tlug: Re: 'large' attachments

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <turnbull@example.com>]

>>>>> "Darren" == Darren Cook <darren@example.com> writes:

    >> Unless the list is xemacs-beta and the sender is Ben Wing, who
    >> has serious RSI and all of whose emails start with "If this
    >> email contains a RealAudio attachment..."

    Darren> Interesting. I still think it would be better if the RA
    Darren> file was put on a web site, and just the URL posted to the
    Darren> mailing list. Like you said, it'd be nice if mailing
    Darren> software could automate this process!

Well, actually, for people who for some reason can't do RealAudio
(they don't really _support_ _any_ Unix platform AFAIK) there is also
an URL for a .wav file.  He suggested he could do it that way, but the 
critical people all said "you're out of your mind---if the mail gets
through, I have the attachment; if I have a problem getting the URL, I 
lose the whole thread."  And threads develop on that list about as
fast as they do on TLUG.

Again, pretty much everybody on that list is megabit-connected, too.

Special cases are special cases ;-)

    >> Anyway, friends don't let friends use Microsoft products.  What
    >> _is_ this with 2MB Word files?  At that size, the Shannon
    >> content has got to be about 1000 bits/character, max.  About
    >> the density of outer space.

    Darren> A typical case: the Christmas party. The file will have a
    Darren> graphic at the top that sets the party atmosphere, and

OK.

    Darren> another graphic for the map. Then instead of printing this

Damn room-temperature IQs.  I write maps (when I need to) in
Postscript (or LaTeX picture), they take about 2kB for all of Tokyo
(uso tsuiteiru ... :D).  But I guess the "modern way" for that is to
use PDF, and the overhead would take it to 100kB instantly.

Oh, my aching budget constraint.

    Darren> out and pinning it on a notice board, it gets emailled to
    Darren> everyone in the company ('cos that's the modern way), and
    Darren> then everyone prints it out because they don't like
    Darren> reading things on the screen. :-)

I really really didn't realize that Microsoft was this irresponsible.
Microsoft Must Die.  (Despite my railing against "lusers", "It's Not
The Users, It's The System, Stupid."  Fix the system and all the
lusers will turn into users.  Most of 'em, anyway :-P)

Aside to Chris:  I agree with you with respect to Linux systems; the
user is (in most cases) the administrator.  But for people for whom
the computer is a tool (eg, they don't need to be root on their on
Linux box), fix the system.

I think this is what Jonathan is advocating and PHT and RedHat are
aiming at (RedHat won't admit it, I suspect).

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