Deathshadow's Madness

In a recent article on SitePoint the subject of browser sniffing came up - more specifically how some REALLY rubbish scripts are apparantly detecting the Opera 10 beta as Opera 1.0... One part really bothered me... and I tried to post a response that their 'spam filter' caught - though I expect it will NEVER actually get onto the site given that I'm persona non-grata and perma-banned from the forums over there, all because I used the word 'wigger' once in a post... Which of course is a cop-out for the fact that I have the habit of calling a turd a turd regardless of who it offends, and had made their mentor staff look like idiots one too many times a few years back. (They only have two people on staff I have the least respect for the opinions of, and one of them became a mentor AFTER I was banned)

In any case, back on topic, the part that bothered me was this:

Unfortunately, this reflects poorly on Opera

My response is thus:

Bullcookies. It reflects poorly on the overpaid underskilled nimrods who slap together websites using dated and faulty technologies like browser sniffing. Even hinting or blaming the browser is the wrong tack - Instead we need to start sending wakeup calls to developers, or even BETTER their bosses.

Let's examine the code for Bank of America's main page, shall we?

Mediocre fixed width layout flush left, layout uses dynamic fonts inside extra-narrow fixed width containers making the navigation a train wreck on large font/120 dpi systems, and no graceful degredation script off or que's to make it read properly in screen readers. If this was a site in the UK, they'd be facing accessability fines. (LORD we could use those types of laws here in the Colonies)

154k in 17 external javascripts along with at LEAST 30k of internal javascript on a page that by all appearances doesn't do anything that warrants ANY scripting.

124 Validation errors in a transitional doctype - that requires a geniune level of ineptitude the likes of which you'd half suspect Bush administration was behind it, as they do not have HTML, they have gibberish.

Presentational Markup? CHECK!
Presentational images in the markup? CHECK!
Table based layout with no layout elements that warrant a table? CHECK!
Spacer.gif's? CHECK!
Major sections of page CONTENT loaded via DHTML with no graceful degredation for scripting off, CHECK!
Unquoted values on attributes? CHECK!
XHTML style closings in a HTML doctype? CHECK!

Net result? 77k in their served document, another 174k of scripting, 18k of CSS, and a grand total of 42 files all to serve less than 5k of ACTUAL PAGE CONTENT. (which by my estimates looking at the page should be 7-10k of main document, no scripting, 8-12k of CSS, 9-12 files total)

... and this level of ineptitude and stupidity is 100% typical of the majority of banking websites, and commercial websites in general. Given what total RUBBISH the code they output to the user is, one has to really question how bad what's underneath it also is. If their front-end code is any indication of the back-end, it's a miracle the entire online banking system isn't pwned daily by every script kiddie with an ATmega168 on their shoulder.

Take the credit union I use - the login for users bank accounts is served by default on their main page via HTTP, NOT HTTPS!!! Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?!? I'd be willing to bet I could get into a local gateway somewhere with a code inject and just start sniffing people's login information. THEN of course because I'm an opera user I get the warnings about thier verisign key not only being out of date, but also only being a short key.

The new hotmail is an excellent example as well of Rubbish Code from Alleged professionals. This is a plague that infects 90%+ of major websites as developers continue to take sleazeball shortcuts, load up on 'gee ain't it neat' technologies, load up with buzzword rubbish like "web 2.0" and allowing SEO to be sleazed from a simple step of site coding into a scam based cottage industry. The most annoying part is that it gets worse year after year as new 'Gee ain't it neat' technologies like AJAX start to be ABUSED to do stuff that would be better done the old way. The problem isn't AJAX, it's the abuse of AJAX and throwing it at everything to the point you break normal page navigation and the site doesn't work without it. The problem wasn't tables for layout, it's the abuse of tables by throwing them around every damned element even if you end up with only one TD. The problem isn't FLASH, it's the abuse of flash for navigational and presentational elements instead of leaving it to what it does best, games and videos.

The only reason these inept morons are allowed to keep their jobs is the suits that write their paychecks don't know any better. You know, the types who think you can find good technology advice in Forbes, or that Dreamweaver is a professional grade tool. (As opposed to the people who use it who are the real tools - Thanks Dan!). We need to start flooding THOSE people with error lists like the one above.

Oh, but let's say it makes Opera look bad instead of coming right out and blaming the incompetant dimwits who are REALLY at fault and the rubbish code they pollute the web with.

Of course even daring to point out errors like that, bad sleazeball shortcuts taken by alleged 'experts', the incompetance of others and calling a turd a turd is usually enough to get you singled out for banning by most websites - since at the end of the day in business it always sleazes down to the brown nosing good old boys network, or in social settings the back-slapping everything is good don't you dare say anything negative dirty hippy rubbish that does nothing but perpetuate these types of problems.