The Open Thread is a place for open discussion among my readers. Post anything you feel like sharing! From now on, the Open Thread will no longer be monthly. Instead, there will be a new Open Thread whenever it is adequate. The stage is yours. Go ahead!
The latest Open Thread is made ‘sticky’ to improve access.
Please consider throwing a few coins into the tip jar, and buy my books! They are great. Your support is greatly appreciated.
YouTube has rolled out unskippable 60-minute long ads. This was probably just an oversight and does not mean anything. In order to cater to hardcore ad-lovers, they have even prepared a stash of lovingly curated ads that are as long as Hollywood movies.
It keeps getting worse. Remember when YouTube was the greatest thing since sliced bread? They are killing their reputation. I guess that’s what greed does.
I do not understand how the decision to allow such long ads even got made. Perhaps there is data showing that some people just keep a YouTube window open on their desktop computer even as they leave their desk. I noticed that the default is to autoplay videos and if you accidentally forget to close the window, YouTube just keeps playing videos and ads in the background. When I listen to a video, I sometimes just mute it, in particular if it s longer, somewhat waffly podcast or a music stream, and unmute it once I can again pay more attention. If this is a common pattern, then I can see how the analysts at YouTube could have either drawn the wrong conclusion from it or ended up rubbing their hands, realizing that this is an ideal window to get view counts and ad revenue up.
According to Wikipedia, Elon Musk is trying to take over US federal agencies. It is quite like another January 6 insurrection, apparently:
https://archive.ph/kUWX4
Scrolling though the few tweets by Musk’s DOGE was one of the highlights of my day. This is just the tip of the iceberg, but you can already tell that the level of systemic corruption in the US is off the charts:
https://x.com/DOGE