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

[Richard O'Neill]

  Mo, you post the most interesting of emails about things few 
(including me) have any understanding of - but who cares? Keep on 
keeping on.
Your ramblings amuse and may actually enlighten some. 8-)

Anon


On 10/10/2014 2:34 PM, Mike O'Dell 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
>
>
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