I am frustrated that it's 2016, and we still can't tilt windows diagonally.
Browserball
31–40 of 77 posts
Re: Browserball
#32What's the reason for allowing web pages to get absolute screen coordinates? This is a privacy leak. I have a 24" screen, and I don't keep the browser window maximized because it would be too big. I presume other people do to, and I'm pretty sure most have a preferred size and position.
I've used it to automatically position auxillary windows adjacent to the main window in a data analysis application. I don't see how it reveals anything private about the user... my screen resolution and window location are not secrets to me.
But they may be unique to you, making you more identifiable/trackable. The TOR browser warns you when resizing the window that it reduces privacy.
Personally I don't care either, just thought you might want to know!
Re: Browserball
#33I am frustrated that it's 2016, and we still can't tilt windows diagonally.
Meaning ?
Re: Browserball
#34What's the reason for allowing web pages to get absolute screen coordinates? This is a privacy leak. I have a 24" screen, and I don't keep the browser window maximized because it would be too big. I presume other people do to, and I'm pretty sure most have a preferred size and position.
> What's the reason for allowing web pages to get absolute screen coordinates? Back in the 90's, Microsoft and Netscape were all too happy to give JS developers the world with almost no regard for security consequences. We've spent the last 20 years trying to fix their mistakes.
We only spent 15 years trying to fix the mistakes. The last 5 have been spent repeating them.
Re: Browserball
#35I am frustrated that it's 2016, and we still can't tilt windows diagonally.
Meaning ?
Then you could make the ball roll down towards the corner and drop into another window, of course!
The NeWS window system let you reshape the entire framebuffer to any orientation or clipping, as well as individual windows and sub-windows, in the late 1980's.
Why shouldn't I be able to lay down on my side next to a laptop and read a web page off the screen sideways, or adjust the rotation of the window to match the inclination of my pillow?
The other thing I want the window manager to support (which NeWS couldn't do since PostScript only supports 2D affine transforms) is estimating my head position relative to the screen, and projecting the window in perspective so it looks rectangular from an oblique viewing angle, so I can watch a movie on an extra screen off to the side.
If you could rotate windows around on the screen, Browser Ball should be able to use the laptop accelerometer to detect the true direction of gravity, and bounce the ball accordingly as you turned the windows and the laptop itself around.
Unfortunately Apple stopped putting accelerometers in laptops with SSD drives, since they were only used to retract the heads when falling.
You can do a lot of fun things by modeling and tracking the positions of multiple people's heads and multiple devices in augmented reality! Here are two people using two tablets, two laptops, and a desktop computer together with Pantomime: [1]
Re: Browserball
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just use NoScript if you are concerned. JavaScript allows a large number of other ways to identify you as well. Direct ways of course include cookies / local storage / Web SQL, but other indirect ways include localization preferences, OS / browser / plugin / extension fingerprinting, HID inputs, side channel profiling etc. etc. – some combination of these allows uniquely identifying at least 80% of web users.[1][2][3…
Might as well say don't use the web. Disabling javascript will break most sites with a few rare exceptions. (like HN)
It's actually quite the opposite. Most sites will become lightning fast and distraction free.
Re: Browserball
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
> What's the reason for allowing web pages to get absolute screen coordinates? Back in the 90's, Microsoft and Netscape were all too happy to give JS developers the world with almost no regard for security consequences. We've spent the last 20 years trying to fix their mistakes.
We only spent 15 years trying to fix the mistakes. The last 5 have been spent repeating them.
On the contrary, I would argue that most new web platform features have been designed with more thought for security. We generally ask for user permission first before divulging data, for example. Some new features help mitigate past mistakes, too, like Content Security Policies.
Re: Browserball
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Meaning ?
Then you could make the ball roll down towards the corner and drop into another window, of course! The NeWS window system let you reshape the entire framebuffer to any orientation or clipping, as well as individual windows and sub-windows, in the late 1980's. Why shouldn't I be able to lay down on my side next to a laptop and read a web page off the screen sideways, or adjust the rotation of the window to match the i…
Why did I not read your nickname .. :)
The pseudo billboard idea is cute, but I wonder how it fares in readability on non HD screen (font rendering in 3D space may impede it, then viewing angles.). I'd love to see it done anyway, it's cute idea.
Another 'this is ' rant, we should have way more sensors on usb or i2c and have our laptops integrate with the real world more.
Re: Browserball
#39What's the reason for allowing web pages to get absolute screen coordinates? This is a privacy leak. I have a 24" screen, and I don't keep the browser window maximized because it would be too big. I presume other people do to, and I'm pretty sure most have a preferred size and position.
Just out of curiosity, what can someone do with this information?
Re: Browserball
#40I made a project in college like this that utilized the Windows API to enumerate the rectangles of the windows and you could create shapes and other things that you can throw around your desktop