!
Campus
Bvtes!
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1997
TECHNOLOGY • INTERNET • SOFTWARE • ONLINE ISSUES
Guest Column
Internet cookies' abilities generate amusement, privacy concerns
"You want some cookies, mister?"
The image evoked by this question is often of a youth on a fund-raising project. But are you aware that you can receive cookies from the future? No, fortunately, you are.
Internet cookies are bits of information which a Web site can collect about you when you visit that site. The information is stored on your hard disk by the browser you are using. When you visit that site again, you may be surprised to see information about your last visit there. Some users are amused.
Jerry Niebaum niebaum@ukans.edu
some are pleased, some are appalled.
Internet. In fact, if you use a Web browser, you are getting "cookies" and you may not realize it.
One measure of the growing user concern about cookies is the metamorphosis of Netscape Navigator's cookie-handling capabilities. In Navigator One and Two, the user was never told and had to accept all cookies. In Navigator Three, the user can be warned when a cookie is sent and can either accept or reject it. In Communicator Four, the latest browser from Netscape, the user has four choices:
Accept all cookies
- Accept only cookies that get sent back to the originating server
Disable all cookies
Warn me before accepting a cookie
The choices in Netscape Navigator Three and Communicator Four are found in the "Protocols" section on the "Network Preferences" menu under "Options." Setting your browser to "warn me" can make surfing the net more tiresome, because of constant interruptions with cookie warnings. It is instructive to experiment with the settings to learn how frequently cookies are sent. Information about the Netscape implementation of cookies may be found at http://search.netscape.com/assist/security/f aqs/cookies.html.
Another source of information, which has a section on when to toss your cookies, is http://www.cookiecentral.com.
The latest version of Internet Explorer 3.01 from Microsoft gives four choices for cookies:
Never ask
Ask for each site
Ask for each site
Ask for each cookie
Never accept
The disadvantages for "disable all cookies" or "never accept" is that some sites now require cookie-setting before allowing access. A sub-group of the Internet Engineering Task Force is working on a draft of a standard for cookies. It is clear that some users concerned with privacy would prefer to be able to reject or selectively accept cookies.
For readers wishing to point and click Webferences enter
references, enter http://falcon.cc.ukans.edu/~niebaum/udk.ht ml. You will find this article and links to the references given.
For Microsoft's view on cookies check out http://www.microsoft.com/IESupport. Use the search box to search for cookies.
SEARCHINGFORANSWERS
University revs up engine
By Daniel B. Thompson
dthompson@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
some art contributed
Info '97 is an information technology fair coming to the University of Kansas next week. It's a technological gala and it has its own web page on KUfacts, the search engine on the University's Web site
The address is www.ohpe.edu/~is607
The address www.ukans.edu/~info97.
It's going to be a big deal—but you wouldn't know that from searching KUfacts.
If you run a search for "Info '97," "technology" or "fair," the link to the Info '97 homepage will never show up.
The University has some search engine.uhu?
But luckily for searchers, the current search engine, ht://Dig, is about to be replaced.
Tomorrow, Academic Computing Services will install a new search engine for KUfacts.
The test version is already working. A search for Info '97 produced eight matches.
CD-ROM that installs software to search a network's information.
AlaVista Private Extension, by Digital Equipment Corporation, is being tested this week on Raven, the University's World Wide Web server. It is a $15,000
"It was right around $3,000 after the educational discount," said Michael Grobe, manager of distributed computing support.
The ht://Dig engine was freeware, and therefore prone to bugs and overloads. Grobe said the software worked well with smaller Web sites.
However, it doesn't do so well with monstrous systems like those at the University. At last count, the University had 125 servers and 109,000 unique web pages linked through KUfacts.
The dying search engine couldn't handle it.
The Computer Center started having problems with ht://Dig more than three months ago, Grobe said.
it's typical with free software that you experience more usage and maintenance headaches." he said.
But the real problem with ht://Dig is the way it searches.
Every search engine has two parts, Grobe said. Words are typed into a search field in the front-end interactive part. Then a table stores all the words and their locations on a network.
For example: If "info" were typed into a search engine, the engine would look through the table and then show all the links to that word.
The difference between the old and
new engines is that AltaVista keeps itself up to date. Updating ht://Dig was a pain.
"We were having trouble managing resources with ht://Dig," Grobe said. "AltaVista is much more economical in its use of file space."
AltaVista's tables take up only five-eighths of the disk space required by ht://Dig.
Because the center knew Alta Vista was on the way, it has not updated ht//Dig's tables in more than three months, Grobe said.
That's why the current engine hasn't been working. That will change with the new search engine.
The AltaVista interface page, where users type in the search keywords, is still under construction. The page will look almost identical to the old search engine, which features Dyche Hall across the top of the page.
"It's a script that takes out AltaVista's self-promotion," said Shawn Gregory, Stanberry, Mo., senior, and the programmer who coded the page. The information entered will go to AltaVista's search processor, but the AltaVista logo will not appear on the page.
Not everyone was as concerned about letting Alta Vista grace the top of the page.
"It is commercial." said Julie Loats, Web administrator. "But it produces a good product."
Stop talking about it.
BOOK A FLIGHT
GRAB A BACKPACK
kiss mom goodbye
get a rail pass.
Don't look back. JUST GO.
800-777-0112
www.sta-travel.com
www.sta-travel.com
STA travel
the world's largest
student travel
organization
STA TRAVEL
we've been there.
Educational Opportunity Fund
All departments, units and organizations of the University are eligible to apply. Applications and information may be picked up at the Student Senate Office, 410 Kansas Union or the Office of Student Financial Aid, 50 Strong Hall.
Applications are now available for the tenth year of the
Application Deadline: 5:00 PM, October 28, 1997 at the Student Senate Office, 410 Kansas Union
All grants are for the 1998-1999 academic year.
Questions? Call 864-3710