Colored Backgrounds

[John Thompson]

David Gaskill wrote:

> Some  of the people with whom I do business use HTML format in their e-mails -
> are you suggesting that to I should refuse to do business with them on principle?

That's a tough one, since the customer is always right.  No
need to compound the sin by using html email yourself,
though.
 
> What's wrong with HTML e-mail anyway?

One word: bandwidth.
 
> I have seen suggestions that if it is widely adopted the Internet 
> will grind to a halt; HTML e-mail is becoming ever more common and 
> the net is speeding up.

But why not use the bandwidth for something that truly needs
it rather than superfluous fluff like html email?  It seem
to me that having used the internet for a decade now things
aren't a whole lot faster than they were ten years ago. 
Back then we only had 1200 baud modems for our dial-up
connections to text shell accounts, but despite the
ostensibly faster connections now things still take a
god-awful long time because so many people insist on adding
so much glitzy fluff to their traffic.  Not because they
need it to get the job done, but just because they can, and
(presumably) it's k001 and "everybody's doing it."  The
improvements in speed in bandwidth get sucked up in this
type of thing and the net result is no discrenable
improvement despite the advances in technology and
investment of resources.

-- 

-John (John.Thompson@attglobal.net)