Re: Jargons of Info Tech industry

From: Roedy Green (my_email_is_posted_on_my_website_at_munged.invalid)
Date: 10/09/05 

Date: Sun, 09 Oct 2005 07:40:55 GMT

On Sat, 08 Oct 2005 23:35:40 GMT, Rich Teer <rich.teer@rite-group.com>
wrote or quoted :

>If people want me to read their email, they should send it to me
>in an open, universal format, which for email is plain text. It's
>as simple as that.

This is pulling a King Canute. There is not even a mechanism in email
protocols to warn your correspondents of your demand. I have been
bugging Eudora for years for at least a bit in the address book to
record the recipient's preference for plain or formatted emails. They
have so far ignored me.

There is nothing wrong with formatted text. You are confusing
formatted text with spam.

You think you hated formatted text, but you really hate spam.

If your lover sent you a message with photo, and even musical
accompaniment, I doubt you would feel offended. It is the CONTENT
bugging you, not the HTML.

You imagine that the two are inexplicably linked. That is just because
the technology is immature. There is no fundamental reason that
formatted spam should have an easier time penetrating your defenses
than plain text spam. I am using Spamnix. It think it leaks about
50/50 formatted and plain text spam.

Eudora warns you of deceptive links in HTML. There are many more such
things that have yet to be done to deal with malicious emails. I
think we should focus on those rather than reverting to the days of
the TTY.I don't think it would buy you much. Formatted emails can't
hurt you if you don't allow them to automatically run any code. It is
unfair to blame formatting for the foolish practice off allowing
untrusted code to run without even an ok. They have nothing to do
with each other. 

-- 
Canadian Mind Products, Roedy Green.
http://mindprod.com Again taking new Java programming contracts.

Relevant Pages

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  • Re: SBS2008 daily reports stopped Sessionagent and system data provides error
    ... I have received 3 of your emails sent on Feb 25th. ... format of these emails is Plain Text. ... if your mail server transfers the external mail format to plain text? ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)