function setCookie( name, value, expires, path, domain, secure ) {
	// set time, it's in milliseconds
	var today = new Date();
	today.setTime( today.getTime() );
	
	/*
	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" : "" );
}

// this function gets the cookie, if it exists
function getCookie( name ) {
	var start = document.cookie.indexOf( name + "=" );
	var len = start + name.length + 1;
	if ( ( !start ) && ( name != document.cookie.substring( 0, name.length ) ) ) {
		return null;
	}
	if ( start == -1 ) 
		return null;
	var end = document.cookie.indexOf( ";", len );
	if ( end == -1 ) 
		end = document.cookie.length;
	return unescape( document.cookie.substring( len, end ) );
}