Slashdot Mirror
Borking Outlook Express
Johannes writes: "Swedish Gnuheter has a story on Nick Moffitt arranging with his X-headers in way that makes it impossible to read his email with Microsoft WebTV or Outlook Express. Moffitt states: 'The folks using Outlook Express have locked themselves into a
limited subset of the information that can flow over the Internet, and
are blaming me personally for not limiting my transmissions to that
outlook-centric subset.'
See also original email (in English). Immoral? Or just right?" Looks like Moffit's "Who, me?" attitude is tongue in cheek, but the creative header changes here are hilarious.
But not that profound. Does it rate to be an article? Or is it a subtle trick to drive up page hits by trolling for anti-microsoft flames?
Blar.
/. deliberately spells peoples' names incorrectly to annoy them.
Surely that's all right with you, since you do something similar to people who use software you have an irrational fear of?
What was our reaction to MS disabling access to the MSN sites?
I don't know about yours, bucko, but I couldn't give a damn. If MSN has anything interesting to say (unlikely), odds are that somebody else will be saying it.
And this is different exactly how?
Microsoft's move was part of an effort to coerce lock-in to a non-standards-compliant protocol. This locks out non-standards-compliant clients. Totally opposite.
This is immature and childish.
Not at all. It makes the point very clearly. If more people did it, more users would realize just how broken MS software is.
-- Alastair
Quote from email
Yes. It's true that I run a mailing list that does not allow posting from Windows users. Many people complain about this, but in my mind I see it as no different than a restaurant or dance hall having a dress code. It raises the bar for entry to the list, and ensures that users really want to be there.
So if you use Windows, you must be some diseased leper who isn't fit to lick the boots of Nick Moffitt. What a jerk. This is exactly the kind of person who turns people off to Linux, free software, etc.
When did we become such elitists?
This is Slashdot. Just about every post involves elitism, from the constant MS bashing, to the contempt towards the rest of the population for not subscribing to whatever extreme ideologies the posters do, to the reaction towards the most minor technical mistake with pages upon pages of scorn. Personally I find this amusing, though not out of extreme hatred of MS.
I recieve a LOT of mail. Much of it is from Linux geekoids.
:-)
Those users expect me to be able to read their crappy ass text format files without complaint. (Like I am going to spend a large part of my spare time installing and tweaking an arcane, hard to use operating system in order to read their email.)
They expect that I read their non-formatted mail with bizzare Unix-only line feeds.
These are the same people who become totally baffled if I send them a Word document like the rest of the civilized world does.
At some point you get tired of dealing with people who expect the world to conform to their expectations and platform while making *no* effort to adapt to anything outside of their narrow world-view.
etc, etc, etc... Need I say more?
+1 Insightful, -1 Troll. What can I say, I'm an Insightful Troll.
Oh boo fucking hoo. The guy made an amusing hack and ahlf the people around here start comparing him to hitler.
I guess you're going to boycott his mailing list and I am sure Mr. Moffitt is going to loose sleep over it.
And, one more point, the goal of our movement is to have fun messing around with computers. I don't know what "movement" you belong to, but when you stop taking yourself so seriously you should consider joining ours.
Waltz, nymph, for quick jigs vex Bud.
U R SO L4ME 4 UZING WINDOZE, LINUS RULEZZZZZ!!!
H4XORZ 4EVER!!!
HEHHEHEHHEHHHEEE.
Pay for MS Office? WHat!@# I've been using it for years and never spent a dime. CHeck this out, if your in business and you cant afford $400 bucks to obtain software for your PC so you can use and exchange information with the rest of the business world, then maybe you should ask your self why your in business in the first place.
Heavens forbid those ignorant, lazy web authors should actually DARE to publish their webpages without having pored through every last contradictory line of the "official specifications", which browsers like Opera CANNOT EVEN RENDER CORRECTLY. (Try using CSS2 on Opera, it's shit.)
Do us all a favour and FUCK OFF. You want your little walls on the internet, the rest of the world doesn't.
The intent of the message is far more important than the delivery medium, or maybe you forget that, trapped in your own petty little 'Keeper of the holy knowledge' fantasies where only a select elite should have the right to communicate. You're no better than the Cathedral you claim to struggle against.
When will all these Linux zealots realise that their petty little crusade is OVER? Linux has lost, the GPL lies in ruins as its supporters flock to other software licensing schemes.
And WinXP is far, FAR more suited to the desktop than free software shall ever be.
I hope your mother dies of cancer.
"Why did they cancel my favorite Sci-Fi show? I downloaded ALL the episodes!"
Nope, Tricycles are useful.
Linux is an Edsel. Sure, it may have some nifty engineering under the hood, but it looks like an ugly pile of shit.
Just like the programmers, really. You can hardly call Richard "Fatso" Stallman an Alpha Male now, can you?
Do you reckon he ever managed to lose his virginity. I mean the real one, with a woman, not the anal cherry, which I imagine his father poked out of him before he was out of diapers.
"Why did they cancel my favorite Sci-Fi show? I downloaded ALL the episodes!"
Actually, they do. Thos who run the list also have the right to delete those posts, or ban the user.
In both cases (excluding windows users from your message, or excluding those who do exclude windows users) it comes down the the right of free association, which I think is a Good Thing.
Personally, I think what he is doing is kind of funny. I suspect even those who use OE get a chuckle out of his antics (except those who really need to lighten up).
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
You know, you could fix the "word doc" problem by simply asking them to send it to you in plain text, or RTF, or whatever format you prefer. Word is able to export in any of those formats.
Further, I have to ask why you're complaining so much about receiving Word doc attachments if you have Star Office. It is able to import Word docs without too much difficulty. I can see no real reason why you would refuse to do this unless you were trying to prove a point.
Regardless of your reasoning for refusing said attachments, using MS-like tactics to fight MS makes you just as wrong as they are. Folks can justify it until they're blue in the face, but in the end you're simply punishing others for not thinking and working just like you. Just like MS does. This is not flamebait or troll, I'm just trying to show what it looks like from another perspective.
If you don't like MS products, don't use them. If you don't have a choice (i.e. where you work mandates it) then don't complain, as there are many, many others (myself included) who do not have a choice.
In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
those headers are indistinguishable from the proprietary Netscape.
--
I noticed
It's getting about time to leave everywhere