An HTTP cookie is a parcel of textual information sent by a server to a World Wide Web browser and then sent back by the browser each time it accesses that server. HTTP cookies are used for user authentication, user tracking, and maintaining user-specific information such as site preferences and electronic shopping carts. Cookies have been of concern for Internet privacy, since they can be used for tracking the browsing of a user. As a result, they have been subject to legislation in various countries such as the United States, as well as the European Union. Cookies have also been criticised because the identification of users they provide is not always accurate and because they can be used for network attacks. Some alternatives to cookies exist, but have their own drawbacks. On the other hand, cookies have been subject to a number of misconceptions, mostly based on the erroneous notion that they are computer programs. Most modern browsers allow users to decide whether to accept cookies, but rejection makes some Web sites unusable.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_cookie

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1429: Siege of Orléans: French troops led by Joan of Arc lifted the English siege and turned the tide of the Hundred Years' War. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Orl%C3%A9ans)

1541: The expedition led by Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto reached the Mississippi River. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hernando_de_Soto_%28explorer%29)

1794: French chemist and economist Antoine Lavoisier, a former royal tax collector with the Ferme Générale, was tried, convicted, and guillotined on the same day during the Reign of Terror. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine_Lavoisier)

1902: The volcanic eruption of Mount Pelée destroyed the town of St. Pierre, Martinique, killing over 30,000 people. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Pel%C3%A9e)

1945: Most armed forces under German control ceased active operations by 23:01 hours CET at the end of World War II in Europe, in accordance with the capitulation documents signed the day before. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/end_of_World_War_II_in_Europe)

_____________________ Wikiquote of the day:

"While in the physical sciences the investigator will be able to measure what, on the basis of a prima facie theory, he thinks important, in the social sciences often that is treated as important which happens to be accessible to measurement. This is sometimes carried to the point where it is demanded that our theories must be formulated in such terms that they refer only to measurable magnitudes." -- Friedrich Hayek (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Friedrich_Hayek)