Getting wierd .txt cookies?

Starting 1 week ago I've noticed weird cookies appearing that on the surface are not readable such as:

SQBDL6J3.txt
D2K73V22.txt
CLLPPJC8.txt

I'm using XP-Pro Sp3 with IE8/Outlook Express

When I click on them they are all one long line with the name of a common websites enbedded I just visited like "nytimes.com" such as the following.

Cookies used to be readable such as:

bob@www.bing[1].txt
bob@netflix[8].txt
bob@frys[1].txt

Even windowsbbs.com is now showing 1 line as "JU7358R9.txt" which turns into 1 long line of mostly gibberish when clicked!

Why am I just seeing these things all of a sudden?

RMID
362f48c121d14e76353e4f5b
nytimes.com/
1024
1763848960
30250240
4227675056
30176814
*
nyt-m
EEDE4B08E6DBC7FD1631C5AEF82FA782&e=i.1317441600&t=i.20&v=i.0&l=l.25.-1.-1.-1.-1.-1.-1.-1.-1.-1.-1.-1.-1.-1.-1.-1.-1.-1.-1.-1.-1.-1.-1.-1.-1.-1&n=i.2&g=i.0&er=i.1316369729&vr=l.4.0.0.0.0&pr=l.4.1.0.0.0&vp=i.0&gf=l.20.-1.-1.-1.-1.-1.-1.-1.-1.-1.-1.-1.-1.-1.-1.-1.-1.-1.-1.-1.-1
nytimes.com/
1024
1309079168
30543942
4260335056
30176814
*
nyt-recmod
1
nytimes.com/
1088
4134893696
30182849
4270025056
30176814
*
rsi_segs
H07707_10921|H07707_10999|H07707_11044|H07707_11100
nytimes.com/
1088
2731746688
30182447
4286115056
30176814
*
WT_FPC
id=98.149.105.131-4091795056.30176814:lv=1316376951453:ss=1316376951453
nytimes.com/
1088
2056156544
30911086
4287055056
30176814
*

 

Steve,

Thanks, but this was a sudden change about a week ago. Now ALL the cookies are this way.

I can't help but feel that there is a better explanation of what caused this because I have never seen these before. They were always short and readable.

What caused the 100% change. Is it a setting, virus or ??????????