[QCWA] HTML vs plain text.

Mon, 16 Sep 2002 21:48:18 -0700

And none of us are proposing HTML ... so what's your point ?

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]On
Behalf Of David Hamilton
Sent: Monday, September 16, 2002 9:36 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [QCWA] HTML vs plain text.

There has been an international convention for at least 20 years that 
email and news postings are in ASCII.  All reflectors are an 
outgrowth of USENET newsgroups, that date back to ArpaNet days.

HTML mail is a cutesy marketing ploy.  It adds nothing to the 
content, but requires a compatible mail or news client to be viewed 
as anything other than junk.  I repeat.  It adds Nothing to the 
content of a message.  Oh, I'm sorry, I wanted that word to be in the 
color "blushing red" with a funny little font that I found at some 
site somewhere.  Since this is a strange little font, I would like 
everyone who wants to read this message to download the font as part 
of the message, y'know?

Oh, by the way, if you are gonna read these HTML messages, then I 
might as well code some animations and cutesy sound thingies to go 
with it.  Heck, if I choose, I can launch programs on your system 
while I'm at it.  I can embed the programs in the HTML message and 
your system will automatically run them for me.  I can send an HTML 
message that will tell me your name, your email address, what kind of 
system you are running, what version of what operating system you are 
running, and anything else I want to know about your system, your 
files, or your life (if you allow Javascript or ActiveX and are 
running an M$ operating system).

Oh, did I mention that I can also change any of these things?  The 
standard HTML email and news setting allow anyone to crash your 
system, or write garbage to it, or anything else.

For example, it is very easy to write a JavaScript program that will 
execute whenever someone reads HTML mail, that would send an email 
message from the reader's system, saying "Jamal, thank you for your 
help with the recent bombings.  I am planning something new.  I'm 
sure that you would approve."  The sending and return address would 
be yours.  Some guys in suits and sunglasses would be tapping your 
phone within days.

Do you understand, yet, the problems with HTML mail?

>For security reasons, all HTML mail goes directly to the trash can.
>If you
>cannot convey what you need to say in text, point me to a webpage
>for a
>picture. Also ASCII is used to be polite. Many people still pay by
>the
>byte. HTML takes many times the byte count of ASCII to convey the
>same info
>(wasted bandwidth).
>
>73
>Glenn
>WB4UIV
>
>At 04:56 PM 9/16/02 -0400, you wrote:
>>One of the reasons that html is not allowed is that there can be
>>invisible links or script imbedded in the html page and these can
>>lead to
>>virus attack.

-- 
David Hamilton, [email protected] on 09/16/2002

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