From: Joe 
Newsgroups: uk.d-i-y uk.finance
Subject: Re: Compulsory water metering
Date: Mon, 06 Mar 2006 17:36:26 +0000

dennis@home wrote:
> "Tumbleweed"  wrote in message 
> news:4716ifFcu3bpU1@individual.net...
> 
>>"dennis@home"  wrote in message 
>>news:B3IOf.30850$wl.7419@text.news.blueyonder.co.uk...
>>
>>>"Dave Plowman (News)"  wrote in message 
>>>news:4e02f7a039dave@davenoise.co.uk...
>>>
>>>>In article <8_EOf.30686$wl.10517@text.news.blueyonder.co.uk>,
>>>>  dennis@home  wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>Not that I agree with the rules regarding top posting or that we
>>>>>shouldn't use html for posts either. Its only the users who insist on
>>>>>being traditional (old fashioned) that think we should restrict the
>>>>>world to using plain *ASCII* text rather than rich html.
>>>>
>>>>If you gave a tiny bit of thought about the storage needed for HTLM
>>>>against plain text on the news servers - and want it to remain a free
>>>>service - you'd have your answer.
>>>>
>>>>Also, it's designed to be a service for all the world, and not everyone
>>>>has 'free' broadband connection.
>>>
>>>Html *is* text and doesn't take up a vast amount of space.
>>>More is wasted by peoples stupid and pointless sigs.
>>
>>Its not the size that matters (!!), its the viruses and malware that can 
>>be carried in it.
> 
> 
> That is a function of the reader.
> If it doesn't execute scripts, which aren't really html anyway, it is 
> perfectly safe. 
> 
> 
You don't recall the (long) period throughout which Windows would
run *any* kind of executable file it was given by Internet Explorer,
and while IE only bothered looking at the file extension *listed in
the multipart header* to decide whether a file was safe to run?
Not a script in sight, the culprit was the IFRAME.

My aversion to HTML is that what you see isn't what you get, and there's
no way of knowing what bugs lie within even sanely-written software. I
particularly don't want web bugs spreading details about me even more
widely than at present, so none of my email or news clients render HTML.

HTML is no more 'modern' than plain text, it's just designed for a
different purpose. Its use in plain-text media such as email and NNTP,
where pictures are unnecessary and hypertext links rare, is simply a
sign of ignorance.