Stardate 20011001.1223 (On Screen): Of all the ill-advised features of HTML, the "onclose" tag has to be one of the most easily abused. It's easy to see how idealistic the original creators of HTML were, given that they incorporated so many features which could be so easily used to annoy the user. For example, if an "onclose" pops a new window, and that in turn has yet another "onclose", you can get trapped. This is a favorite ploy of porn sites, as anyone unfortunate enough to stumble on some of the more vicious ones will know. (Of course, no-one ever
deliberately looks for porn online, do they?)
One of the most obnoxious operators of those kinds of sites has been ordered by the FTC to shut down precisely because of this behavior, which is interesting. But if something like this happens to you, you don't actually have to fight with it. If you think you're stuck with a trapped site, pop the task manager and terminate every IE task, though there's usually only one. This actually kills the browser without giving it an opportunity to execute any more "onclose" tags. (discuss)
