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On Sun, 10 Oct 1999, John Ahaus wrote:
> Can we make it mandatory to post to the list in 10 point typesize
> minimum. I have noticed more and more people are using 8 point or
> smaller. My hand is not too steady holding the magnifying glass in front
> of the screen.
Good luck with asking for a certain formatting. In most email to this
list, the information is in the text and attached charts. The formatting
usually adds little or no extra useful information. It does make the
message length *much* longer - sometimes ten times as long.
It also introduces incompatabilities (Microsoft loves these :-) with other
software. I read mail with Unix, and much of the formatted mail is
unreadable. I have asked that folks on the list set their mail software
to use ASCII text, which *everyone* can read, but that is a lost cause.
I keep a lot of information, including email, in data bases. The
formatting makes this much less useful. Below is a note I sent to a data
base email list a few years ago, showing how this will only get worse in
time.
Again, good luck...
Larry
-----------------------------
I'm concerned about a new trend. Until recently, email was a wonderful
thing. One could ask a question, and often get a very helpful reply. For
example, "The part you need to restore your Widget is a left-handed
Dooflanny, part number 454-78845. I'd try ordering from National Parts R
Us - they have the best prices and service. Their number is 800-345-6789.
Good luck. Danny."
The message was compact, typically less than a few kilobytes, said what
was needed, and could be placed in a relatively small text data base.
Years later, when I needed another Dooflanny, the message could be
retrieved in seconds because all the info was there as simple, searchable
text.
In the near future, messages will be different. The text will spin and
shimmer in 16,000,000 different colors on my screen. This might be done
with a 45 kb Java program embedded in the message, controlling 138 kb of
Danny's favorite fonts attached to the message . There will, of course,
be hi-res pictures of a Widget and Dooflanny taking up another 285,000
bytes. The Dooflanny part number, what I *really* wanted to know, *won't*
be in the message - only the Web link reference is given (which, of
course, will not be there any more when I look a year later - another '404
not found' casualty :-). The words 'Widget' and 'Dooflanny' (the words
needed for the search) appear *only* in the audio track of the video part
of the message. The 800 number is actually an animated graphic, not text,
as part of the visually entertaining National Parts R Us logo, which adds
another 375,000 bytes to the message. The message will end with the 2.5
Megabyte HDTV video clip of Danny finally saying "Good luck." This time,
we'll need it :-).
I exaggerate, of course, but how *will* I find this message in my 6
Terabyte data base of future email? Given the search problem and the
enormous message bloat, will it even be worthwhile to save it?
Kinda makes one long for "the good old days" :-).
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