Help: emails with midi question

Subject: RE: Help: emails with midi question
From: Bill D
Date: 09 Apr 01 - 06:30 PM

unless I request it, or know it is coming, I do NOT appreciate large attachments in email...to this end, I usually check my mail first with a program which allows me to read it on the server!Then, if it is spam, or says it has crap attached, I can delete it from the server and never get it on my computer!~

There are a number of these programs...I use Pop3 ScanMailbox works fast and allows multi-mailbox access. Free...

a bit fancier and with more options is AvirMail (with this you can even answer mail while it is still on your server!..it even uses filters) ..yep..free

Subject: RE: Help: emails with midi question
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 09 Apr 01 - 06:10 PM

I'm afraid that these days, I get pissed of with receiving anything other than plain text in the message body. I also get extremley annoyed when I receive large unwanted attachments.

Jon

Subject: RE: Help: emails with midi question
From: Mark Clark
Date: 09 Apr 01 - 05:43 PM

Roger, Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64 is in fact a MIME encoding standard.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: Help: emails with midi question
From:
Date: 09 Apr 01 - 05:11 PM

I agree with Joe.

There is a chance that there is a potential virus problem with this.

Subject: RE: Help: emails with midi question
From: MMario
Date: 09 Apr 01 - 04:12 PM

Lord how I hate that stuff! It doesn't display properly in a lot of mail readers - in fact, it can hide the actual message! AND it takes much longer to download. that part doesn't bother me at work, but at home I get pretty pissed off to find out that the reason it took 45 minutes to download my e-mail was because someone put in an arsty-fartsy background and a wav for a 12 word message!

Subject: RE: Help: emails with midi question
From: GUEST,Barry T not at home
Date: 09 Apr 01 - 04:07 PM

There is a new web artform that has arisen with the design and release of Outlook Express. I'm referring to Outlook Express Stationery. These stationery designs go way beyond the standard templates. They now include some absolutely brilliant artwork, sometimes scrolling, multiple overlays and embedded or streaming audio tracks.

I mention this medium here, as the format takes full advantages of the features you describe in this thread.

To view some great examples just key in Outlook Express Stationery on Yahoo and visit some of the sites. You'll be amazed.

Subject: RE: Help: emails with midi question
From: Joe Offer
Date: 09 Apr 01 - 01:22 PM

Theoretically, an e-mail should be able to play a MIDI or a WAV or whatever when opened, but I don't think most e-mail programs are configured to allow you to send messages like that. Any time you have an e-mail that does something when all you do is open it, you've got a potential virus risk. Besides, it's kind of obnoxious.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Help: emails with midi question
From: Roger in Sheffield
Date: 09 Apr 01 - 12:44 PM

I think you are right Mark, I just had a look at one of the emails I had sent. Looking at this 'musical' emails file-properties-details-message source, I found the last part of the message is a whole lot of letters and numbers and identified as Content-Type: audio/mid; name="blindmry.mid" Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Thanks for clearing that up

Roger

Subject: RE: Help: emails with midi question
From: MMario
Date: 09 Apr 01 - 08:48 AM

the other possibility is that it is treated as an embedded link and "plays" the file from an internet connection

Subject: RE: Help: emails with midi question
From: Mark Clark
Date: 08 Apr 01 - 07:16 PM

Roger, I'd guess that the MIDI file is encode as a Multimedia Internet Mail Extension (MIME) attachment. It is in fact part of the complete Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP) message but your email reader (Outlook?) is designed to recognize MIME attachments and treat that portion of the message differently depending on the MIME type. MIDI is easy to deal with because all it has to do is pipe the MIDI information over to your MIDI enabled sound card. Other MIME types may require plug-ins or separate applications to process them properly.

      - Mark

Subject: emails with midi question
From: Roger in Sheffield
Date: 08 Apr 01 - 03:31 PM

Today someone asked how I had sent them an email which played a midi tune. I explained ( the format-background-sound thingy) and then the questions got way beyond my depth. I have been asked if wav and mp3 files can be sent the same way, as a 'background' rather than a file attachment, I said I didn't think so, but I don't know. The other question was where exactly is the midi file I sent that plays on his computer? At first I guessed it was stored in some obscure outlook express folder where he could find it if he looked. After doing a hard drive search on my computer and not finding any unusual folders with *.mid files I am now thinking that the actual coding of the midi is part of the email body?
My brain hurts please help!

Roger