Cookies

[Andrew MacLean]

Thanks John

I think I hear a familiar voice in my ear saying "Leave well alone!" It is odd that I did not even know that magic cookies existed until I got nosey the other day, and then I suddenly became anxious that somebody was putting things in my computer that would cause it harm!

Ignorance was bliss.

Andrew

[brigid downing]

Yes Andrew, It is that kind of attitued to exploration and learning that we teachers hope to inspire where ever we go.

Cookies are not dangerous - it is in accepting sweets from strangers that the real danger lies.

[Andrew MacLean]

My children used to ask "how do we know if it's a stranger, daddy?"

I explained, "anybody you don't know is a stranger".

My son once objected, "but there's millions of them!" He was right.

It is okay for my computer to accept cookines from other computers it does not know (although only the ones attached to sites I browse), but it is not okay for me to accept sweets from strangers.

On well!

Andrew

[John Smith]

By George, I think he's got it!

The cookies you receive from sites you visit are sweets from friends or acquaintances. Those offered by site you did not choose to visit are sweets from a stranger.

As your son so eloquently put it "there's millions of them". That's why you have a cookie filter!

[Andrew MacLean]

Thank you John. That is a metaphor I can understand.

Like I said, "leave well alone, Andrew."

Andrew

[Barney]

What is a cookie and why do I need one?

Was a time when few sites used cookies. Now it seems that pretty much everyone out there wants to plonk one of these little files on your pooter.

Some will contain info like your username and password for forums like this, to save you logging in each time, and maybe keep track of the threads you've read and haven't read. It will check the details it finds in the cookie against its SQL database.

Most won't do anthing useful for you at all but just tell the site-owner how you've used their site such as when you were there last and what pages you read. If you go to windows/cookies/ you'll find thousands of the things clogging the place up. Even though the files are small they can take a fair bit of space as every file takes a minimum of one "cluster" on your hard-drive.

If you want to you can zap the lot. When you come back a forum like this it will put a new cookie on your pc and you'll need to login. The file "index.dat" which lists all the cookies can't be zapped while Windows is running.

Or you can get something like Cookie Manager from http://home.nordnet.fr/~pmdevigne/ which will zap the cookies you don't want but not the ones you ask it to keep. Or you can put up with them. If you refuse to accept cookies many sites will just pester you till you do accept.

[Andrew MacLean]

Barney

I am flattered that you think I am clever enough to use Windows. I could never be doing with all that trouble shooting: I use Mac OS.



Andrew

[Barney]

Very wise Andrew. Mr Gates offerings do give the opportunity to get into lots of trouble.