Hosts

The internet’s underbelly hijacks our resources, loads stuff we do not wish to see, drains battery, overuses memory, prevents us from reading content, and worsens our overall web experience — everybody knows this. So when I talk about blocking it from our devices, people listen with rapt attention. But by the time I’m done, I see regretful eyes staring back saying “This is too hard,” or “I wish..”. The process I suggest is complicated, and it is entirely my fault for asking to run before walk. This ensures bad stuff keeps loading-up on our computers without consent. Let’s change this and go from difficulty level 10 to 1. Here’s how in two steps:

  1. Copy the following and save it in a file called hup.sh in your home folder (~):

    #!/usr/bin/env bash
    echo -n "Blocking internet's underbelly from reaching this computer..."
    curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/StevenBlack/hosts/master/alternates/fakenews-gambling-porn/hosts | sed 's/^||//' > /etc/hosts
    echo "done."
    
  2. From MacOS terminal with admin rights, run the following:

    sudo bash ./hup.sh
    

    Run this periodically to add (or update) over 200,000 bad hosts to /etc/hosts to keep these from loading on your computer.

Have a wonderful 2023.