Re: HTML: woes

From: Michael Lorrey (mike@lorrey.com)
Date: Tue Mar 10 1998 - 18:48:58 MST


Dwayne wrote:

> Erik Moeller wrote:
>
> > HTML postings allow me to
> >
> > - determine whether you have read a message by me or not, including
> > information about your browser and operating system,
>
> You can see if someone has read your message using the "return receipt
> requested" or whatever it is called in most email anyway.

And using Netscape's browser, if you have your security flags set, you are always
prompted before intrusive javascript, cookies, or other privacy and security
penetrating actions are taken.

> > Who needs more than 7-bit to exchange content? The only drawback is German
> > umlauts and other special characters, which I would have executed once and
> > for all about 20 years ago anyway. Unicode may offer some new possibilities
> > here, but HTML for a mailing list is really unnecessary. Did it ever occur
> > to you that there might still be some people using PINE or stuff like that?
>
> I generally use elm on a linux box, but I'm using my Dad's win95 machine for a
> bit. So I can currently *see* HTML mail, but I'd rather have the option of being
> able to telnet into my mail server from anywhere and read my mail, than be able
> to see differing fonts and colours (as if that will make a message more
> intelligible).

That even ascii based browsers like ALPHABrowser now support HTML email indicates
that even the most primitive interfaces are capable of rising above their origins.
Its people, and their stubborn resistance to change that is the sticking point. As
extropians, we need to get the anti-change meme out of our systems through regular,
habitual purging of obsolete techniques, tools, etc. from our regular use.

> I'd thought that the umlauts in german can be swapped for a following "e"??

Most european accent systems can be replicated in an HTML compatible mail reader by
using tags that specify a standard international character set that is 7 bit, and is
recognised as an alternate font.. Microsoft has several as does DEC. Microsoft
International and DEC Multinational are two that I have come across regularly in
mail data files customers in other countries send me at work for processing. I don't
understand, though, why Germans would use a capital B with a tail as a replacement
for the 'ss' in -strasse ??? Is it a different pronouncement?

--
TANSTAAFL!!!
   Michael Lorrey
------------------------------------------------------------
mailto:retroman@together.net Inventor of the Lorrey Drive
MikeySoft: Graphic Design/Animation/Publishing/Engineering
------------------------------------------------------------
How many fnords did you see before breakfast today?


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