From: John Tserkezis 
Reply-To: Fidonet AVtech Echo 

Rod Gasson wrote:

> Me.. pedantic?  Nah, never ;-)

  Myself neither. :-)

>> "Text, in the traditional sense, uses only a limited subset of the full
>> ASCII character set.  All of it is contained within the lower 7
bits, but there
>> are ndeed some control characters in that lower 7bits that are
definately NOT
>> classed as "text".

> No, they are classed as control characters :-)

  Yes, just like I said. :-)

> I still don't know what mechanism could actually be used to *run* a cookie
> file though,

  You can't.  It contains several parameters:

Cookie name: (manditory) the name of the cookie.
Content:     (manditory) usually a unique identifier, serial number of sorts.
Exipres:     time/date when the cookie is no longer valid
Path:        the network path the cookie is valid for.
Domain:      the domain the cookie originated from.

  None of which are code, or executable, in any way.

  It is nothing more than a "ticket stub", that identifies that
you've been 
there before.

  A search for "cookies" via google will return many sites that explain 
cookies, their structure, and use.

> and that is where this part of the discussion originates from.

  No, that was Bob's paranoia telling him that cookies are some evil thing that 
can hack into your computer.  When the fact remains, that the host could 
_create_ and _request_ an exising cookie to see if you've been there before. 
And then, they can only be created (or returned) if the *browser* allows it. 
It's one of the easier things to turn off too.
  Note however, that many sites *need* cookies to keep track of where you are, 
and where you've been, otherwise they won't work.  Those who do, check to see 
if you have cookies enabled first, and warn you if you don't.

>>  And people are STILL stupid enough to run them.

> Yeah, sad isn't it.
> The one that really gets me though is the jdbmgr.exe hoax - I'm sure you are
> familiar with it - There must be 10000's of people out that that have
> recieved this hoax email, and BLINDLY proceeded to delete the file as per
> the instructions. The hoax is years old now, and I still get people emailing
> me to say they found the 'virus' on their system and as a result I may have
> been infected with it too.

  I've got one better.  Remember the "Good times" virus?  The
virus where its 
sole mechanisim for duplication was the end user themselves? (I'm calling it a 
virus because it did indeed propigate and duplicate).

  About two years after it became popular again (it comes back in waves, much 
like the yo-yo) when I was working at Solution 6 in Chatswood, we were issued 
with a company-wide email from our "network administrator"
warning us about it.

  I'm using the term "network administator" loosely you understand?

  Now, I'm totally suprised about this, because this is the same guy who on his 
first day in the server room, typed "DIR" at one of the Novell
Netware consoles 
and was suprised that it didn't work.

  Though this was only forwared by this moron, what I thought suprised me was 
the fact that the original message was forwarded to him by the "network 
administrators" at the head office in St Leonards.

  I thought those guys were better... Apparently not...

  Even so, I replied with a company-wide (chatswood and st leonards) email 
(several hundreds of people) that debunked the original, detailing all the 
errors, and stating it was in fact, a two-year-old wide-spread hoax, and our 
"network geeks" fell for it.

  I thought I was going to be *really* unpopular after that (I didn't care, as 
I was on my way out anyway).  What happend however, gave me a valuable insight 
as to how that company worked.

  Nothing.  Nada.  Zip.  And it was never talked about either.  I was hoping to 
ruffle a few feathers, but alas, no.

>>  Whoops, that's it, I've just made Bob even more paranoid.

> Is that possible?  ;-)

  It is now that he knows about the Good times virus. :-)

> Don't forget that Bob always wears a condom when he wanks too - just so he
> doesn't give himself some nasty disease (or get himself pregnant).

  I thought he did care about deseases?  I did however know about the pregnancy 
thing.

> 

  Insults at AvTech?  Nah, who would have thought?

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