function getCookie(cookieName){
  
       var prefix = cookieName + "=";
       var cookieStartIndex = document.cookie.indexOf(prefix);

       if (cookieStartIndex == -1)
	 return null;

       var cookieEndIndex = document.cookie.indexOf(";", cookieStartIndex + prefix.length);

       if (cookieEndIndex == -1)
	 cookieEndIndex = document.cookie.length;
       return unescape(document.cookie.substring(cookieStartIndex + prefix.length, cookieEndIndex));
   }

   
/*-----------Set Cookie function--------------------*/

function setCookie(name, value, expires, path, domain, secure) {

    var curCookie = name + "=" + escape(value) +
	((expires) ? "; expires=" + expires.toGMTString() : "") +
	((path) ? "; path=" + path : "") +
	((domain) ? "; domain=" + domain : "") +
	((secure) ? "; secure" : "");

    document.cookie = curCookie;
   }

  // global variables

  var today = new Date();
  var expires = new Date();
  expires.setTime(today.getTime() + 1000*60); // Set expiry time

  var name = getCookie( "username");
  
  
  
/*--------------New Check Function writes 'new' icon to screen if content has 
----------------been updated since last visit - Source - JavaScript for the 
----------------World Wide Web - Tom Negrino, Dori Smith--------------------*/

now = new Date()      //set 'now' to current date and time
expireDate = new Date()  //create new Date type var for expired date
expireDate.setMonth(expireDate.getMonth()+6) //set expireDate to some future value
lastVisit = new Date(cookieVal("pageVisit"))   /*call cookieVal function to read 
lastVisit from previously saved cookie*/
document.cookie = "pageVisit="+now+";expires=" + expireDate.toGMTString()
/*write new cookie with 'pageVisit' set to current date*/


function cookieVal(cookieName) {
    thisCookie = document.cookie.split("; ")   /*split  document cookies into 
    an array of individual cookies*/
	for (i=0; i<thisCookie.length; i++) {
	  	if (cookieName == thisCookie[i].split("=")[0]) {
	  	    return thisCookie[i].split("=")[1]
	  	}   // locate 'pageVisit' cookie in array and return value held
	}
	return "1 January 1970"   //return this if no pageVisit cookie is found
}
		
function newCheck(yyyy,mm,dd) {   //write new.gif if content updated since last visit
	lastChgd = new Date(yyyy,mm-1,dd)

	if (lastChgd.getTime() > lastVisit.getTime()) {
	    document.write("<img src='images/new.gif' width='28' height='11' alt='new' />")
	}
}