Subject: one more gripe against frames
Thu Oct 29 19:49:17 1998



just took a look at the URL Brett suggested, and realized one more thing
i hate about frames.. they're a pain in the neck if you surf with image
auto-loading off.

as everyone knows, i'm your basic crypto-anarchist anti-authoritarian
luddite, and i spend most of my day supporting network services for
marketers who spend most of /their/ day trying to think of better ways
to target banner ads to the users.*   by way of compensation, i make it
a rule to surf with image auto-loading, Java, and Javascript turned
off.**   this is an act of economic terrorism, of course, because i'm
taking the benefit of their content without giving them banner ad
impressions in return.   

when i hit a page whose images i do want, which happens occasionally, i
hit the "Load Images" button, and hum Bartok's 8th to myself as i wait
for everything to arrive.   the problem with frames is that you have no
single-page context from which to load the images.   as nearly as i can
tell, the browser reloads the base page which defines the frameset and,
naturally, has no images at all.   the remaining options are to
individually click each image icon, or to back out of the page, dig
through the prefs dialog and turn auto-loading back on, and try again
from scratch.

so, from an ideological standpoint, frames support an "all or nothing"
model of page delivery, and i personally am opposed to that.





* tangential mini-rant #1:  if you have any illusions about the
corporate world's commitment to personal privacy, lose them.   these
guys get glassy-eyed at the thought of warehousing cookie transcripts,
personal profiles, and online sales transactions.   ethics 101 quote for
the month:  "can't you just make it /look/ like a secure server?"


** tangential mini-rant #2:  DO take the time to check the low-bandwidth
loading characteristics of any website you use as a portfolio piece,
gang.   i've nailed more prospective webmaster wanabees in interviews by
sitting them down at the keyboard and letting them puch the URL of their
site into my browser.   usually, this results in a blank page full of
uncommented image icons, and the occasional grey box where a Java button
would go.

flash isn't very impressive if the user doesn't bother to load it.  
text links, OTOH, are nearly impossible to break.   text on the web is a
Good Thing.