Re: how to handle requests for HTML signatures

["Julian Y. Koh" <kohster () NORTHWESTERN EDU>]

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At 2:34 PM -0500 12/10/10, Charlie Derr wrote:
> I assumed that you'd meant "Remotely embedded images" but it seems worth
> trying to confirm/refute  that directly.
>
> Are you talking about embedding images locally in the sent email?

When I referred to embedded images, I was talking about locally embedded
images that are in the sent email.  Linked images are the ones that are
stored remotely and downloaded by the client.

Looking at it from certain points of view, the linked ones that load from
remote servers are definitely more evil since they enable client tracking,
malware downloading, etc.  But in reality, most email clients are set to
not load those remotely linked images, so they don't get
downloaded/displayed at all.  I really not hugely annoyed personally by a
simple <A HREF="BLAH"> in a plaintext rendition of an email either.

For embedded images, from a sender point of view, at least you know that
the image will likely be displayed in an HTML-capable client.  However, for
those of us who read email in plaintext, the embedded images aren't nicely
lumped at the bottom of messages like regular attachments, so we have to
scroll through the Base64-encoded cruft in the middle of a message.  Plus,
for signatures, they're then embedded in every single message, which IMO
actually does start to have some measurable impact on my storage, backup
times, etc.

Once again, I'm perfectly willing to accept that I'm curmudgeonly about
this.  The world has definitely moved on, and I'm begrudgingly coming
along.  The problem is that I've had Eudora for Mac OS bent to my will for
at least 16 years now, so the bar is set very high for another email client
to come in and unseat it as far as my productivity and information tracking
goes.  Not to mention my archives.  :)


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-- 
Julian Y. Koh                         <mailto:kohster () northwestern edu>
Manager, Network Transport                         <phone:847-467-5780>
Telecommunications and Network Services         Northwestern University
PGP Public Key:<http://bt.ittns.northwestern.edu/julian/pgppubkey.html>