HTML MAIL to Tacos List, WAS: End Fed HF Antennas

[Chip Fetrow]

My e-mail client displays HTML mail properly as well, but the Tacos list intervenes and changes it to a link that states that the HTML attachment was stripped.  This is the bump in the road, and I simply refuses to deal with it.  I don’t care, and I really hope no one else cares either.

On all your other points, I happen to agree — except for putting my cheeks on ice.

—chip

On Oct 10, 2014, at 2:34 PM, Mike O'Dell <mo at ccr.org> wrote:

> I don't have to decode HTML crap (and it is crap)
> because my email client does that for me.
> 
> Even so....
> I'm still a member of the Flat Earth Preferred Society
> even though the Absolutely Flat Earth Society cancelled
> my membership. The unpleasant reality is that dealing
> with email expecting clean ASCII is as pointless as
> using TELNET to talk to web sites. It's not impossible,
> but like many other things, it's no longer realistic.
> (and I *have* done that.)
> 
> One cannot reasonably deal with documents these days without
> coming to terms with PDF (in spite of what the IETF steadfastly
> refuses to acknowledge). While it is theoretically possible
> to extract the text from a PDF, operationally that is an
> act of desperation, not convenience.
> 
> Likewise, HTML is one of those dreadful
> facts of life, like Intel X86 processors and Windoze.
> There is no rational explanation as to why they are successful,
> other than "it just turned out that way". 
> 
> HTML was a bad idea long before it was invented, back when it 
> was SGML and SGML was intent on taking over the world. 
> What I can say, having reviewed the SGML drafts along the way
> in wide-eyed horror, HTML sucks a whole lot less than it might 
> have had Sir Tim been less willing to slash and burn the 
> necrotic tissue, cutting SGML down to something that is 
> arguably usable if clearly not a well-designed alternative.
> 
> Another reality is that people who can use ASCII on the Internet
> for all their needs are now a *tiny* minority. Most people in 
> the world need full Unicode to even spell their names, 
> so UTF-8 is the minimum capability for ubiquitous email 
> *without* worrying about the presetation graphics.
> 
> So, Chip, I'm reminded of the advice Dr. Sidney Friedman
> offered to the depressed and slightly-unravelled members
> of the 4077 MASH unit:
> 
> "Ladies and gentlemen, take my advice:
> Pull down your pants and slide on the ice."
> 
> Personally, I ceded this point a couple of years ago
> after fighting tooth-n-nail for at least a decade
> because I decided that drowning attempting to hold
> back the flood only inconvenienced me and changed
> nothing else.
> 
> You may well feel profoundly different
> which is FB as far as I'm concerned.
> 
>      Cheers,
>      -mo