Vote for Alex in Donate Life's Person of the Year Awards

[wpgrace]

Moi aussi, honey...

And Alex Aussie.

[Fleur de Lisa]

Moi aussi, honey...

And Alex Aussie.

You get points for being cute on that one!
And I'm off to locate another computer to vote on! I think I've caused enough trouble with spreading randomness everywhere I go today.

[allegrita]

I love you girls.

Cookies are little files a website puts on your computer so it knows about what you're doing. They can be good (our site uses cookies so you can use that cool "always login when you come to this board" feature) or bad (malware uses 'em all the time).

How to clear cookies depends on your browser. In Firefox 3.6.2, which I am running, you click Tools - Options, click on the Security tab (it looks like a fancy party mask, cool graphic!) and click "remove individual cookies". You'll get a list of cookies--it's kind of unnerving how many there are! Anyhow, you can scroll down and remove the cookies for SurveyMonkey, or just clear all your cookies, depending on what you want to do.

In IE, click Tools - Internet Options, click on the General tab, and in the middle of the box you'll see "Browsing History." Click the "Delete..." button. You'll see a list of things you can clear. Uncheck everything but cookies, and click Delete. (That will delete all of your cookies.)

Note that if you clear all your cookies, it'll log you out of sites you're logged into, like this board. You'll have to re-login. But it's not a bad thing to clear out all your cookies once in a while... and not just because of worries about your expanding abode.

[Fleur de Lisa]

I love you girls.

Cookies are little files a website puts on your computer so it knows about what you're doing. They can be good (our site uses cookies so you can use that cool "always login when you come to this board" feature) or bad (malware uses 'em all the time).

How to clear cookies depends on your browser. In Firefox 3.6.2, which I am running, you click Tools - Options, click on the Security tab (it looks like a fancy party mask, cool graphic!) and click "remove individual cookies". You'll get a list of cookies--it's kind of unnerving how many there are! Anyhow, you can scroll down and remove the cookies for SurveyMonkey, or just clear all your cookies, depending on what you want to do.

In IE, click Tools - Internet Options, click on the General tab, and in the middle of the box you'll see "Browsing History." Click the "Delete..." button. You'll see a list of things you can clear. Uncheck everything but cookies, and click Delete. (That will delete all of your cookies.)

Note that if you clear all your cookies, it'll log you out of sites you're logged into, like this board. You'll have to re-login. But it's not a bad thing to clear out all your cookies once in a while... and not just because of worries about your expanding abode.

Wow.
I got confused after:
Cookies are little files....

Seriously, thank you alle for explaining. But I think my brain would literally explode if I tried understanding any of that. I seem to have a HUGE block there that prevents any logical techno advice from entering!

[allegrita]

Don't worry, honey. You don't need to do it, and if you want to, I bet the Fleurettes will be able to help you.

[wpgrace]

Oy. That sounds complicated.
My partner and I suffer from the same Compooter-Stoopid-Disability.
Tho with the new health care plan, we may be able to get insurance...
We could get a coomputer-brain transplant and totally credit Alex for saving us.
So more reasons to vote for him...

[wpgrace]

So apparently Alle's cookie-clearing technique, if you can get it to work, will allow you to vote as many times as you'd like. Others have done it, besides our darling Alle.

Also, apparently, the voting ends June 6, so there's still plenty of time!

So smoke em if you got em, ladies.

[librarian_7]

Well, not that I'm advocating voting multiple times, but it is good for your computer to clear the cookies once in awhile...

Lucky

[Lucy]

any idea how Alex is doing in the votes (do you think the other candidates have as motivated fans as AOL?)

[jmc]

It's all about cookies, kids. If you clear your cookies you can vote multiple times from the same browser. Not that I'm recommending that you do that, mind you...

Thanks for clearing that up for me, alle. I clear cookies at my work computers every time I close and I've been voting daily. Didn't know that the two were connected.

[wpgrace]

So why do computers have cookies if you need to clear them?

[redwinter101]

So why do computers have cookies if you need to clear them?

I'm assuming you read alle's helpful explanation earlier in the thread?????

Cookies are files dowloaded from sites to your computer. In addition to making it faster to browse etc. they also tell that site, or article (or poll, in this case) that you have previously visited. For those not trying to cheat support a particular person in a poll, this would not ordinarily be a problem. Once you've voted, at every subsequent visit you will have the poll results displayed to you (or something similar, depending on the site).

However, in order to vote again, you need to delete the cookies so the poll doesn't register that you've already voted.

Red

[r1015bill]

Oh, This thread is getting geeky! Let me explain it another way.

Cookies store information so you don't have to enter it again. For example, you want to find the closest branch of some store near to you. You go to the store's site, select a search option, and have to enter your zip code to get choices. Once you've entered that, it's put in the site's cookie so you never have to enter it again. It's a little cache of your previous choices to make your browsing experience less tedious for a particular site.

In this case, they must save that you've voted so you can't go back to that page. If they really wanted to insure you only voted once, they would save your IP address somewhere on their system. That, however, adds a whole level of complexity with a database on their side.

[allegrita]

Why clear your cookies? Well, websites use cookies to store information about your use of that website. They put the cookies (little files) on your computer, and access that information every time you go back to the website. That's how sites like amazon.com "remember" you when you revisit their sites, etc. Lots and lots of sites set cookies--sites that you might not want to remember you. Like, what if you accidentally click on a link in an ad and you go to their site? Clearing your cookies can help you keep that site's hooks out of you... Clearing cookies is like doing your Web laundry. You start out nice and clean and fresh, unfettered by memories of the past. Eternal sunshine of the spotless web browser, so to speak.

I don't know if they are showing results anywhere about the Donate Life poll. I haven't seen any.

(ETA: Just adding to the geekiness...)

[wpgrace]

I use Safari... anyone have a clue how to delete cookies on Safari?
Cos none of those works that y'all said to look for seem to pop up for me...

Stooopid stooooopider stooooopidest... I know.