From: lm@mcvoy.com (Larry McVoy)
Subject: [TUHS] attachments: MIME and uuencode
Date: Sun, 12 Mar 2017 11:22:18 -0700 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20170312182218.GE2685@mcvoy.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <201703121813.v2CIDtRH099094@tahoe.cs.Dartmouth.EDU>
Back when I was at Sun the attachment thing was all the rage. Yet
I developed a system, I did my important stuff in roff, I'd attach
the typeset version but I'd make the main message be nroff | colcrt -
output.
Why? Because while all the "cool kids" liked the attachments, the
execs (they'd be the guys I was trying to convince) just read whatever
the text said. If they wanted to see the other stuff they forwarded
to their admin who knew how to print it.
I was measurably more effective at getting the execs to do what I
wanted than other engineers.
On Sun, Mar 12, 2017 at 02:13:55PM -0400, Doug McIlroy wrote:
> Allowing more or less arbitrary attachments was a real convenience.
> But allowing such stuff to serve as the message proper was
> dubious at best. Not only did it require recipients to obtain
> special software to read some messages; it also posed a
> security threat.
>
> I still use mailx precisely because it will only display plain text.
> With active text such as HTML, it is all too easy to mistakenly
> brush over a phishing link. Outfits like Constant Contact do their
> nonprofit clients a disservice by sending stuff that I won't even
> peek at. And it's an annoying chore when companies I actually want
> to deal with send receipts and the like in (godawful) HTML only.
>
> Doug
--
---
Larry McVoy lm at mcvoy.com http://www.mcvoy.com/lm
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2017-03-12 18:22 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 38+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2017-03-12 18:13 Doug McIlroy
2017-03-12 18:22 ` Larry McVoy [this message]
2017-03-12 18:26 ` Clem Cole
2017-03-13 0:34 ` Dan Cross
2017-03-13 1:28 ` Larry McVoy
2017-03-13 5:39 ` Dave Horsfall
2017-03-13 11:37 ` Steffen Nurpmeso
2017-03-13 20:21 ` Steffen Nurpmeso
2017-03-13 22:14 ` Doug McIlroy
2017-03-14 10:49 ` Steffen Nurpmeso
2017-03-12 18:33 ` Paul Winalski
2017-03-13 5:58 ` Dave Horsfall
-- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2017-03-12 20:04 Noel Chiappa
2017-03-12 21:34 ` Random832
2017-03-12 22:12 ` Noel Chiappa
2017-03-13 14:58 ` Michael Kjörling
2017-03-13 21:56 ` Dave Horsfall
2017-03-14 10:33 ` Steffen Nurpmeso
2017-03-16 18:52 ` Michael Kjörling
2017-03-12 18:57 Andy Valencia
2017-03-12 15:10 Noel Chiappa
2017-03-11 19:07 Mary Ann Horton
2017-03-11 23:01 ` Paul Winalski
2017-03-11 23:05 ` Mary Ann Horton
2017-03-12 1:14 ` Dan Cross
2017-03-12 6:28 ` jsteve
2017-03-12 23:41 ` Gregg Levine
2017-03-13 0:00 ` Larry McVoy
2017-03-13 1:59 ` Dave Horsfall
2017-03-12 23:43 ` Mary Ann Horton
2017-03-12 21:10 ` Dave Horsfall
[not found] ` <12de3888-3a82-4a8c-9177-50e6cb4cb931.maildroid@localhost>
2017-03-19 2:34 ` Dave Horsfall
2017-03-12 13:53 ` Tim Bradshaw
2017-03-12 17:42 ` Clem Cole
2017-03-12 23:35 ` Mary Ann Horton
2017-03-13 0:07 ` Clem Cole
2017-03-13 0:09 ` Warren Toomey
2017-03-13 0:11 ` Clem Cole
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