My user-overrides.js has been updated to sync with Firefox v108 and the arkenfox user.js v108. The repo is here, changes are here and the file can be downloaded here.
And now back to our regularly scheduled program...
alternative information, tech talk, fragments
My user-overrides.js has been updated to sync with Firefox v108 and the arkenfox user.js v108. The repo is here, changes are here and the file can be downloaded here.
And now back to our regularly scheduled program...
The "modern web" is in a very sad state (for many reasons beyond the stupidity of DRM) and so is every modern web browser; they are all shit. This very short article touches upon some of the problems in the web browser scene.
The reckless, infinite scope of web browsers
I conclude that it is impossible to build a new web browser. The complexity of the web is obscene. The creation of a new web browser would be comparable in effort to the Apollo program or the Manhattan project.
It is impossible to:
Implement the web correctly
Implement the web securely
Implement the web at all
I've heard people complain about the lack of granularity of uBlock Origin filtering compared to the no longer developed uMatrix add-on, and i've been one of those people. I still think Raymond's decision to abandon uM in favor of the allegedly easier to use uBO was a mistake and i'm certainty not alone. The pop-up interface of uMatrix always seemed more intuitive to me.
Some folks are adamant that uMatrix is superior to uBlock and is an absolute must-have, like breathing, however i'm not sure there's anything that one can do with uM that cannot be accomplished with uBO's filters, available in the 'My Filters' section of its settings. Other than adding a custom rule or two like *$font,third-party
, which allows 1st party fonts while blocking 3rd party fonts, i've not been utilizing this filtering capability until very recently. These filters offer very granular control, right down to individual resources like a specific JavaScript file for a specific domain.
YouTube videos are a valuable resource of information but the website is a f'n joke from a technical point of view, as well as an assault on ones privacy. Sure, you can make use of the many alternative front-ends to YouTube (and Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, etc.) with a browser add-on like LibRedirect, but these alternatives come at a cost. They may not be able to handle the load, or they may be off-line, or they may be run by malicious actors, etc.. Nevertheless i think they are beneficial overall, especially if JavaScript does not have to be enabled to use them, but i digress.
YouTube serves up piles of shit (JavaScript) every time you load the domain and so i wanted to see how much of it could be toileted while still retaining much of the functionality of the platform like, you know, being able to watch videos and read comments and stuff. uBlock's logger makes it really easy to create these granular rules. With the logger open one can create either a URL (dynamic) or a static rule. While URL rules are more efficient, you can't use wildcards (*) in the file paths and for technically retarded sites like YouTube, which appear to use dynamically generated path names for some resources (.../player/c4225c42/player_ias.vflset/...
), URL rules aren't going to work for all of the stuff i wanted to block.
I ended up trimming a fair amount of lard from YouTube using static filters while still retaining the appearance and functionality i wanted. Here's the filters i'm currently using (if you're on mobile you may need to adjust):
||fonts.googleapis.com^$stylesheet,domain=www.youtube.com ||jnn-pa.googleapis.com^$xhr ||www.youtube.com/*/jsbin/custom-elements-es5-adapter.vflset/$script ||www.youtube.com/*/jsbin/intersection-observer.min.vflset/intersection-observer.min.js$script ||www.youtube.com/*/jsbin/scheduler.vflset/$script ||www.youtube.com/*/jsbin/serviceworker-notifications.vflset/$script ||www.youtube.com/*/jsbin/spf.vflset/spf.js$script ||www.youtube.com/*/jsbin/web-animations-next-lite.min.vflset/$script ||www.youtube.com/*/jsbin/www-tampering.vflset/www-tampering.js$script ||www.youtube.com/*/player_ias.vflset/en_US/annotations_module.js$script ||www.youtube.com/*/player_ias.vflset/en_US/embed.js$script ||www.youtube.com/*/player_ias.vflset/en_US/endscreen.js$script ||www.youtube.com/*/player_ias.vflset/en_US/miniplayer.js$script ||www.youtube.com/*/player_ias.vflset/en_US/offline.js$script ||www.youtube.com/*/player_ias.vflset/en_US/remote.js$script ||www.youtube.com/api/stats/*$xhr ||www.youtube.com/generate_204$xhr ||www.youtube.com/s/search/audio/*$media,domain=www.youtube.com ||www.youtube.com/sw.js$script ||www.youtube.com/youtubei/v1/att/get?key=*$xhr ||www.youtube.com/youtubei/v1/share/*$xhr
As much as i dislike Mozilla i'm still forced to recommend Firefox for those who care about their privacy, though a lot of tweaking is necessary to beat it into submission. I've also kind of boxed myself in since i depend on quite a few add-ons for Firefox. I often browse the Mozilla Add-ons website (AMO) to keep track of what's new, though the vast majority of add-ons are worthless or, worse, contain malware which i define as anything containing data harvesting functionality, ads, coupon related add-ons, or anything else that isn't required for the stated purpose of the add-on.
The M&M's (Morons at Mozilla) neutered the functionality of the AMO website by both removing the RSS feed functionality and limiting the sorting options, however one can still sort add-ons by the number of users and doing so reveals some interesting selections. Here's the list of add-ons with 1 millions users or greater and my comments on them:
privacy. resistFingerprinting
(RFP) in about:config, set ETP to Strict as already mentioned, and forget about Ghostery. Better yet, use the 'arkenfox' user.js.Raymond Hill, the developer of uMatrix, has essentially put the project into hibernation. Enter xiMatrix by 'xi', a continuation of uM with some twists. Here's the AMO page and here's the git repo page.
Currently i'm not using it so i can't really comment on it, but i am keeping an eye on it's development.