When I land on a website that says something like this:

… chances are *very* good that I leave and don’t come back.

I’m not a real techie, I’m a pseudo techie. But I talk to real ones, and one of the first things I learned when I began mucking about on the Internet was to utilize a various bits of software to protect myself. As great as the Internet is, there are some less than great websites that can cause problems.

Javascript is a perfectly good software program. It allows a great many bells and whistles online. Javascript can allow a web designer to employ lots of flashy qlitzy stuff that makes a wensite look very cool. The problem is that javascript can contain executable software — in other words software that can do stuff to our computers.

Sometimes bad stuff. Malware, spyware, viruses.

The best way to defend against this is to use a program called No Script:

NoScript is a free and open-source extension for Mozilla Firefox, SeaMonkey, and other Mozilla-based web browsers, created and actively maintained by Giorgio Maone, an Italian software developer and member of the Mozilla Security Group.

I don’t know if it works on web browsers besides Firefox.

NoScript does not allow Javascript to run.

One of the coolest things about it, though, is that you can change your mind.

Any time.

So if you are visiting a website you trust, you can give it permission to run the bells and whistles for you, either temporarily, or all the time. Or not.

If you don’t use NoScript, when you visit a website that has viruses, malware or spyware hiding behind all the dazzling web tchotchkes, you can wind up with spyware, malware and viruses on your computer. Personally, I’d rather run No Script.

But what happens when you land on a webpage that tells you you must run javascript?

Personally, that kind of page annoys me. I have not made an error, but rather a valid security decision.

In fact, any website that takes this attitude strikes me as suspect. And worse, the site has just demonstrated that the site owners don’t really care about my security.

A good website works even without bells and whistles.

It might not be as glitzy, but you should be able to access the content anyway. If you can’t, it is a badly designed site. Maybe you want to go there anyway.

Either way, it should be *your choice*