Henri Yandell wrote: >Cookies are useful for remembering passwords, if the site itself offers to >remember them and not the browser, or just to remember who you are. > >They're also quite essential in maintaining a stateful session with a >server so that you don't have to tell it who you are every time you hit a >button. There are other ways to do this, but cookies are the preferred >approach. > >I think it's rare to store information in a cookie. Usually it would just >contain an id to represent you. > >I like the old Camino browser which forces you to agree to let a site set >cookies in the future. That way you can block the advert sites and allow >the site you really went to. > >Hen > > Hi Henri
You may not be one of them, but I think there are a few on the list that are security conscious. I never understood the reasoning behind it since a computer is probably one of the most insecure devices you could possibly own, unless you only use it for personal use and have no link to the outside world. I think it's safe to assume everyone on the list has an internet connection of some sort. That alone makes it insecure to some extent. For those that spend most of their time on the internet, I believe security is totally out the window. On another note, for those of you using any version of the new OS, I was led to believe that the OS runs programs at odd hours, for whatever reason, if your Mac is always left on. Maybe I'm stupid, but what's the need for that? Does the OS need assurances from Apple in order to be on its best behavior? As far as cookies go, you mention storing passwords. Why would any security conscious person want somebody or something else storing that kind of information? You also mention a cookie remembering who you are. If that were the case, why bother storing passwords? There's still too much I don't know, to willingly toss around private information without knowing what's going on. For those on the list who may not be aware of it, information happens to be a hot commodity. I for one, believe there are people in critical areas of business and government that wouldn't lose a nights sleep over selling lists of valuable information to eager buyers. -- Tony LaFemina When you want to do more than just buy software http://hometown.aol.com/visitmacland/index.html mailto:remacs at optonline.net | The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will | be April 27. The LCS Web page is <http://www.kymac.org>. | List posting address: <mailto:macgroup at erdos.math.louisville.edu> | List Web page: <http://erdos.math.louisville.edu/macgroup>
