Banish the Kardashians from the web

by rfjedwards • 11 years ago

63 29 11 years ago

jakejake• 11 years ago

Possibly the greatest use of iOSs new web filtering API. Excellent work.

frozenport2• 11 years ago

Herold of a dystopian future where individuals isolate themselves, and become increasingly radical in a bubble formed by their personal bias. Is there anything I can use to block Republicans? :-)

mef• 11 years ago

herald

stock_toaster• 11 years ago

Maybe Harold was a time traveller! Harold Titor perhaps?

;)

akiselev• 11 years ago

Or the herald of a utopian future where human beings have the ability to exercise their free will by using technology to free themselves of the intentionally distracting trash disguised as art that makes up the majority of contemporary popular "culture."

baoha• 11 years ago

I wonder what FB and Google think about this filtering API. If one day Apple blocks all ads by default, it would be very interesting.

Shivetya• 11 years ago

I loathe the day where such apps isolate people from thought they do not like on a wholesale business. Can you imagine a world of safe spaces and such where you never have to be challenged? It would be like exporting the current college culture to the world and that if not a true dystopian future, one where the thought police exist through intimidation and threat is still one I don't want.

aplummer• 11 years ago

I used to have a similar opinion until I read this thing from Banksy on our choice to consume media like the Kardashians: http://adsoftheworld.com/blog/letter_from_banksy_on_advertis...

nathancahill• 11 years ago

Interesting. Update at the end there, "This may no be Banksy's words."

huehehue• 11 years ago

Black Mirror has a pretty interesting episode that touches on this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Christmas_(Black_Mirror)

dexterdog• 11 years ago

Black Mirror has a number of interesting episodes that touch on all kinds of things.

powertower• 11 years ago

It would be like exporting the current college culture to the world and that if not a true dystopian future

I was just reading this great overview of college culture -

As the students at Ithaca shouted, “how can a campus dedicated to preparing us for the real world not actively foster growth to our consciousness of oppression and privilege?”

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/11/13/mizzou-mi...

aikah• 11 years ago

I loathe the day where such apps isolate people from thought they do not like on a wholesale business. Can you imagine a world of safe spaces and such where you never have to be challenged?

The expression "safe place" doesn't mean what you think it means. I think it has more to do with imposing the absence of debate on others than one isolating oneself from challenging views. The latter is perfectly acceptable, not the former.

People pushing for "safe places" actually want the rest of us to stop debating , having "problematic", potentially "offensive" views, i.e. any view they don't agree with. They don't want a separate physical "safe space", they want the concept of "safe places" everywhere. So it is not about isolation but rather suppressing debate in any free,open or public place.

You know when one hears "safe place" one thinks "good, off course people want to feel safe" , but it's not really about physical safety or even respect, but rather a mental prison where any dissident opinion, even expressed respectfully, is banned because it doesn't fit one specific narrative.

I'm sure that expression was chosen on purpose, it's so misleading and I felt into that trap too , at first.

Zarathustra30• 11 years ago

What is the false-positive rate like? It would be terrible if it blocked people like Garak and Dukat.

Just a note: the "How does K-blocker work?" link just goes back to features, instead of actually telling how it works.

justanother• 11 years ago

Jeer if you must, but here's an iOS app that any of us could have written, yet will make several house payments' worth by week's end.

jasonkostempski• 11 years ago

If you're reading sites that report on the Kardashians, you're better off just not going to that site. That's mostly worked for me, until now.

noobermin2• 11 years ago

Should kblocker block itself?

frozenport2• 11 years ago

Can somebody please check?

jacquesm2• 11 years ago

And now I'm reading about them even on HN...

rdlecler1• 11 years ago

I downloaded the app, so shouldn't it block this post?

shash7• 11 years ago

I see what you did there!

jitix• 11 years ago

Less Kardashian spam makes your battery last longer

IMO filtering will use extra processing power which will infact increase battery consumption.

kevinchen• 11 years ago

Uh no, matching a few compiled regexes is very cheap compared to requesting additional images over a cellular connection and and then having the browser lay out the additional text/images.

jacquesm2• 11 years ago

But those regexes are matched on every request, not just on the ones blocked. Over time that surely adds up.

zubi• 11 years ago

Why would I have to know about that?

dougb• 11 years ago

I've always wanted Google to provide a BlackHole option on all their products. Every person, organization, subject on my black hole list would never appear in any search results, or News articles... I would BlackHole the Kardashians, Chris Brown and many others.

ungzd• 11 years ago

Who are Kardashians? Googling gives me result about some obscure photo model. Is she leader of some clickbait company?

Banish the Kardashians from the web

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