Some people are wary of potential security problems. There have been security issues found in JavaScript in IE in the past (allowing malicious web sites to read files for your PC etc)

I often turn off Javascript if I know I'll be surfing to a site that uses pop-up window advertising. In the case of sites like GeoCities, it can save me 10-20 seconds of "wait for the ad to load before the page is navigable" time.

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Tony Fabris