Made With Notepad Campaign
This campaign exists to support people who use Notepad, or other similar text-editors, to design and create their own web pages. In other words, people who have taken the time to learn the necessary skills and know-how to do the job right, instead of relying on some cutesy page-making program. In many ways there is simply no substitute for a page written "by hand." So if you use Notepad too, just put one of our "Made With Notepad" buttons on your site and link it back. The Made With Notepad button says that you're not a kiddie using Frontpage -- you actually know how to code HTML.
When I affix the "Made With Notepad" button to my page, it adds a certain level of pride. The button means that someone actually took the time to learn HTML (and/or Javascript, PHP, etc.), rather than use a cheap web page making program (i.e. "web page editor"). People who really know what they're doing stay away from those -- they use instead a text-editor such as Notepad.
Why, you might ask? Quite simply, coding done "by hand" turns out a better page. Editors often don't do all kinds of neat stuff, assuming that you want a plain, boring, static page. Furthermore, editors produce sloppy and cumbersome code, resulting in less-compatible, slower loading pages. DMOZ's Open Directory Project has a saying which sums it up pretty well: Humans do it better.
For example, AOL Press, America Off-Line's web page editor, doesn't support the EMBED tag (for audio & multimedia files), barely supports any Javascript, and it puts a little "Created with AOL Press 2.0" remark in every HTML file it touches, as if the program was actually proud of it's own handiwork!
Microsuck's "Frontpage" is even worse, as it creates the most bloated HTML files I've ever seen. I once took an 88k HTML file that somebody had made in Frontpage, and (no kidding) shrunk it to 26k without changing the page's appearance in a browser whatsoever. I was amazed!
With a text-editor like Notepad you don't have any of these problems. You can do whatever you want, all day long. Quick & simple. So when someone affixes the "Made with Notepad" logo to their page, it stands for something. Not to mention a little boost to my ego...
National Anti-Cookie League
What is a cookie?
A cookie is a sort of sweet, flat cake, often with chocolate chips, raisins, or something like that in them.
An internet-cookie is a small file that a web site can store on your computer, often without your knowledge or consent. This file usually contains information that the web site has collected about you or your computer, such as which programs you have and what other web sites you've been to. Sometimes cookies contain serial numbers which can be used to keep track of where you go and what you do. Once a cookie is placed, it can stay on your computer for anywhere from a few hours to 10 years or more; and there are no limits to the number of cookies that can be stored on your computer.
Any web site you visit can get information from the cookies that are stored on your computer. Marketing companies like DoubleClick, Smartage, and others, collect the information that these cookies contain. They analyze this data, looking for things like email addresses, IP addresses, names, phone numbers, etc. Anything they find is added into one of the huge databases of similar information on literally hundreds of thousands of other people. These databases are compiled into names and addresses, email addresses, or phone numbers, which are often sold to other companies. This whole system is one of the chief sources of Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE), better known as "spam."
If that isn't bad enough, some web sites can access even more sensitive information through cookies, including credit card numbers, bank accounts and social security numbers just to name a few. Anything you submit online can possibly be stored in a cookie; for example, some online shops store addresses and payment information in cookies so that you don't have to fill in the info again the next time you shop there -- meanwhile, this information is sitting in a cookie just waiting for somebody to look for it.
Finally, the issue regarding whether or not a cookie can infect your computer with a virus has been hotly debated. We cite that for years it was thought that only executable programs could be infected with viruses... until just a couple of years ago when someone figured out how to put them into Word documents. Not only have people figured out how to get viruses into more and more different kinds of files, but since anything can be stored in a cookie, wouldn't that make it an easy mechanism for spreading a virus?
We at the NACL think that these cookies go too far. They blatantly violate people's privacy. That's why we are dedicated to the annihilation of internet cookies and to the promotion of cookie-free web sites.
Cookie Ploys
Many people have configured their computers to block cookies, but some web sites (and even some programs) are so desperate to place cookies onto your computer that they'll do or say almost anything. They often use various ploys to trick or even force people into accepting cookies. We have narrowed these various ploys down to 4 basic types:
Ploy #1: "You must allow cookies before you can visit this web site."
This is a straight-forward load of bull. Some companies deliberately design their web sites in such a way as to require you to allow cookies before they let you in. There is no legitiment reason for them to do this, other than to insure that they can track your movements online, both while at their site and at other sites you visit later. In cases like this, it is best to leave that web site because the people that run it are obviously not honest people. You do not have to allow cookies to visit a normal web site.
Ploy #2: "Cookies provide a more customized browsing experience."
This is common ploy seen on web sites (and even in some versions of Microsoft's Internet Explorer!). Although cookies can be used to store customizing information, 99.9% of the time they are not. Java, CGI, and other new web technologies have really eliminated the customization value of cookies.
Ploy #3: "Cookies enhance the graphics, movies and sounds on the web."
This is 100% FALSE. In fact, this ploy couldn't be farther from the truth. Cookies have nothing to do with graphics, movies or sounds. This is like saying that changing the oil in your car can prevent you from getting a flat tire -- the two have nothing to do with each other.
Ploy #4: "We use cookies only for good, not evil."
While this ploy may or may not be true (depending on the site), cookies coming from a site that uses this ploy are the ones to worry about the most.
In general, the best thing to do with a site that tries to force you to allow cookies is to leave. Nine times out of ten, there are several other sites that contain similar information, without forcing you into accepting cookies.
|
