This is why ad-blocking continues to be nessecary as a form of self-defence.
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bastards.
I will quibble with this line, though.
Both scripts are programmed to consume 80 percent of a visitor’s CPU, leaving just barely enough resources for it to function.
Well, when I use 80 percent of my CPU for background tasks like OCR and video conversion, I can still browse youtube. Yes, there are ways to substantially burden my GUI experience, but 80% load is trifling. They are, however, my background tasks–not a strangers, and I am given to understand that some of you still use laptops with noisy fans and finite batteries.
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so, any thoughts about taking CoinHive’s infrastructure and burning it to the ground?
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Well, yes, but imagine that you have this drain going on while you are browsing while doing background tasks like OCR and video conversion. Preemptive multitasking mitigates the load to some extent, but… not only is it a large extra task, it’s one associated with a foreground process, something usually prioritised in desktop operating systems.
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Dear Google,
No more ads that serve up their own JavaScript.
Thanks in advance,
Everyone
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ALL advertising is ultimately about punching a monkey.
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And here all this time I thought advertisers were spanking the monkey…
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Exactly. I don’t even mind advertising as such all that much as long as it is in the open and isn’t overly distracting visually. It is the covert tracking and messing with my system that I don’t like. If advertising providers and content publishers address issues like that at all, then they are unreasonably proud of not opening a dozen x10 pop-ups and act like that is all a reader would ever ask for.
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I guess one thing users could do is have Task Manager (or equivalent) running so you can monitor the cpu load.
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People set this precedent by normalizing scripts that redirect, load external content and code. This concern is natural if you try running noscript for a day and see how much stuff people run without permission on a regular basis without comment. It has never been “OK”, it has been a deliberately sleazy way to gradually infiltrate people’s boxes and guide them towards the buy button, all while claiming that the average user wants it because it “enhances their experience” or some such bollocks,
Like other kinds of consent, if people actually saw what was happening, wanted it, and agreed to it - it wouldn’t need to be hidden from our scrutiny.
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