c13u's comments | WingNews

c13u | 6 years ago | on: Targeted ads are one of the world's most destructive trends

> ...it is simultaneously claimed that targeted ads are so powerful that they are single-handedly responsible for every right-wing political victory in the past few years

Not surely so. There's the argument[0] that political misinformation is:

* Weak in high profile partisan races because pre-existing beliefs hardly change

* Strong when people don't have string pre-existing opinions, e.g. misinformation about voter ID laws causing people to stay home from the polls

I think targeting work best on people at the margins. There was also some good discussion this week on HN on the effectiveness of digital advertising[1]

[0] https://www.vox.com/2017/11/6/16504454/misinformation-fake-n...

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21465873

c13u | 6 years ago | on: Smart TVs sending sensitive user data to Netflix and Facebook

I don't understand your criticism. If the TV were given close to free and then subsidized by ads, sure. But I'm paying >$500 for the TV, why should I get ads too?

c13u | 6 years ago | on: Spaced Repetition

Other examples of cards that I made and found useful during my job-hunting process: https://cards.c13u.com/browse[0]

[0] Disclaimer, I made cards.c13u.com for a class project

c13u | 7 years ago | on: The New York Times sells premium ads based on how an article makes you feel

Is this one of those instances where regulatory laws would help? Something like requiring publishers to place a notice saying, "This article typically invokes hope. The ads shown on this page utilize this tendency".

These premium ads look like the logical progression of content-based advertising. The only slimy thing is them pretending to be randomly placed.

c13u | 7 years ago | on: Chinese may take over Mombasa port: Ouko

Adding more breadth to AfricanStand

It's still controversial. KBC (state media) has an article[1] disproving the claim. The Standard (one of 2 major local news) has an article[2] exploring alleged papers from the Attorney General's Office that specify Kenya's port income as collateral. The papers were exposed by John Githongo[3], a politician who has tendencies of uncovering government misdeeds. He was in exile a while back...

[1] http://www.kbc.co.ke/chinese-govt-dismisses-report-of-mombas...

[2] https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001306837/does-keny...

[3] https://twitter.com/johngithongo/status/1075187915875971072