Re: Email Parcel Post is Good!

[Andrew Brown <twofsonet () graffiti com>]

> > Various people are alleged to have said things like:
>
> [ snip ]
>
> > Business Response:
>
> [ snip ]

the problem with large file transfer via email is that it takes up
more space than the actual file (it's usually encoded in some manner
which makes it grow by a factor of somewhere from 1.2 to 1.4), and
there's no guarantee that the sender will do anything about it.

the use of ftp or scp to retrieve files requires active involvement
and encourages the recipient to do something with the file.  it's a
simple matter of a synchronous system compared to an asynchronous one.

my personal view is that email messages should not exceed one megabyte
in size.  anything larger is (imo) silly.

> I rather like DJB's IM2000 initiative:
>
>       http://cr.yp.to/im2000.html

hmm...sounds like pop-without-smtp, except it needs smtp to send the
notifications.  i guess i could spam notifications to someone and end
in the same pickle i'm in now wrt to spam.

> Why not send the header with some "magic authentication cookie" to the
> receiver, who may then yank the file from sender-side spool using HTTP or
> some other protocol that's more efficient than uu- or mime-encoded SMTP?

like this?

   Content-Type: Message/External-body;
           name="draft-bogdanov-comments-umsp-01.txt";
           site="ftp.ietf.org";
           access-type="anon-ftp";
           directory="internet-drafts"

that and a small perl script are how i get all the internet drafts and
rfcs as they are published.

-- 
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