Would you like Milk with your cookies?
It has been quite a bit since I have put any new ideas up here for your reading and learning enjoyment, I am quite sorry for that. I am hoping to be better at it in the coming weeks.
Today I thought I would look at something that I have been asked a few times by co-workers, “what are ‘cookies’ and why are they on my computer?”
Cookies, the electronic kind, arent flavored with chocolate chips or molasses nor are they consumed en masse around the holidays.
Electronic cookies are snippets of information from a website that are stored on your computer to aid the website in remembering who you are. This way, content can be arranged to fit your preference or your password can be remembered to allow you to login as soon as you get to www.mycoolwebstuff.com.
When a website that uses cookies loads, it will look for the existence of a cookie that it generated on your PC. The cookie file typically contains the web address and some information about your last visit there. Once found, the computer can log you in, populate your username and password so you can login, or customize the current page according to previous preferences.
Note: When looking to identify a site that uses cookies, the easiest way is to look for the remember me checkbox under neath the login area.
Cookies are relatively safe to use while online because in most cases only the site that placed the cookie will have any idea it is there and know what to do with it when it is found. You can instruct your browser to clear the contents of the cookies folder or delete all existing cookies as frequently as you like or tell it not to use cookies at all. The latter is generally a little too excessive in the fact that some cookies, just like at christmas, are never a bad thing.
Always be mindful of the sites you visit, if you are unsure you can always delete cookies after visiting a site.
