ScuzzBlog: Diaries May 2026
Entry 31st May 2026: Post 1: The surge toward hard media - Making the internet less relevant.
The surge toward hard media - Making the internet less relevant.
The other day I was teased by a video site with a 'short' of Stairway
by Led and so I searched for the band playing it on stage. The video
wasn't brilliant and the sound quality poor. To my shock and horror
the site decided to interrupt the video at the critical guitar break
and add an advert. So how did that make me feel? It made me realise
just how little the site valued their user base. And what did I do?
Well I closed the site and reached for my MP3 player and joyed at
an actual authentic version that I paid for the luxury of listening
to. I reflect on just why folk are giving up on the internet in
favour of entertainment systems that do not involve advertising.
Sadly such sites and the like are the reason why the internet has
become less relevant to me. Less and less do I use the computer
online and more and more I simply listen to music, watch videos
and play on the console. And why ? Cus I don't want to be constantly
bombarded by adverts for things I don't need. The process is a waste
of my time and degrading of the enjoyment.
So what happened to the web? Time was I actually thought these sites
were pretty cool sites. Back in the old days of Firefox we were
gifted all kinds of add-ons and extensions that let us copy stuff
and to log into media. Most of it was Flash and FLV and the quality
was crap and the videos postage stamp size. It didn't matter cus I
was doing other things, but it was nice to listen to something as
I edited my Photoshop images.
Video downloaders and other sites slowly vanished from the Firefox
interface until there was but a handful. Videos then started to
stream the music in a way that it could no longer be recorded and
poor old Flash bit the dust.
There was this running battle between the last of my Firefox addons
for video downloads and sites until I just didn't bother. No sooner
had the site fixed the problem than it was disabled.
Fair game and I gave up. That was years and years ago. What I chose
to do was build my own web pages with say YouTube eg. links that
embedded the videos into the page letting me watch from a page I
created. This bypassed the adverts. YouTube eg. discovered this
little loophole to avoid adverts and so removed embedded content
from pages. All my hand crafted pages with loads of info on them
were destroyed as they were rendered useless. The embedded code
simply now states you have to watch the content on site along with
the adverts.
Next I simply created folders with all my favourite sci-fi, steampunk.
cyberpunk, ai art and video sites indexed so I could fire up some
of my favourite Chinese sites and leave the music on in the background.
YouTube eg in their wisdom decided they no longer wanted to support
such sites and so purged them labelling them SlopAi or something
like that. One video in particular was just classic, it was of
steampunk theme showing these guys playing chelos in an auditorium
whilst being treated to ai imagery of steampunk streets and buildings.
It was wonderful and the music incredible. I was suddenly notified
that the video was removed for nude content. You gotta be kidding.
They appeared to be slapping any old 'not available' notice on
videos, no matter the content. I mean, what can you say ?
What I found really troubling is that I did a search on Google
and their Ai came up with a comment that they appreciated my annoyance
and realised it had upset a lot of users. It also conceded that
the actions were driving people away from the site.
Personally with each twist of events regarding the way the internet
is managed these days I am finding myself using it less and less.
I am lucky to own any number of alternative entertainment devices.
It has become more important than ever to acquire and add to the
library any number of copies of hard media substitutes. This makes
such media on hand at an instant to feed my likings without being
subject to companies advertising ploys. The whole internet is driven
by data mining and the acquiring of your details to sell to companies.
The targeting of the individual with supposed customised advertising
product, is what the browser history and cookies try to trigger.
Users of the internet are being watched all the time. An 'app' is
a door into your life which you open willingly every time you use
it.
There is only one way to stay private and that is not to use the
internet. Simple.
And so this month again I replaced further some vinyl records with
CD versions so that I can record to my MP3 player. This seems to
be the most rewarding of processes cus I not only have the hard
media but I am not subjected to advertising scams. There is something
very comforting about entering the advert free zone of hard media.
I can certainly recommend it for all your listening and viewing
enjoyment.
PS: I don't really understand how folk make money out of YouTube etc but
it strikes me it was the way the system was set up that encouraged all
these money making cheap ai sites to emerge. In amongst them were some
really entertaining and well crafted channels. To simply label them
all the same and to cut them off was brutal when it then impacted on
those that enjoyed the content. Again.. How did that make me feel? I
keep repeating this cus it is very important.
The surge toward hard media - Making the internet less relevant.
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