NONE: Re: ONLINE-ADS>> Cookies & Mediums is a word.
Re: ONLINE-ADS>> Cookies & Mediums is a word.
Rick Bruner (rick_at_bruner.net)
Sat, 12 Jul 1997 12:59:48 -0700 (PDT)
Greetings O-As,
I've gotten way behind on several lists I follow in recent weeks, and I
just completed reading the past month's worth of this excellent list. In
that period, I noticed two pieces of misinformation I thought I should
correct, the first more serious than the other.
RE: Cookies, Mark Dolley wrote in issue # 110:
>Folk are wrong to assume that cookies will endure. Check out the new
>Navigator in Communicator or the new Explorer - both of them will allow
>you to refuse cookies as a default. What the browser maker giveth, the
>browser-maker taketh away (so it looks like Doubleclick got that new
>round of funding just in the nick of time).
This is absolutely wrong. I have followed this issue closely for
Advertising Age, but a couple of my later articles on it were just briefs
on the Web site and may have gone unnoticed.
The point is, advertisers scored a major victory with cookies as both
Netscape and Microsoft decided to ignore the advice of a proposed new
standard on cookies (IETF RFC 2109, for those who have followed the issue),
and both browser companies have opted to set up their 4.0 versions to
ACCEPT all types of cookies by default. Uses have the option to set their
preferences to refuse cookies more efficiently than the 3.0 version
allowed, but few netizens are likely to bother digging through the arcane
settings and change the defaults.
The upshot is, cookies are probably here to stay, at least that's my
prediction. Netscapes Lou Montouli (who actually invented cookies and is
now their chief of protocols) told me that, short of a major firestorm of
negativism from users regarding their 4.0 pro-cookies stance, Netscape is
committed to cookies as an important tool for commerce on the Web. Same
story from MS.
Tom Hespos wrote in issue #115:
>1) "Mediums" isn't a word. Sorry to be anal, but it's a pet peeve of
>mine.
"Mediums" most certainly is a word. My Merriam Webester's Collegiate
Dictionary (tenth edition) indicates "mediums" is an acceptable plural for
all uses of the word "medium." In the sense of "a channel or system of
communication, information or entertainment," the dictionary says "pl usu
media" (meaning "usually" but not exclusively). OTOH, in the sense of "an
individual held to be a channel of communication between the earthly world
and a world of spirits," "mediums" is the only accurate plural.
If you're going to be anal, you might as well also be right.
Rick
-----------------------------------------------------------
Rick E. Bruner rick_at_bruner.net
Bruner Communications 1+(415) 351-2489
High-Tech Writing Services Web page RSN :^)
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