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American Morning

'Cookie' Confusion; 'Extra Effort'

Aired December 30, 2005 - 09:34   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CAROL COSTELLO: We are following a developing story out of Baghdad right now. There have been two explosions, both in central Baghdad. Jennifer Eccleston is in the Iraqi capital to fill us in. Let's start there with these explosions.
What happened, Jennifer?

JENNIFER ECCLESTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What we know right now, it was a late afternoon car bomb and a mortar that ripped through a busy commercial area of a central Baghdad neighborhood. Initial reports from the Iraqi police say so far we have five people who were killed and over 20 -- some 23 were wounded. We'll be getting more information as the hours goes by, but that is the latest right now. Two bombs explode in central Baghdad, one a car bomb, one a mortar. This happened in a central Baghdad neighborhood, a very busy commercial district -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Another development we've been following out of Iraq this morning is this teenager who decided to go to Iraq to see how things were. At last check, he was in an Iraqi hotel, but he's moved on now, right?

ECCLESTON: Yes, a bizarre story, in fact, a funny one if it weren't so serious, given the situation here in Iraq. Sixteen-year- old Farris Hassan, a Florida teen of Iraqi descent inspired on a school course on immersion journalism set off on an incredible journey to this country, and he made it just a few days ago, before the Christmas holiday. He arrived here in the capital city in one of the deadly days in recent months. He doesn't speak Arabic, and when the reality of what a dangerous situation he was in finally hit him, he was turned over to the American embassy here today, and they announced that he is now on his way back to Florida to be reunited with his family.

COSTELLO: And we talked to his family, and he's got some explaining to do.

The other development out of Iraq is baby Noor, this baby with spina bifida. She was also on her way to the United States. What's the latest with her?

ECCLESTON: Absolutely. You know, it's such a dichotomy, representative of the dichotomy here in Iraq. We had that car bomb which brought death and destruction, and then across town this desperately-ill baby prepares for surgery that will save her life. As you mentioned, she's three months old. She's baby Noor. She left Baghdad today. She's on her way to Kuwait via military aircraft. Then early this morning she will go to Atlanta On a commercial flight, where she'll undergo treatment for a spinal cord defect called spina bifida, very serious form of that disease.

That life-saving treatment will take place at a children's hospital here in Atlanta, and it will be completely free of charge. And briefly, as you know her incredible story began three weeks ago after an anti-insurgency raid on her home just outside of Baghdad. Members of the Georgia National Guard and the New York-based Tent Mountain Division entered her home for a follow-up search where they discovered the sick instant. They were so moved by her state that at that stage a mission began to get the desperately-need medical attention that was unavailable here in Iraq -- Carol.

COSTELLO: And one more note, Jennifer. We just got word from the "AJC," the newspaper in Atlanta, that the grandmother who is traveling with Baby Noor is going to incorporate Georgia into her name. We don't know exactly how, but what a nice touch. What an emotional touch, and CNN will continue to follow this poignant story of baby Noor as it unfolds. We'll talk live with a member of one of several groups pitching in to help the soldiers keep their promise to get this child some treatment. The faith-based Child Spring International live this weekend and "Faces of Faith" on "CNN SUNDAY MORNING," 8:00 Eastern. So watch. The story of baby Noor continues -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: At the super-secret National Security Agency, the cookies have crumbled. The NSA put some new software on its Web site a little while ago that deposited cookies on your computer if you happened to drop in on their site. Now cookies are little computer files, just lines of text, that help make surfing the Web easier, ideally.

But cookies also leave a trail of where you go on the Web, and thus raise some privacy issues.

Here is Daniel Sieberg, our god of geekdom, to walk us through...

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Master of cookies.

O'BRIEN: ... the world of cookies. And we're not talking cook tollhouse here.

Daniel, first of all, Cookie 101. Try to describe in lay terms for folks.

SIEBERG: I will do that. A cookie in basic terms is a very small text file that appear appears on your computer when you go to certain Web sites, lots of Web sites. Cookies have been around for a long time.

Now the reason this story arose recently was that a proxy activist realized cookies were being left on his computer when he went to the nsa.gov Web site. We can show you that right here. And basically what was happening was he was going to the site, he was and realizing the cookie was staying on his computer even after he left the Web site. Now that goes against federal guidelines which says that cookies cannot stay on your computer after you visit a particular federal agency Web site. Once the NSA realized this, they say they took it down, and they did release a statement, saying that apparently an upgrade in the software used to manage the site used default cookies. "After being tipped to the issue, we immediately disabled the cookies."

So, Miles, really cookies have been around for a long time on the Web. They're used by a number of commercial sites to track you, to remember information about you. And as you pointed out, they're touted as a way to make life a little easier for you on the web.

O'BRIEN: Well, yes. I mean, for example, when you go to Amazon and it knows who you are and knows your password. That's a cookie that's doing some work there for you.

What though -- I mean, when you put this in the context with what else has happened with the NSA, this whole domestic spying thing, people really get their dander up on this thing.

SIEBERG: Right.

O'BRIEN: What sort of information would they possibly be able to glean of your personal life at the NSA by this cookie?

SIEBERG: Well, I'll tell you what, cookies would probably be the least effective spy tool for the NSA. They really don't get that much information from you in terms of who you are and they really can't find out much. They're not a program. It's not going to search your computer and find out information or follow you when you go somewhere.

What we can show you right now from a browser called Firefox from Mozilla is what a cookie actually looks like. If we go into tools here and options, it's going to show us what cookies look like. It's going to say "view cookies" right down here, and it's going to come up with what looks like a bunch of text. And if we double click on one of these. I'm going to scroll down to the one you pointed out Amazon. So if you go to the Amazon Web site, it might remember your password. If it's Miles O'Brien, it might remember you bought $10,000 worth of computer equipment there recently.

O'BRIEN: I wish.

SIEBERG: So when you pull it up, you can see here, Miles, it's just a string of all kinds of text. That means nothing to the average person, but what that means to Amazon is it's your personal profile. So you don't need to re-enter I'm Miles O'Brien, and that kind of thing. Now if you don't like that, if you feel uncomfortable by that kind of thing, you can actually, if you see there, allow sites to set cookies or turn them off. Cookies will remain on your computer for a long period of time if they're a certain type of cookie.

Now if you use Internet Explorer -- I'm going to pull that up here -- this has a different way of handling cookies. Again, you go down to tools, Internet options, and here you can actually delete cookies. So if you don't like them at all, you can just delete them as soon as you leave, and then go into your privacy settings up here, if you see that tab there, and you can change the preferences of whether a cookie can stay on your computer, whether you accept them at all.

O'BRIEN: You know, it's interesting, on that delete cookies thing, it doesn't let you see the cookies before you hit that button, which I don't like about that. What I've discovered is the best way to do it is just kind of search your computer for the cookies file, and then you can go through and delete the ones that you prefer not be on there. If you want to keep a password, you can.

The bottom line, just quickly here, can people track your surfing habits? Can people learn about you in ways by having these cookies on there?

SIEBERG: No, and that's a very good point. A cookie cannot follow you when you go to some other Web site. It's only active when you're on the Web site where you got it from originally. So you have to go back to the NSA.gov site, for example, for it to even remember you.

O'BRIEN: So it's not like the NSA is seeing all of your other cookies, and that's a very important point that people need to remember here.

Daniel Sieberg, I actually think I understand this now, and I appreciate that. As always, you have a way of shed light on the world of technicalities for me -- Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I feel better, too.

O'BRIEN: Do you?

COSTELLO: I do. I do. You're going to feel better after this story. This week's "Extra Effort," a music teacher with a special talent for giving disabled students a voice they never had.

Here's Dan Lothian.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They can barely move or speak.

(on camera): It was fun?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

LOTHIAN (voice-over): But these severely disabled students living with cerebral palsy can play instruments...

JONATHAN ADAMS, MUSIC THERAPIST: Brent's harmonica, Nick's guitar, is that good?

LOTHIAN: ... strike a cord, or even belt out a vocal with a single touch.

ADAMS: I'll point to you. Strike your key.

When I point to you, hit the switch. If i don't point to you, don't hit your switch.

Ready?

Here we go.

LOTHIAN: John Adams wrote the computer program that makes sweet melodies while attending Berkeley College of Music in Boston.

ADAMS: I was working in a school in special-ed classroom and it was just very frustrating, because it obviously meant a lot to the kids, and it resonated a lot, but none of the students in the class could speak or sing, and none of them could play traditional music instruments.

LOTHIAN: Adams married his software with standard switches, then began teaching special needs students at the Brayton School near Boston how to make music.

ADAMS: Whatever the child has most control over, we can usually find a switch. We have foot switches, knee switches, chin switches, just about anything.

LOTHIAN: Nicholas Sealing (ph) uses the tip of his left foot, Daniel Lasallvia (ph), the tip of her left hand. Blues, country, classics, it's music meets therapy onstage.

ADAMS: It's physical skills, it's cognitive skills, there's social skills, emotional.

LOTHIAN: The students, who perform twice a year at the school, call themselves The Headbangers.

ADAMS: Because originally, all of the members their used their heads to hit switches.

LOTHIAN: Adams has now programmed more than 120 instruments and countless vocals and background music into the system.

ADAMS: Do you like the piano, or do you like to sing?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sing.

ADAMS: You like to sing?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

LOTHIAN: Some students appear to light up at the sound of music.

ADAMS: A lot of kids have said, you know, I've always wanted to be a member of the band, and now I am.

LOTHIAN: A dream once out of reach, now at their fingertips.

ADAMS: All right!

LOTHIAN: Dan Lothian, CNN, Canton, Massachusetts.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Told you you'd feel good. Jonathan Adams' students range in age from seven to 22. AMERICAN MORNING will be back in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MARKET REPORT)

COSTELLO: Still to come, New Year's Eve and the battle of the network stars. This year, Regis Philbin and Dick Clark go head to head. Which one will you be watching? AM Pop next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: If you are not in Times Square, CNN is the place to be on Saturday night. You are looking at a live picture right now where they're getting ready.

Here's Anderson Cooper, though, to tell you what's on his New Year's Eve special.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Carol. Hope you haven't made plans yet and can join me Saturday night starting 11:00 p.m. Eastern Time for a look at New Year's around America and the world. This marks my first time hosting the party for CNN, and given what's happened in the past this year, I think it's going to be pretty interesting. We've got Barenaked Ladies, John Mayer Trio, Godfather of Soul, James Brown, is singing for us. Harry Connick Jr. with a special look at what's going on in New Orleans.

We're also going to be live in New Orleans and in Chicago and in Key West, Florida, as well as in Times Square. It's going to be a great evening. I hope you join me. It starts 11:00 p.m. Eastern Time, and we're going all the way to past 1:00 a.m., because and we want to be live for people in the Central time zones to help them ring in the new year as well -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Thanks, Anderson. And although Anderson's show will be the best, everybody from Dick Clark to Regis Philbin to our own Anderson Cooper, New Year's Eve is shaping up as the battle of the network stars.

So what's in store for the millions of viewers who will ring in the new year in HD or just plain old TV? "Newsweek's" Marc Peyser joins us now for a New Year's Eve preview in "AM Pop."

Hello, Mark.

MARK PEYSER, "NEWSWEEK": Hello.

COSTELLO: So there's going to be seven, count them seven, New Year's Eve specials on network television and cable.

PEYSER: Gridlock on New Year's Eve.

COSTELLO: I know. And as you said, there's only one New Year's Eve. What do you do?

PEYSER: Turn fast. You've got, like, 30 seconds to get through to the end of this night.

COSTELLO: Do that many people watch on New Year's Eve?

PEYSER: Well, certainly a lot of people watched the last two minutes of New Year's Eve. I've often wondered how many people watch an hour or an hour-and-a-half long show. I mean, you have your champagne and you're ready to go to bed at about 12:01, but clearly there are different audiences out there from ESPN to MTV.

COSTELLO: Yes, usually the shows are pretty lame.

PEYSER: I have to say that after the ball drops at Times Square, they pretty much go to this bland stuff, and you kind of lose interest, or maybe you're still partying and it doesn't matter what's on television.

PEYSER: That's right. You're supposed to be drunk enough that you can't really tell the difference.

COSTELLO: I didn't want to say that, but you're absolutely right. Let's talk about ABC and Dick Clark, because there's some controversy about him this year. A promotional picture that was out was doctored. They used a picture of Dick Clark from last year, along with Ryan Seacrest and -- oh, which blond is that?

PEYSER: Hillary Duff.

COSTELLO: Hillary Duff. Sorry.

So I don't know, a lot of people thank Dick Clark's health isn't that great, but he's going to appear anyway. What do you think?

PEYSER: I think it's a brilliant move on ABC's part. They've milked this unbelievably. We haven't seen Dick Clark really in public at all in the last weeks or so. Nobody knows what condition he's in. Is he going to be out there like he has been since 1972? I think people are dying to see how is Dick Clark?

COSTELLO: So you think they're using his health as a publicity stunt?

PEYSER: I think that they are making the most of it, we'll put it that way. I think that they are not disappointed by the controversy over the doctored photo. It just gets people talking about poor Dick.

COSTELLO: Well, yes, Ryan Seacrest just came out and said, oh, well, Dick Clark's not 100 percent, but he can still talk pretty good, and he's going to be there on New Year's Eve.

PEYSER: Right, we know he can talk, and we know he's not going to be in a wheelchair. That's all they've told us. After that, you've to tune in.

COSTELLO: OK, the most interesting thing, I think, is ESPN is going to have a New Year's Eve show. What's going to be on ESPN?

PEYSER: They have little Stephen Van Zant from "The Sopranos," among other things, with a bunch of garage bands. You know, I'm not exactly sure what they think they're going to get from their audience. They're coming on after a pretty big Giants football game. Frankly, I think they'd do better if they had their Raiderette cheerleaders on to keep their audience going. I'm not sure that many people are going to stick with ESPN to ring in the new year.

COSTELLO: They're going to be watching Anderson Cooper.

PEYSER: Oh, there you are.

COSTELLO: Absolutely. Mark Peyser from "Newsweek," thank you so much for being with us. And Happy New Year!

PEYSER: Happy New Year to you.

COSTELLO: We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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