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SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Wednesday September 05 2018, @04:57PM   Printer-friendly
from the less-is-more dept.

Programmer Drew DeVault writes a blog post about conservative web development after poking at a few popular sites and finding that only 8% of the data downloaded among the megabytes of advertisements, scripts, and third-party scripts is actually related to content. This represents several usability problems. After walking through some of the more problematic symptoms he proposes several steps which can remediate the state of the web.

Today I turned off my ad blocker, enabled JavaScript, opened my network monitor, and clicked the first link on Hacker News - a New York Times article. It started by downloading a megabyte of data as it rendered the page over the course of eight full seconds. The page opens with an advertisement 281 pixels tall, placed before even the title of the article. As I scrolled down, more and more requests were made, downloading a total of 2.8 MB of data with 748 HTTP requests. An article was weaved between a grand total of 1419 vertical pixels of ad space, greater than the vertical resolution of my display. Another 153-pixel ad is shown at the bottom, after the article. Four of the ads were identical.

Aside: Opponents to javascript are often wrongfully framed as Luddites. However, I invite readers to connect the dots; see:
Exploiting Speculative Execution (Meltdown/Spectre) via JavaScript
Web cache poisoning just got real: How to fling evil code at victims
Rowhammer.js Is the Most Ingenious Hack I've Ever Seen and
Oh, great, now there's a SECOND remote Rowhammer exploit

[Ed note: SoylentNews is designed to use no Javascript for normal user interactions. (There are a few staff-accessible pages requiring it, such as the Story Editing page.) I don't know of anyone on staff who would seriously consider changing that. When this site was initially rolling out, we actually tested to make sure it would work on a text-only browser (Lynx) and even Mosaic! So, please enjoy your light-weight, performant web pages here!]

[TMB note: Except the "collapse/expand this whole damned thread" button.]


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  • (Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 05 2018, @05:58PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 05 2018, @05:58PM (#730854)

    "Owwwwwwwwww! Iiiit huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurts!" she screamed. It did not take long for tears to start running down her face. She checked her leg, and was shocked to see an awful scrap wound on her knee, as well as a twisted ankle. What had happened here? The little girl, Sally, had just been riding her bike on the sidewalk; at some point, the bike tipped over, resulting in these terrible injuries. To make matters worse, no one was around to help her. Or, so she thought.

    The girl, who was staring down at her injuries, suddenly saw someone's legs in front of her. So, she looked up, and what she saw startled her. It was a man. It was a very tall man with excessively large eyes and a piercing gaze. This man, Ricko, was looking down at her with eyes full of curiosity. For a moment, Sally believed that the man was there to help her, but his next facial expression instantly made her believe otherwise. The girl hadn't even noticed that another man had crept up behind her. Thus, the two men took turns.

    First, it was Ricko's turn. Then, it was Ericham's turn. Next, it was once again Ricko's turn. Then, Ericham. Ricko. Ericham. Ricko. Ericham. Ricko. Ericham. Ricko. Ericham. Ricko. Ericham. Ricko. Ericham. Ricko. Ericham. Ricko. Ericham. The men each waited for their turn, like proper gentlemen. What's more, each man enjoyed themselves thoroughly. Oh, did they enjoy themselves.

    Ricko used his favorite pocket knife. Ericham used his trusty mallet. Together, the amazing duo inflicted extraordinary pain upon little Sally as they violated her in a variety of positions. As the girl sustained an increasing number of stab wounds and broken bones, she became more and more quiet. The men noticed that, as the girl's body accumulated damage, they had to dispense an ever-increasing level of force in order to elicit a reaction from the toy. This fact displeased them, but they were determined to eat their fill. That is precisely what they did, until it was all over. Then, they felt only one emotion.

    Disgusting. The men were thoroughly disgusted. The little girl had gone silent, leaving nothing of note behind. The two men tried to beat and stab the girl more, but she didn't react any longer. It was over. The men spat on the unmoving toy, and then departed for greener pastures. After all, staying with that piece of trash that didn't react to anything would be a waste of time.

    Ricko and Ericham continued walking away, towards a future filled with lively children who could scream, cry, and beg for mercy. Ricko and Ericham continued walking away, towards a future where men's rights reigned supreme.

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