Re: Sending Graphics
- To: i*@Rt66.com
- Subject: Re: Sending Graphics
- From: t*@Lanl.GOV (Tom Tadfor Little)
- Date: Mon, 22 Apr 1996 11:35:19 -0600
John Jones writes:
:I have been thinking that it be advantageous to be able to send graphics
:over Iris-l. Scanned pictures of Iris, diagrams, maps, who knows.
:Anyway, I think I have the process down Macintosh to Macintosh, but Mac
:to PC or PC to PC is another issue. Anybody out there interested in
:debugging the process with me? Anybody already know the in's and out's?
:I thought we would take it off line so as not to clog the reflector. I
:get mail off the newsgroups all the time so I know it can work, and be
:fun.
John, I would *not* recommend this. There are two issues. One is that there
is no universal standard for encoding graphics for email transmission.
The ability of the receiver to view the graphics depends on their mail
program and whatever graphics utilities they may have. It works great if
you can count on the receiver to have a particular configuration, but on
a public list you can't make any such assumption. Some people may be using
very "minimal" systems.
Second, graphics files take a lot of bandwidth. Some people are on slow
modems and pay for every minute of connect time. To force several large
graphics files into their mailboxes unsolicited is not a good idea.
Basic netiquette for newsgroups and mailing lists is "NO BINARIES",
unless the discussion group is advertised as such to begin with.
The best way to provide graphics is via the web. Three of us have web
sites, and between us we have quite a few pictures and diagrams. We're open
for suggestions of things to add. I would even be willing to post some
pictures from list subscribers on my site, at least on a temporary or
rotating basis. Let me know if you're interested. The other alternative,
of course, is to build your own website. I understand that Netcom is
going to provide this capability sometime soon, so you might look into
it.
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Tom Tadfor Little tlittle@lanl.gov -or- telp@Rt66.com
technical writer/editor Los Alamos National Laboratory
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Telperion Productions http://www.rt66.com/~telp/
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