TabBoo – add random jumpscares to websites you're trying to avoid
Comments
bbx
lucb1e
Only shows a link for iOS and it also says "concluded" so it sounds like even if I had an Apple device, it has been shut down?
If so, I'm very tempted to make a variant that uses email since I'll run an email server with cronjobs forever anyway (for my other million projects). Will shoot the author a (you guessed it) email to check if they're okay with that when due credits are given!
eieio
I was a tester for this game! Testing it with a small group was hilarious; I was super motivated to try to win (although I rarely won) since I knew everyone else playing and the notifications came all the time because Justin was doing lots of testing. It absolutely ruined me (which is the point!)
joshdavham
ChatGPT Youtube Player is also hilarious: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/chatgpt-youtube-pla...
It plays a youtube video while you wait for chatGPT to finish responding to your prompt lmao!
ancientstraits
This is a very unexpected way to try combatting addiction. I don't know how well it will work, but I will consider it.
mordechai9000
Negative reinforcement. There's a strategy for smoking where you put a wad of hair in your cigarettes. I used nicotine patches myself, so I can't speak to the efficacy.
3PS
Nit: that's not what negative reinforcement means. Negative reinforcement is about removing a negative stimulus, like inducing someone to go to a desirable website by improving their initially bad text contrast whenever they go there.
In this case, jumpscaring yourself would just be considered punishment (or "positive punishment").
Terr_
To re-frame it as a list of combinations:
* Positive reinforcement: [Adding] something so that you do it [more]
* Negative reinforcement: [Removing] something so that you do it [more]
* Positive punishment: [Adding] something so that you do it [less]
* Negative punishment: [Removing] something so that you do it [less]
spoonfeeder006
There's also Allen Carr's books about treating addiction, and they don't use negative reinforcement, at least the ones I've read
Rather it helps you learn to recognize the fallacies behind the addictive cravings themselves, and to thus resolve the core of why you turn to that in the first place
Still have to make the decision to recall those in the moment, but when you do you do neutralize the cravings
His first book was Easy Way to Stop Smoking
For digital addiction there's Smart Phone, Dumb Phone
For internet porn there's easypeasymethod.org (based on EasyWay to Stop Smoking)
epolanski
I know two people that quit with that book, both more than 20 years ago. One restarted few years ago, the other one never smoked again.
thfuran
As someone who has smelled burning hair, it at least sounds plausible. On the other hand, cigarette smoke already doesn't smell good.
yapyap
people who smoke on the daily have already tuned out cigarette smoke mentally, the burning hair however is rancid to anyone.
junon
Definitely not always true. I smoke, I hate it, I've tried to quit several times. The smoke smell has never repulsed me but I find it to smell terrible. Many people I know who smoke are the same.
It's a constant reminder that you're killing yourself for miniscule amounts of Feel Good chemicals at a time.
t-3
I've always enjoyed the smell of tobacco smoke. It's nowhere near as astringent and repulsive as woodsmoke and good tobacco often has a nice nearly floral scent or a sweet smell. The taste and the tearing up my throat and making my breath bad and the expense are all things I can do without though.
Does anyone else get seasonal nicotine cravings? In the warmer months, I don't even think about smoking unless I drink, but in winter I often can't sleep for craving a cigarette, even when it's been literally years since the last one.
junon
Definitely. I'm usually quite successful at quitting during the summer. Then the winter months come and for some reason the urges come back.
cma
Use nicotine pouches or vape, there is no reason to smoke and nicotine isn't carcinogenic
junon
Thanks but I'm not really looking for advice. Where I live vape juice is exorbitantly priced. Plus there are other habitual issues with vaping, such as vaping indoors which overall increases my intake. Pouches aren't always a solution either and don't solve the "habitual" part of the habit, which is the hardest part to kick for me.
MiiMe19
vapes aren't as cool as smoked tobacco :)
pineaux
That is the lie you tell yourself. But smoking doesn't give you Feel Good chemicals. It temporarily resets the clock of slowly building Feel Bad chemicals back to zero or back to lower. Its basically the same as saying: releasing that string - that I wound around my big toe - every once in a while gives me Feel Good chemicals. You are just relieving stress that has been created by the tobacco.
junon
Ah yes, I lied to myself. Thank you for fixing things for me.
samatman
This isn't true at all, though. Nicotine is strongly dopaminergic, it directly produces euphoria.
You can describe the trap which is addiction without saying things which are obviously not true. Or, to return your uncharitable rhetoric back upon you, lying.
danielbln
Cigarette smoke is vile, but burned hair is another level.
Tade0
To that I raise: crude oil
Unbelievable how its products separately don't smell nearly as bad.
skissane
I’ve never experienced crude oil firsthand, but I assume you are talking about “sour crude” which has a high sulfur content, including hydrogen sulfide, resembling rotten eggs or raw sewerage. So-called “sweet crude”, with a low sulfur content, has a less offensive smell, smelling more like the petroleum products derived from it.
throwup238
I really hope that the demo video on the frontpage uses the referrer (referer?) HTTP header to select the URL!
I bet you can do that with Chrome’s puppeteer and cache the domain to optimize it. You won’t get the personalized pages of Facebook et al but it would be really fun.
The name is genius.
IncreasePosts
A fun idea, but I am so hesitant to install extensions that have access to any URL. I don't know who this developer is, so how can I know they won't accept $10k to sell their extension to some malware group that will try to exfil all of my banking credentials after updating this extension?
CobrastanJorji
It's worse. Even if you DO know and trust the developer, in a year or two, they're probably going to get an email from a nice man who will want to buy their extension for $10,000, and they've long gotten bored of it, so why not?
ok_dad
I would hope that these days the popular extension devs would know about this type of attack and would guard against it by perhaps selling the extension code but shutting down the original extension page under their control so users have to choose to install the new company's extension. As a matter of fact, why won't Google/Mozilla prevent this by making an extension and a person's account inseparable, and have legal language in the ToS that says they can't sell the extension as-is with the install base to a new company? It would prevent so much.
stavros
The offer would be $10k for the extension page, or $10 for just the code.
Google/mozilla don't add legal language because legal language doesn't make something illegal. They can say "we'll remove your extension if we find out you've sold it", but they way they'd find out would be that the extension now serves malware anyway.
CobrastanJorji
That'd be interesting, but imagine how poorly it'd work given how often medium/large companies change hands. Heck, when Google itself became a subsidiary of Alphabet, it didn't require everyone to create new "Alphabet" accounts and replace Google Chrome with Alphabet Chrome.
Although...I'm not necessarily opposed to that. Companies can change names and ownership a little too easily. Making it painful might help some things.
alasarmas
I remember reading somewhere that, in times long past, if a company name was of the form “Johnson and Sons” (for example), it would be considered fraud to sell that company outside of the named family.
I personally think you’re on to something with tying companies to the reputation of specific natural persons, but I don’t think that is where we are going anytime soon.
jaredsohn
>why won't Google/Mozilla prevent this by making an extension and a person's account inseparable
This can be gotten around easily by making a separate Google account for the extension. It would require using gmail rather GSuite (without transferring over the entire GSuite domain.)
jslakro
That would be the right thing but browsers are not interested in adding friction to an ecosystem that already has its own rules. Extensions offer a lot of value to users witjout any effort from the browser companies
lucb1e
Could turn off automatic updates so it won't matter who buys it
e44858
An extension like this should be relatively small. Download the source code, read it to make sure nothing bad is happening, then install it from source so it doesn't get automatically updated.
patrickhogan1
This is a good point and I haven’t read the manifest as I’m in a bit of a rush. Chrome did do a lot of work improving the manifest for conditions like this in v3. I know with webRequest you have to specify urls but not sure if there is a separation of duties here in terms of
1. Permission to operate on any url page loaded locally and being able to modify the html/insert html like the clown image
2. Being able to webRequest http outbound to <any_url> where you could exfiltrate data.
I thought there was a way to insert html into any loaded page without having access to send outbound network requests.
If that is the case that it’s separate if the chrome extension were to be sold and the manifest were changed to allow nefarious behavior you would know.
renewiltord
This is quite the problem with the chrome extension ecosystem. It is rife with malware. How does someone build an extension that can promise better behaviour. There doesn’t seem to be a way to restrict oneself.
Even manifest changes aren’t “scary enough”.
moralestapia
Easy solution. Don't install it.
disqard
This is a hilarious idea! :D
No idea how well it might actually play out, but you made my day by putting this bit of whimsy out on the Internet.
Thank You For Making And Sharing!!
telesilla
Oh warning please! I got a demo jumpscare and almost had a household of very upset kids from the scream and my almost-heart attack reaction. Well done!
For those with stronger stomachs this is a fantastic idea.
nickvec
I'd say the tagline of "add random jumpscares to sites you're trying to avoid" is a fair warning of what the demo entails.
iammrpayments
Combat addiction with PTSD
chrislongss
I know this is a joke, but iirc there used to be certain procedures that would surgically implant something physically harmful into an addicts arm to scare them into soberness. Like a capsule maybe?.. Can't remember the details. And if the person were to start drinking alcohol again, the capsule would break down and release a chemical into their bloodstream.
ioblomov
Suspect you may be thinking of this…
> Disulfiram (Antabuse) changes the way your body breaks down alcohol. If you drink while taking it, you get sick.
https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/addiction/features/fight...
331c8c71
i looked it up. disulfiram subdermal implants. just proves i need this extension for firefox %(
mariopt
Not really, MeatSpin is missing
marcodiego
I really wonder how well averse conditioning works... maybe I'll try it if it works on firefox and is open source.
Something I've done on some periods I was fighting my procrastination was to use pomodoro timers and mantras: "Just for today" and "one day at a time". Interestingly, these simple tools worked very very well.
y33t
> "Just for today"
This is great at getting me to justify procrastination.
joshdavham
Any chance this gets open sourced? I understand that you can just look at the code of your installed extensions in chrome's directory on your computer, but it would be cool to look at the code, if you're willing to share.
ashton314
I love that the example video shows someone adding HN to the jump-scare list. I should probably do that…
_nivlac_
You might be interested in the noprocrast settings!
jmkd
I have absolutely no use for this, but the name oh my god!
Willingham
Also works great for low blood pressure issues
throwaway123lol
some notes:
icon doesn't look great with my colour scheme: https://imgur.com/a/D0UcBaY
> Jumpscare Probability (%) what does this mean? % chance of it showing up per minute? per click? what?
i set it to 100% to test and there seems to be no way to cancel it once they show up. bug? it interrupts important user actions like typing and on refresh they're gone.
TeMPOraL
Nice idea, but I fear that my mind will quickly get stimulated by the expectation of getting a new and exciting jumpscare, thus reinforcing addiction instead of reducing it.
ants_everywhere
What if it just makes me addicted to jump scares? :-P
valorzard
Five Nights at Freddie's - browser extension mode
thecowzone
The link on the TabBoo logo is invalid FYI.
lynndotpy
Is it possible to distribute this extension outside the Chrome Web Store? I am met with a sign-in wall.
duxup
The animation on the home page does a great job giving you all you want to know.
Granted it's a simple app but I wish other apps were as easy to understand.
BJones12
Great name, with two accurate meanings. TabBoo -> taboo, tab boo
dysoco
I clicked the "what's a jumpscare?" link and now my bpm are through the roof I'm so dumb
Brusco_RF
A while back I tried to apply this same principle to an iphone case that tazes you at random when you hold it for longer than 5 minutes.
I gave up on the idea for a number of reasons, primarily driving safety
precommunicator
Why would you hold your phone while driving?
gokhan
I use LeechBlock. Has site passwords, delays, outright blocks etc. Not scary though.
d3rockk
Babe wake up, new hacker prank just dropped.
LeifCarrotson
The only difference between an anti-addiction tool and a prank is whose computer you install it on.
d3rockk
My mind instantly went to pranking others. Similar extension can be found in this list at #11. https://www.maketecheasier.com/practical-jokes-extension-for...
Cortex5936
I love the idea ! Is there also a way to make sure you cannot remove these types of extensions ? Something open source and not sketchy that makes it possible to either set a password (that you'll not save) or be removed only if you reinstall the browser. Something to this liking ?
chippiewill
I don't think any browser vendor would expose an API to allow this.
I think the best you could manage is a system administrative profile that forces the browser to install the extension
abound
Or, depending on how serious you are, you could modify the browser source to make it unremovable, at least for Chromium or Firefox
suddenclarity
You could write your own OS software that polls your browser for installed extensions and then nukes your internet connection through the host file if you disable the extension. Cold Turkey kinda does this by automatically closing your browser during a blocked session if you disable their extension.
The challenge is that there's always a workaround. The added friction might be enough to fulfil your need though.
msobriquet
oh my god is there a firefox version?
aceazzameen
I love the name and idea. Bravo!
taeric
I haven't laughed so hard at a story headline in a long time. Kudos and thanks for that!
joshdavham
We need more hilarious chrome extensions like this!
Funes-
This is getting ridiculous.
nottorp
I wonder if a kitty or puppy of diabetes inducing cuteness would have the same effect.
stainablesteel
haha brilliant, but make it VERY scary, there needs to be sound too
djtango
Love this.
The example wasn't scary enough but it's pretty fun
Tepix
Great, can we please have it for Firefox, too?
unethical_ban
This is so goofy, I assume the clever name was the genesis of the idea. Old school, off-the-wall.
ClassyJacket
God damn that name is absolutely perfect. I'm upvoting it for that alone.
andybak
Will absolutely have the reverse effect
yumraj
Only for Chrome?
yapyap
love it
coloneltcb
this is so stupid and impractical and I love it so hard
I just had a look at the creators's other project and this one his hilarious! https://www.unoptimal.com/push-off
Two friends receive a notification and the first one to tap it wins!