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At 12:30 PM 04/02/2000 -0600, you wrote:
>Chris,
>
>Jeez, I just read my earlier message to you and it sounded like it came
from a pure snot! I'm not that way, believe me. On a more positive note,
I finally see
>what is bothering you with my messages. I scrolled down in your message
to see what mine said and it's full of gibberish (that's computer tech talk).
>
>Puzzle to me though, after checking several other messages that were
replies to mine, none of that stuff seems to be happening to anyone else.
I'm not real
>computer wise, but have to wonder if there is something happening to these
messages at your end that I don't have any control over.
>
>Note to thread.... anyone else having trouble with my messages?
Seriously, I don't want to be a problem. If I'm in the wrong here, believe
me I'll try to slap
>a fix on it.
>
>Ken
>
>Kenneth Adams wrote:
>
>> Chris,
>>
>> If I knew what the hell you're talking about, I'd be glad to comply.
I've been sending messages here for years and no one has complained about
them. What's
>> happening at your end that bothers you?
>>
>> Ken
>>
>> Christian Baude wrote:
>>
>> > Kenneth, could you please turn off HTML encoding.... Thanks <g>
>> >
>> > -÷ Chris ß ÷-
>> >
>> > On Sun, 02 Apr 2000 06:11:18 -0600, you wrote:
>> >
>> > ><!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en">
>> > ><html>
>> > ><body bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
>> > >Kent,
>> > ><p>I do have a margin account, but the majority of my quick trades are
>> > >done in my cash account. You're right about this
restriction.
>> > >It's self imposed.
>> > ><p>Ken
>> > ><p>Kent Rollins wrote:
>> > ><blockquote TYPE=CITE>$nbsp;<font size=-1>Ken</font> <font
size=-1>Are
>> > >you sure this isn't because you have a cash account instead of a margin
>> > >account?$nbsp; Proceeds from trading in cash accounts cannot be used
until
>> > >the next day.$nbsp; Proceeds from margin accounts can be re-used
immediately.$nbsp;
>> > >This rule generally applies to all equity brokerage
accounts.</font>$nbsp;<font size=-1>Kent</font>$nbsp;<b><font
face="Arial"><font size=-1>-----Original
>> > >Message-----</font></font></b>
>> > ><br><font face="Arial"><font size=-1><b>From: </b>Kenneth Adams
$lt;<a
href="mailto:kenadams@xxxxxxxxxx";>kenadams@xxxxxxxxxx</a>></font></font>
>> > ><br><font face="Arial"><font size=-1><b>To: </b><a
href="mailto:metastock@xxxxxxxxxxxxx";>metastock@xxxxxxxxxxxxx</a>
>> > >$lt;<a
href="mailto:metastock@xxxxxxxxxxxxx";>metastock@xxxxxxxxxxxxx</a>></font></f
ont>
>> > ><br><font face="Arial"><font size=-1><b>Date: </b>Saturday, April 01,
2000
>> > >6:48 AM</font></font>
>> > ><br><font face="Arial"><font size=-1><b>Subject: </b>Re: Brown and
Co.</font></font>
>> > ><br>$nbsp;Note, this is NOT for day trading. I've done day trades
>> > >there, fairly often, but you can't use the money more than once per
day.$nbsp;
>> > >Good rates on options, too.
>> > ><blockquote TYPE="CITE">$nbsp;</blockquote>
>> > ></blockquote>
>> > >
>> > ></body>
>> > ></html>
>
>
In the beginning......the Internet carried only "plain text" -- letters,
number, punctuation, and spaces, but no fancy formatting, such as colored
type, bold, italics, differing typefaces and the like. Everything looked as
though it had been written on an old Remington typewriter.
The eventual creation of Hypertext Transfer Protocol (the "http" in website
addresses) gave us a way to tell computers using all sorts of different
systems -- Macs, PCs, etc. -- how to display the fancy new graphical
capabilities that had theretofore not been available. Eventually, e-mail
programs began to incorporate these same capabilities, so that we may now
send and receive messages which incorporate the same display tricks
familiar from the web and from desktop publishing, etc. To take an example
from the message at issue above:
<br><font face="Arial"><font size=-1><b>Subject: </b>Re: Brown and
Co.</font></font>
This line coded in HTML (hypertext markup language) tells the computer to
start a new line (<br>). The next tag (<font face="Arial">) tells the
computer to display what follows in the Arial typeface. Next tag (<font
size=-1>) tells it to reduce the size of the font display by one size. Next
tag (<b>) tells it to render the type in boldface. These instructions are
all now applied to the single word which follows them: "Subject:" Next tag
(</b>) is the "end" tag for the boldface instruction, and this tells the
computer to stop using boldface and return to using normal weight. The
following words -- "Re: Brown and Co." are then displayed. The final two
tags "end" the Arial-typeface and reduced-size instructions at the
beginning of the line. All of that to say no more than this: Subject: Brown
and Co.
When you send an e-mail message encoded this way, you are in effect sending
it as though it were meant to display like a webpage, with all the
variations available in that way of working. But some of us see little
utility in turning e-mail into peacock displays of fonts and colors. Some
still use older computers with older e-mail programs that don't know how
decode this stuff into webpages, and thus find themselves looking at the
complete text of the HTML instructions as well as the text woven into it.
They have to search through line after line of <br><font face="Arial"><font
size=-1><b>Subject: </b>Re: Brown and Co.</font></font> to find the nuggets
of text: "Subject: Brown and Co."
You remarked that other replies to messages from you had not shown this.
This tells me that those folks were using e-mail programs which either
displayed your message in hypertext (i.e., in reduced Arial bold, etc.,
etc.) OR had been told to "ignore" it completely.
I use Eudora, and I tell it to "Ignore" all forms of "styled text. This
means that all the fancy HTML instructions are ignored, and your message is
displayed as "plain text," looking just as it would have had it been
composed and sent in the earliest days of the Internet and e-mail.
And I also tell it to "Discard styles before sending," so that none of my
outgoing mails have any. I don't apply any "styles" in composing, though
Eudora provides a toolbar which offers bold, italic, underline, colors,
left-, centered- and right- justification, increase or decrease font size,
indent in, indent out, hanging indent in, and hanging indent out. So what
you are seeing is "plain text" -- letters, numbers, punctuation, spaces,
and nothing else.
The various e-mail programs have settings for limiting themselves to "plain
text," though it is more often expressed as a choice not to use "styled" or
HTML output. THIS is what Chris is urging you to do -- turn off the HTML,
so that all he sees is the "plain text" of your content.
I will add to Chris's suggestion another, that list members also forego the
attachment of VCF files, which serve no purpose on the list.
Sorry for getting carried away here with the sound of my own voice.
Best to all --
Chuck Engstrom
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