[Ads-l] Garbling, redux - and how I fixed it for me

[Dave Hause]

When I looked at old messages, I didn't have this problem before I changed 
email addresses in May, 2012.  When I re-subscribed, my messages from ADS-L 
came with this "---- Information from the mail header ---" banner and I also 
got garbling, which I learned to live with.  I wondered if it was related to 
my configuration with the UGA LISTSERV program and went hunting to find 
this:
http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/16.0/htmlhelp/site managers/LSCommands.html 
which has the name and definition for this function "DUALhdr – Dual short 
headers, useful with older mail programs which do not preserve the RFC822 
return email address."

There is also this "Documented Restriction: The use of the SHORTHDR or 
DUALHDR options will break messages that depend on MIME encoding, because 
these options strip the RFC822 headers that identify the message as a MIME 
message. SHORTHDR and DUALHDR were designed for the non-MIME mail clients 
which prevailed in LISTSERV's early history. As most mail clients today 
support MIME, the use of these options is now deprecated."  and this 
"FULLhdr – "Full" mail headers, (default) containing all of the routing 
information."

So I decided to see what would happen if I reset my subscription to the 
default condition and since then, no more garbled messages.  Here's how I 
did it:
Send a message (no subject line needed) to the list PROGRAM (not the list) 
at  LISTSERV at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU with the message "SET ADS-L FULLhdr"
And, now, clean messages.

Dave Hause, dwhause at cablemo.net
Waynesville, MO

-----Original Message----- 
From: David Champion
Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2016 5:45 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Garbling, redux [Re: misuse of "permutation"]

---------------------- Information from the mail 
header -----------------------
Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Poster:       David Champion <dgc.ads at BIKESHED.US>
Subject:      Garbling, redux [Re: misuse of "permutation"]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sorry to hijack this, but on the subject of message garbling here's
another kind that I've noticed before.  Again this is because of
a dropped header; this time it's

Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64

But compounding the problem is the insertion of the "---- Information
from the mail header ---" banner.  That actually prevents any rational
mail reader from ever decoding this, even if you put the C-T-E header
back in place.


Here's what Jim actually wrote:
* On 24 Mar 2016, James A. Landau wrote:
> On  Wed, 23 Mar 2016 21:09:28 Zone-0400 Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> quoted:
>
> Macworld.com
> Forensics expert says FBI to use NAND-mirroring to crack terrorist's
> iPhone
> "... Farookb
Herre's wha iPhone used a four-digit passcode, which would result in
> 10,000 permutations, a low enough number to be possible _to
> brute-force_
> using NAND-mirroring ..."
> http://goo.gl/bmg4XX
>
> There are exactly 24 permutations of a four-digit passcode.  The
> writer meant to say that there are 10,000 *possible passcodes*.
>
>     - Jim Landau


And here's what most(?) of us see:
* On 24 Mar 2016, James A. Landau wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail 
> header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "James A. Landau" <JJJRLandau at NETSCAPE.COM>
> Subject:      misuse of "permutation"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> T24gIFdlZCwgMjMgTWFyIDIwMTYgMjE6MDk6MjggWm9uZS0wNDAwIFdpbHNvbiBHcmF5IDxod2dy
> YXlAR01BSUwuQ09NPiBxdW90ZWQ6DQoNCk1hY3dvcmxkLmNvbQ0KRm9yZW5zaWNzIGV4cGVydCBz
> YXlzIEZCSSB0byB1c2UgTkFORC1taXJyb3JpbmcgdG8gY3JhY2sgdGVycm9yaXN0J3MgDQppUGhv
> bmUNCiIuLi4gRmFyb29r4oCZcyBpUGhvbmUgdXNlZCBhIGZvdXItZGlnaXQgcGFzc2NvZGUsIHdo
> aWNoIHdvdWxkIHJlc3VsdCBpbg0KMTAsMDAwIHBlcm11dGF0aW9ucywgYSBsb3cgZW5vdWdoIG51
> bWJlciB0byBiZSBwb3NzaWJsZSBfdG8gYnJ1dGUtZm9yY2VfDQp1c2luZyBOQU5ELW1pcnJvcmlu
> ZyAuLi4iDQpodHRwOi8vZ29vLmdsL2JtZzRYWA0KDQpUaGVyZSBhcmUgZXhhY3RseSAyNCBwZXJt
> dXRhdGlvbnMgb2YgYSBmb3VyLWRpZ2l0IHBhc3Njb2RlLiAgVGhlIHdyaXRlciBtZWFudCB0byBz
> YXkgdGhhdCB0aGVyZSBhcmUgMTAsMDAwICpwb3NzaWJsZSBwYXNzY29kZXMqLg0KDQogICAgLSBK
> aW0gTGFuZGF1DQoNCl9fX19fX19fX19fX19fX19fX19fX19fX19fX19fX19fX19fX19fX19fX19f
> X19fX19fX19fX19fX19fX18NCk5ldHNjYXBlLiAgSnVzdCB0aGUgTmV0IFlvdSBOZWVkLg0KDQot
> LS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0tLS0t
> LS0NClRoZSBBbWVyaWNhbiBEaWFsZWN0IFNvY2lldHkgLSBodHRwOi8vd3d3LmFtZXJpY2FuZGlh
> bGVjdC5vcmcNCg==


I believe that LISTSERV is also responsible for breaking the threading
of messages ("conversations" in Google lingo) so that new messages
appear as unrelated in some recipients' mailboxes.


And, ObADS: I see frequent substitution of "permutation" for
"combination" as well, but that's probably old news.

-- 
David Champion • dgc at bikeshed.us

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org 

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org