Notices

I need to keep some cookies -- like for NYTimes or itT -- but most -- especially tracking cookies from shopping websites, etc. -- I'd rather delete. In Firefox I achieve this with the Cookie Culler add-on.

How can this be done in the MicroB browser? If there is a file where they can be deleted manually, where is it? Is there a better way?

I know how to remove all cookies and how to use about:config to change how all future cookies will be handled, but not how to keep some and delete others. (Besides privacy matters, I suspect some cookies slow down the browser.)

Any ideas?

I don't think you can do it. But as for "slow" cookies - I think it's impossible. Cookies are not scripts or code etc. They are just little pieces of data (last visit date, your name etc). Cookie has very limited size so one cookie can't be greater than another etc. Every site is asking for it's own cookie, because it knows only those names of cookies it left in your browser. So I doubt that one or two very "special" cookies can slow down your browser

Well, I found where the cookies are:

/home/user/.mozilla/microb/cookies.txt

But when I open that file, it starts with:

# HTTP Cookie File
# http://wp.netscape.com/newsref/std/cookie_spec.html
# This is a generated file! Do not edit.
# To delete cookies, use the Cookie Manager

After that message, there is a list of cookies.

My feeling is that the message is a leftover from the code on which MicroB is based.

If not, where is said "Cookie Manager"?

I suppose from that message that editing that file would be pointless or harmful, but I'm tempted to do it. Any thoughts?

Well, on a high-latency link, there could be substantial costs to another round-trip for a cookie. But I think (I don't really know this stuff) the same round-trip would almost always be made with the cookie dumped locally, since the server doesn't know not to ask for it.

I concur, for low-latency links, that there's no way for a cookie to have a significant performance impact.

For editing that file, though, I'd say go at it. It's likely to work, and if it doesn't, unlikely to hurt anything.

I don't think deleting cookies will speed up browsing. The site will ask the browser for a cookie, and if it doesn't find one it will create a new one and send it to the browser anyway.

When you delete cookies there is something to consider, most companies that store settings for bank info, radio station play lists, and tracking cookies are moving away from or have already moved from Browser cookies to Hidden Cookies. It does not matter anymore what browser you use, it is browser independent.
Most of the tracking stuff you want to delete is not in a traditional cookie and if it is 99% of the time it is duplicated in a hidden folder and that folder is also duplicated and hidden.
Advertisers use a tool that will copy your cookies (of that advertisers) into these hidden files.
I could not understand at first how after I deleted cookies they still knew my profile. I tried a program called qusum to scan my computer and found about 400 and some of these things. And yes it will allow you to enter in cookies not to delete.
I don't know if they allow links on this thread but the url is qusum (dot) com

OK, I opened /home/user/.mozilla/microb/cookies.txt and selectively deleted the cookies I didn't want. And everything worked properly -- like Amazon, which I didn't want to continue recognizing me, no longer recognized me; and The New York Times, which I wanted to recognize me, did. And I don't know if it made my life more private or my browser faster, but I got rid of a slew of other cookies and didn't break anything in the process.

I'm looking for something similar in that I've accidentally set cookies to be automatically excluded for a particular site. How can I change this behaviour? I've looked into about:config but that doesn't provide a list of sites on the reject list.

Thanks