In MWM002 we introduced automatic bookmarks. Many people have written to tell that they approve of our idea, but along came a few messages showing disapproval. In the true sense of a club whose members are all of equal importance we opted to put online a version without cookies. I would like to thank everyone for your continued feedback and promise that when possible we will always try to accommodate your requests.

I've been reading a bit about cookies but can't seem to relate the horror stories I read to my own reality. Stories range from your hard disk being invaded by cookies, taking up your precious space, to secret information about cookie holders being transmitted all over the net.

With respect to the first claim, I researched a bit about Netscape's cookie file. This is a file called COOKIE.TXT which resides in your Netscape program directory. The file is normally very small and the number of entries it can store is restricted to 300 entries. One particular URL is limited to a maximum of 20 cookies. Each cookie entry is limited to 4 kb. This commentary is taking up much more space (in your browser cache directory) than a typical cookie file.

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The Navigator can receive and store the following:

• 300 total cookies
• 4 kilobytes per cookie, where the name and the OPAQUE_STRING combine to form the 4 kilobyte limit.
• 20 cookies per server or domain. Completely specified hosts and domains are considered separate entities, and each has a 20 cookie limitation.

When the 300 cookie limit or the 20 cookie per server limit is exceeded, Navigator deletes the least recently used cookie. When a cookie larger than 4 kilobytes is encountered the cookie should be trimmed to fit, but the name should remain intact as long as it is less than 4 kilobytes.

Netscape's Javascript Tutorial

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For the record, our entry rents up less than 100 bytes of your cookie file.

Discussing personal information necessitates defining what personal means. It is not possible for a someone to extract data from your wallet to store it in a cookie, and if it were possible, I cannot really figure out why someone capable of doing that would bother storing such incriminating information on your computer rather than at his/her end. I've always considered cookies to be a means of allowing code in the pages to determine whether a visitor is new or not and through the use of appropriate code act accordingly. We've done it with our cookie functions. If you feel that storing information about the fact that you've revisited a particular site means an invasion of your privacy then you and your cookies are not compatible. On the other hand, if you don't really care you can consume your cookies without having to worry about anything (they don't even have any calories!).

While researching the topic, someone told me that Microsoft have a statement on their site about why they use cookies; they use the information to work out which pages are popular and those that aren't. If a particular page is not visited, they can then try to understand why this is so. What's so bad about this? It is simply a case of symbioses, were two entities benefit mutually in a relation; you get better pages to surf, they get information necessary to better their pages.

How do our cookies work and what do they do? For each issue of MWM we use two cookies. One cookie is temporary and gets deleted a couple of hours after you leave MWM, while the other is a persistent type that lasts for the duration of the issue. For example the persistent cookie of MWM003 will expire on September 4, 1997. What information do we extract from our cookie entry? Absolutely nothing. An automated function (written in Javascript) simply checks for the persistent cookie whenever you come back to a particular issue of MWM and offers to return you to the page you were reading last. Nothing is mailed to us without your knowledge. Putting the record straight, we do not know who has returned 10 times and who hasn't. If you think that the benefits entailed from being able to jump to the page you were reading last surpasses a few bytes on your hard disk, then choose the cookie versions of our pages, otherwise you're welcome with the non-interactive equivalents. We would like to know more about what you think about cookies and ask you to fill in the appropriate form.

As my last bite, I would like to recall from your long-term memory the Michelangelo Virus sensation a few years back. All the honorable magazines told us how all our computers were going to be struck dead; and a hellish market was created to protect against it. After this dreadful event, the same honorable publications told us that the news was heavily inflated (but anti-virus companies sold like mad). Will these same honorable publications, in a couple of years time, tell us that cookie crusher companies sold like mad?

M's data handling routines are amongst the most efficient I've ever seen. While it may be true that this and that DBMS might have envious external features, when we get to the core, one must admit that M can handle and manipulate data so efficiently that it leaves all others eating dust. M has potential and the use I would like to discuss today is that of a database server to inter / intra / extranets. While some of you might point out that M net servers already exist, one should ask whether these can make it to their right place; on top. Will a DBMS company with good marketing and a couple of decorating features outsmart M to the top ranking position?

Should M vendors consider a course in marketing, a course in how to produce marketable goods, how to make the decorating nice and how to react and respond to the market quickly? Let's face it, how are potential customers expected to know a good product from a better one when everyone tells them that their product is the best. Further more, how can one move up to being a client if the firm is not aware of the product in the first place. If you go to a confectionery to purchase a cake what do you look for, the decorating or a list of ingredients that constitute the cake? And as I see it, with this market expanding at its current rate, these products will sell like cakes.

I don't have time to scrutinize and participate the news as much as I would like, but recently I couldn't help noticing the apathy about M dying or being dead. While I do not share these views, I do believe that M is not marketed sufficiently and the cult following some development languages have, does not seem to exist in M. Go to a conference and engage in conversation; criticize a development environment and soon after you'll get a disciple who'll start quoting (from some hidden script) how great the environment is, how powerful, how easy it is to do this and this and how efficient it is at that and that. Mention a weak point of the product and the person will either rule it out as nonsense or will provide a descriptive work around to the problem.

Imagine an Internet where a button-like icon indicating to all that the database is handled by M. Imagine an Internet where the number of sites that discuss tips and tricks is astonishing. You open a general computer magazine (paper or electronic) and someone is talking about this product. Flip the pages and you notice a couple of adverts for add-ons to this base product. You're at a conference you can boast about the M driven database your company uses. What's more you can lecture all others at why M is so efficient.