Low End Mac Reader Specials

TypeStyler For Mac OS X is Now Shipping! Download The Free Fully Functional 60 Day Tryout at www.typestyler.com

Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how to download and install a native Mac poker application such as Full Tilt Poker Mac.

Compare products like desktop computers, apple laptops, apple macs, and LCD Monitors side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for new mobile phones, sat nav systems, or MP3 players. The Ciao online shopping community makes searching products easy for you.

The Dying Art of Plain Text Email

Manuel Mejia Jr - 2002.10.22

Popularity:

What is happening to email?

Once upon a time, email was nothing more than plain text that came to you on a blank screen in a font that could be read by just about anyone. Now two new forms of email have appeared. The first is mildly annoying; the second is wildly impractical for Macs running Unix shell-based Lynx accounts and dialup modems.

The mildly annoying email is nothing more than a text message with some .html added to it. Yahoo.com and MSN are notorious for transmitting email in this contaminated form. The receiving computer will declare the incoming message as unreadable and suggest that it be downloaded to the Mac's hard drive for further processing.

This HTML "page" can be opened as a text file. What one gets is something that looks like the following:

<html><div style='background-color:'><DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>Dear Manuel,</DIV>
<DIV>   I found your name as a volunteer and wonder if you might be able to help me.  I would be forever thankful!</DIV>
<DIV>  here is my problem: although my computer is old, I am a neophite and I was trying different things with my computer. I must have pushed the wrong button at some point because now, everytime I open a file and make some changes to it, when I come to save it, it will not save it under the same name.  The message Save As automatically come up although I just want to save.  Any clues?</DIV>
<DIV>   I hail from Canada and we are having a wonderful day here.  How about you?</DIV>
<DIV>    Thank you - Danielle</DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></div><br clear=all><hr>Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: <a href='http://g.msn.com/1HM1ENCA/c144??PS=47575'>Click Here</a><br></html>

Most of the characters are meaningless HTML code. Only a fraction of the transmission is sensible text. A laborious cut and paste "cleaning" produces the final product:

Dear Manuel,

I found your name as a volunteer and wonder if you might be able to help me I would be forever thankful! here is my problem: although my computer is old, I am a neophite and I was trying different things with my computer. I must have pushed the wrong button at some point because now, everytime I open a file and make some The message Save As automatically come up although I just want to save. Any clues? I hail from Canada and we are having a wonderful day here. How about you?

In terms of the impractical messages that a low-end Mac can receive, these messages usually have four parts to them. The message will have an HTML file with the message, a .gif image, a .wav sound file, and either a second .gif or .wav file to close.

Since when does simple email require a web browser with all the plug-ins? For basic Triassic Macs - whose users still number in the millions - email is now becoming a decoding chore.

The size of these 4-part email message is also a problem. In some cases, the four files together bloat the email message from 4-5 KB to 100 KB or more. A group of messages this size can quickly fill an electronic mailbox to capacity.

If the 4-part email messages aren't bad enough, there is also the "harpie" of bad email: the Word document. Some of these documents are larger than 200 KB and carry messages that could be condensed to a mere 10 KB in plain text. I, along with other Triassic Mac users, usually delete these on the spot, because they take up too much server space - and they usually cannot be opened without a modern Mac.

The computer industry needs to be mindful of one economic fact: Most of the world lives on an income of $500 a year or less. Older computers have slowly migrated to other parts of the world and are now connecting these regions to the Internet. If there is to be a true global village, communication standards have to be maintained. Creating vanity email messages that can only be read by well heeled American computer users is not the way to do this.

Even in the United States, old Triassic Macs and other systems still abound. This is one reason why there is such a demand for sites such as Low End Mac.

Recent Triassic Mac articles

The Web has left 68K Macs behind, 08.04. Those with older Macs are running into their own digital divide as ISPs drop support and Web and email standards evolve.
To err is human, to correct divine, 11.21. More information on why the Mac Plus degrades over time -- and how to fix it.
Care for a Mac Plus, 11.05. Of all of the Triassic Macs, the Mac Plus has the most sentimental value among the Low End Mac community."
More in the Triassic Mac index.

Links for the Day

Mac of the Day: Mac mini Core Solo, Feb. 2006 - The only Mac to use a Core Solo CPU, this model ran at 1.5 GHz, has integrated graphics, and includes a Combo drive
Group of the Day: iBook List is the place to discuss the iBook.
March 17 in LEM history: 03: Kanga PowerBook too limited? - Powerline networking - 04: Average Joe still in the dark about Macs - 05: Mac mini tools - 06: Yonah, Merom, and Conroe - Battery update for 15" AlBook - Mac mini vs. $159 Linspire PC - 08: Taking Linux to OS X with virtualization - Power Mac G5 vs. Intel Mac mini

Recent Deals

Best iPad Deals, 03.16. 16 GB iPad, $499; 32 GB, $599; 64 GB, $699; 16 GB with 3G, $629; 32 GB 3G, $729; 64 GB 3G, $829. Free ground shipping.
Best iPod classic Deals, 03.12. Used 20 GB, $119; 40 GB, $139; 60 GB, $159; 30 GB video, $129; 60 GB, $159; 80 GB, $169; refurb 120 GB, $189; new, $214; 160 GB, $228 shipped.
Best G3 iBook and AirPort Card Deals, 03.12. 366 MHz 12" clamshell, $89; 466, $125; 500 white CD, $100; 600, $199; 800 Combo, $239; 14" 900, $225.
Best Xserve Deals, 03.12. Used 1 GHz dual G4, $499; 2.0 dual G5, $599; 2.3, $749; refurb 2.26 4-core Nehalem, $2,499; new, $2,699; 8-core, $3,449; refurb 2.66, $4,299; new, $4,799; more.
Best iPod touch Deals, 03.11. Refurb 8 GB, $149; 16 GB, $199; 32 GB, $249; 64 GB, $339; new 3G/8 GB, $184; close-out 2G/16 GB, $229; 3G/32, $270; 64, $355. Shipping included.
Best Mac OS X 10.5 Deals, 03.11. "Leopard" one user, $180; upgrade from 10.4, $150; 5 users, $400; Server, 10 users, $493; unlimited users, $600.
Best 17" MacBook Pro Deals, 03.11. Used 2.33 GHz, $1,099; 2.5, $1,349; refurb 2.66, $1,949; 2.93, $2,199; new 2.8, $2,249 after rebate; 3.06, $2,749.
More deals in our archive.

About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts

Triassic Mac articles copyright ©2002-03 by Manuel Mejia Jr. Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2010 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.
Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.
Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, iPhone, PowerBook, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.