Jack Aubert wrote: > > Cookies have always been a part of the Internet.
Mmmh, unfortunately... for commercial Internet. However, Internet was in existence for several years before commercial interests got in, and and that time, you could hardly see any cookie anywhere... Guess why? > The system was designed > to make it impossible to do any damage with a cookie. No damage, in the immediate sense, but some spying, which can be thought of as a damage... For example capturing an e-mail address than is later transferred to spammers, which IS a damage... Also, any kind of tracking of your path on the net is unacceptable... > A web site can > create a cookie, which is only a small text file, and cookies can only be > read by the site that created them. Not quite so: they can either be read only by the site who *originated* it (which is not the same as *created*) or by any other provided there is some kind of an arrangement, as examplified by a nuisance as that of doubleclick... > When the Internet started to become > very popular, people who didn't really understand the technology began to > worry about cookies. Yeah...? > Around the same time, advertising companies, notably > doubleclick.com perfected the technique of cross-site cookies, but only by > being a partner on many sites. This permitted double click to read what it > had left off on one site when you visited another site if doubleclick had > an arrangement with both. Even so, it can only read what you tell it. Well, no: what your computer tells it, i.e. whatever is in there... Actually you are never asked to tell anything to a cookie: at best you are asked whether you allow it or not. > > You are right that this is a controversial question, but I do not believe > it is impolite to use cookies. I think cookie paranoia is on the decline, > and the current version of Microsoft Internet Explorer, which is now the > dominant browser lets the user block all or some cookies. There are also a number of 'cookie managers' which do a more sophisticated job by allowing cookies of trusted sites while refusing suspect ones like those of advertising companies such as doubleclick... They relieve you from the hassle of having to decide every time whether you accept or reject the cookie if you choose an (advisable) 'ask me' option. Anyway, unless a site use cookies for good reasons, such as giving you a direct access to its pages in your preferred language (supposing you really want to register that instead of clicking your choice every time) or accepting to be identified as a regular customer for commercial sites you often visit, I would bluntly recommend to avoid them as much as possible, maybe helped by using a good cookie manager. So, Anselmo, thanks for your choice of a 'clean' Internet... We are probably all able to change the coordinates each time, and we probably have to, because we want to have the calculations for different places, not necessarily ours... If any further enhancement in this respect would be deemed useful, it could be brought by making provision to store a number of places with corresponding coordinates, and/or leaving the possibility to introduce one's own places... Very nice job anyway, Anselmo, thanks again! Thierry -- __________________________________ Thierry van Steenberghe 50.5 N 4.3 E mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________ > > > Jack > > At 01:22 PM 4/23/2003 +0200, you wrote: > >John Hall wrote: > > > >>One other thought has occurred to me regarding the setting of new > >>coordinates - if these are stored in a 'cookie' by the JavaScript - the > >>user would not have to set up the calculator each time at their own location > > > >A lot of thanks for your help, John. In fact, the idea of the calculator > >came to my mind when I was making a simple exercise on how to set up > >JavaScript cookies, > >but I discarded the idea because I thought it'd be unpolite to introduce > >cookies in some other people's computers. You know this is a controverted > >question! > > > >Anyway, John's suggestion gave me the idea to introduce the cookies BUT > >asking first the user for permission. What do you people think about this? > > > >By the way. Attending to your requests I've made a full English version of > >UbiSolis. It is still at > > > >http://www.relojesdesol.org/UbiSolENG.html > >I'll try to make a Dutch version when I've got time for it, and I would > >greatly appreciate your sending me translations in other languages. > > > >Keep sending suggestions! > > > > > >Anselmo Perez Serrada > > > >- > > - -
