What are internet cookies?    

Do I need to worry about internet cookies on my pc?    

Internet cookies are very simple, but they are one of those things that have taken on a life of their own. Cookies started receiving tremendous media attention a few years ago because of Internet privacy concerns.

Internet cookies provide capabilities that make the Web much easier to navigate. The webmasters of almost every major site use them because they provide a better user experience and make it much easier to gather accurate information about the site's visitors. This information is usually limited to user preferences such as customized page settings, postcode, etc.

Simply put, internet cookies are text files (the most simple type of file). A website will 'drop' a cookie into your hard drive that stores a unique ID so that the next time you visit that website it can remember you. There is usually no personally identifying information stored in a cookie.

Compared to today's problems on the internet such as viruses, spyware, hackers, and identity theft, internet cookies are the lowest on the list of things to be paranoid about. If you have taken all the standard security precautions on our website, internet cookies should not be your most pressing concern.

Every computer on the internet has it's own unique 'address'. When data is sent over the internet between computers, this address is used to determine the destination of the data, much in the same way the street address on an envelope tells the post office where to send your bills.

Internet addresses usually consist of 4 groups of numbers, separated by 'dots' (periods).
For Example 207.46.155.5 belongs to Microsoft.  The internet uses a Domain Look up System or "DNS" to translate these numbers into names that are easy to remember. So instead of typing www.207.46.155.5 into your web-browser program, you can type www.microsoft.com.  When you type an address in your browser, a message is sent out.  It firstly gets translated by a DNS server into its component numbers before it hunts down the address you have typed.  There are millions and millions of these addresses and so there is a complex network of these servers on the Internet.

There are several different types of address formats.
The most common are: www and eMail

When you want to visit a web page, you enter a WWW (World Wide Web) or (HTTP) into your web-browser program (Internet Explorer, or the safer web browser, FireFox).
The format of a web address is: www.name.xxx (with no spaces).  Instead of .xxx, it may end in a variety of identifying extensions, such as .biz, .gov, .org, or there may be two components to it which also identify the country, such as; ,gov.uk, .ac.uk, .co.uk, .org.uk.  The convention is to use a country identifier if your work is limited to that country, except in America which doesn’t.  So for UK voluntary organisations, the naming convention gives you a web address of: www.xxxxxxx.org.uk.

When you want to send an email, you must use the email address format of username@volorgname.org.uk  (or whatever - same as above).  The recipient's name must be placed in front of the ' @ ' followed by the company name (the normal web address).

Note that no spaces can be used in web or email addresses.

Java is a language developed by Sun Microsystems which allows World Wide Web pages to contain code that is executed on the browser. Because Java is based on a single "virtual machine" that all implementations of java emulate, it is possible for Java programs to run on any system which has a version of Java. It is also possible for the "virtual machine" emulator to make sure that Java programs downloaded through the web do not attempt to do unauthorized things.

In English, Java is a programming language. Because of the way Java is designed, a programmer can write a single Java program that will run on Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh, UNIX, etc. Most other programming languages require separate programs written for each different type of computer. Using Java, web designers can write one program that will work on virtually any computer. Because the Java framework does not allow 'bad' things to happen to your computer, internet users are more protected when going to unknown websites.

Without java you would not be able to view many advanced web pages that are programmed using java.

Sun Microsystems offers java free of charge. You can download java for your web browser here:  java download.

Web + log = Blog

A blog is a daily journal (diary) that a person makes available on the internet. A person that publishes a blog is referred to as a blogger. A blog is visually similar to a standard web page, but the process of updating a blog is extremely easy and non-technical. Because of the ease of use of blogs, virtually anyone can have one - using a blog is no more complicated than using a word processo. A blogger usually updates his or her blog daily, or several times per week.

Getting a blog of your own is easy and usually not very costly. Many bloggers use their web-log as their own personal website for everything from promoting political views to even greater trivia.

Find out and see the virtual riders blog here!

"...the distribution of audio files, such as radio programs, over the internet using RSS syndication for listening on mobile devices and personal computers. A podcast is a web feed of audio or video files placed on the Internet for anyone to subscribe to, and also the content of that feed. Podcasters' websites also may offer direct download of their files, but the subscription feed of automatically delivered new content is what distinguishes a podcast from a simple download or real-time streaming..."

From Wikipedia

A podcast is a music file (.MP3 or .AAC) that contains voice and/or music.

Many people incorrectly think that subscribing to a podcast means you have to pay for it, but the vast majority of podcast subscriptions are free! Subscribing is the term used to automatically download new episodes of your subscribed podcasts into your iPod or MP3 player.

The iTunes Music Store is a good source of podcasts where you will find thousands available for download or (free) subscription, with new ones added every day. If you have an Apple iPod, the iTunes Music store is the easiest way to find and download podcasts and music. You can access the iTunes Music store on both Windows and Macintosh PC's.

Below is a list of websites and resources for finding and downloading podcasts for your iPod or non-Apple MP3 player:

• Podcast .Net

• Yahoo Podcasts

• The Podcast Network