Zanthir wrote:
Stop being paranoid about Javascript, it's ridiculous. Webpages are the safest execution environments you have on your entire computer.
I'm not afraid of javascript. I just despise what a lot of web designers do with it.
They use it for basic navigation. This makes the page inaccessible for those who have it disabled for any reason.
They use it to load tons of stuff I don't care about (like twitter feeds).
They use it to tell other sites I don't care about where I am (like facebook).
They use it to follow what I'm doing (such as forms that are coded in javascript, depending on the way they are scripted the website can see what I typed and then deleted. I don't want the website to see my forming thoughts, just my final posted statement.
They use it to disable browser features (like the back button) and bypass others (like the indicator of where a link leads, where a click will take you)
Their use of it overloads small browsers and slow connections.
They use it to cause actions to happen that I didn't want (like slideshows that run at their own speed).
They source it from places I'm not familiar with, and thus hide the code itself. I have no idea what it's doing, and who it's telling.
Now, not all javascript is bad. A lot of it is quite neat (such as popup date pickers and such). But it has been co-opted by seedy commercial interests, and even less savovy ones. I run noscript so that I can see who wants in on my system. Now, there is no reason for me to want facebook, pinterest, baidu, google, oin.ee, travelocity, amazon, aata, advertising.com, adserver, cliktrak, or any number of others I've never heard of to run commands on my system, unless I am on their site. They have no business knowing what I'm doing. And if I allow them one by one for a specific page, they call in their friends and I have to allow ten or fifteen more unknown servers to have access to my system.
It's too bad, but my default position is to not trust the internet.
Jose
Statistics: Posted by ucim — Sat Feb 28, 2015 2:22 am UTC