[LINK] RFC: Web 2.0

[Kim Holburn]

I'm sorry I don't agree in general.  There are a number of useful  
sites with useful uses of javascript.  For instance Gcal.  There are  
times when it's very useful to share a calendar with a number of  
people without setting up your own + an authentication system etc. etc.

When the information is not particularly private anyway gcal still  
gives you a range of sharing options.

Other sites that have interesting uses of JS are sites like flickr.   
I don't think you can make an argument like their terms and  
conditions and privacy policy has a bearing on their use of JS.

I don't find JS makes sites slow in fact quite the opposite.  Map  
sites fail miserably in speed compared with google maps.  Similarly  
calendars  compared with a good JS calendar implementation.  Some of  
the JS widgets on flickr do things that would be very difficult  
without JS.  As for privacy and terms, those are separate issues.

On 2006/Nov/24, at 12:56 PM, Craig Sanders wrote:
> my main issue with them was their privacy policy. they state that
> they'll export your data to the U.S. (where the laws allow them to do
> whatever they want with it).
>
> the second paragraph i quoted, which said that they may transfer your
> data to another entity in the case of acquisition or merger is,  
> IMO, the
> whole point of the service. user personal data is the only real asset
> they have, it's what makes them worth buying.
>
> (btw, i didn't say it was poorly implemented. i said it was  
> unneccesary.
> and javascript generally IS more of a hindrance than a help)
>
>
>> Would your opinion of their javascript change, though, if instead  
>> of it
>> being a service hosted by them, it was an open source package you  
>> could
>> install on your own servers?
>
> not much.
>
> i find sites that use javascript slow down my browser to a  
> ridiculous extent.
>
> e.g. i was looking at the drive.com.au site this morning, which uses
> javascript a lot to rebuild drop-down selection lists when you select
> a make/model of a car. slightly convenient, but not necessary. the
> entire browser (not just the window displaying drive.com.au) slowed to
> a crawl - it would take over a minute to even display the drop-down
> menu, or switch to another window or tab, or perform any other normal
> operation....and i could see in the CPU meter in my gnome panel  
> that CPU
> utilisation jumped to 100%. as soon as i closed the window containing
> drive.com.au, the browser went back to normal speed.
>
> (btw, this is on an amd-64 3200 with 2GB RAM, a stupidly overpowered
> machine for the majority of tasks i use it for*. it should NOT be
> struggling to switch browser tabs)
>
> this is entirely typical when visiting sites that make more than  
> trivial
> use of javascript. it (apart from the potential spyware problems)  
> is the
> main reason i use the Firefox NoScript extension, set to disable js on
> all sites by default.
>
>
> (*) the only task i use it for that really needs the CPU grunt is to
> post-process the DVB recordings i make with VDR to sync the program
> stream to plain mpeg, and then transcode them to DIVX so i can play
> them over the network on the xbox (with xbox media center) attached to
> my TV. the CPU power also comes in handy processing all the postfix  
> and
> spamassassin regular expression patterns. the price on dual core  
> amd64's
> has come down a lot in recent months, so i'll probably upgrade to a  
> dual
> core amd64 4200 sometime soon.  SMP is very useful on a multi-tasking
> machine, makes it far more responsive no matter what it's doing in the
> background.
>
>
>
> IMO, the whole AJAX idea is misguided. it would be better implemented
> using the mozilla XUL application environment, fetching data as needed
> from RSS and XML sources. cross-platform, fast native code, and the
> user decides in advance what applications (and the version) they want
> to install and run on their computer, rather than just running  
> whatever
> code is served up by a website when they visit. such applications
> should concentrate on serving up the data in a standardised format,  
> and
> leave the presentation and manipulation of that data to the client  
> side
> (whether a browser-based application or stand-alone app).

--
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
Ph/F: +61 2 62577881 M: +61 417820641
mailto:kim at holburn.net  aim://kimholburn
skype://kholburn - PGP Public Key on request

Democracy imposed from without is the severest form of tyranny.
                           -- Lloyd Biggle, Jr. Analog, Apr 1961