re: Off-Topic glitch, and the expiration of cookies
I have to reset the "compact" setting once in a while, and just figured this was a bug in my system. It's very little work, and I hardly notice it. Once in a great while, the board refreshes with a white background and large letters, but that's very rare.
If the cookies expire, that's probably just Robert's good computer manners, an unwillingness to stick a long-term cookie on anyone's computer.