it would be nice to know if there is a way to detect javascript.

well i have the answer for, you, visit this page to find out:

How to dected if javascript is enabled

Demo

Javascript is disabled

here is the code i used. just copy and paste this code into your text editor like notepad, then save it as webune-js-enabled.html and then open it with your browser to see it in action.

webune-js-enabled.html
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<title>How To Detect If User Javascript Is Enabled by Wallpaperama.com</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<style type="text/css">
<!--
.style1 {
color: #FF0000;
font-weight: bold;
}
-->
</style>
</head>
<body>
<p>The Purpose of this script is to show if you have javascript enabled in your browser.</p>
<p class="style1">
<script type="text/javascript">
document.write('Javascript is enabled');
</script>
<noscript>
Javascript is disabled
</noscript>
</p>
<a href="http://www.webune.com/forums/">&lt;&lt; Go Back</a>
<p align="center">Script By <a href="http://www.wallpaperama.com">Wallpaperama.com</a>
</p>
</body>
</html>

hope this helps you understand with this examle file we created for our customers