I quite fond of the quote "Great minds think alike", especially when people quote it as justification for doing something. So I have my own twist, which is "Great minds think alike, fools never differ".

Well anyway a few months ago I finally discovered that you can use JavaScript to control which proxy your browser will use. Now I may be slow, the document does date back to 1996, but thought this could be useful as I am constantly battling with proxies and networks. I now have a JavaScript file that selects the correct proxy to use based on:

  • The network I am in. I use this to determine which network I am in (home, work, dial-up, etc).
  • The URL being requested. For example, bypassing the proxy for single host names (for example http://intranet). My favourite it to return a fake proxy for known ad sites.

I thought this was a pretty novel approach as none of my friends who like to think they are bleeding edge knew about this technique. Sorry Bruce and Matt. :-)

Anyway I just found an excellent article about this exact technique. It takes what I was doing to the next logical level, especially the Black-hole Proxy stuff. So, do I have a great mind, or am I a fool, I will let you decide....... :-)