Greasemonkey

[Ted Roche]

I've been playing with it for a while. It has the great capability to  
provide a runtime engine in the user's browser. For me, that means I  
can splice a Google satellite map onto any page when the writer(s)  
have posted an address:

http://radio.weblogs.com/0117767/2005/07/16.html#a1612

On the downside, it means that any evildoer who finds a way to detect  
and exploit that engine on my local machine has a worrisome amount of  
power. So, I also run NoScript so I can choose which sites can  
"run" (vs. being viewed) in my browser. And keep an eye on security  
alerts:

http://radio.weblogs.com/0117767/2005/07/19.html

Ted Roche
Ted Roche & Associates, LLC
http://www.tedroche.com


On Jan 1, 2006, at 11:09 PM, Ben Scott wrote:

> As kind of a counter-point to the recent discussion on Firefox
> security and what JavaScript shouldn't be allowed to do, I'm wondering
> what anyone here has to say on Greasemonkey.
>
> http://greasemonkey.mozdev.org/
>
> Greasemonkey is kind of like bookmarklets on steroids.  It lets you
> attach arbitrary JavaScript code to any given webpage.  The key here
> is that you, the *user*, are scripting things.  An interesting article
> on the potential of user-supplied scripting can be found here:
>
> http://www.nivi.com/blog/article/greasemonkey-and-business-models/
>
> That article notes the following things you might do with Greasemonkey
> (in order of increasing anarchy):
> - Insert links to your local library's card catalog into Amazon
> - Insert prices from competitive booksellers into Amazon
> - Insert links to pirated material into Amazon (or Netflix)
>
> While I admit I find the idea of user-supplied scripting intriguing,
> things such as potential security and stability nightmares are keeping
> me away from Greasemonkey for now.  I'm curious  as to what others
> think.
>
> -- Ben "Monkey is a funny word" Scott
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