At 09:26 AM 2/13/99 -0500, Bernie Cosell wrote:
>Is HTML-email really on the way, or will this just [one hopes!] prove to
>be another failed attempt to move email beyond "just text". I despise
>HTML email so much that I try to make believe it isn't there, so I don't
>have a good feel for what's really happening.
It can lock up your system if written maliciously. Netscape denied this
until the editors of EETimes mailbombed them and then challenged them
to quote the text of the malicious message. "Can't be did." Netscape finally
acknowledged the bug, but had posted no fix when I checked a few months later.
I assume by now they have figured it out (the trick was to have HTML that
read from the printer port, and in Win95 that would hang the system until
the printer said something, which printers don't usually do). I don't rail
on the size or features of HTML, it's more about security holes for me.
I've also seen attachments via HTML that appear to be URLs, but which
in fact launch executables on your system. All manner of mischief is
possible with that kind of attack.
Who needs it? I love PDF for fully formatted documents, but I usually
put them on the web and send the URL for those who have PDF readers.
(www.adobe.com - the reader is free, you buy the writer) Small, readable
on ALL platforms (Unix, PC, Mac), and it always looks the same.
SRE
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Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie!'...
until you can find a rock.
