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Question: does the hosts file support having a couple of million domains in it?
The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.
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Half a megabyte right now. No adblockers, no virusscanner, no problems. And it works for everything that accesses the internet, as it is not just a browser-plug in. Works for everything accessing the internet as it is on the OS-level, without me having to block stuff on the router.
How did you come up with the number? 
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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I was just wondering because my custom ad blocker that I've been working on now for two years is currently supporting over 4 million domains to block, and I want to get some idea of what the competition is like.
Off hand, I would say that half a megabyte of domains is not anywhere close to 4 million domains, because my ad blocker's SQLite database is over 430 megabytes. True, I'm storing more data per domain than the hosts file, but maybe you could open your hosts file in notepad++ to see how many lines it has.
The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.
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Richard Andrew x64 wrote: I was just wondering because my custom ad blocker that I've been working on now for two years is currently supporting over 4 million domains to block, and I want to get some idea of what the competition is like.
It's not competition and it is not an ad blocker. I'm mostly running the MVPS' host file, with a very few domains merged into it.
Hosts files do support wildcards; so it ain't 430 Mb in size, naming every domain. You could do similar but more advanced with a nice regex 
It is a way of blocking like the router does; it does not actually detect or know if something is pushing ads. So, yes, your solution may be better - I just have an app that downloads the MVPS' file and adds a few lines from me to it. I'd prefer something that can actually update the router, so any device using it would be more secure.
In another location I'm using a Pi. Good firewall, if not too many users.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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I was just wondering if the hosts file can support millions of domains. Thanks for your explanation!
(I totally understand if you don't know the answer, as I do not either.)
The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.
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It doesn't; the machine becomes rather slow if you go above 4 Mb. At least, a few years ago it did and I doubt that it changed.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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Was it not in debate to change something in the way traffic is redirected through the nodes that would render the host file blocking useless if it gets implemented and rolled out?
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
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That's fine, until Chrome starts mandating DNS over HTTPS "for security reasons". That bypasses the hosts file and sends the DNS queries directly to the chosen DOH server.
Then, when someone starts offering a DOH server with built-in ad-blocking, Chrome will suddenly mandate that you have to use Google's DOH server "for security reasons".
And oh, what a surprise: they'll "accidentally" introduce an annoying delay in responses when looking up any of their competitors. They may not be able to force you to use their advert malvertising search engine, but they can sure as hell make it as difficult as possible to use anything else.
What they won't tell you is that the "security" they're interested in isn't your security; it's the "security" of their corrupt business model.
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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Time for a DOH Pi-hole.
Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994. So does this signature. me, 2012
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Well, it just works and I love the pricing 
Bastard Programmer from Hell
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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The DNS over HTTPS can still be hacked with a man-in-the-middle attack as long as Windows can be made to trust any certificate we choose. But Microsoft may soon disallow that, as well.
The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.
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Generative AI technologies are being used in the workplace without training, guidance, or approval by businesses. The other 36% have already been replaced by AI
Present company included. beep zwoop ping.
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Am I the only one, that has not even tested it?  
M.D.V.
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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No, I should have included that in the % in the blurb, but it would have complicated things with the truth. It's probably more like 36% have never touched the stuff.
I'm the only one that's been replaced by AI. Albeit one running on a Vic-20.
TTFN - Kent
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Version 17.8 welcomes an array of exhilarating performance enhancements, including Responsive File Opening Experience, Improved Razor/Blazor Responsiveness, Enhanced F5 Speed, Optimized IntelliSense for C++ Unreal Engine and Build Acceleration for Non-SDK style .NET Projects. "Tach it up, tach it up"
I'd avoid the next line in the song, as VS would probably take it to heart and shut down
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Security researchers have found flaws in the way laptop manufacturers are implementing fingerprint authentication. Someone gave it the finger
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How was it? Passwords are obsolete?
Kent Sharkey wrote: Someone gave it the finger
.i..
M.D.V.
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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Didn't MythBusters show something similar around 2006?
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Didn't they do that by making a fake finger(print)? This is more of a driver issue, creating a MitM for the protocol it uses:
Quote: Microsoft did a good job designing Secure Device Connection Protocol (SDCP) to provide a secure channel between the host and biometric devices, but unfortunately device manufacturers seem to misunderstand some of the objectives
TTFN - Kent
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I don't think biometric authentication will ever be truly secure.
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Sam Altman will return as CEO of OpenAI, the startup tweeted early Wednesday morning. The move follows immense pressure from employees and investors on the board that ousted him less than a week ago. Was the plot of this drama written by ChatGPT?
It certainly wouldn't be realistic in a movie
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What I wonder... what will happen with the board?
M.D.V.
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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They got replaced.
So, what seems to have been their goal in removing him (slow down the development of AI to make it 'safer') succeeded in doing the exact opposite.
Almost forgot to include:
Quote: Former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers will join OpenAI’s board, the Microsoft-backed startup said, with Taylor holding the chair position. Adam D’Angelo, co-founder and CEO of question-and-answer startup Quora, will remain on the board.
Concurrent with Altman’s return, Helen Toner, Tasha McCauley and co-founder Ilya Sutskever were removed as board members. All had been involved in pushing out Altman, although Sutskever later walked back his support for the coup and remains an OpenAI employee as of Wednesday.
TTFN - Kent
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Kent Sharkey wrote: slow down the development
And I agree with the goal, but as with many politic topics... a good idea, an atrocius implementation.
They should have searched for "the streisand effect" before acting like that. Not exactly the same, but pretty close.
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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Kent Sharkey wrote: It certainly wouldn't be realistic in a movie
Umm - Negative Nancy Luke Skywalker drinking green milk begs to differ....
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