JTK wrote:
> In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, jesus X says...
>
>>JTK wrote:
>>
>>>Yep. Sure be nice if some "Open" mail/newsreader wouldn't be so afraid
>>>to "innovate" and came up with a way to interface to these systems and
>>>bypass all those godforsaken banner ads.
>>>
>>The problem in doing this is authentication. Most webmail services are not
>>simply a webpage accessing a POP3 server (like the webmail.pl script). Most are
>>servers internal to the webmail provider that are securely accessed over the
>>providers internal network, with the data queried by the database, framed in
>>their custom content, and then passed to the user. The only way to "bypass" this
>>is not a bypass at all.
>>
>
> Exactly my point.
Your point is that open clients for the major webmail services are
impractical?
>>The solution would be to somehow strip the mail message
>>content from the HTML. While this is somewhat easy to do for any one system (as
>>long as the format of the page generated in the end doesn't change), it's
>>impossible to create a single system to access all webmail sites. You'd have to
>>recode it for every type of page, and recode it again every time they changed
>>formats.
>>
>>
>
> And that "recoding" could be a simple Javascript program or Perl program or hell
> probably just a few regex's, one for each service. You seem to have no problem
> interpreting the entire Maozilla GUI from ASCII text, why do you balk when such
> scripting functionality could actually serve a useful purpose?
Because it's not feasible. Even if the webmail services cooperated (and
there'd be no need for such a system if they wanted to support clients),
you'd need to updated all installed copies of the client automatically
across the network every time any webmail service changed its output.
Services that don't want to cooperate could always stay one step ahead
with new variations on their output pages.
>>>> Hotmail probably makes more on selling their user
>>>>lists than banner ads, but they are an exception. If someone writes a
>>>>client that can take someone's mail from a web service and bypass their
>>>>revenue stream, they don't like or allow it.
>>>>
>>>How are they going to know, and if they even do, how are they going to
>>>stop it?
How would anyone know? Answer: The Mozilla code is open and available to
the public. If the public can find out that Mozilla is bypassing Hotmail
restrictions, Microsoft can find out and sue mozilla.org.
> OF COURSE IT'S FACT! But this fact doesn't make a very good excuse for why
> there isn't an AIM client in Maozilla.
Ah, I see. You're one of those people that thinks the people doing most
of the work need an excuse to not give you everything for free. AOL's
being quite generous here. Is any company giving us more in the way of
browser source? Nope.
--
http://www.classic-games.com/ http://www.indie-games.com/
I've often thought intelligence agencies should recruit idiots, as
idiots seem able to infiltrate any group in large numbers.
