To be fair, the rant was written in 2002. While namespaces existed as a W3C REC as of 1999, I don't recall them being used much in practice until significantly

To be fair, the rant was written in 2002. While namespaces existed as a W3C REC as of 1999, I don't recall them being used much in practice until significantly later than that (as is usual for anything going from committee spec to the real world). Had he written it later, he may very well have ripped on namespaces.