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Date:      Tue, 25 Nov 1997 19:53:43 -0500 (EST)
From:      jack <jack@diamond.xtalwind.net>
To:        "George M. Ellenburg" <gme@inspace.net>
Cc:        isp@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Web Page Restrictions
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.3.96.971125184416.5204A-100000@germanium.xtalwind.net>
In-Reply-To: <01bcf9c4$7b429a80$f828cccf@caffeine>

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On Tue, 25 Nov 1997, George M. Ellenburg wrote, with a mail client that
doesn't wrap lines:

> |The web and email are two entirely different areas.  By using that M$ crap
> |you are producing mail that is not in compliance with RFC1855.  Of course
> |Bill has never let little things like standards get in his way.
> 
> 
> RFC-822 and RFC-1855 were written before the onslaught of newbies en
> masse flocking to the Internet.  We are all ISP's guys, it's these
> newbies en masse which pay our bills and which keeps us in business,
> have we forgotten that? 

And because the user base has grown standards should be abandoned?

> Standards change with the market.  The fact of the matter is, today, our
> customers are not using VT-52 or VT-100 terminals to log into a Unix
> machine to use gopher.  Our customers power up their workstations,
> connect to us via PPP, and surf the Web - with pretty graphics, Java,
> DHTML, Plug-Ins, etc. 

PPP is defined in RFCs.  w3.org covers HTML and those who use proprietary
extensions limit their audience.  Sun's suing M$ over M$'s attempt to
hijack Java.  

> If everyone here is so hard headed about standards, then you're being a
> hypocrite for going to Blockbuster and renting a video tape. 
> 
> A VHS tape at that - when it's a known fact that Beta produced a much
> higher picture quality (and is still in use today by television stations
> and ENG crews).  VHS survived.  Why?  JVC's marketing, not Sony's with
> Beta. 

I'd certainly never deny that marketing and not technology drives the
market place.  If it were the other way around the masses would be
running, and there're be a plethora of software for, OS/2.  The entire
windows minagerie would be also rans.  

> The *original* VHS standard never supported stereo.  Guess I shouldn't
> have been watching my copy of Independence Day with my Dolby Surround
> System when it came out on tape.  The *original* standard never
> supported stereo.  The standard has now been bastardized. 

I can watch a stereo tape on an old VCR and not have to filter out the
second audio channel.  I can listen to an FM stereo broadcast on a
monaural receiver without distortion.  The screen of a black and white
television set is not cluttered with <BODY BGCOLOR = "#DEADBEEF"> when
viewing a color broadcast.  The same can not be said for .html files
masquerading as email. 

> Standards change with the times, market pressures, and more.

The standard has not been changed.  If microsoft wants new standards let
them submit an RFC.  Let the industry decide if it wants to abandon text
based mail in favor of bloated formatting codes.

> Frankly guys. there's too much in this world to worry about than over
> this petty diatribe of a thread. 
> 
> In the immortal words of a young black man in L.A. back in the late
> 80's... "Can't we all just get along?" 

Sure, at my addresses that are not covered by my SysAdmin hat I have no
problem redirecting .html, MS-TNEF (or whatever it is), windat, V-CARDS,
et al. to /dev/null, unread.  To ask for help with an OS that is primarily
text based, and where those most proficient with it are likely using text
based mail readers, using drool and click biased mail is a bit foolish.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jack O'Neill                    Finger jacko@diamond.xtalwind.net or  
jack@xtalwind.net               http://www.xtalwind.net/~jacko/pubpgp.html
#include <std_disclaimers.h>    for my PGP key.
 PGP Key fingerprint = F6 C4 E6 D4 2F 15 A7 67   FD 09 E9 3C 5F CC EB CD
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