I’ve noticed that whenever a Hotmail user replies or forwards a previous message, everything is concatenated so as to give a message without line returns and other formatting features in the PLAINTEXT part of message. The message is then duplicated in HTML. Apparently there is some bug, or non-standard practice in Hotmail (now a.k.a. Windows Live Mail).

I practice and recommend that everyone use plaintext as much as possible, as it lacks certain vulnerabilities that can be slipped into HTML messages, including web beacons (1 pixel pictures that help spammers verify an email address), malicious java code, and other nuisances. Because of these things I turn off the HTML view by default, and only enable it when needed, when I am sure I can trust the sender. (You might notice some of that spam and phishing mail shows up only in HTML.)

If you use Hotmail, please use plain text, so the rest of use don’t get the infamous Hotmail “run on sentences.”

Hotmail users may choose Plain Text thusly:

Per message:
• In the New Message window click the formatting tab that will say one of the following: “Rich text,” “Edit in HTML,” or “Plain text.” Choose Plain Text.
  

  

By default (recommended):
• It used to work this way: To make that permanent, in your Live Mail window go to Tools – Options – Send and activate the Plain text default button. … Anyone got the answer?

Doing one of these will save me from the Hotmail Annoyance, save space in the mailboxes of your correspondents (as well as your own), and encourage safer email practices.

NOTE: Someone replied and informed me that apparently Hotmail has changed their interface. I have changed the “Per message” information above to reflect that. I have not been able to find how to set default to plain text. Have you? Let me know!

I have also learned that there is a downloadable conventional program – a successor to Outlook Express of sorts. This does not apply to that.

References:
Switching to plain text… in Windows Live Mail Desktop
regarding plaintext email – especially in forums

I feel compelled to comment today upon the propensity of many to compose their emails in HTML, complete with pictures, fancy fonts, etc. This is one of the areas where I am a “conservative.” (gasp!) … You’ll notice that my emails are almost always sent in PLAIN TEXT (2). Let me tell you why.

1. Plain text gets to the point, communicating a brief message without distractions.
2. Plain text does not have the potential to compromise a reader’s system by javascripts, spying web beacons, etc. hidden in the code. (This is mostly for the receiver’s benefit.)
3. Plain text is “green.” It simply uses less bandwidth, storage space, etc.

Of course, there may be times when “fancy” is appropriate – where we want more formatting. This may include when one wants text formatting, pictures, etc. for emphasis: it may also include when one wants the same, only with WYSIWYG (“What you see is what you get”) fidelity. It may also include when one wants to send specific data – say a spreadsheet. There are some recommendations for these situations as well.

• If you simply want pictures and fancy formatting, go ahead and use HTML. Most email programs allow this option now (even web mail). You might want to leave this option off, and turn it on only when you want it. You can also edit a document in a word processor, like OpenOffice.org, save it as HTML, and attach it, if that gives you more familiar and better tools for formatting.
• If you want WYSIWYG, then use your OpenOffice and export as a PDF. (Other programs may also create PDFs, but call it “save as” – e.g. AbiWord.) … Note: Even shipping a word processing document will not get you WYSIWYG, as printers vary and so do fonts. (Recognizing the threat to their crumbling monopoly, Microsoft is scheming in their latest Word 2007 to introduce new proprietary fonts to deliberately introduce such incompatibilities(!), Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols informs.)
• If you want to use word processing documents, spreadsheets, etc., stick with open formats such as Open Document (ODT is text, ODS is spreadsheet). These international ISO standards are emerging as the lingua franca of documents — and they should be able to be read far into the future! And there are converters for those with software that is deficient in this regard. Do not use Microsoft’s formats. Not only are they inconvenient for the recipient, pressuring them into feeling like they must buy Microsoft’s expensive products; you might even some day be unable to decipher what you have composed. (Sometimes even the latest version of Word cannot open very old ones!)

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I recently had the experience of seeking a DVD player for Windows XP. My wife has an XP Pro computer at work, and found she could not play even unencrypted DVDs. Windows Media Player 11 came up and grouched. The “helpful” links then took her to a web site that offered to sell her DVD player software/plugins.

As my search began to take much more time than I thought, I found that the preponderance of options for Windows users are commercial! One does not realize that with pre-installed computers, as Microsoft relies upon the hardware vendor to license and include some software solution.

To make a very long story short, I finally found the best options, and now share those with you:

• First, if all you want is to play DVDs and some media files, and have an interface that resembles the old, familiar versions of Windows Media Player (before the DRM “digital restrictions management” onslaught!), try: Media Player Classic (MPC) — look for it here.

  With MPC you get a single binary (executable file) that can be run as a regular (non-administrative) user in Windows. (If you want it integrated into menus, etc., you’ll need to place it somewhere with appropriate permissions and link to it.)

• If you want a more comprehensive solution, which integrates into all users’ menus and provides browser plugins, autoplay and the like, go for VLC (VideoLAN – VLC media player). VLC is the cross-platform “Swiss Army Knife” of media players. During install or initial run, you might allow it to be the default for numerous video formats. (When you insert your first DVD, you can even set it as the default player for DVDs, so you no longer get the annoying message from WMP!)
• Another Candidate from the cross-platform open source world is MPlayer. I have used it for years in linux and it can play just about anything. But alas there seems to be no GUI included for windows. I think it depends upon you choosing a frontend — maybe more on that later … there do seem to be some packages including GUI there. SMPlayer is the first listed, and looks worth checking out.