Okay, so my dad used some spyware removing device and it turned off all cookies. This basically means I can't use hotmail and anytime I leave sciforums (or any other forum I use), I have to resign in every time I change pages. How do I remedy this?

"Then you won't have to worry about bad cookies and mozilla is just plain better than ie."
I have yet to see anyone explain exactly what a 'bad cookie' is. The fact is that most sites use cookies. Most sites track your usage using cookies. Some sites NEED cookies.

I haven't seen anyone explain why you might want cookies off. The only information they can possible have is:
1) your website usage
2) things you tell them

Both are tracked with or without cookies. Basically, turn cookies back on and don't worry about it.

Mmmmm.... cookies....

In the old days Cookies were seriously bad because they contained your passwords and login details, nowadays though because people know that cookies can be stolen by X-Scripting methods, Cookies usually only store Session data which removes passwords from being stored in them.

Servers are then scripted to authenticate a users browser session based upon a mixture of their browser type, OS, IP and session data (The more you use, the more it proves that a person is who they say they are from that computer).

So most cookies aren't as bad as all that, and there is also the point that if a person wanted to gain information about you, they could passively get alot of information from you accessing a website script that runs on their server, far worse than your cookie.

I would guess the potential cookie problem might be if someone could do a X-scripting attack on a banks secure form, copy the information thats sent to the bank to the cookie, and then use another site that the person frequents to retreive the data from the cookie. (The likelihood there is the site would be down pretty quickly from the pile of Federal agents and other world groups jumping on the person and their equipment)