[Buddha-l] The Toulmiin link and sharing the joke

[Dan Lusthaus]

Bruce,

>>safebrowsing.clients.google.com
>>
>>EVERYTIME you visit a site, google "checks it out" for you (and makes
>>notation). Firefox has been embedding the "safebrowsing" gizmo since 
>>version
>>2.something or other (initially you could toggle it off, but no longer).
>
> So, would you recommend blocking this cookie?

Everything in life involves tradeoffs. If you block this cookie, you will 
find there are some sites that will become unavailable in whole or in part. 
Similarly, while I block all referrer codings, there is a price to pay for 
that -- some content becomes inaccessible. This afternoon an old friend 
emailed me that one can watch old episodes of Have Gun Will Travel on 
cbs.com (go to shows, then classic shows). I used to love that show, but 
because I block referrers, I can't watch the show (I won't bore you with the 
long list of referrer sites and questionnaires it was trying to fill out 
behind my back). Some sites, like that one, will refuse you the content 
unless they've gathered their info. Others will eventually let you have the 
content anyway, after trying multiple times to get the info. Depends on how 
crafty or sinister or clueless the code-writers for that site are. I've 
resigned myself to that trade off -- so I may not be able to watch Have Gun 
Will Travel, but I also don't get annoying ads for hearing aids, and the 
trackers have just a bit more trouble tracking me.

So you may want to try blocking that cookie to see how that affects your 
normal browsing. If suddenly you are finding content unreachable that you 
usually access, then unblock it (make sure whatever you are using to block 
the cookie allows easy undoing of the blocking).

If after a few weeks you notice no ill effects, perhaps you can report back 
to us, and we can all follow suit.

Or: Has anyone done this yet, who is willing to share the results?

Dan