I've been interested in some of the issues raised on this list, particularly regarding "de-bulking" e-mail and web content. This interests me both from the point of accessing information on SurvPC/Low-Resource computers (i.e. PDAs, old desktops) and from the perspective of aiding those with various problems using visual "features". I stumbled upon the MIME-Defang program (http://www.roaringpenguin.com/mimedefang/) which eliminates many of the "offensive" items from e-mail as it's received at the server (Sendmail required), including deletion of EXE and COM files, and conversion of MS Word documents to HTML. It strikes me that such an approach, combined with technologies like IBM's transcoding (http://www.research.ibm.com/networked_data_systems/transcoding/) would be used to eliminate much of the overhead and other annoyances/threats, and introduce a high degree of consistency, especially for messages that are put in archival or digest formats. This would require that the list be first filtered through such software (GPL/Open Source), meaning that the mailing list maintainer would have use it for best effect. It strikes me that there might be a bit of a business opportunity, or at least a case to be made for one of the mailing list providers to use such capabilities as a value-add/differentiator for their service (though presumably their own obnoxious little ads would remain :) Anyhow, I thought I'd toss this out there as a means to effectively __eliminate__ the problem, regardless of the habits, inclinations or software preferences of users. If I run a list that should be text-only, with no binary attachments, it would be nice to simply turn such options on (or make them defaults). I see the following advantages to this approach: 1. Bandwidth usage is significantly reduced as mail would only be received once in potentially bulky "sender" format. Thereafter, it is processed and "crunched", and only the "clean" version distributed to the wider audience. 2. Processing is only required at the receiving server operating the list (or between the senders and the mailing list server), eliminating the need for each user to use any but minimal hardware and software. 3. An acceptable "universal" format is used consistently through the group -- perhaps things like removal of excessive headers could be incorporated for further optimization. 4. Users are more-or-less freed from the risk of causing problems for others in the community (though they are still responsible for reading the fine manual!) 5. The monthly sending of "unacceptable" formats or attachments and the ensuing flame wars that result would be eliminated. We can concentrate on *what* is said, not *how*. :) I don't have any means of pursuing this for other than my own systems, but would be interested in sharing thoughts on the subject. OK, that was WAY too long winded. Apologies. - Bob To unsubscribe from SURVPC send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with unsubscribe SURVPC in the body of the message. Also, trim this footer from any quoted replies. More info can be found at; http://www.softcon.com/archives/SURVPC.html
