I see a lot of you beating yourselves up over what you did or didn't do in regard to Y2K. You believe you were victimized in some fashion. Well, maybe you were. But if you are mad and want to express your independence then quit letting the big boys and power brokers lead you around by the nose. Set your browser to accept no cookies.

Cookies are the avenues that big business and big government use on the Internet to build profiles of who you are. If there is no profile they can't take advantage of you. Allowing cookies to be stored on YOUR computer means you are helping them profile you. You want to be independent? So, be independent.

The only reason big government and big business succeed at this type of situation is because you let them. On the Internet they say, "if you don't accept cookies then you can't enter our web site." I say; "so, don't go." Express your independence, say no to cookies

If enough people refuse COOKIES they will stop. But be careful, they'll figure another way. Like maybe, java script.

If you don't care, fine, accept cookies

-- 4th of July (free@chose.independence), January 05, 2000

Answers

Hey, dammit! Organizations like the Girl Scouts make a sizeable portion of their budget selling cookies. What are you, some sorta Communist not supporting our Girl Scouts? They're the ones that grow up into Cheerleaders you dope!

-- frank beamer (fbeamer@vpi.edu), January 05, 2000.

Actually, I prefer cookies to the old fashioned method of profiling, where teenagers and semi-literate adults representing marketing research firms call me at dinnertime. To each his own, though.

-- Simpleminded (nope@wont.never), January 05, 2000.

4th... you are correct 100%-- for a contrast, however, I find cookies helpful in a lot of ways. News services, information services, ecommerce sites, etc. all typically use cookies. Very little info about me personally is stored in a cookie but they do track where I go. That way they may make a decision to "advertise" something they think I might like and would have otherwise missed... That is a good thing.

Capitalism is a good thing in my opinion and the better people can serve me personally the happier I am as a consumer. Where cookies are most helpful is on news services. Without them I'd have to look for the type of news I want every time I visit...

Java and Javascript is far more intrusive... if you are going to disable something, that is what you should disable-- there is a lot of things a programmer can do with Java.

Noswad

-- Noswad (keepitsimple@4u.com), January 05, 2000.

Hey, Frank, I was utilized by that child labor organization for years in the 1970's. We camped in old, spider-infested cabins while the Boy Scouts had running water and electricity.

-- Simpleminded (nope@wont.never), January 05, 2000.

I tried setting my browser to accept no cookies & couldn't get into sites such as Yahoo mail. So now I just delete the cookies I don't want off my hard drive.

Cookies that are marketing/ad agency related are:

Doubleclick.txt Avenuea.txt imgis.txt about.txt

I delete these, and then empty my recycle bin. Also, while you're online, click on "History" on your menu bar. This lists every site you've been to for a given day/week. I delete these, too.

FYI,

-- Newbie (newcomber@this.site), January 05, 2000.

Ooops, i tried to list each cookie separately, but when it posted it pushed 'em all together...sorry 'bout that. Anyway, those are the four I always see & get rid of.

There was a segment on 60 Minutes about what these ad agencies do with your information. They said they track what sites you go to, so they can put ads on your screen related to the type of sites you go to. Apparently, you & a buddy can be at the same site, and looking at different ads. I don't mind cookies for sites like expedia (travel site) but refuse to let advertisers have my info!

-- Newbie (newcomer@this.site), January 05, 2000.

Noswad,

Java and Javascript is far more intrusive... if you are going to disable something, that is what you should disable-- there is a lot of things a programmer can do with Java.

Grrrr. I'm gettin tired of people saying that about Java when almost every virus attack in the last year has been specific to Microsoft Products. People might do annoying things with Java from time to time but it is NOT dangerous to your privacy or your system. FOR THE RECORD: Java has a VERY strict security 'sand-box' protocol that prevents applets downloaded from the web from accessing your hard-drive or launching external processes. Technically it is possible but only if you setup a certificate for a particular site (and your browser will explicitely ask your permission before doing this). Aside from that Java code you download from the web is MUCH more restricted in what it can and can't do in terms of exploiting your machines resources than an ActiveX control is.

Early versions of Java did have some weaknesses security that occured in obscure situations that could pretty much only exist in a lab environment (ie. the chances of it being exploited in the real world were nil) but those were plugged like two years ago. Can ANYONE show me a current Java based virus that's destructive, runs an external process, or otherwise causes havok with a users system??

-TECH32-

-- TECH32 (TECH32@NOMAIL.COM), January 05, 2000.

Tech, I agree with your assesment. I don't mean to give Java a bad rap. Javascript and Java are two different animals and the microsoft implementation of java (known as javascript) is the greater evil no doubt as far as its capabilities are.

Either way, a cookie is still the last thing we need to worry about... in my opinion

Noswad

-- Noswad (noswad@crossroads.com), January 05, 2000.

All this talk of cookies, I'm getting hungry!

-- Newbie (newcomer@this.site), January 05, 2000.

Noswad,

Tech, I agree with your assesment. I don't mean to give Java a bad rap. Javascript and Java are two different animals and the microsoft implementation of java (known as javascript) is the greater evil no doubt as far as its capabilities are.

Ummm...I think you're confused. Microsoft's implementation of Java is Java (proprietary extensions notwithstanding). Java is a full-blown programming language (robust) whereas JavaScript is a scripting language (light-weight). About the only thing the two have in common is the moniker 'Java'. Microsofts implementation of JavaScript is called JScript and just to keep things interesting they also have VBScript which is their 'preferred' scripting language.

Either way, a cookie is still the last thing we need to worry about... in my opinion

Agreed.

-TECH32-

-- TECH32 (TECH32@NOMAIL.COM), January 05, 2000.

Ouch. You probably wouldn't be able to guess that I haven't done a line of code in two years.

I read the original post and jumped right in without ensuring my data was correct.

oh well... here goes.... I WAS WRONG..

Thanks Tech for the good scoop... Thanks for going easy on me.. :)

Noswad

-- Noswad (noswad@crossroads.com), January 05, 2000.