> From: Robert Seeberger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > From: "The Fool" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > > > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > > In a message dated Fri, 7 Dec 2001 8:35:26 PM Eastern Standard Time, > > "The Fool" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > > > > > > > > > Why do some people persist in posting HTML messages? > > > > > > I use AOL. The AOL 7 software cannot be configured to send just text. > > > > What exactly does aol provide that a person can't get thru a good ISP? > > It also seems to me that you should be able to use any email client? Am > > I wrong?? > > > I prefer not to *tell people what to do*, though that appears to be what The > Fool is doing in a mild sort of way, I too dislike AOL. > > But I have used AOL to access POP3 mail from another ISP using Outlook. (I'm > sure any email client will do). So you might be able to get a POP3 account > and keep AOL. > > AOL charges 5 or 6 dollars a month for their service if you are acccesing > the net from a different ISP. I know people who do this for their kids. > > Right now I'm on a cable modem service, and half the mailing lists I'm on > are delivered to MSN. I configured Outlook to look for mail on 4 different > accounts on 3 different servers and have had no problems. > > That being said, ITS RANT TIME!!!!!! > > Html mail posting has become so common on the net that it has become normal > everyday for many. Why dont the Luddite bastards <G>that bitch about wanting > plaintext just upgrade their mail to accomodate reality. > I fully understand the complaints about posting graphic image files in mail, > I even agree, but I havent seen anything in HTML mail postings that was > offensive in any way, except to those with out of date mail programs. I fail > to see why the biggest ISP in the world (AOL) and the biggest groups of > users (newbies and AOL users), cannot be accomodated. > Let the non-bitching resume!
<SUPER anti-HTML RANT> There are plenty of things wrong with HTML, things like JavaScript embeded messages and web-bugs and cookies. Do you know how spammers verify your email so you never get off spam-lists? If you open a HTML message that contains a 'web-bug' that connects to the web and informs the spammer that your email is valid. That spammer will sell that information to any and everyone. 'Web-bugs' can even access cookies on your machine and send them to person who put the web-bug in the message. JavaScript, the Anti-christ of the computer world, can in HTML messages do anything that it can in a web browser, open windows, do all kinds of viral marketing BS. Do not get me started about the evils of JavaScript. This section is from a rant I made to a different list: ------- Do not post in HTML. Especially do not post HTML that contains Java. Do not do this for several reasons. I know hotmail can post in plain-text. 1. Some / quite a few people do not have an email reader that understands HTML/XML or 'alternative' messages. 2. It contains Java. This is very similar to having sent a virus to the list. This is also similar to having spammed everyone on the list. 3. Normal newsreaders and email clients wrap text at something between 70 to 75 characters. There are several reasons for this. Some email clients are command-line only, and only display text in the standard widths that a screen in text mode shows: 80 characters wide by 24 high. There are several o/s's that are text only: most varieties of linux, UNIX, bsd, AS-400's, IBM mainframes, etc. So when you have extended paragraphs without wrapping set properly, this can cause issues with these clients. Also some clients are not written to handle extremely long paragraphs that do not wrap because that is not how messages are supposed to be. This can cause buffer issues in some clients, because the paragraph goes beyond the width of the buffer for the line. Oops. Half of the paragraph just got lost / ignored. 3.a HTML does not Wrap. 4. Almost all HTML messages change things like 'font color' and 'font size' and 'font'. This can be very annoying. There are two color used when displaying text, 'forecolor' and 'backcolor'. Almost all HTML messages set _ONLY_ one of these values (forecolor). Now this causes problems because the other color is the default color used (usually the windows backcolor). If the default color is similar to or the same as the color that the HTML uses, there are problems. How exactly do you read something that is black against black, or yellow against white or dark blue against black? 5. HTML messages sometimes replace ASCII characters with HTML tags. So apostrophes and other characters become some XML looking gibberish. I have yet to see Microsoft Internet Explorer properly display these tags that are supposed to 'replace' apostrophes with actual apostrophes. ------- More evils of JavaS***: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,48177,00.html ------- > The Fool replied to: > > > hi could u explain what a java/javascript is? > > > > [...] > > It is pure Evil, the complete essence of unholiness. > > It is a plague not unlike locusts. > > Excellent! May I quote you? Of coarse. You may sig. me anytime. > > Java-script messages take the Evil to an unprecedented level. > > The idea of executable content in email messages is, I think, one of > the stupidest ideas ever. I personally read email in an ancient Unix > text client (with a y2k issue ;-)) just so I don't have this problem. Exactly. And when a message shows up blank, then I have pretty good idea of why. ------ Reading your mouse movements Some mouse movements are common to all By BBC News Online's Alfred Hermida A website that can read your body language and know what you want before you have even clicked on anything may sound like science fiction. But this is what researchers in the US are working on. A team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, US, say they have developed a way to record mouse movements on a page and learn how people behave when they are on the internet. They found that certain movements of the mouse are common, allowing them to predict how someone uses the web. This sort of information would be invaluable to content providers who are looking for ways of increasing the effectiveness of their websites. "Just by looking at the way the mouse moves, I can tell whether you are reading a web page," says Ted Selker, an MIT professor focusing on context-aware computing. "I can tell because when you read a webpage, you do one of a couple of things. You either shovel the mouse off to the right so that it is out of the way, or you will walk down the page with your mouse," he told the BBC's Go Digital programme. Follow the Cheese The system developed by the team at MIT is called Cheese, since they are following the mouse, like a mouse follows cheese. This is incredible. Can you imagine if I can actually tell that you wanted to press a link but didn't Ted Selker, MIT It provides the means to find out exactly how people navigate a webpage. The researchers say that if you could analyse in real time how someone goes through a website, the content and navigation could be adapted to create a more personal experience. "This is incredible," says Mr Selker. "Can you imagine if I can actually tell that you wanted to press a link but didn't. "And 75% of the time, I can tell that you were looking at a website but you didn't click to buy a vacation but were thinking of taking a vacation, while doing your travel plans." "I can change the way the travel site prepares material for you based on what intentions and interests you've demonstrated through your actions that aren't even recorded in the links you followed." Current technology The system developed at MIT works by including mouse movement data automatically with embedded scripting. The information is analysed and stored on a server. This collection technique is implemented using current technology and does not require any additional software on the user's browser. For their study, the researchers took a group of 17 people familiar with computers and web browsing, but from diverse backgrounds. They recorded the mouse activity as people performed a list of tasks common in web browsing, such as ordering a CD. The data was evaluated by redrawing the mouse movements on each page for each user and then visually comparing the patterns on mouse behaviour. Predicting choice In one case, people were asked to buy a CD or DVD of their choice. We're working very hard to make those kind of natural simple communications that people make with their body through computer interfaces Ted Selker, MIT By studying the mouse movements, the researchers were able to predict what their second choice would have been. This was done by determining the link on which they hesitated longest before clicking their first choice. Some people occasionally moved the mouse straight to the link of interest without hesitation. The MIT team believe this behaviour shows that a user has visited the page before and is familiar with its layout. "People are extremely good at remembering graphic design," says Ted Selker. "So when you act like you know where you are going on a place where you have no reason to know, then we know you have been there before." Computer scenarios The researchers now plan to put together a website with content that would change according to mouse behaviour. The research by the team at MIT is part of their efforts to create a world where desires and intentions are enough to get computers to act on our behalf. They aim to do this by developing environments that use sensors and artificial intelligence to create so-called "virtual sensors" - adaptive models of users to create keyboardless computer scenarios. "We're working very hard to make those kind of natural simple communications that people make with their body through computer interfaces so that people spend less time and effort trying to laboriously remember what command to type," says Mr Selker. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1528000/1528426.stm ------ And I am sure I can dig up a lot more if pushed. </SUPER anti-HTML RANT>
