On 17 Oct 2007 Mircea Pauca wrote:

> What I hate: unknown e-critters that launch
> uncontrollable code; ActiveX; Flash (except when

Most browsers can be set to not launch anything automatically.

> Any one more in the know can point to more
> such current and near-future annoyances/threats
> and ways to understand and protect from ?

Firefox, with the noscript add-on. You may also like the "adblock plus"
add-on.

> [On the contrary, I've also seen the objection that
> slow-Net users are also unlikely to buy other linked
> products so they don't matter ?!?]

Not always. Some people just don't have access to broadband.

> Also: I'd think imperatively appropriate that every
> Web designer tests his brand new creation with a
> "slow Net emulator" !

If you look at my pages,
the images are all provided with "width"/"height" tags, so that slow
loading doesn't interfere with the text, and most have "alt" tags of some
sort. The text is designed to load smoothly, without excess "features".

See:
http://www.scn.org/~bk269/
http://www.scn.org/~bk269/telemarketing.html
(text intensive)
http://www.scn.org/~bk269/plastics.html
(image intensive)
http://www.scn.org/people/autistics/
(autistic intensive)

As an attempt at providing an *alternative* to javascript, look at the
following with javascript turned off:

http://ani.autistics.org/email_test.html

The javascript version has automatic "mailto" tags. The problem was that
not all readers are javascript enabled. (The javascript "mailto" tags are
configured to confuse spam bots.) The test version has the "noscript"
part of the first 2 addresses appear in a mode that permits cut-and-paste.
(The raw html has the addresses pretty much munged.)

If anyone is running lynx or a vt100 terminal, or better yet, an assistive
reader, please let me know if the first 2 addresses on the
http://ani.autistics.org/email_test.html
can be read.

- s