But these changes will not transfer into the descendants of the guy who was changed still in the womb unless they're exposed to precisely the same factors and change in the same way. It's not a "lasting" change like a genetic one.

More likely they're not innovative, but still are patentable.

So if I prescribe you aspirin as a blood thinner and you take one for a headache, that's aspirin abuse? Don't pull definitions out of your ass, fuckface.

Yes, it is. It's also what most people are used to, which is important for gaining a large userbase.

I didn't mean to restrict the meaning of "abuse" to addiction. It also happens that most of these pro athletes do not use performance enhancers in doses or with a frequency so high that it ruins their health. Any one of these factors can constitute abuse, but most athletes don't fit in that description, even though some of them obviously do.

Was that "later in life" that you typed there? Seems to me you're not refuting my point at all. One or two people getting carried away because they can't keep up with the younger generation does NOT mean that the "abuse" generalization should hold any water.

Substance "abuse"? It's just substance use - athletes using chemical aids, steroids and hormones to improve their physical performance. I can't imagine why you'd qualify it as abuse in any way, shape or form - it's not like the athletes are hooked on steroids. They use these substances as a means to an end, not as an end in themselves.

From a technical standpoint, the ideal solution would be to include both plain Firefox and Firefox with the most popular security extensions, like NoScript and AdBlock(Plus). But this was a marketing study, so I think they were justified in their approach.

Shipped or not with them is exactly the issue. It'd be a murky point if NoScript were developed by Mozilla, but not even that - if you want to keep your Raw Processing analogy, you'd have to assume that Raw Processing is only available if you root your camera and install a third-party firmware.

What good is a browser safety test that assumes every user is both very knowledgeable about Internet security and very diligent in protecting his/her own data, when in truth the average user is completely clueless and doesn't even care that much? Yet that's a built-in assumption in a test that pretends that an optional third-party security plugin used by a minority of the overall users of that particular browser is in fact part of the browser itself. Besides, if you want to add NoScript to Firefox when testing, it's only consistent that you also add every other extension that's at least as popular as NoScript, right? But why should you stop at that particular level of popularity? Why not install every single extension you can get your hands on? It'd be a miracle if you could get the browser to launch, and even then it wouldn't beat IE 4 on a security test with all those added vulnerabilities.

That's good to know. Thanks for the link.

This was a market-oriented study and Opera has a negligible market share when compared to IE, Firefox and Chrome. It's a pity. I really like Opera, but from a market standpoint it's irrelevant.

Even better, use SRWare Iron Browser. Also based on Chromium, but with a bunch of privacy- and security-oriented tweaks. AFAIK, it's nothing you couldn't do yourself while compiling chromium, but it's a lot more convenient like this.

No, it'd be like reviewing an SLR without an external flash bulb. Raw mode is built-in to the camera, NoScript is not built-in to Firefox. NoScript, like the external flash bulb, is an optional feature that the browser/camera is made to accept, but also made to work without. Most Firefox users don't use NoScript, even though almost every power user does. Likewise, most people who buy SLRs are overspoiled teens who will never leave the safety of "Auto" mode and probably don't even know that you can swap lens at all - but every serious photographer has a bag full of peripherals for each specific kind of photo they want to make. I've never read a side-by-side comparison of, say, a Nikon and a Canon camera where the reviewer concludes that despite being all-around worse than model B, you should still buy model A because it fits more different kinds of peripherals. It's the same thing with web browsers.

Yes, that's exactly what I didn't mean. The test was a test of Firefox (and IE and Chrome), not a test of "Firefox with some add-ons installed". Chrome has optional third-party security plugins too, and they also weren't enabled for the test. NoScript isn't a part of Firefox, doesn't come bundled with the browser, and isn't developed by Mozilla. Why should it be included in the test?

They tested the vanilla browsers, as they should. Most people don't install NoScript, and many who do get annoyed with it and switch it off.