Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2017 February 17

= February 17 =

Email attachments
When you send an attachment in an email that's tiny otherwise, why is the email so much bigger than the attachment? The page on Email attachment says "The common Base64 encoding adds about 37% to the original file size." Why does it do that? 208.95.51.115 (talk) 15:46, 17 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Base64 is an encoding scheme that uses padding to ensure that the data is separable into discrete chunks, making it easier to process and more difficult to decode (when encrypting for security reasons). The use of Base64 in email is not for security in that sense, but rather to prevent data loss during transit. The way emails are handled, data within them can be dropped if it does not represent a printable character, because email was designed to be text-only. The Base64 protocol basically converts a string of data (ASCII or Unicode text, .jpeg images, .mp3 sound files, etc.) into a string of ASCII characters to prevent email servers from dropping unrecognized portions of the data. ᛗᛁᛟᛚᚾᛁᚱPants   Tell me all about it.  16:04, 17 February 2017 (UTC)

Question about Futurists
Hello,

I am just wondering who are some of the more well-known futurists (current and past)?

Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:8803:2001:1E00:384B:D62F:897B:7626 (talk) 21:18, 17 February 2017 (UTC)


 * We have a List of futurologists article. -- Finlay McWalter··–·Talk 21:40, 17 February 2017 (UTC)


 * The nouns Futurist and Futurologist have one Wikipedia article but are only partly synonymous.
 * futurist n.


 * 1) An adherent to the principles of the artistic movement of futurism.
 * 2) One who studies and predicts possible futures.
 * futurologist n.


 * 1) A person who practices futurology, i.e the scientific forecasting of future trends in science, technology or society
 * For example, several members of the "Bloomsbury" literary group who shared ideas opposed to prevailing Victorian conventions (ideas such as women's suffrage and post-impressionist art) will be termed futurists, not futurologists. Blooteuth (talk) 00:18, 18 February 2017 (UTC)