I don't want to be the skunk at the lawn party here, but it should be
pointed out that e-mail is fast becoming the communication medium of choice
for both business and pleasure. I suppose you could argue that there is no
need for a company to have a fancy letterhead, nor a mass mailer to have
colored brochures, nor ladies to have flowered and/or scented stationery,
yet we do have all these things, and more. Consider how boring text-only,
fixed-font mail would be. Or did Henry Ford have it right when he proclaimed
that all we really "needed" was black automobiles?
Yes, I understand the argument that in the case of snail mail, the sender
pays for all the frills, but in the case of e-mail, the recipient more than
likely pays with longer download times, disk clutter, etc. A very valid and
not trivial point. Nevertheless, technology marches on, and as cable modems
(or whatever) become the norm rather than the exception, "waste" of
bandwidth and its associated costs will cease to an issue with the computing
public at large. If my wife wants to embed scanned newspaper clippings or a
kid's picture in an email to her cousin across country, who am I (or anyone)
to object?
I don't disagree with much that has been said here on the subject. I don't
use HTML formatted e-mail, and don't especially like receiving it,
nonetheless I accept that sooner or later it will become the norm (I don't
like the term "standard") rather than the exception. Formatted email may
never be, nor probably should be, appropriate on a classic computer
mailing list; yet, who knows, in ten years or so the definition of "classic
computer" may change as well.
Cliff Gregory
cgregory_at_lrbcg.com
-----Original Message-----
From: classiccmp_at_u.washington.edu <classiccmp_at_u.washington.edu>
To: Cgregory <Cgregory>
Date: Sunday, March 15, 1998 3:14 PM
Subject: Re: What's with the raw HTML?
>
>You missed the point. There is no argument. As far as I'm concerned,
>there's absolutely no point to sending e-mail as HTML.
>
>Allison said it best though...
>
>> What a waste of bandwidth.
>
>And how.
>
>Sam Alternate e-mail:
dastar_at_siconic.com
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
>Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer,
Jackass
>
> Coming Soon...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0
> See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details!
>
>
Received on Sun Mar 15 1998 - 17:23:14 GMT