Slightly Remarkable

This article is, in essence, a load of hogwash aimed at frightening the everyday computer user, possibly to the point of disabling JavaScript altogether (which is suggested, believe it or not, in the article). My blood really boils when I hear people making such comments about JavaScript. JavaScript is powerful, versatile, useful, practical, and anything that sounds that good must have some sort of flaw. Yes, JavaScript is not 100% secure 100% of the time, but for the most part it is, and for the most part (unless you’re visiting warez sites) you won’t be attacked by it. The best thing to do is get a good browser and avoid suspicious web sites. It’s very simple, but of course News.com doesn’t point this out, because the goal of their “FAQ” is to turn the modernized “Web 2.0-style” Internet of today into the plain text, non-interactive, boring resource it was in the past.

Someone please help me understand what they hope to accomplish by publishing this article. This article is the kind of thinking browser developers used to have, and as a result it’s taken many years for CSS to become even partially supported by more than just a couple user agents. Stop living in the stone-age! People who hate change may be satisfied with the way things currently are, but not everyone is, and modernization is critical to any industry, because otherwise it becomes stagnant, boring and useless. The Web should advance a free market (yes, that means the whole “net neutrality” thing is a bunch of junk, too), not one controlled by the fearful and limited by the ignorant. I’m not saying anyone should be ignorant of the facts, but when you write an article and your tone indicates a distaste for something, people naturally respond in agreement and therefore have a bad first impression because they are skeptical.

Anything that has a purpose has potential flaws. We’re a democracy in a republic, but try as we might, we aren’t perfect. There have been presidencies that were crime-ridden and powers that were abused, and in the same way that these were serious issues that were eventually resolved, JavaScript has some security issues that will eventually be resolved (and many, in fact, most, have been already). There is no need to fear or avoid what has potential for both good and evil. Let’s stop thinking like monkeys and get our heads on straight, instead of suggesting we suppress all possible change because our current system “works fine” or “is bad enough” as it is.