ms Internet Explorer 4 & Cookies IE4

ms Internet Explorer 4 & Cookies

My apologies to those that just installed IE4 "Final" Edition.

If some of these pages appear to have sloppy spacing
it's because IE4 seems to still have some serious problems
with simple HTML code.

While trying to find out why,
I discovered that microsoft now flat-out refuses
you access to their site unless you "accept" their cookies,
plus additional stuff they insist on putting on your computer.
and fill out their surveys du jour.

Cookies, referred to as "Brands" by the sender,
brand your computer by putting a 50 ~ 200 Byte file
on YOUR computer which can be recognized by one or more
sites you may visit later.
It's like going to a mall where most stores stick a "Kick Me" sign on your back.
Cookies seem to be generally harmless at this point,
but of no benefit to you, only to those trying to sell you something.

There are, however, several things that concern me greatly:
Even if I refuse cookies, they seem to accumulate on my hard drive.
That worries me.
These "tiny" files actually use 64,000Bytes each on a 4 Gig drive,
32,000 Bytes each on a 2 Gig drive
16,000 Bytes each on a 1 Gig drive
and only 8,000 Bytes each if you still have a 500Meg drive.
The fact that FileManager/Explorer will NOT display file properties for the temporary internet file directory,
(which should give you this information, if you think to look for it)
also does not give me a warm toasty feeling.

Today it's easy to accumulate over 100 cookies on ONE SITE.
On a 4 Gig drive that's 6.4 Megabytes of invisible junk-mail
On a 500 Meg drive it's only 800K but you probably need that space
and that's on only a site or two!

I have removed the Internet Explorer Logo & Link from my pages
and will not recommend it anymore.

If you think cookies are a problem, you may want to very carefully consider
if you really want to subscribe to "Channels". The possibilities scare me.