what are cookies in the computer world?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

are they bad for your computer? should you try to stop from getting cookies?

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 16:47 (twenty-three years ago)

post some pictures of cookie monster and i'll tell you.

― g-kit (g-kit), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 16:50 (twenty-three years ago)

If your computer has too many cookies it will get a big fat lardy-arse.

― Liz :x (Liz :x), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 16:50 (twenty-three years ago)

A cookie is a small piece of information accepted from a website by your browser, they generally are used to keep you 'logged in' to a website. there also used to track users' progressions through website. They are nothing to get alarmed about really but if you want you can set most browsers to accept them only when you say so.

― Ed (dali), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 16:56 (twenty-three years ago)

It says in the ilx FAQ that the administrator of the site cannot tell what users have chosen for their passwords, because it's encrypted when you enter it or something. But in the cookie, the username and password are there in plain text. Can't they just read what's in the cookie?

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 17:32 (twenty-three years ago)

cookies are food for computers.

― jel -- (jel), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 18:37 (twenty-three years ago)

Eating cookies = classic
REading cookies = pure dudness

― Sarah McLusky (coco), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 18:42 (twenty-three years ago)

EK, the cookie is stored on your computer, and is re-transmitted everytime you load a page. It's never stored on the server for me to read.

― Graham (graham), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 22:29 (twenty-three years ago)

http://interact.uoregon.edu/pttt/Cookie/bad.gif

― land (amateurist), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 22:33 (twenty-three years ago)

Eyeball Kicks, what possible use would Graham have for your password anyway? If he has the kind of power on ILX that I have on, among other things, UCL's student records system, he could change your posts, put in fake posts as you, and loads more, all without needing your password. These are basic low-level privileges for an administrator.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 22:35 (twenty-three years ago)

Martin, some people use the same password for everything (email etc). That's why it's mentioned in the FAQ.

― Graham (graham), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 22:38 (twenty-three years ago)

Yes, good point. We might mention that this is not wise practice: it means an unscrupulous site, when handed your password, can get your email, for instance. Recommendation: do not give any website a password you use for anything important.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 22:47 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah, I wasn't worried, and I understand that he doesn't need my password! (Mind you, the fact that someone knows your password could be put to good use elsewhere if you are one of those people, as I am, who uses the same password in lots of different places. For instance, my password here is the same as the one for the email address I use.)

I suppose I was really asking about the nature of cookies, which are stored as text files. The question being, is the whole text of the cookie sent to the website from which it came when you revisit, or is it some kind of code which my browser processes before sending to the site?

(The two answers above turned up while I was writing this.)

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 22:48 (twenty-three years ago)

I think it amounts to the same as your keying in your ID and password when you visit the site.

Incidentally, not all cookies are the same: some are persistent, some last as long as your session doing whatever it is, and are never saved as files. There may be other types, but I'm less than expert about this.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 22:53 (twenty-three years ago)

No, there just text. No processing goes on on your computer.

― Graham (graham), Friday, 17 January 2003 11:25 (twenty-three years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.