TinyApps.Org Newsletter Issue 8 - Dec 5, 2001 +++NEWS+++ Recently received the following question from a TinyApps visitor: > I was wondering if there is any tinyapps > relevant for broadcasting a PC screen > to mulitple PCs (as in the case of a > teacher to students' lab). Know of one? If so, please email: answer@xxxxxxxxxxxx +++NEW APPS+++ Nadger 0.5 [213k] + http://apps.sepulchre.co.uk/nadger/ Color grabber which returns hex, websafe, and RGB values. Save colors to custom groups. Spread32 v1.09 [292k] + http://www.byedesign.freeserve.co.uk/ Small but powerful spreadsheet program. Import & export standard Excel, Pocket Excel and CSV files. CE & shareware (no nags) versions also available. F-Prot Antivirus for DOS [1320k] + http://www.f-prot.com/f-prot/download/ Regularly updated antivirus program free for personal use. Linux version also available. +++WHY HTML IN E-MAIL IS A BAD IDEA+++ This issue's article appears courtesy of Scot Hacker, a recovering BeOS addict (small is beautiful!) now migrating to Mac OS X. He is the author of Peachpit's The BeOS Bible and O'Reilly's "MP3: The Definitive Guide." Hacker is also the webmaster of http://www.betips.net , http://www.birdhouse.org , and http://www.kissthisguy.com . Why HTML in E-Mail is a Bad Idea (excerpt) http://www.betips.net/etc/evilmail.html HTML in e-mail is a bad idea ... Because HTML is for making web pages and plain text is for simple communications. If you're looking to create a web page or write a book, fine. But e-mail messages are not web pages or books. e-mail was designed for simple messaging. Anything else detracts, rather than adds to its core functionality. As Andy Roony said, "E-mail is simple. Like the pencil, it just works." Well, e-mail is not simple -- and it doesn't always work -- when HTML is involved. Because it encourages people to express themselves with fancy formatting rather than with carefully chosen words. Because it introduces compatibility problems with text-based clients like the hundreds of thousands of Pine users out there (see screenshot below). Because it can introduce security issues and trojan horses -- it's a gateway to danger as any Outlook user can tell you. HTML can include any number of scripts, dangerous links, controls, etc. Because it's being unfairly forced on the world by a single corporation (Microsoft). Because it takes a nice, short two-line e-mail body and makes it 15 lines long (see screenshot below). Because it doubles the size of e-mails as clients "handle" the issue by sending out plain text and HTML versions of the same e-mail. Because people spend more time choosing a font that the recipient probably doesn't even have on their system than in choosing their words carefully. Because it wreaks havoc with any mailing list that sends out digests. Because it forces programmers writing e-mail clients to choose between supporting it and implementing features that will actually help handle e-mail. Because it violates the e-mail standards and protocols unnecessarily. Most users never use any of the "advanced" options and those who do typically go overboard -- usually spammers who use HTML's fancy styles as a way to garner attention. The only possible reasonable purposes for HTML e-mail are simple text styles such as bold and italics which can be expressed _in_ *other* WAYS that are /universally/ readable. :-) Because it encourages companies to think it's OK to do things like include code that will let them know if you're reading their e-mail. This actually happened to a friend, who received an e-mail from infobeat asking why he wasn't reading their daily news e-mails. I consider that a gross violation of privacy. +++++ To Subscribe or Unsubscribe: Send a blank email to tinyapps-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with either 'subscribe' or 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. You can also use the web interface, which has additional options: http://www.tinyapps.org/ezine.html +++Disclaimer: You are 100% responsible +++for your own actions. Visiting a link, +++downloading a program, in short, *living*, +++is done entirely at your own risk (and joy).