Offtopic - re cookies, the etymology of cookie (or 'magic cookie') as an opaque value is very obscure and has a interesting social side-effect in that it's difficult for average people to get very worked up about websites serving cookies (vs say the more universally understood 'tokens' or 'tracking codes').
While I get that the term originated in the Unix/C world[1], does anyone know if it comes from a particular US dialect or something? e.g. West Coast/Boston?
I don't know why but I (UK, en-gb native) always assumed "cookie" was reference to a fortune cookie in turn a placeholder for the little slips of paper with obscure notes on them hidden inside a sweet treat (ie the website)??
While I get that the term originated in the Unix/C world[1], does anyone know if it comes from a particular US dialect or something? e.g. West Coast/Boston?
[1] http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/C/cookie.html