Jaap van Ganswijk wrote: > > Cookies are much more a good thing than a bad thing for the user, > although popular media like newspapers try to convince us that > they are the work of the devil.
I understand and basically agree what you're saying. But... many of what are called "tracking cookies" from marketing organizations are set by the ads that show up on the screen. Many of 'us' don't like them reporting how many times we visit some homepage when we are not doing any business with the company that set the cookie. So my choice is to keep the cookies from the people I do business with and get rid of as many others as I can. > So remember: Cookies are our friends and when you want to bash > cookies, make sure you know what you're talking about and don't > just repeat what the popular press is saying about it, because > they are just repeating what they heard from other unreliable > colleagues and whenever someone claims that cookies can contain > virusses, it's clear that he is an idiot (and you should notify > the chief-editor of the newspaper and you should cancel your > subscription ;-). Agreed. But even unwanted cookies are a minor problem. Recent versions of printer drivers call 'home' and use up time on your system. Anti-virus programs obviously do that as well as "Automatic Updates" for many programs. While these are mostly "good things", they do use up time and bandwidth, usually without asking you. The side effects of some "utility" programs can be much more serious. As in the example where one effectively locked up my sister's computer because it couldn't find it's own home on the internet but kept on trying. It also popped up an unwanted survey to be sent to it's owner. It was Spy-Ware and was depriving my sister of the use of her computer against her will. I think that is wrong and I took steps to fix it by using the programs that I mentioned. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=- "http://www.psyber.com/~dibsed"; -=-=-=-=-=-=- DIBs Electronic Design | Dave Baldwin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Adapt and overcome. | Buy a book and read it. -=-=--=-=--=-=--=-=--=-=-=-=--=-=--=-=--=-=--=-=--=-=--=-=- -- Author: Dave Baldwin / DIBsed INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fat City Hosting, San Diego, California -- http://www.fatcity.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB CHIPDIR-L (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).
