, since punching or stabbing are risks. Also, I believe the new generation is hyper tolerant of such things compared to us olds.

Organizing protests is one thing, but troll farms to agitate and turn the population on itself is the story here too. It helps explain the daily protests.

The troll farms can't hold a candle to the first-party algorithmic engagement farming/rage baiting being conducted out in the open by Alphabet/Meta/X/etc.

You don't need a conspiracy theory to explain the social dysfunction being created and monetized as part of these firms' core business strategy.

And a government run identity verified social media would solve both those problems. Let the government build the digital town square, not the tech billionaires.

Precisely! They were leveraging said algos and the troll farms couldn't exist without your social media list. It's definitely not a conspiracy, but part of the logic of the tactic.

Iran controls a string of proxies in Lebanon, Yemen and other places. Are you sure you're not forgetting that piece? When you write that we had 80 years of relatively peaceful times, you're glossing over that fact.

We haven't had a major conflict in 80 years. Little skirmishes all over the place, sure, but we've forgotten that significant wars between major powers used to be both terrible for everyone involved and also common. Our grandparents after WW2 decided to go a different path and created a largely rules- and trade- based international order that has largely kept the peace. We don't realize how good we've had it.

Sixty million people died in WW2. Sixty million.

Absolutely, there's been no major conflict like this since WW2. The strategy shifted to proxy controlled damage in places not US, not Russia, not China, but the weaker states where there was some incentive for control (resources, geography, political alliance, etc). While not a big state (not since centuries), Iran was a proxy controller with the capacity to cause mayhem.

>Motivation is fleeting but routine persists. When there is something that you want to do regularly (exercise, doing the final boring part of some sideproject, cleaning the house...) you remove willpower from the equation and set a day and a time.

Absolutely!! Don't wait to Feel Like It, or Be Motivated... and especially do not depend on another person/trainer/weather to motivate you!

Fitness is a to-do, like laundry or grocery shopping or going to work. Now where the nuance comes in is finding what you enjoy. But a nuance of this nuance is, you don't know what you like until you have done it for a while, at least one month. Don't do boot camps or hacky gimmicky things people try to trick themselves into doing.

For a while I was deep into photography and writing. In both, I read and listened to people who were experts - successful writers and photographers. I learned this - they don't wait for inspiration. They commit X time per day to doing their craft, as habit.

I write this after coming from the gym, on a chilly night, after a relatively annoying day, and I feel 80 percent better.

Now the joint soreness and constant tightness are a problem, cuz I'm getting older. But it must be done.

Additional property tax? Do you have any idea what property taxes are like in places like NJ, NY? It's 2-3% of the value, sometimes assessed at sales value. People buy despite this because they like an area or a school system. If you raise it more, rest assured that only the rich will have the right to buy. It's as regressive as it gets, your proposal.

I mentioned this in another comment but - this thread is interesting as it shows the differences in housing policies / issues in different parts of the country. I'm from the Midwest / Chicago where we have a lot more land to work with so the policies are slightly different.

That being said, it sounds like a land value tax might be a better approach to my first suggestion. Regardless, this would not effect people that truly "own and live in their only house"