Rants: July 2006 Archives

This post isn't about what it did to the web as far as standards go, actually. That's been beaten and beaten again. "Leave the poor horse alone, you're down to a few bloody ribs." That kind of a thing.

Let's pretend for a moment. Let's pretend that IE rendered everything 100% to the existing web standards, and always had.

But uh, that still leaves a few small things of concern, namely the ability to use JScript, VBScript, and ActiveX control on the public internet.

Don't get me wrong: it's amazingly easy to design web pages. Half-Life 2, an incredibly popular (and well-done game) actually uses IE's rendering engine in game to display some things. No, really, it does.

Wait a second. I went from designing on the web to something completly unrelated to the web.

That's the problem. Despite it's name, "Internet Explorer," IE can be used outside of the internet. For things such as game menus, autorun menus, basically anything you please. And, hey, it's a lot easier to write a menu as HTML than it is in C. Hence, IE is used in applications, in combination with JScript, VBScript, and ActiveX. What's more, this is a perfectly legit use of such technologies.

Utilizing VBScript, JScript, and ActiveX, any programmer with any degree of ability (not talent, knowledge, common sense, or brain, but ability) to create a webpage, could easily (for certain terms of "easily") impliment Office in a web browser. Or a game like Half-Life 2. Or Doom 3. AutoCAD. Photoshop, WinFAX, or any program that you can install on a windows box, could be brought over the web with those technologies.

Ignore security (and other OSs) for a moment. That's a really impressive feat. It really is. The ability to do anything at all in a web browser would be very nice. Windows Update is a decent example of this, because through a web page, anyone can update their software. Sure, you could just ship your OS with a client that would pull the files down itself, but really? Compare the workload. It's easier to do it over the internet with a bit of scripting and ActiveX.

I'm also pretty sure that's the only use of ActiveX out there today that's done properly.

But then, you have to mention the end result of ActiveX, JScript, and VBScript being included in a browser. Click a link, format your hard drive. "Oops." In all truth, an ad on a website could completly erase your hard drive without even "asking" you.

Yet, people still persist in using ActiveX on the public internet. That's the bad that was done. That's why I'm sitting here, banging my head on my desk time and time again. I work for a small law (real estate) firm. They use several websites to get the job done, and rightly so.

I hate (strong word!) two websites that they must "use" in particular. Why do I hate these websites? Because they require that a user has both administrator rights and ActiveX + JScript + VBScript enabled. Read as: "I, website, do hereby require full access to your hardrive, other devices in your computer, and access to anything on your network, in order to give you... a picture."

*bangs* *head* *against* *desk*

I tried. No, really, I tried. I tried to put forth a post about Microsoft that illuminated the good points. I really did. The amount... no, I take that back. The quality (OpenClueUT) of the bashing that occurs here is second to none. Take that as you please.

One computer. One license key. Said license key is physically attached to said computer. Said key is unique to said computer, and said computer alone.

So do tell me why, after seven attempts, my product activation was still denied. Tell me why, after speaking with four customer service reps, attempting to use the automated system three times (I even managed to use two seperate systems), I was still denied activation on a legit product license, and told to "please reinstall your product and call again later."

I have no problem at all installing and using Windows Server 2003 and Active Directory. I'll be honest, it's a joy to work with. It makes my life easy, and unlike Windows 98, it has yet to fail me over three years.

But so help me, "preventing piracy" just cost a fellow employee all of her personal email. Because of product activation locking me out of the computer, and from what I can tell, access to said computer over the network, in the name of piracy prevention you have set a business back $1,000 and removed an employee's items of personal value.

Thanks.