Yes, that is correct. And back when Noscript was first created that approach worked just fine. But things have changed and Noscript's default behavior (block everything) just doesn't work any more. That's not Noscript's fault. That's the fault of assholes running shitty websites. Regardless, the number of pages that are horribly broken, or don't display at all (without Javascript) continues to grow. So now, every time you visit a domain you've never visited before, you have to tinker with NoScript.

Google Chrome has a feature (or used to, I haven't used it for a while) that allows you to selectively block Javascript by domain. I find this to be a better approach -- everything is whitelisted by default and you selectively block the ones you don't like.

And those are the sites that I never visit again.

You want to make money? Charge people for whatever it is you have to offer. People spend a few Gazillions of dollars every year paying for things, so it's not like this is a new concept. If people aren't willing to pay for what you have to offer then you have nothing of value and need to die.

And nobody will even notice that you are gone.

And that's the *REAL* problem.

We've lived with ads our entire lives. Radio, television, newspapers, magazines, etc. And it was annoying but not too terrible. But now, everything is dominated by assholes who are committed to making advertising as offensive, intrusive and dishonest as possible.

That's why CPM rates for Internet ads are so low --- everyone knows that they are nothing but shit and scams that nobody would ever click on except accidentally.

Thank you Captain Obvious.

Yes, it is bad design. But it is bad design done deliberately.

The problem with Noscript is that things have changed. You used to be able to block Javascript and most websites worked well enough to still be usable. Today, more and more websites are designed in a such a way that disabling Javascript breaks them completely -- you literally get nothing but a blank page.

No they aren't.

Targeted ads are based on something you did in the past. Just because you searched for XYZ a week ago doesn't mean you now want to see a lot of ads for XYZ everywhere you go. So called targeted ads are just as useless and random as everything else.

And that "something else" will still be subject to the same bad laws (DMCA) as Dropbox.

The problem is, this isn't Dropbox's rules. They are following the law.

Why not? Automobiles can last for 20 years or more with little more than minor repairs and routine maintenance. Musicians routinely use instruments made in the 1950s or earlier. But for some reason, people have bought into the absurd idea that software is obsolete and unusable after a few years.

The term "virus" has evolved to include all forms of malware and anti-virus programs now detect more than just the traditional "virus".

First, the only newer version of Windows that "has anything to offer" is Windows 7. Vista isn't as bad as some people have tried to claim, but once Windows 7 became available, Vista became meaningless and there is absolutely no reason to even consider it. Windows 8 is a mess. One of the all time worst.

But the real problem isn't that newer version of Windows don't have anything to offer. The problem is the expense of switching.. Whether it's an individual with one computer or a business with a few thousand, the cost far outweighs the benefits.

Then there is the dirty little secret of business, that isn't so secret. There are millions of computers running shitty, poorly written software that will stop working if you make the tiniest change to the underlying hardware or operating system. That makes switching even more difficult and expensive.

No, Bitcoin became popular because a bunch of crackpots bought into a bunch of anti-government bullshit. Despite all the problems and imperfections with governments and regulations, the bitcoin nutjobs are too busy drinking the anti-government kool-aid to understand that it's precisely those governments and regulations that create stability which in turn makes a currency actually worth something.

And a few speculators looking to get rich quick.

Why do people open an account with a stock broker? You're saying to someone "I want to buy (or sell) X, go find me someone who has X to sell (or who wants to buy it)". The whole point of an exchange, whether it's stocks or Bitcoins, is to do the work of finding buyers and sellers so you don't have to.

And it works reasonably well if the exchanges are honest (or forced to be honest by regulations). Bitcoin exchanges are not regulated in any way so they attract people who are specifically looking to rip you off. Just look at the past year. Nobody has lost any significant money from actual trading on Bitcoin exchanges. All the loses have been from exchanges taking people's money and then disappearing.

Not really.

Yes, if you buy Bitcoins and then the price goes down you lose money, just like with stocks and futures. However, most of loses with Bitcoin has not been from normal trading activity. Almost all of the losses have been from the Bitcoin exchanges stealing people's money. That's very rare with stocks and futures due to regulation specifically designed to prevent that sort of thing. I'm not saying it never happens, but it's rare.

For the past couple of years the Mozilla developers have been hard at work removing features from Firefox and making it less and less useful. We've been able to (mostly) work around these stupid, pointless changes with the use of additional extensions. Having to add extensions to bring back features that have been removed is stupid, but it works.

Now, with the new "Australis" design they take things to a whole new level. Australis completely destroys almost everything that made Firefox popular in the first place. An enormous amount of flexibility and customizability has been removed. But not just removed. Completely ripped out in such a way that getting it back through extensions (which are just bits of Javascript and CSS) will be difficult, if not impossible. Extensions such as "Classic Theme Restorer" attempt to undo some of the damage, but are only able to do so in a very limited way.

Firefox, as we know it, will soon be gone. What a bunch of assholes.

Ultimately, encryption is meaningless. If the NSA (or any other governmental agency) wants something, they will get it.

Even if you invent some suoer-duoer-impossible-to-crack encryption, they will simply go to a secret court (that is accountable to no one) and get a secret order, that you must comply with and that you aren't allowed to talk about under penalty of going to prison, on the grounds of NATIONAL SECURITY.

Until *THAT* problem is addressed, encryption is meaningless.