Re: Pictures !!

[Harmon Seaver <hseaver@cybershamanix.com>]

Scott Willing wrote:

> Harmon,
> 
> I hadn't even noticed the message that actually inspired the protest, 
> since it just happened to show up in my mailbox along with a bunch 
> of other fairly large messages. Yeowch, no wonder there was a 
> complaint.
> 
> I don't know where the fable about there being any difference 
> between attaching and enclosing arose from... maybe just the vague 
> idea that "attachments are bad". As you pointed out, it's the same 
> data going down the same pipe.
> 

      Right -- both the mail readers I use called them attachments. 
Heck, even heavily html'isized email is an "attachment".



> To make matters worse, binary files -- basically anything but plain 
> ASCII text, including images -- actually *increase* in size when sent 
> as email. (If anyone really needs to know why, email me off-list. I 
> won't take up further bandwidth with the details.) 


    Yes, if you look at the size of email you get, most will be 1K-3K, 
but just looking at my inbox, I see messages of 9K, 11K, and 13K -- no 
pictures, just html email. A bit absurd, really -- whats the point? The 
words are the same either way, but those html emails are often 
unreadable in the text mail reader I often use. And now we have html 
spam -- gag! Just another reason to use a text mail reader so you can 
delete the html stuff more rapidly.


> 
> For a concrete example, those particular pictures total around 
> 380kB sitting on a disk, but they get puffed up to around 480kB in 
> order to be transmitted as email.
> 
> We live and learn. I wasn't born knowing this stuff either. And when I 
> was figuring it all out, a 1200 baud modem was considered pretty 
> snappy hardware. :-)


      One of the problems with bad phone lines is that even a 56K modem 
turns into a 9600 or even 4400 on a long distance call, almost always. 
And I lived fairly recently in Mobile, AL, quite a large city, where 
even after repeated complaints to the phone company, the best I *ever* 
got with a 56K was 24K, and often I would have to redial the ISP several 
times to get more than 14400 or 19200. Trying to get email over a 
cellphone modem suffers likewise -- 4400 is about average.
      So have pity on those you're trying to communicate with, folks. 
After all, you are trying to *communicate*, right? Not antagonize or 
annoy the recipient with your fancy fonts and over large (or teeny-tiny) 
typefaces.
      This was made very clear to me some time ago when a prospective 
employer told me they couldn't read my email -- not good!



-- 
Harmon Seaver	
CyberShamanix
http://www.cybershamanix.com


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