Dorothy J Heydt <djheydt@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Keith F. Lynch <kfl@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> Last month someone I had never heard of sent me HTML email with a
>> subject line of, "Can I ask this question?" Both HTML email and
>> such a generic subject line are typical of spams.
> I'll take your word for it, though I don't think I've ever seen one
> under that title.
I don't mean I've ever seen a spam with that exact subject line. I
mean that many spams have a similarly generic subject line, rather
than a subject line which mentions something in a recent newsgroup
posting of mine, or an interest of mine, or someone I know, or
something I've recently been discussing somewhere.
> Still, if I got an email from some unknown sender with that title,
> I'd probably open it and look at the first screenful.
Anything that gets through my filters, I look at.
> I can do that with impunity because my UNIX system doesn't, nay,
> cannot open attachments.
Same here. I'm still baffled that anyone ever designed a system
that ever executes code found in email attachments without explicit
permission from the recipient, and even more baffled that such a
horrible system managed to catch on at all. The only place I'd expect
to find such operating system code is crumpled up in the wastebasket
of an computer programming classroom, with a big red "F" in the corner.
> Note also that if anybody sends me anything in HTML it will come
> out in the form of scattered recognizable words interspersed with
> gibberish.
Same here.
> If I actually know the person and the topic is something I know
> about, I'll send mail back saying "Please send me only straight
> ASCII text; my newsreader can't read HTML."
When I said that to this person, he got offended. Since he was saying
interesting things (I was able to read around the mad tangle of angle
brackets and ampersands), I promptly apologized, and told him he's
welcome to send to me in HTML, EBCDIC, Baudot, Hollerith, Morse Code,
or whatever, and I'd figure out out.
> If the mail (to the extent I can decipher it) is trying to sell me
> something or otherwise annoy me, I just hit d.
It used to be that nearly all spams were in HTML. Unfortunately,
spammers finally realized that most people automatically delete all
HTML email. So now nearly half of it is plain text. At least that
means it's shorter.
> Now you're beginning to sound like Gary Farber -- remember? --
Sigh. Please don't compare me to the only person I've ever
*permanently* killfiled in this newsgroup. (Does he still post here?)
--
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html
before emailing me.
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