Netscape "Timebomb"?

[Usman <akeju00 () MAIL COM>]

Hello all,

   I was recently fiddling around with Netscape (and old hobby o' mine) and
started to skim my settings (as listed in about:config), when I came upon these
strange lines (a bit skattered throughout the listing, though):

timebomb.relative_timebomb_secret_name = general.bproxy_cert_digest
timebomb.warning_time = -1
timebomb.relative_timebomb_days = -1
timebomb.relative_timebomb_warning_days = -1
timebomb.expiration_time = -1


Obviously, this concerned me.  I did a search on the strings I found, and 2
sites popped up:

http://developer.netscape.com/docs/manuals/deploymt/4_5PREFS.HTM
...which seems to be a "working draft" of the Netscape 4.5 Preferences. (Search
for the string "This information to come.")

and

http://crown.csc.uvic.ca/rigi/mozilla/files/_usr_local_home_rigi-netscape_mozilla_network_main_mkgeturl.c_0001.html

...which appears to be the source to a file that "implements the main calling
api for netlib."  I didn't take the time to fully go through the file and find
out *exactly* what it does, but just search for "timebomb" and you'll see stuff
listed that is relative to these settings.  And apparently this preference
setting has been around since '94, as far as I can tell from the comment at the
top.

My question is -- what is it for?  I use Netscape version 4.75 on Win98 SE.

And another extremely vaguely related observation: what's the deal with
about:security ?  After further fiddling, I noticed that when I type in
"about:[blahblahrandomstuff]" Netscape just gives me a blank page with a "?",
and when I type in something that actually does stuff, like "about:cache" or
"about:mozilla", I get an actual page... BUT, when I try "about:security" I get
an error message that pops up and says:

"This Location (URL) is not recognized:
   about:security

Check the Location and try again."

Any developers out there who can explain any of this?

Thanks,
Usman Akeju

//*
"Hackito ergo sum." ~ Tetazoo
"Putzito ergo sum." ~ Putz
*//