[Coco] [OT - Sort of?] Sizes of emails sent to this alias

[Stephen H. Fischer]

What is strange is Dennis's response:
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In the headers is the key:

Received: from BLU004-OMC4S28.hotmail.com (blu004-omc4s28.hotmail.com
 [65.55.111.167])
 (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA384 (256/256 bits))
 (No client certificate requested)

So the message is encrypted with the key in the header, what good is that?

SHF

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "James C. Hrubik, Sr." <jimhrubik at earthlink.net>
To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2015 11:21 AM
Subject: Re: [Coco] [OT - Sort of?] Sizes of emails sent to this alias


> John, as Stephen Fischer replied in response to your original email, that message was just a bit over 5K.  Dennis' response below, containing your original, was just over 6K.  It could be that your email client is attempting to turn the plain text into rich text, or it could be that your ISP is adding some junk to it in delivery.  Based on what I have seen in responses, it takes a humongous reply to bump the additional count more than 1K, which appears to be a minimum reported size for the content of a new message.  Remember back to your BASIC programming -- 1 byte per char -- and look at the number of chars in the plain text of the message, as you noted.  The extra padding is being added somewhere outside the CoCoList.
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
>>From: Dennis Bathory-Kitsz <bathory at maltedmedia.com>
>>Sent: Nov 12, 2015 8:51 AM
>>To: CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts <coco at maltedmedia.com>
>>Subject: Re: [Coco] [OT - Sort of?] Sizes of emails sent to this alias
>>
>>John,
>>
>>This is a mailing list that goes through several stages, all of which are
>>maintained in the full header.
>>
>>In the header, there's the list information itself (name, sub, unsub, archive,
>>post, help); the message ID (thread, language, subject, etc.), the original
>>path of user to ISP (which can travel through several servers, as yours does),
>>from there to list (servers, time, date, etc.), spam and virus checks (with
>>status flags), and the route back out from the list to the user, which in my
>>case also invokes spam and virus checks (the same ones, as it's my server).
>>Time and date are embedded at many steps as well. You can read all of this by
>>viewing the full header. I use Squirrel Mail, which has a 'view full header'
>>option.
>>
>>On the other hand, you'll notice that the messages themselves are all
>>converted to plaintext (reducing size significantly for those who post in
>>richtext/html) and almost all attachments are stripped (ditto).
>>
>>Dennis
>>
>>
>>On Wed, November 11, 2015 4:46 pm, John Guin wrote:
>>> I realize that modern machines have much more memory than legacy machines,
>>> but please bear with me.
>>>
>>> I was looking at the size of the last few emails sent to this alias and the
>>> average size was just over 16K.  This means that my original Coco could not
>>> even open most of these mails.  Heh.
>>>
>>> But I also noticed that every mail I receive to this list is strictly larger
>>> than or equal to 13K in size.  That seems a bit excessive since almost all
>>> the content in the mail is text, and not very much text at that.
>>>
>>> I looked at the emails and it seems a constant amount of header information
>>> is being added as the mail items are being routed around.  In a typical
>>> message, this amounts to 4K or so.
>>>
>>> The text of the average of the last 25 mails I received is <1K.
>>>
>>> So there is still 8K of email overhead being added somewhere.  Any idea
>>> where that may be coming in?  And before this question needs an answer, do
>>> other folks using various email clients see about the same size mail items?