function setCookie( name, value, expires, path, domain, secure ) 
{
	// set time, it's in milliseconds
	var today = new Date();
	today.setTime( today.getTime() );
	
	path = '/';
	/*
	if the expires variable is set, make the correct 
	expires time, the current script below will set 
	it for x number of days, to make it for hours, 
	delete * 24, for minutes, delete * 60 * 24
	*/
	if ( expires )
	{
	expires = expires * 1000 * 60 * 60 * 24;
	}
	var expires_date = new Date( today.getTime() + (expires) );
	
	document.cookie = name + "=" +escape( value ) +
	( ( expires ) ? ";expires=" + expires_date.toGMTString() : "" ) + 
	( ( path ) ? ";path=" + path : "" ) + 
	( ( domain ) ? ";domain=" + domain : "" ) +
	( ( secure ) ? ";secure" : "" );
}


function getCookie(Name) {
  var search = Name + "="
  var returnvalue = "";
  if (document.cookie.length > 0) {
    offset = document.cookie.indexOf(search)
    // if cookie exists
    if (offset != -1) { 
      offset += search.length
      // set index of beginning of value
      end = document.cookie.indexOf(";", offset);
      // set index of end of cookie value
      if (end == -1) end = document.cookie.length;
      returnvalue=unescape(document.cookie.substring(offset, end))
      }
   }
  return returnvalue;
}

function deleteCookie(name) {
   if (getCookie(name)) document.cookie = name + "=" +
   ";expires=Thu, 01-Jan-70 00:00:01 GMT";
}

var today = new Date();
var zero_date = new Date(0,0,0);
today.setTime(today.getTime() - zero_date.getTime());
var cookie_expire_date = new Date(today.getTime() + (8 * 7 * 86400000));