[HN Gopher] TabBoo - add random jumpscares to websites you're tr...
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       TabBoo - add random jumpscares to websites you're trying to avoid
        
       Author : thatsnotoptimal
       Score  : 320 points
       Date   : 2025-01-22 17:27 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (tabboo.xyz)
 (TXT) w3m dump (tabboo.xyz)
        
       | ancientstraits wrote:
       | 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 wrote:
         | 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.
        
           | thfuran wrote:
           | As someone who has smelled burning hair, it at least sounds
           | plausible. On the other hand, cigarette smoke already doesn't
           | smell good.
        
             | yapyap wrote:
             | people who smoke on the daily have already tuned out
             | cigarette smoke mentally, the burning hair however is
             | rancid to anyone.
        
               | junon wrote:
               | 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 wrote:
               | 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.
        
               | pineaux wrote:
               | 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.
        
             | danielbln wrote:
             | Cigarette smoke is vile, but burned hair is another level.
        
               | Tade0 wrote:
               | To that I raise: crude oil
               | 
               | Unbelievable how its products separately don't smell
               | nearly as bad.
        
           | 3PS wrote:
           | 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").
        
           | spoonfeeder006 wrote:
           | 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 wrote:
             | 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.
        
       | djtango wrote:
       | Love this.
       | 
       | The example wasn't scary enough but it's pretty fun
        
       | iammrpayments wrote:
       | Combat addiction with PTSD
        
         | chrislongss wrote:
         | 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.
        
           | 331c8c71 wrote:
           | i looked it up. disulfiram subdermal implants. just proves i
           | need this extension for firefox %(
        
           | ioblomov wrote:
           | 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...
        
         | mariopt wrote:
         | Not really, MeatSpin is missing
        
       | Willingham wrote:
       | Also works great for low blood pressure issues
        
       | nottorp wrote:
       | I wonder if a kitty or puppy of diabetes inducing cuteness would
       | have the same effect.
        
       | Tepix wrote:
       | Great, can we please have it for Firefox, too?
        
       | Cortex5936 wrote:
       | 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 wrote:
         | 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 wrote:
           | Or, depending on how serious you are, you could modify the
           | browser source to make it unremovable, at least for Chromium
           | or Firefox
        
         | suddenclarity wrote:
         | 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.
        
       | yumraj wrote:
       | Only for Chrome?
        
       | msobriquet wrote:
       | oh my god is there a firefox version?
        
       | IncreasePosts wrote:
       | 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?
        
         | patrickhogan1 wrote:
         | 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 wrote:
         | 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".
        
         | CobrastanJorji wrote:
         | 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 wrote:
           | 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.
        
             | alasarmas wrote:
             | 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.
        
             | CobrastanJorji wrote:
             | 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.
        
             | jslakro wrote:
             | 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
        
         | moralestapia wrote:
         | Easy solution. Don't install it.
        
         | e44858 wrote:
         | 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.
        
       | valorzard wrote:
       | Five Nights at Freddie's - browser extension mode
        
       | ants_everywhere wrote:
       | What if it just makes me addicted to jump scares? :-P
        
       | d3rockk wrote:
       | Babe wake up, new hacker prank just dropped.
        
         | LeifCarrotson wrote:
         | The only difference between an anti-addiction tool and a prank
         | is whose computer you install it on.
        
       | BJones12 wrote:
       | Great name, with two accurate meanings. TabBoo -> taboo, tab boo
        
       | unethical_ban wrote:
       | This is so goofy, I assume the clever name was the genesis of the
       | idea. Old school, off-the-wall.
        
       | yapyap wrote:
       | love it
        
       | ashton314 wrote:
       | I love that the example video shows someone adding HN to the
       | jump-scare list. I should probably do that...
        
       | telesilla wrote:
       | 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 wrote:
         | 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.
        
       | Funes- wrote:
       | This is getting ridiculous.
        
       | jmkd wrote:
       | I have absolutely no use for this, but the name oh my god!
        
       | throwup238 wrote:
       | 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.
        
       | marcodiego wrote:
       | 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 wrote:
         | > "Just for today"
         | 
         | This is great at getting me to justify procrastination.
        
       | taeric wrote:
       | I haven't laughed so hard at a story headline in a long time.
       | Kudos and thanks for that!
        
       | duxup wrote:
       | 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.
        
       | aceazzameen wrote:
       | I _love_ the name and idea. Bravo!
        
       | TeMPOraL wrote:
       | 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.
        
       | bbx wrote:
       | 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!
        
         | joshdavham wrote:
         | 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!
        
         | eieio wrote:
         | 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!)
        
       | andybak wrote:
       | Will absolutely have the reverse effect
        
       | d3rockk wrote:
       | https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/jumpscare-tab/lgffj...
       | 
       | Same idea
        
       | joshdavham wrote:
       | We need more hilarious chrome extensions like this!
        
       | joshdavham wrote:
       | 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.
        
       | Brusco_RF wrote:
       | 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 wrote:
         | Why would you hold your phone while driving?
        
       | ClassyJacket wrote:
       | God damn that name is absolutely perfect. I'm upvoting it for
       | that alone.
        
       | throwaway123lol wrote:
       | 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.
        
       | stainablesteel wrote:
       | haha brilliant, but make it VERY scary, there needs to be sound
       | too
        
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       (page generated 2025-01-22 23:00 UTC)