[nvitas]

My buddy wrote the article so I can't comment on his stance but I'm with you on the var self = this;

Like you I like to avoid the use of "$" character unless dealing with jQuerified variables

[Gigablah]

I've seen some code (mostly from Backbone.js apps) use "var that = this;" instead.

[rduchnik]

I like the $this just because I'm used to it from codeigniter.