So today I am once again reminded how stubbornly frustrating computer software can be when it goes awry. It seems like on a daily basis I am confounded by some new unexpected behavior, an expectation mismatch, or an obscure error message that I have not yet seen before.
Today it is a middle mouse-button problem. This isn't the first time I've seen it, but I think I first noticed a couple weeks ago on Slashdot. I have a habit of using middle-click to open a link into a new tab, but recently, in Slashdot articles middle-clicking both opens a new tab *and* navigates in the current tab. Quite annoying!
Doing a little research I found (as usual) that I'm not the only one plagued by this behavior. According to this SuperUser post, it has to do with links that use onclick events for navigation. Sure enough, when I examine the link in Chrome Dev Tools, there is indeed an onclick event in the anchor that performs navigation.
The fix is simple enough. Install this chrome extension, and the problem goes away. Works for me!
