This post is intended to be short and to the point; it is not fancy or well written nor is it meant to be a masterpiece of modern blogging! It is just a statement, and hopefully a promise (to myself more than you my dear reader <– singular I expect).

I have hosted a blog for many years (over on another domain name that we won’t speak of for now); over those years I have written less than many posts. Many of those posts were written out of desperation at not having written many posts! I have decided that I want to write more; not because I think that people want to read why I write, more because I do enjoy doing it.

Writing detailed posts on a technical subject is fun (I am a geek, you should know this), and it encourages me to learn more about the subject, which in turn makes be better at what I do.

I am a software developer from the United Kingdom, I write mainly in C# using the .NET framework. I write web, desktop, mobile, back-end, services, database, and anything else I need to complete the task at hand and I like to believe that I am rather good at all of them (now if that isn’t full stack then I don’t know what is).

I promise to myself that I am going to write more posts; focusing on technical, development, and security subjects (likely with some random thrown in once in a while). So keep with me, the posts are likely to get better the more I write, I need to find my style and learn how to write strong coherent posts! I don’t apologise for writing some lesser quality posts to begin with; that being said…. sorry!

If you are feeling unsuccessful just think about this: eagles may soar, but weasels don’t get sucked into jet engines. anon

Cover photo via Annie Spratt on unsplash.com

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There is a really simple comment policy here:

Keep it clean, keep it friendly. You can be negative, just be constructive and don’t be a dick. Oh and spam is being a dick.

The header image for this page came from Matthew Henry via unsplash.com.

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There are a number of ways that you can contact me; if you feel the need!

Email

You can mail me via james@melodiouscode.net; I don’t promise to reply to every email (life can be busy) but I will do my best. See the end of this page for a list of things I will and will not reply to.

Twitter

I have been active on twitter using @melodiouscode for a number of years.

Facebook

No, just no.

What I will definatly reply to

Cool things, potential meetups, and comments about articles that just dont fit into the comment section.

What I will definatly not reply to

• No I don’t want your web design firm to re-design melodiouscode.net.
• No I won’t just link to your article; if it’s really cool then I might but not just becase you asked.
• If your email doesn’t really make sense, or doesn’t require a response (ask questions they get answers).

The header image for this post came from Antoine Barrès via unsplash.com.

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I challenge you to find a website that doesn’t store some sort of cookie on your machine; even the ones with a cookie banner do after you clock “no cookies for me” (they use a cookie to say that you don’t want cookies!).

What is a cookie?

A cookie is a small message that a web server passes to your web browser when you visit a website. The browser stores the message in a small file called a ‘cookie’. When you request another page from the same website your browser sends back the cookie along with the request.

This allows the server to know it is you again; one very common use for a cookie is to store a small session key. This key then allows you to access your logged in session again when you click on a link (this is why you don’t have to log in every time you click on an email in your webmail client).

Why is it called a cookie?

To be honest I am not really sure; some people say it is in reference to the ‘magic cookie’ in UNIX systems. I like the story that it refers to Hansel and Grettle leaving their cookie crumbs around the forest to track their path (imagine the cookies being left as you take your path through the internet).

Are cookies dangerous?

The simple answer is no; in and of itself a cookie is no more dangerous than a post-it note. A cookie can’t execute code on your computer; it can’t download anything nasty or steal your bank details. That being said, a cookie can be used to track you as you travel around the internet. Some websites use ad-networks (melodiouscode.net, at the time of writing, does not), when one of those networks places a cookie it can be detected again by the network on another site that uses it. Thus tracking you from website ‘A’ to website ‘B’. This generally occurs without the users explicit permission; this is why we hear about them in the news sometimes.

Should I disable cookies in my browser?

I like my privacy as much as the next person; but I would not recommend disabling cookies. Doing so will break many of the websites you use on a daily basis; and website that you login to will normally use a cookie to provide that login (your emails, bank account, and even government websites).

There are tracking cookies out there; many web browsers have the ability to prevent known agressive tracking cookies from being stored on your website. Equally you could use an ad-blocker; they block many types of cookie that are not required by the website.

#What cookies does melodiouscode.net use? At the time of writing (18th March 2018) melodiouscode.net does not store any cookies on your system. I do however present the cookie banner just in case Ghost decides to start using cookies without me realising!

You can check what cookies this site presents without having to download them yourself over at www.cookie-checker.com.

Update: I do now use Google Analytics purely to see if and when people are reading the site; I do not harvest any data about my users and I have the data retention settings set to their shortest time.

The header image for this post came from Erol Ahmed via unsplash.com.

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