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

[Michael O'Dell]

Now I understand your point.
A thousand pardons, good sir.

	-mo

On Oct 10, 2014, at 10:19 PM, Chip Fetrow <tacos at fetrow.org> wrote:

> 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