Online poker software - poll

[pokerguy11]

2+2 opinion may count.

Please vote in 2 polls:
What software platform(s) are you using to play poker?
http://pokerguy11.freepolls.com/cgi-bin/polls/001/poll_center.htm
What hardware/software platforms would you like to use to play poker?
http://pokerguy11.freepolls.com/cgi-bin/polls/002/poll_center.htm

Disclaimer: I have some hidden agenda here. If lots of people
will ask for PocketPC software, some sites may move for it.
And I would like them to. :-). It will be fun to play
from backyard without bulky laptop (I'm not sure about playing
using GPRS - e.g. in traffic, but if it will be reliable enough,
it also would be great!)

[Mike Haven]

Note that as soon as you click "Submit" it looks to me that an attempt to place a tracking cookie in your computer is made, so make sure you have your computer set for you to choose whether to allow or disallow acceptance of cookies if you want to vote in what appears to me to be a totally useless poll.

[El Barto]

[ QUOTE ]
Note that as soon as you click "Submit" it looks to me that an attempt to place a tracking cookie in your computer is made, so make sure you have your computer set to allow or disallow acceptance of cookies if you want to vote in what appears to me to be a totally useless poll.

[/ QUOTE ]
Nice catch. I had already looked at the polls, but didn't vote because they looked worthless.

Note: pokerguy11's 3 previous posts have already been deleted.

[pokerguy11]

Sure. It's a standard practice to [try to] prevent multiple votes. Nobody is going to use it to track your valuable
personal information.

: what appears to me to be a totally useless poll.
If it's "totally useless", why did you try it in the first place?

[pokerguy11]

: Nice catch.
I'm really impressed about the number of security paranoid people here (it's a compliment).

: Note: pokerguy11's 3 previous posts have already been deleted.
More likely expired. Last time I posted here was about a year ago.

PS To all really security paranoid people: the only way
to protect your privacy is to disconnect your computer
from the Internet permanently.

[El Barto]

[ QUOTE ]
:: Note: pokerguy11's 3 previous posts have already been deleted.
More likely expired. Last time I posted here was about a year ago.


[/ QUOTE ]
You may be right here. Posts that are in the archives forum do not appear in a user's list of posts.

edit: sure enough you made 3 posts in May and July 2003 (and they were normal, non-spam posts)

[pokerguy11]

Thanks. My intent here is exactly what I have said - get opinions about this issue (and maybe send them to some of the sites). It well may be a stupid idea :-), but IMO still a legitimate one. Vote is handled by reasonably good 3rd-party provider, so I don't have access to cookies and IPs (and frankly think that they won't use them for spamming).

[Dilbert]

[ QUOTE ]
PS To all really security paranoid people: the only way
to protect your privacy is to disconnect your computer
from the Internet permanently.

[/ QUOTE ]
Really, I wished I had thought of this. This will solve all of my problems. /images/graemlins/grin.gif /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[Mike Haven]

It's a standard practice to [try to] prevent multiple votes. Nobody is going to use it to track your valuable

I have voted five times on the "What software platform(s) are you using to play poker?" question.

I answered "PC/Windows" each time, so you had better correct your stats accordingly, although as it's showing, surprisingly enough, 94% for this choice my multi-votes may not affect your results too badly. Let's hope that not too many others multi-vote without telling you, especially if they don't accept the cookie.

Good luck in selling this information. Who would have thought that 94% use "Windows/PC" to play poker on the internet?

Maybe it's not so useless after all?

[Mike Haven]

I often notice that sites that are mentioned here, (especially poker sites, porn sites, affiliates' sites, and virtually all other sites), try to deposit a cookie in my computer. No big deal in many cases. Some sites won't even let you in until you accept their cookies.

However, I do like to make a choice as to whether or not I want their cookies.

If you want that same choice, here is how to give yourself the option if you use Windows XP. It's probably similar for other systems.

Click on "Tools"
Click on "Internet Options"
Click on "Privacy"
In Settings click on "Advanced"
In Cookies check "Override automatic cookie handling"
In First Party Cookies check "Prompt"
In Third Party Cookies check "Block"
Check "Always allow session Cookies"
Click "OK"
Click "OK".

That's it. You then receive a pop-up window whenever a site asks if you want to accept their cookie. Obviously you have to say "Yes" to PartyPoker, but (maybe) "No" to PartyClits.

If you want to start from scratch, and get rid of the hundreds of cookies already in your computer:

Click on "Toools"
Click on "Internet Options"
In Temporary Internet Files click "Delete cookies" etc.

[D.H.]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
It's a standard practice to [try to] prevent multiple votes.

[/ QUOTE ]

I have voted five times on the "What software platform(s) are you using to play poker?" question.


[/ QUOTE ]

What's your point? It is just one simple way of preventing multiple votes that works on most people. Another way might be to check you IP address. If you have some computer knowledge you can find a way to multi vote on basically all polls on the internet.

So what was your point? All internet polls are useless?

[Mike Haven]

What's your point?

That particular post had so many innuendoes in it that in fact you have surprised me by asking this question.

Please also add me to your "Ignore Posts by ..." list.

[D.H.]

Heh, well that post sure didn't help. But I see no reason to add you to my ignore-list, I'm sure you write interesting posts too.

I don't understand your attitude. It was a serious question, looking for a serious answer. Hard to discuss with people who doesn't want to discuss though.

[CORed]

Cookies are used for a lot of purposes. Some advertizers do use them to track your activity and target their adds accordingly. Some onine shopping sites use them to save your shopping basket. Others use them to store use user ID and password so you don't have to enter them again if you come back in a certain amount of time.

If as suggested, the cookie stored by the polls is used to keep track of whether you have already voted, the script that processes the form could send back a page that says. "Nice try scumbag, but you're only allowed one vote.", or it could just check whether you had already voted, and silently throw out your vote if you had already voted.

[pokerguy11]

Unwanted cookies almost never cause any practical trouble per se (at least I have never heard about it). Using Internet Explorer (which you silently implied in your post) has already caused lots of security problems.

So before even thinking about disabling harmless cookies I would suggest to install some other browser. For example, Mozilla 1.4+ is comparable to IE in all aspects except for [absence of] security exploits. There is one big reason for it: even if there are security holes (there are less of them in Mozilla, but they are still there), nobody cares about exploiting them, as overall impact will be too small. To reduce risks of getting virus/spyware dramatically, any browser other than IE will do - Mozilla, Netscape, Opera. The same can be applied (and for practical purposes is even more essential) to Outlook Express - security-conscious people should replace it with TheBat, Mozilla or any other mail client.

Disclaimer: information provided is not professional opinion or advice and does not represent professional opinion or advice of authors' employer.

PokerGuy, CISSP

[CORed]

You may think you are preventing sites from setting cookies, but with IE, you may not be. I recently discovered, while devloping a web site, that if the site sets a cookie using http headers rather than javascript, IE (version 6 anyway) sets the cookie regardless of your settings in "internet options". It does not prompt if set to prompt or refuse to set the cookie if set to refuse.

[GrannyMae]

It was a serious question, looking for a serious answer.

then the polling software provided by 2+2 should have been used. if someone wants to tap our brains, they need to do it on this forum. unlike mike, i never even bothered to click the links. i recently almost got a keystroke virus by clicking a harmless looking link. it taught me a lesson.

if the OP wants my opinion (doubtful) he will construct the poll here and extrapolate the results himself for his off site needs. unless i know the poster, which is not the case with the OP or you, i won't click any links here.

http://smilies.sofrayt.com/%5E/_950/creator.gif

[D.H.]

[ QUOTE ]
then the polling software provided by 2+2 should have been used. i recently almost got a keystroke virus by clicking a harmless looking link.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for a serious answer, GrannyMae. I wish Mike would have told him this in a friendly way in the first post. The guy has posted just a few messages here and might not even have been aware that you can create a poll in the forum.

[pokerguy11]

[ QUOTE ]
i recently almost got a keystroke virus by clicking a harmless looking link. it taught me a lesson.


[/ QUOTE ]

Regardless of the vote etc. I would suggest to switch from Internet Explorer (e.g. to Mozilla). From my 3+ years experience with it, Mozilla is currently [about] on par with IE in almost all aspects, except for a) number of exploits; b) some not-that-popular plug-ins (popular ones like Flash/Java/Acrobat are Ok). No single security problem so far for me or for any of our clients that switched to it.

[pokerguy11]

[ QUOTE ]
The guy has posted just a few messages here and might not even have been aware that you can create a poll in the forum.

[/ QUOTE ]
Indeed I wasn't aware. Thanks.

[Mike Haven]

thanks for that info

i'm not paranoid about cookies, but if i can stop a lot of them that i want to stop, by the means i described, i reckon that's not a bad thing - i have certainly noticed absolutely no downside

the reason i "voted" multi-times was because i was trying to figure out at exactly what point the cookie-implant was triggered, and a couple of times it didn't appear to be triggered at all