Extinction of Languages: Bad thing?

I was reading this article on Slashdot and they make it seem like this is a bad thing. I think this is a good thing. While the languages are gone, the cultures are still there. With the benefit of being able to communicate now with a greater number of people. I consider a language to be a standard, a standard in which people communicate. As with any standard, they arise from necessity. With technology bridge geographical communication obstacles, there is a boarder range of communication and essentially new standards--which may render older standards obsolete. If this wasn’t the case, we would never make any progress. How’s the old saying, “Out with the old, In with the new”.