Bill McIntyre wrote on 13-03-2007 00:34 * * * Start of original message text * * *
> >I suspect its more likely that I'm the one out of tune, but I use >Mail on 10.4.8 and if I'm having all these problems that you >describe, I'm not smart enough to realize it. I dont think so Bill.. many many people surrender to HTML mail because it looks beautiful and is spoon-fed comfort food. You are with the majority, and I realize that I am with a minority. I am not saying these things because I look down at people, not at all the case, but I really firmly believe that E-mail actively doing things as it comes in, is poison ... To prove that, ... I just registered for a webcast on Virtual Private Networking. The very nice site sent me a confirmation mail, and it sends me a .VCS file which would automatically change my MS Outlook or Apple calender. In many cases that would be great, I do not deny that. But anyone understanding the technical mechanism of these and (on Windows) Visual Basic embedded, sees an open garage door that can modify things in your computer doing almost anything, and ONLY if the anti-virus people are ahead, and we pay all the 27 small fees that start to become daily bread.. we could survive without getting robbed. But, the antivirus people are always a step behind, just like a toe-truck or fire truck cannot drive towards the accident that has not yet taken place (except in the movie Minority Report perhaps)... So, my opinion is, why embark on yet another arms race, I with one simple 'switch' you can say: I will not allow any programming language in mail bodies.. period... An yes, I am a stubborn minority, but I do not like to see an antivirus buisiness grow paired with a virus-business and viral marketing grow exponentially since the day that I wrote the very first (squared stupid) virus-scanner myself as a systems admin at GE europe somewhere around 1987. That one took a shovel and coal and water from a tank to run (=joke, polite request to LOL), but... i really HATE to see headline news items in Europe at least telling that today, 7O to 80 percent of internet line capacity is consumed by pumping spam thru the glasfibers and cupper wires of internet... do people realize that 70 or 80% percent of the total cost of all worldwide internet line infrastructure goes to pumping crap around ? Should we honour those people by confirming every single receipt of their mails, feeding feedback input into their databases to show we still exist and sign up that way for yet the next round of spam ? I dont think so... And yet, I am a weirdo saying these things. And companies are often looking for a 2% cost improvement, and my GE finance manager once decided the cleaning crew was to skip 1 in 2 days not putting a thin plastic bag in the trashcans to save so many plastic bags... meanwhile, we are tying and handing over our coronary arteres (if i spell that right) right into companies and organizations (because spam for sure is not just natural fall out !!) sucking out all our juice... In the interest of people, and because other than youngsters graduating in IT today, I have seen and can still see a world without HTML in mail bodies, and a world with and without surrendering the control we should keep to ourselves. If all the crap that is delivered via HTML mail, would be delivered to peoples mailbox in the front door, nearly all people would refuse and complain. We do not need HTML in message bodies; We really do not need it. And we should make sure that computer vendors work for their customers and stop producing the software that tie us into a brainless consumer role. It is not the users that are wrong in this matter; it is the manufacturers, and specifically Apple who have always claimed their quality was not to make the Windows mistakes; and now they turned themselves over to the red light district. Can people imagine what a giant and wrong step is being made when every peace of paper, letter or advertising material is sending a 'Yes he's read it', including date and time and IP address up to the microsecond back to the sender who has the exact opposite intrest and is our counterplayer in the commercial game ? I am probably ranting all of this to people who understand this more than average and out there are many non-tech users who do not know any of this, and send out a hundred confirmations a day, having an impact on their lives and credit situation. So, I would almost say sorry .. but I do indeed love a Mac that has no software onboard at all to be exploited, and aside from that, I am running servers that have ALL the software to interact with other computers. But I completely separate these from eachother. naughty Marc --- Just Marc _,,,'^-_-^',,,_ [EMAIL PROTECTED] - ICQ 3888426 W has gone haywire, with his BADGET ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe send a mail message with a SUBJECT line of "unsubscribe" to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> or <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
