Subject: Blinking Subject Line

From: Owlman <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 4 Jul 1995 21:41:05 -0400

Has anyone ever noticed that some email has a blinking Subject line.  
What I want to know is can this be done using pine?  I've used pico to 
edit several files that have blinking subject lines and as of yet can't 
understand how they do it.

Thanks for any help or replies in advance.

WC

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From: Paul O Bartlett <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 4 Jul 1995 21:56:03 -0400

> understand how they do it.

    However it's done -- and I am not sure myself -- I would recommend 
against it.  This much I am aware of, "control" bytes are embedded in 
the text of the subject line which are not part of the printable 7-bit 
US-ASCII character set.  On some users' terminals/PCs/whatever, these 
bytes cause the blinking effect.  For other users, they can just cause 
trouble.  Were I one of the latter users, I would be upset.  It may look 
cute -- unless you are one of the recipients whose display goes cuckoo.

Paul
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Paul O. Bartlett         <[email-masked]>
P. O. Box 857     Vienna, VA 22183-0857     U.S.A.
Finger, keyserver, or email for PGP 2.6 public key
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From: Mike Brudenell <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 5 Jul 1995 08:58:59 +0100 (BST)

Inflicting blinking text on unsuspecting recipients is a cruel and 
unusual punishment.  It is not a practice that should be encouraged.  
Also, the method of doing it is fairly terminal type specific, and what 
works on one can cause problems on another.

Mike Brudenell                                         <[email-masked]>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Computing Service, University of York, Heslington, York, YO1 5DD, UK
Tel: +44-1904-433811  FAX: +44-1904-433740  http://www.york.ac.uk/~pmb1/

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From: Owlman <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 5 Jul 1995 08:28:57 -0400

> cute -- unless you are one of the recipients whose display goes cuckoo.

Thanks for the info Paul.  Now I know why it's not often you see these 
post with blinking subjects.  I myself would be upset also if it locked 
up my system everytime a post of that nature was sent. Just as I've 
always said it pays to ask questions first before you venture out on you 
own.

Thanks again.

Wm.