++++++BEGIN FWD'D MATERIAL+++++++++++++++++++++
>From: The LINGUIST List <linguist who-is-at linguistlist.org>
>Subject: 9.309, Sum: 'cookies'
>Comments: To: LINGUIST who-is-at listserv.linguistlist.org
>To: LINGUIST who-is-at LINGUIST.LDC.UPENN.EDU
>
>LINGUIST List: Vol-9-309. Tue Mar 3 1998. ISSN: 1068-4875.
>
>Subject: 9.309, Sum: 'cookies'
>
>>
>1)
>Date: Mon, 2 Mar 1998 17:13:23 +0000
>From: monika.bruendl who-is-at stud.uni-muenchen.de
>Subject: Summary: 'cookies'
>
>-------------------------------- Message 1 -------------------------------
>
>Date: Mon, 2 Mar 1998 17:13:23 +0000
>From: monika.bruendl who-is-at stud.uni-muenchen.de
>Subject: Summary: 'cookies'
>
>Summary: 'Cookies'
>
>Thanks to the many people who responded to my query as to the
>(metaphorical) meaning of the computer term 'cookie'. As so many of
>you responded, it's impossible for me to list everybody's message, so
>I'll sum up the main points instead.
>
>1.
>Most of you said that cookie comes from a program invented at MIT
>around 1970 called 'Cookie Monster' after the cookie monster from
>Sesame Street.
>Rich Alderson writes: >>The computer term "cookie" is
>derived, by means of a joke, from the Children's Television Workshop
>program _Sesame Street_. Many people are familiar with the Cookie
>Monster character and his unending search for cookies, in which he
>will say to anyone (often annoyingly) "Give me a cookie!" There was a
>computer program, first written for the DECSYSTEM-20, called COOKIE.
>When run on an unsuspecting person's account, it would from time to
>time break in to whatever they were doing and demand "Give me a
>cookie!" If the person typed "cookie" on the keyboard, the program
>went back to sleep. Anything else typed would result in a repeated
>"Give me a cookie!" The computer security term "cookie" for something
>given on demand to a remote host grew metaphorically from this
>practical joke program. It extended in sense from there to Web
>browsers and other programs.<<
>Related terms are "magic cookie","fortune cookie". A lot of you
>think that 'cookie' is a shortened form of 'magic cookie'. Karen
>Courtenay writes: >>The term cookies draws from a unix/programming
>concept of "magic cookies" also sometimes referred to as tokens.
>Tokens is perhaps a better term. In some ways a cookie is like a
>Passport that gets stamped as you enter various territories. Cookies
>are something a server gives to a client. And the client may show the
>information back to the server on subsequent pages, actions or
>visits.<<
>
>Thanks for everybody else who gave a similar explanation: Patrick
>Juola, Susanne Riehemann, Scott Waterman, Stephen Spackman, Gabor
>Fencsik, Martha McGinnis, Donald Pfister, John M. Lawler, John D.
>Stone and others. More information can be found at e.g.
>http://sagan.earthspace.net/jargon/ (The Hacker's Dictionary, for
>definitions of cookie, magic cookie, fortune cookie etc.),
>http://www.lilli.com/cookie.html
>
>2. Metaphorical meanings
>(a) cookies are like prizes, bribes:
>Sam Salt writes: >>A cookie is something you give to a child when
>he/she has been good. However, it may have strings attached - you
>only get a cookie if you are good. So the child is being bribed. A
>better strategy in the long run might be to reject the cookie and
>remain independent. Cookies in the computing sense are fairly
>similar.<< So cookies are kinds of prizes one gets in exchange for
>doing sth (giving information).
>Mitch Smith writes: >> The user must grant the server access to the
>client's internal workings, hence "accepting" (and swallowing) the
>"cookie". The fact that, here in mondo-reality, cookies taste good
>and don't generally phone home after being eaten helps to disguse the
>fact that the user is being asked to compromise his/her system's
>security, thus making the idea more "palatable". This technique is
>fairly conventional in that it is analogous to the practice of giving
>preshcoolers their polio vaccine on a sugar cube or hiding Rover's
>heart-worm pill in a meatball.<< The following people came up with
>similar explanations: Mike Fox, John Braico, Tom McMillan.
>
>(b) Haensel & Gretel: leaving a trail of crumbs
>Dan Loehr writes: >> The metaphor is that of leaving a trail of cookie
>crumbs, so that you can follow them home (i.e. easily get back to
>where you started). Thus, the computer "crumb" of information you
>leave behind lets the web browser find out who you are. I think the
>idea of leaving a trail of crumbs started in fairy tales (i.e.Hansel
>and Gretel). At any rate, it's an infrequently-used metaphor to say
>"Leave a trail of crumbs behind you" so you can return to a job or a
>hometown after you've been gone a while. It doesn't necessarily have
>to be cookie crumbs, I guess.<< Victoria Bergvall gave a similar
>interpretation.
>
>(c) Client-server:
>Retta Whinnery writes: >> The server generally "serves" the cookies to
>the client. That is, the server makes the cookies based on the
>information provided by the client and, then, "passes" the cookies to
>the client computer.>>
>
>(d) cookie jar:
>Jason Haugen suggests the following cookie metaphor:
>>> website = Cookie Jar; cookie = something taken from the cookie jar
> (website)<<
>
>(e) more metaphors: Retta Whinnery wrote:
>>> 1. A cookie is an "enticement" to get a computer user to visit
> your site. It collects information about your preferences and
>customizes the site accordingly. It's a sweet way to make sure the
>user gets satisfaction from the site. 2. A cookie has an "expiration
>date" just like the edible ones we purchase in stores. 3. A cookie
>is small; it cannot be larger than 4K. 4. The maximum number of
>cookies that can be on one client is 20, a few more than a dozen, but
>about the same number of edible cookies that come in a package. (5.)
>The site that is customized by a cookie takes on a certain "flavor"
>that the user likes. <<
>
>(f) more food metaphors:
>Retta Whinnery wrote: >> Cookies are commonly used in Java and
>JavaScript, the programming languages "invented?" by Steve Coffey.
>Some people have said that the language "Java" was named after a
>coffee shop; however, that is incorrect. It was named after its
>inventor: Coffey. Along with this are many other food metaphors:
> cookies and coffee
> JavaBeans
> hooked on Java
> juicy applets (these are small applications, but it sounds like
> small apples)
>Apple Computers also used many food metaphors: Macintosh (a type of
>edible apple as well as a brand of computers)<<
>Robert Timms alsomentioned 'cookies and coffee' and 'Java' in this
>connection.
>Lynn S. Messing about Easter Eggs: >>For example, an Easter egg might
>pop up if you go to a "Help" menu, click on the "About..." sub-menu,
>and then click a certain part of the window that pops up. The Easter
>egg might list the developers of the program. Easter eggs are so
>called because they are surprises that you usually have to go hunting
>for to find.<<
>
>Thanks to Elke Hentschel and Tom McMillan for drawing the attention to
>the fact that the definition I gave ("Cookies are bits of computer
>code that allow a Web page's operators to collect information about
>each user for later reference.", from 'Among The New Words' in
>American Speech) was inaccurate: >>The cookies are the 'data', not
>'bits of computer code' (where do they find these people to define
>computer terms?). There is certainly code written to get cookies, but
>it is the data itself which is the prize, so to speak...<< (Tom
>McMillan).
>
>Well, thanks again to all of you who responded - maybe I'll quote one
>or two of you in my PhD dissertation ( about the language, esp. the
>metaphors, of computing). If you're interested in any details, please
>do not hesitate to contact me.
>Kind regards,
>Monika.
>
>
>
>
>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>Monika Br\252ndl, Munich, Germany
>T: -89-2609865
>monika.bruendl who-is-at stud.uni-muenchen.de
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>LINGUIST List: Vol-9-309
>
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In a marketplace of ideas, there are going to be ideas that you find
abhorrent. The best thing to do is to respond to them.
--Barry Steinhardt, President,
Electronic Frontier Foundation