Every few days I have to sort through my Firefox cookie collection and delete the ones I don’t need, especially those set by ad banners. (I know, I need an Ad-Blocker…but that really didn’t help much, even when I had it installed.) What gets me is how many tiny, podunk sites will set 5 or 6 cookies from one visit. What really gets me, however, is the obscenely long expiration dates on most of the cookies – 2029, 2036, even one for 2076! How likely is it I’ll even be using this OPERATING SYSTEM by then???
Meanwhile, my SDMB cookies (with the password & all that, so I keep 'em) are only set until Oct. 11th, 2006. Granted, I’m sure to be logging in within the next eleven months to refresh 'em. But there’s many other forums which I visit so infrequently, the cookies expire after just six months or so…annoying, because those are always the ones I forget my password for!
So what in God’s name is the point of setting cookies that won’t expire until several years after Jesus (or L. Ron Hubbard, if you like) returns?
I believe the point is that you have to set some end-date for a cookie (corrections welcome…), so whatever programmer is setting it picks a point that to him/her means a very very long time from now. Whey shouldn’t they set it to 100 years from now? It doesn’t do any more harm than setting it to 2 years from now, and who the heck knows, maybe it may actually be relevant some day.
The Firefox cookie program is too tiresome to use. I got a wonderful freeware (at least it was when I got it) program called Cookie Monster.
The first few times you use it, you have to highlight and move “trusted cookies” over and save them, and now and then when you start a new website you want to have keep login info. Otherwise, you have an icon on your desktop called “Eat Those Cookies.”
Every time you log off, you just click on that, and delete the big mess of cookies that are there. Just takes a couple of seconds.
You’ll be astonished at how many you find each time.
The Universe ended in 1929, 1936, and 1976? Wow, I never knew. But then, I guess I wasn’t there to see it happen. Dang, I always miss all the good universes.
But there’s many other forums which I visit so infrequently, the cookies expire after just six months or so…annoying, because those are always the ones I forget my password for!