By Dave Peyton, Tribune Media Services
Cookies. Until recently, the word conjured only pleasant images. Grandma's kitchen. Mom's loving homemade gifts to her children. Christmas goodies.
Today, the word can bring a chill to computer users, especially those who believe that cookies are all evil and the bane of those who want to protect their privacy while online.
The dark side of computer cookies came to light again recently when it was reported that the National Security Agency had been placing cookies on the computers of users who visited the government Web site in spite of rules banning the practice.
When it was discovered that the NSA site was placing cookies on visitors' computers, the practice was stopped, according to government officials.
Most computer users have heard of cookies but many have the wrong impression about them. First and foremost, cookies are not programs. They are simple text files that can be placed on your computer when you visit a Web site.
Cookies can be helpful
Despite what you hear, most cookies are for the convenience of the user. For example, if you go to a Web site where a name and password are required, the host computer may put a cookie on your computer that remembers that information. Thus, when you return to that site, you won't have to re-enter the information.
Cookies can't take control of your computer and send personal and private information to someone else. There are computer viruses that will do that, but cookies can't perform that task.
What can cookies do that you might not want them to do? They can store information about where you have been and what you have done on the Internet and make that information available to a Web site the next time you visit. This is apparently what the cookie installed by the NSA Web site allowed. Sinister? Perhaps, but remember such cookies do not have the capability of providing your most personal information such as financial status, bank account numbers and the like.
Cookie basics
It behooves anyone who surfs the Internet to learn about cookies, what they can and can't do and even how to control and delete them.
The best place to go to learn about cookies is Cookie Central at http://www.cookiecentral.com. This site focuses on cookies, the good and the bad. It provides basic information about what cookies are and what they aren't. It provides the latest news about cookies, a list of frequently asked questions about the text files and a guide to finding what cookies may be on your computer and how to eliminate them if you want to.
Microsoft address the issue of cookies at http://www.microsoft.com/info/cookies.mspx . There's information on this site about the purpose of cookies, how a cookie helps you, how to control which cookies you accept and how to see the cookies you have accepted.
If you find either of these site a little too technical, you might want to check out the files about cookies on How Stuff Works. This file explains cookies in simple terms and can be found at http://www.howstuffworks.com/cookie.
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Are you tired of calling phone numbers only to have a computer answer? Have you begun to wonder whether there are any human beings in charge of answering phones? Paul English might be able to help with his IVR (interactive voice response) cheat sheet at http://www.paulenglish.com/ivr/. English provides more than 250 phone numbers and what buttons to push to get around the seemingly unending menus to get you to a real person on the other end of the line quickly.
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Donors Choose at http://donorschoose.org is a place to find school projects that need financial support. Teachers list project that need support and, if you want to help, you can make a donation. The site allows you to find out how much has already been given to the project and how needy the school is. Teachers who want to list project can request assistance and if that request is approved, it will be posted on the site.
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Slip-ups. We all have them at times, but when they appear in movies, on TV or in books, they may become the topic of commentary at http://www.slipups.com. This site chronicles amusing accidental bloopers or mistakes that weren't caught in the editing process and appear to the viewing public. They can range from inconsistencies in movies and TV programs to errors in books. The site has collected more than 14,000 slip-ups to date and new ones are added periodically.
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