[Air-l] [cc]Microsoft's really hidden files

[Zunt at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/10/2001 12:09:38 PM Eastern Daylight Time, jhuns at vt.edu 
writes:

> my e-mail and browsers work fine without such things, so why do they do it. 

Other folks find those features useful.  I sometimes allow cookies to be 
stored on my machine to help me get quicker access to various web functions.  
I also have cached web pages on occasion to speed delivery of content.  I 
don't cache my old e-mail, but know folks who do for their own reasons.  

The author advises me to "erase all [my] cache files, all [my] cookie files, 
and all of [my] e-mail correspondence. "   My reply is simple:  No thanks.  
I'll erase what I don't need on my machine, and will do it on my own terms.  
When my drive gets sufficiently filled with junk, I'll shift what I need and 
wipe it clean.  No big deal, and to my way of thinking, no need for 
conspiracy theories ;>).

I'm surely not a defender of contemporary bloated software that generates 
bloated files and bloated file structures, but am stuck in a position where I 
use what's easily available to get jobs done as efficiently, effectively, 
etc., as I can.  And I don't mind folks complaining re: their perceptions of 
product quality.  What bugs me about that article is that the argument is 
based on a factual error: the existence of supposedly hidden files that I can 
actually see.  Hyperbole and crudeness while presenting a straw man just 
doesn't set well with me.

You must be leading a blessed life to get away with a semiannual maintenance 
routine ;>).

Cheers,

Bob Briggs
Westport, MA