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They specifically ask people not to do that.
You shouldn't hotlink someone else's JavaScript
31–40 of 102 posts
Re: You shouldn't hotlink someone else's JavaScript
#32And that's a pretty mild example of what could happen if you did. Hotlinking javascript is an excellent way to allow someone else to pull all kinds of tricks with your visitors and your image. For example, redirecting all your traffic to a shocksite. Every time you include some externally hosted javascript you open yourself and your visitors to a security risk. And on top of that, if you do it like this you're steali…
The security risk is precisely why a lot of new services provide embeddable content via iframes now, rather than JS. On the other hand, this still isn't perfect - we wrote about it today, actually: https://www.tinfoilsecurity.com/blog/protect-your-website-fr...
Re: You shouldn't hotlink someone else's JavaScript
#33>We noticed that you're using Internet Explorer. Polymath currently does not support this browser because compatibility issues prevent us from delivering an ideal experience. We're working on fixing these issues.
People do realise that some company networks give you no control over which browser you can use right? I can't understand what feature they would need which is missing from IE10. Why not use feature detection? We've moved on from browser detection...
Re: You shouldn't hotlink someone else's JavaScript
#34Ok there is a better way to handle this than adding some html to a page to make a banner, posting to HN, and hoping for the best. Check for referal headers and throw a 301.
Polymath might not be the only ones hotlinking... the alternative would be to track everyone who is hotlinking, get their email, and then notify them. Many will likely ignore this email.
Re: You shouldn't hotlink someone else's JavaScript
#35Ok there is a better way to handle this than adding some html to a page to make a banner, posting to HN, and hoping for the best. Check for referal headers and throw a 301.
Compared to what could have happened this is actually pretty mild.
Everyone these days is so polite.
OK, that was a bit of an exaggeration. But back in my day the web had a whole site high-bandwidth site specifically for educating careless webmasters about the dangers of hotlinking: g o a t s e . c x.
It was used to great effect on things like auction sites where the original page html was not allowed to be changed after listing.
Re: You shouldn't hotlink someone else's JavaScript
#36>We noticed that you're using Internet Explorer. Polymath currently does not support this browser because compatibility issues prevent us from delivering an ideal experience. We're working on fixing these issues. People do realise that some company networks give you no control over which browser you can use right? I can't understand what feature they would need which is missing from IE10. Why not use feature detectio…
I think that's just code for "we don't want to spend the time and effort to properly test and debug our application on IE at this time, and we really don't want to get barraged with IE support requests either".
Re: You shouldn't hotlink someone else's JavaScript
#37And that's a pretty mild example of what could happen if you did. Hotlinking javascript is an excellent way to allow someone else to pull all kinds of tricks with your visitors and your image. For example, redirecting all your traffic to a shocksite. Every time you include some externally hosted javascript you open yourself and your visitors to a security risk. And on top of that, if you do it like this you're steali…
The standard pattern is never use external dependencies directly, but to keep copies and host them on your CDN. That way, you can run them through the ol' asset pipeline too... minifiers and possibly serve them straight from gzips. Gotta always remind ppl of https://developers.google.com/speed/ ... the OP scores 47 (out of 100)
Interesting, Google has added more stuff to the speed test. My site has gone DOWN by 4 points since I last tested it due to failing some new tests.
Really great service by Google in general. I've managed to improve page loading times by 25%, cut number of connections in half (I merged all images into one unified file and then use CSS to display the relevant sub-sections), and reduce the total size of my page by over 10%.
Re: You shouldn't hotlink someone else's JavaScript
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Compared to what could have happened this is actually pretty mild.
Everyone these days is so polite. OK, that was a bit of an exaggeration. But back in my day the web had a whole site high-bandwidth site specifically for educating careless webmasters about the dangers of hotlinking: g o a t s e . c x. It was used to great effect on things like auction sites where the original page html was not allowed to be changed after listing.
That was exactly what I had in mind when I wrote that.
Re: You shouldn't hotlink someone else's JavaScript
#39Find more here: https://www.google.com.au/search?q=%22http%3A%2F%2Fgsgd.co.u...
Even more interesting is all the people who don't know why they're getting this error message: https://encrypted.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22Please%20stop...
Yep, I thought that too. The vast majority of website owners have had external developers build their websites. Often those developers are long gone and the website owners left to their own devices (or CMS's). The site owners are now confused and think they have been hacked and don't know where to turn to.
There is actually a business proposition here. You could contact George Smith and ask him for a list of all HTTP referrers. Then contact each site in turn and ask them if they need any help.
Even if they have it sorted already, it might be a good intro into some of these small enterprises.
Re: You shouldn't hotlink someone else's JavaScript
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
Compared to what could have happened this is actually pretty mild.
Everyone these days is so polite. OK, that was a bit of an exaggeration. But back in my day the web had a whole site high-bandwidth site specifically for educating careless webmasters about the dangers of hotlinking: g o a t s e . c x. It was used to great effect on things like auction sites where the original page html was not allowed to be changed after listing.
I once hotlinked an image posted on a forum, and they served the same link you provided.
I never did a hotlink again.