CogBlog

I've taken a little break. Or, more accurately, I've been breaking my back with a massive amount of work for the past several weeks. Expect some new posts shortly.

I did have the opportunity to re-visit my home town, Sioux Falls SD, for the first time in about 20 years. Mainly it seemed smaller than I remember. Apparently my life was conducted completely within a 5 block area back then.

If you're planning a trip to the area, and I know you are, take a look at:
http://www.siouxfalls.com/

Be sure not to miss the almost exact replica of Michelangelo's David downtown. Almost exact because of the fig leave placed tastefully over the naughty parts. I'm sure M would approve.

This morning I noticed that Gmail by default will display the text version of a MIME email message.

MIME is a way of separating an email message into individual parts, each of which can have a separate document type. For instance, you can send a message containing an HTML version, a plain text version, and an image all within the same email. The vast majority of all messages sent and received are MIME messages.

The interesting thing to me is that Gmail will display the text version of your message by preference, even if there is an HTML version available. But, if you send an HTML only version it will display it properly. Many companies send the text version just as a backup in case the recipient's email client cannot read the HTML version. Usually the text version is given much less thought and preparation.

But, if your mailing list contains Gmail and you send out MIME messages, you should start taking more care with the text version.