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heydonworks.com

201–210 of 281 posts

Re: Please disable JavaScript to view this site

#201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In case the OP wanted to know exactly how Brave's adblock is different from uBlock Origin instead of a link to the marketing page with links to other things like cryptocurrencies: Brave's browser claims a speedup over AdBlock plus, but was inspired by UBO, so the performance is fairly similar, but is baked into the browser instead of being an extension. > We therefore rebuilt our ad-blocker taking inspiration from uB…

It's also written in Rust for performance.

I don't understand this way of thinking. Rust isn't magically fast. You can use most languages to write both performant and lazy code.

Also just so you know, Brave isn't "written" in Rust alone, it is a big software with a lot of parts, including but not limited to a rendering engine, a JS VM and a WASM engine.

The Rust part at most (unconfirmed) would be the glue that connects them together, and I doubt that's where the bottleneck is for most browsers.

Re: Please disable JavaScript to view this site

#202

I must say, I don't understand the disable JS movement. I browse with JS on, and uBlock Origin to block ads. It's rare that I have any javascript-related problems in my web browsing. On the other hand, I definitely use a number of sites that rely on javascript for useful purposes. If you're worried about tracking, you can block ads and tracking scripts without disabling javascript. If you're worried about viruses, we…

On a great many web sites I have to spend the first 60 seconds on the site clicking on "X" boxes in popups to make them go away. In many cases there are actually several layers of popups obscuring the content, and some are delayed so they only pop up after you start reading the content. No I do not want to subscribe to your mailing list. No I don't want to take your survey. No I do not want to "chat" with your bot-pr…

I just hit reader mode on FF. I didn't know modern sites would even load without JS enabled.

Re: Please disable JavaScript to view this site

#203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Developers have been reimplementing W3C specs in Javascript. Forms don't work, password managers have no idea what's going on, back buttons are hijacked, and sometimes even scrolling is thought to be better handled by a 4MB JavaScript file than by the browser.

Whatever one thinks of that though, aren't those good reasons not to disable javascript?

They're an even better reason to find alternative sites.

Re: Please disable JavaScript to view this site

#204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also written in Rust for performance.

I don't understand this way of thinking. Rust isn't magically fast. You can use most languages to write both performant and lazy code. Also just so you know, Brave isn't "written" in Rust alone, it is a big software with a lot of parts, including but not limited to a rendering engine, a JS VM and a WASM engine. The Rust part at most (unconfirmed) would be the glue that connects them together, and I doubt that's where…

Is that's the new algorithm that made the rust rewrite x69 faster

>The new algorithm with optimised set of rules is 69x faster on average than the current engine.

https://brave.com/improved-ad-blocker-performance/

Re: Please disable JavaScript to view this site

#205
post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://brave.com/

In case the OP wanted to know exactly how Brave's adblock is different from uBlock Origin instead of a link to the marketing page with links to other things like cryptocurrencies: Brave's browser claims a speedup over AdBlock plus, but was inspired by UBO, so the performance is fairly similar, but is baked into the browser instead of being an extension. > We therefore rebuilt our ad-blocker taking inspiration from uB…

[deleted]

Re: Please disable JavaScript to view this site

#206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you're worried about viruses [...] Not to mention that a host of vulnerabilities were image related a few years back (one of the original rookits exploited a TGA bug). > uBlock Origin Honestly, this is the antivirus of the web. I helped my niece set up my old computer for Minecraft today, and she was explaining how her friend had installed viruses (adware, really) 3 times. Every one of those instances was caused…

> one of the original root kits exploited a TGA bug As a lover of old image formats and the security issues they can cause* this sounds fascinating, but some quick google searches don’t seem to surface what you are referencing. Can you share any more details? * I once fell into discovering a memory disclosure flaw with Firefox and XBM images

There was the github ddos that existed (iirc) as an image that made a request when viewed (I think it actually ran a script) and a couple smaller botnets that used similar functionality in 2018.

Re: Please disable JavaScript to view this site

#207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> By default, I always open links in new tabs which means back button has no data. I really wish, even if it was an optional setting, browsers would copy the past history of the source tab when you did that. If it hit back in a tab I opened that way, I still want “where I got here from” not “stay here” or “new tab page" or especially “close the tab” (thanks a lot Android Chrome).

Safari does this, at least on iOS. If you open a new tab, then hit back, it just closes the tab and takes you back to the origin tab. If you’ve closed the origin tab, it leaves the active tab open but goes back to what the origin tab was.

The macOS version has this behavior as well.

Re: Please disable JavaScript to view this site

#208
post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Javascript is a privacy and security nightmare. AFAIK, JavaScript the language has neither privacy nor security issues of "nightmare" level. > It's almost equivalent to downloading and silently executing untrusted code on your machine. No it's not. The code is run in a VM, which is run in a browser. So, the code is limited in doing things to the browser, which itself is limited in what it can do to your computer (f…

My understanding is that JavaScript is the primary mechanism used in browser fingerprinting and cross-site user tracking/"analytics". Isn't that a rather large privacy and (personal, if not specifically "cyber") security risk?

Yes.

The "security features" of popular browsers will never protect the user from the tentacles of internet advertising. Companies/organizations that author popular web browsers generally rely on the success of internet advertising in order to continue as going concerns; as such, they are obviously not focused on internet advertising, and collection of user data, as a "security threat".

Re: Please disable JavaScript to view this site

#209
For a personal website for showcasing their works I think requiring JavaScript turned off is a little too far.. I removed JavaScript from my sites to improve accessibility and user experience, but for this I have to go to settings and turn off JavaScript, which is worse user experience than having JavaScript on the site.

Re: Please disable JavaScript to view this site

#210
post #147

I’d love to get rid of JS for my personal sites, but I know of no clean and simple way to render dynamic content otherwise. Server-side rendering seems a bit messy. I want a clean REST API separate from the UI. How can I generate pages with dynamic content easily? Ideally with absolute minimal dependencies.

How is server-side rendering messy? It's just putting html strings together based on data, no frameworks or libraries needed.
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