[kwlug-disc] DuckDuckGo.com -- an alternate search engine

[Khalid Baheyeldin]

On Tue, Jul 27, 2010 at 9:15 PM, Ralph Janke <txwikinger at ubuntu.com> wrote:

> On July 27, 2010 07:27:40 pm unsolicited wrote:
> >
> > Networking in and of itself should not be bad.
> >
> > ...
> >
> > NoScript, at least, provides a selective, and temporary, mechanism to
> > let (some) javascript in. And even doing so will lead to 'nefarious'
> > unnecessary consumption of unwanted bandwidth, if you don't remember
> > to revoke those temporary permissions. (Which makes NoScript,
> > unfortunately, an incompletely satisfying sole approach.)
> >
> > To say, in this day and age "Well, just don't use it, then." is fatuous.
> >
>
> Well, it still does not explain why networking is ok, but Javascript is
> not.
> Javascript is not the only security issue exposed in networking.
>
> Hence: Javascript in and of itself should not be bad! :)
>

What matters is not the abstract theoretical stuff, but what is actually
out there in the field. How a certain technology is used, not what it was
designed to do, nor what it could have been.

Networking itself is a good thing. Does that mean I open all ports and run
everything without passwords? Remember that the internet was like that
in the early research days. Using uucp and then rsh to remotely execute
commands from one university machine to another university machine.

Usenet was also useful for all sorts of things from news to sharing
programs.

Then the world changed. There was the Morris Worm. Then came spam.
Then viruses and worms.

That is reality ...

Javascript is just a language. AJAX is one use of that language, generally
useful, e.g. Gmail.

But how it is used by sites out there varies from annoying to obnoxious to
dangerous.

The only practical defense is to use an extension like NoScript, and
whitelist
on a domain by domain basis. If there is something better, I have not seen
it.
-- 
Khalid M. Baheyeldin
2bits.com, Inc.
http://2bits.com
Drupal optimization, development, customization and consulting.
Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability. --  Edsger W.Dijkstra
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. --   Leonardo da Vinci
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