Thunderbird screen shows large colored dots or stars

[bilsch01]

After the last time I installed Ubuntu (including Thunderbird) I get
large colored dots or stars on the screen when viewing certain news
groups or emails. I can eliminate these by deleting the offending
message or email. Has anyone else seen this happen? Bill S.

[Mark Lloyd]

Post by bilsch01
After the last time I installed Ubuntu (including Thunderbird) I get
large colored dots or stars on the screen when viewing certain news
groups or emails.  I can eliminate these by deleting the offending
message or email.  Has anyone else seen this happen?   Bill S.

I don't remember the circumstances (other that it was on Thunderbird,
and junk email), but I have seen that.

[Bobbie Sellers]

Post by Mark Lloyd

Post by bilsch01
After the last time I installed Ubuntu (including Thunderbird) I get
large colored dots or stars on the screen when viewing certain news
groups or emails.  I can eliminate these by deleting the offending
message or email.  Has anyone else seen this happen?   Bill S.

I don't remember the circumstances (other that it was on Thunderbird,
and junk email), but I have seen that.

Might be related to special background choices or maybe
an .html hack of some sort. Yes I know posts are not supposed to
use .html, but some people are clever and ignorant.

bliss

[Dirk T. Verbeek]

Post by bilsch01
After the last time I installed Ubuntu (including Thunderbird) I get
large colored dots or stars on the screen when viewing certain news
groups or emails.  I can eliminate these by deleting the offending
message or email.  Has anyone else seen this happen?   Bill S.

Weird.
You mean not just in the message pane but also over/in other parts of
the screen?

[bilsch01]

Post by Dirk T. Verbeek

Post by bilsch01
After the last time I installed Ubuntu (including Thunderbird) I get
large colored dots or stars on the screen when viewing certain news
groups or emails.  I can eliminate these by deleting the offending
message or email.  Has anyone else seen this happen?   Bill S.

Weird.
You mean not just in the message pane but also over/in other parts of
the screen?

First it shows in the upper pane where each line is the subject line of
a different email (or news group thread). Later it shows in the lower pane.

[Mark Lloyd]

Post by Dirk T. Verbeek

Post by bilsch01
After the last time I installed Ubuntu (including Thunderbird) I get
large colored dots or stars on the screen when viewing certain news
groups or emails.  I can eliminate these by deleting the offending
message or email.  Has anyone else seen this happen?   Bill S.

Weird.
You mean not just in the message pane but also over/in other parts of
the screen?

IIRC, when I had it, the large stars appeared in the message list rather
than the message preview. Disabling JavaScript did not fix it.

[Paul]

Post by Mark Lloyd

Post by Dirk T. Verbeek

Post by bilsch01
After the last time I installed Ubuntu (including Thunderbird) I get
large colored dots or stars on the screen when viewing certain news
groups or emails. I can eliminate these by deleting the offending
message or email. Has anyone else seen this happen? Bill S.

Weird.
You mean not just in the message pane but also over/in other parts of
the screen?

IIRC, when I had it, the large stars appeared in the message list rather
than the message preview. Disabling JavaScript did not fix it.

Thunderbird is a copy of Firefox, with 10% more code added.
Thunderbird is not some kind of X or QT application with
bottom up custom code. It's a thin layer on top of Firefox.

The three pane view, is based on web code. If your copy of
Thunderbird tips over, rather than crashing, the window
for all three panes turns yellow, and a message in black text
will mention a problem with some XML file.

In terms of "exploits" if you will, it should be possible
for the tool to draw just about anything, into the three
pane view. You would have to inject some HTML or .js
into the thing, to make it render stuff.

One explanation is a font attack. Or maybe something
involving SVG (because a star-shaped symbol would be
easy for a perp to draw with SVG).

Or maybe overloading a CSS style or something.

But the "stars" should not appear outside the
boundary of the main Thunderbird window.

Thunderbird has an option to turn off HTML rendering,
so at least HTML newsgroup postings could not do stuff.

Font attacks can be stopped to some extent by a
filter on the newsserver, catching violations of
newsgroup charters for content. But server operators
don't sit around crafting filter code 24 hours a day,
and there are plenty of "idle hands" to craft attacks.

And who knows, it could be a problem with EmojiOne font.
I'm sure that's a popular feature of a modern copy of
Thunderbird.

Paul

[bilsch]

Post by Paul

Post by Mark Lloyd

Post by Dirk T. Verbeek

Post by bilsch01
After the last time I installed Ubuntu (including Thunderbird) I get
large colored dots or stars on the screen when viewing certain news
groups or emails.  I can eliminate these by deleting the offending
message or email.  Has anyone else seen this happen?   Bill S.

Weird.
You mean not just in the message pane but also over/in other parts of
the screen?

IIRC, when I had it, the large stars appeared in the message list
rather than the message preview. Disabling JavaScript did not fix it.

Thunderbird is a copy of Firefox, with 10% more code added.
Thunderbird is not some kind of X or QT application with
bottom up custom code. It's a thin layer on top of Firefox.
The three pane view, is based on web code. If your copy of
Thunderbird tips over, rather than crashing, the window
for all three panes turns yellow, and a message in black text
will mention a problem with some XML file.
In terms of "exploits" if you will, it should be possible
for the tool to draw just about anything, into the three
pane view. You would have to inject some HTML or .js
into the thing, to make it render stuff.
One explanation is a font attack. Or maybe something
involving SVG (because a star-shaped symbol would be
easy for a perp to draw with SVG).
Or maybe overloading a CSS style or something.
But the "stars" should not appear outside the
boundary of the main Thunderbird window.
Thunderbird has an option to turn off HTML rendering,
so at least HTML newsgroup postings could not do stuff.
Font attacks can be stopped to some extent by a
filter on the newsserver, catching violations of
newsgroup charters for content. But server operators
don't sit around crafting filter code 24 hours a day,
and there are plenty of "idle hands" to craft attacks.
And who knows, it could be a problem with EmojiOne font.
I'm sure that's a popular feature of a modern copy of
Thunderbird.

OK. I just reinstalled ubuntu 18.04.1 (including thunderbird) and right
away I get the big red dot in the upper pane of alt.os.linux.ubuntu. It
is connected to thread

TrueOS for Linux Junkies
5/21/2018
downloaded from eternal-september

It hasn't infected my email yet, but it will before long. It does more
mischief than just display colored dots and stars.

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

Post by bilsch
OK. I just reinstalled ubuntu 18.04.1 (including thunderbird) and right
away I get the big red dot in the upper pane of alt.os.linux.ubuntu. It
is connected to thread
TrueOS for Linux Junkies 5/21/2018 downloaded from eternal-september
It hasn't infected my email yet, but it will before long. It does more
mischief than just display colored dots and stars.

So I searched: "TrueOS | FreeBSD Based Operating System with ZFS
TrueOS is a cutting-edge FreeBSD graphical desktop operating system."

You need to try comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc, not here.
If you want to download linux ISOs that aren't infected, you
should stick to distrowatch.com like everybody else.
"Eternal September" ? WTF??

[Jonathan N. Little]

OK.  I just reinstalled ubuntu 18.04.1 (including thunderbird) and right
away I get the big red dot in the upper pane of alt.os.linux.ubuntu.  It
is connected to thread
TrueOS for Linux Junkies
5/21/2018
downloaded from eternal-september
It hasn't infected my email yet, but it will before long.  It does more
mischief than just display colored dots and stars.

Looks like it is the UTF8 character issue described in this thread in
Thunderbird support forum. Has fix described in thread:

<https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1178430>

[Mike Easter]

Post by Jonathan N. Little
Looks like it is the UTF8 character issue described in this thread in
<https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1178430>

title "Subject line Emoji (UTF8) character too large"

That's an absolutely ridiculous 'feature' - the emoji in general - IMO.

wp 2nd par overview:

'Originating on Japanese mobile phones in 1999, emoji became
increasingly popular worldwide in the 2010s after being added to several
mobile operating systems.[7][8][9] They are now considered to be a large
part of popular culture in the west.[10] In 2015, Oxford Dictionaries
named the Face with Tears of Joy emoji the Word of the Year.[11]'

[WaltS]

Post by Mike Easter

Post by Jonathan N. Little
Looks like it is the UTF8 character issue described in this thread in
<https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1178430>

title "Subject line Emoji (UTF8) character too large"
That's an absolutely ridiculous 'feature' - the emoji in general - IMO.
'Originating on Japanese mobile phones in 1999, emoji became
increasingly popular worldwide in the 2010s after being added to several
mobile operating systems.[7][8][9] They are now considered to be a large
part of popular culture in the west.[10] In 2015, Oxford Dictionaries
named the Face with Tears of Joy emoji the Word of the Year.[11]'

Stop emojis!

[bilsch]

Post by Jonathan N. Little

OK.  I just reinstalled ubuntu 18.04.1 (including thunderbird) and right
away I get the big red dot in the upper pane of alt.os.linux.ubuntu.  It
is connected to thread
TrueOS for Linux Junkies
5/21/2018
downloaded from eternal-september
It hasn't infected my email yet, but it will before long.  It does more
mischief than just display colored dots and stars.

Looks like it is the UTF8 character issue described in this thread in
<https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1178430>

It's not clear to me what I need here.
In /usr/share/fonts/truetype/noto I already have file
NotoColorEmoji.ttf. If that is supposed to fix the problem, apparently
it doesn't.

[Jonathan N. Little]

Post by bilsch

Post by Jonathan N. Little

OK.  I just reinstalled ubuntu 18.04.1 (including thunderbird) and right
away I get the big red dot in the upper pane of alt.os.linux.ubuntu.  It
is connected to thread
TrueOS for Linux Junkies
5/21/2018
downloaded from eternal-september
It hasn't infected my email yet, but it will before long.  It does more
mischief than just display colored dots and stars.

Looks like it is the UTF8 character issue described in this thread in
<https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1178430>

It's not clear to me what I need here.
In /usr/share/fonts/truetype/noto I already have file
NotoColorEmoji.ttf.  If that is supposed to fix the problem, apparently
it doesn't.

I think you are supposed to *replace* file with one in link.

[bilsch]

Post by Jonathan N. Little

Post by bilsch

Post by Jonathan N. Little

OK.  I just reinstalled ubuntu 18.04.1 (including thunderbird) and right
away I get the big red dot in the upper pane of alt.os.linux.ubuntu.  It
is connected to thread
TrueOS for Linux Junkies
5/21/2018
downloaded from eternal-september
It hasn't infected my email yet, but it will before long.  It does more
mischief than just display colored dots and stars.

Looks like it is the UTF8 character issue described in this thread in
<https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1178430>

It's not clear to me what I need here.
In /usr/share/fonts/truetype/noto I already have file
NotoColorEmoji.ttf.  If that is supposed to fix the problem, apparently
it doesn't.

I think you are supposed to *replace* file with one in link.

the file at the github location is
NotoColorEmoji.tmpl.ttx.tmpl
and is identified as html document in properties.
This sounds like crap to me.

[Paul]

Post by bilsch

Post by Jonathan N. Little

Post by bilsch

Post by Jonathan N. Little

Post by bilsch
OK. I just reinstalled ubuntu 18.04.1 (including thunderbird) and right
away I get the big red dot in the upper pane of
alt.os.linux.ubuntu. It
is connected to thread
TrueOS for Linux Junkies
5/21/2018
downloaded from eternal-september
It hasn't infected my email yet, but it will before long. It does more
mischief than just display colored dots and stars.

Looks like it is the UTF8 character issue described in this thread in
<https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1178430>

It's not clear to me what I need here.
In /usr/share/fonts/truetype/noto I already have file
NotoColorEmoji.ttf. If that is supposed to fix the problem, apparently
it doesn't.

I think you are supposed to *replace* file with one in link.

the file at the github location is
NotoColorEmoji.tmpl.ttx.tmpl
and is identified as html document in properties.
This sounds like crap to me.

I posted the answer at 10AM this morning.

You're supposed to *remove* that file and not
replace it with anything. When you're done, there
will be one font remaining in the folder and you
can leave that one there. I show a picture here, of
what the Subject lines will look like when Good Guy posts.

https://s15.postimg.cc/d7fmpk03f/notocolor_font_moved_out_of_this_folder.gif

Renaming the file isn't enough.

You can move it to your Downloads folder if you want,
for safe keeping for later.

Paul

[bilsch]

Post by Paul

Post by bilsch

Post by Jonathan N. Little

Post by bilsch

Post by Jonathan N. Little

OK.  I just reinstalled ubuntu 18.04.1 (including thunderbird) and right
away I get the big red dot in the upper pane of
alt.os.linux.ubuntu.  It
is connected to thread
TrueOS for Linux Junkies
5/21/2018
downloaded from eternal-september
It hasn't infected my email yet, but it will before long.  It does more
mischief than just display colored dots and stars.

Looks like it is the UTF8 character issue described in this thread in
<https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1178430>

It's not clear to me what I need here.
In /usr/share/fonts/truetype/noto I already have file
NotoColorEmoji.ttf.  If that is supposed to fix the problem, apparently
it doesn't.

I think you are supposed to *replace* file with one in link.

the file at the github location is
NotoColorEmoji.tmpl.ttx.tmpl
and is identified as html document in properties.
This sounds like crap to me.

I posted the answer at 10AM this morning.
You're supposed to *remove* that file and not
replace it with anything. When you're done, there
will be one font remaining in the folder and you
can leave that one there. I show a picture here, of
what the Subject lines will look like when Good Guy posts.
https://s15.postimg.cc/d7fmpk03f/notocolor_font_moved_out_of_this_folder.gif
Renaming the file isn't enough.
You can move it to your Downloads folder if you want,
for safe keeping for later.
   Paul

Yes! That does the trick. Thanks Paul.

[Jonathan N. Little]

Post by bilsch
the file at the github location is
NotoColorEmoji.tmpl.ttx.tmpl
and is identified as html document in properties.
This sounds like crap to me.

Apparently you are not familiar with github.

<https://github.com/googlei18n/noto-emoji/blob/master/fonts/NotoColorEmoji.ttf>

[Paul]

Post by Jonathan N. Little

Post by bilsch
the file at the github location is
NotoColorEmoji.tmpl.ttx.tmpl
and is identified as html document in properties.
This sounds like crap to me.

Apparently you are not familiar with github.
<https://github.com/googlei18n/noto-emoji/blob/master/fonts/NotoColorEmoji.ttf>

That's not going to help (I already tried it, and
it's just a later version of the file that's already
installed there).

Instead, for the time being, removing the file
will return sanity to Thunderbird (it's a workaround,
not a proper fix). You can't just rename it, it has
to be moved out of font-ville.

Thank God "bilsch" provided a reference to when it
happens (i.e. the poster and posts) - all I had to do was scroll
back far enough to see those huge blights sitting there :-)

https://s15.postimg.cc/5n8rhzcyj/emoji_problem_52_9_1.gif

Paul

[SilverSlimer]

Post by bilsch

Post by Mark Lloyd

Post by Dirk T. Verbeek

Post by bilsch01
After the last time I installed Ubuntu (including Thunderbird) I get
large colored dots or stars on the screen when viewing certain news
groups or emails.  I can eliminate these by deleting the offending
message or email.  Has anyone else seen this happen?   Bill S.

Weird.
You mean not just in the message pane but also over/in other parts of
the screen?

IIRC, when I had it, the large stars appeared in the message list
rather than the message preview. Disabling JavaScript did not fix it.

Thunderbird is a copy of Firefox, with 10% more code added. Thunderbird
is not some kind of X or QT application with bottom up custom code.
It's a thin layer on top of Firefox.
The three pane view, is based on web code. If your copy of Thunderbird
tips over, rather than crashing, the window for all three panes turns
yellow, and a message in black text will mention a problem with some
XML file.
In terms of "exploits" if you will, it should be possible for the tool
to draw just about anything, into the three pane view. You would have
to inject some HTML or .js into the thing, to make it render stuff.
One explanation is a font attack. Or maybe something involving SVG
(because a star-shaped symbol would be easy for a perp to draw with
SVG).
Or maybe overloading a CSS style or something.
But the "stars" should not appear outside the boundary of the main
Thunderbird window.
Thunderbird has an option to turn off HTML rendering,
so at least HTML newsgroup postings could not do stuff.
Font attacks can be stopped to some extent by a filter on the
newsserver, catching violations of newsgroup charters for content. But
server operators don't sit around crafting filter code 24 hours a day,
and there are plenty of "idle hands" to craft attacks.
And who knows, it could be a problem with EmojiOne font.
I'm sure that's a popular feature of a modern copy of Thunderbird.

OK. I just reinstalled ubuntu 18.04.1 (including thunderbird) and right
away I get the big red dot in the upper pane of alt.os.linux.ubuntu. It
is connected to thread
TrueOS for Linux Junkies 5/21/2018 downloaded from eternal-september
It hasn't infected my email yet, but it will before long. It does more
mischief than just display colored dots and stars.

It's not an "infection;" it's an idiotic feature some social justice
clowns at Mozilla thought would put a smile on users' faces. You see,
they believe that like them, the rest of the world lives inside of a
happy little bubble. You can disable it in the settings but since I don't
use Mozilla software myself, I can't tell you exactly where to go.

[Gordon]

Post by SilverSlimer
It's not an "infection;" it's an idiotic feature some social justice
clowns at Mozilla thought would put a smile on users' faces. You see,
they believe that like them, the rest of the world lives inside of a
happy little bubble. You can disable it in the settings but since I don't
use Mozilla software myself, I can't tell you exactly where to go.

Going a bit sideways here. I thought the Mozilla foundation was going to cut
lose from Thunderbird.

[Paul]

Post by Gordon

Post by SilverSlimer
It's not an "infection;" it's an idiotic feature some social justice
clowns at Mozilla thought would put a smile on users' faces. You see,
they believe that like them, the rest of the world lives inside of a
happy little bubble. You can disable it in the settings but since I don't
use Mozilla software myself, I can't tell you exactly where to go.

Going a bit sideways here. I thought the Mozilla foundation was going to cut
lose from Thunderbird.

Mozilla currently provides server space for Thunderbird.

The Thunderbird group isn't a legal entity yet, and
only has the thunderbird.net domain set up.

The Thunderbird developers will be providing their own
input from now on. They're adding emojis, so the
"Smart Phone generation" will use their product.

Paul

[SilverSlimer]

Post by Gordon

Post by SilverSlimer
It's not an "infection;" it's an idiotic feature some social justice
clowns at Mozilla thought would put a smile on users' faces. You see,
they believe that like them, the rest of the world lives inside of a
happy little bubble. You can disable it in the settings but since I
don't use Mozilla software myself, I can't tell you exactly where to
go.

Going a bit sideways here. I thought the Mozilla foundation was going to
cut lose from Thunderbird.

No. Mozilla had decided that there wasn't much more that they could do
with Thunderbird so they were going to move some of the programmers they
had working on the project to others. They're not wrong to do so as there
is only so much you can do with an e-mail program.

[WaltS]

Post by SilverSlimer

Post by Gordon

Post by SilverSlimer
It's not an "infection;" it's an idiotic feature some social justice
clowns at Mozilla thought would put a smile on users' faces. You see,
they believe that like them, the rest of the world lives inside of a
happy little bubble. You can disable it in the settings but since I
don't use Mozilla software myself, I can't tell you exactly where to
go.

Going a bit sideways here. I thought the Mozilla foundation was going to
cut lose from Thunderbird.

No. Mozilla had decided that there wasn't much more that they could do
with Thunderbird so they were going to move some of the programmers they
had working on the project to others. They're not wrong to do so as there
is only so much you can do with an e-mail program.

Some news for the uneducated.

<https://blog.mozilla.org/thunderbird/2017/05/thunderbirds-future-home/>

<https://blog.mozilla.org/thunderbird/2017/12/new-thunderbird-releases-and-new-thunderbird-staff/>

<https://blog.mozilla.org/thunderbird/2018/04/thunderbird-april-news-update/>

<https://blog.mozilla.org/thunderbird/2018/08/whats-new-in-thunderbird-60/>

New hires annoumcement
<https://mail.mozilla.org/pipermail/tb-planning/2018-August/006127.html>

[Mike Easter]

Post by SilverSlimer
They're not wrong to do so as there
is only so much you can do with an e-mail program.

While it is true that Tb's developers have always treated it as 'an
email program', the fact is that Tb *claims* to be (to also be) a news
agent as well.

Somehow those developers and some others who have created 'shaky'
mail-news programs such as Outlook Express don't seem to get it.

A news agent is significantly more than just a mail user client with
some nntp stuck on.

How a proper news agent should work for text groups is one thing. How a
'proper' news agent should work for the world of binary news groups is
another thing. How a proper mail agent should work for such as creating
and rendering html mail is yet another thing.

Those 3 worlds have some things inn common, but they have a lot of
differences which Tb developers never seemed to realize while they were
calling Tb a mail agent. Oh, yeah. It also does news.

[WaltS]

Post by Mike Easter

Post by SilverSlimer
They're not wrong to do so as there
is only so much you can do with an e-mail program.

While it is true that Tb's developers have always treated it as 'an
email program', the fact is that Tb *claims* to be (to also be) a news
agent as well.
Somehow those developers and some others who have created 'shaky'
mail-news programs such as Outlook Express don't seem to get it.
A news agent is significantly more than just a mail user client with
some nntp stuck on.
How a proper news agent should work for text groups is one thing.  How a
'proper' news agent should work for the world of binary news groups is
another thing.  How a proper mail agent should work for such as creating
and rendering html mail is yet another thing.
Those 3 worlds have some things inn common, but they have a lot of
differences which Tb developers never seemed to realize while they were
calling Tb a mail agent.  Oh, yeah.  It also does news.

And Chat. :)

[Paul]

Post by Mike Easter

Post by SilverSlimer
They're not wrong to do so as there
is only so much you can do with an e-mail program.

While it is true that Tb's developers have always treated it as 'an
email program', the fact is that Tb *claims* to be (to also be) a news
agent as well.
Somehow those developers and some others who have created 'shaky'
mail-news programs such as Outlook Express don't seem to get it.
A news agent is significantly more than just a mail user client with
some nntp stuck on.
How a proper news agent should work for text groups is one thing. How a
'proper' news agent should work for the world of binary news groups is
another thing. How a proper mail agent should work for such as creating
and rendering html mail is yet another thing.
Those 3 worlds have some things inn common, but they have a lot of
differences which Tb developers never seemed to realize while they were
calling Tb a mail agent. Oh, yeah. It also does news.

The feature set is more a function of the history of
the code base than anything else.

There are Netscape routines in there ( NS_ ). That's what
the newsreader code is based on.

TB is 90% Firefox browser code (the entire set of source
files). TB even has a mozconfig option to "build as a browser",
so they can test the browser portion hasn't been affected.

I don't know when the "clean slate" existed for TB, and
perhaps it never existed, and it's always been "inherited
code we never got around to re-writing".

If you want a better all-round example of such a project,
Seamonkey comes closer. As it's easier to see how the
suite has a browser, and the browser engine (once onboard),
can be used to build other components in the suite. You
can justify the presence of things in the code, because
it's a suite. Just as Netscape Communicator before it,
was a suite.

Paul

[Mike Easter]

Post by Paul
If you want a better all-round example of such a project,
Seamonkey comes closer. As it's easier to see how the
suite has a browser, and the browser engine (once onboard),
can be used to build other components in the suite. You
can justify the presence of things in the code, because
it's a suite. Just as Netscape Communicator before it,
was a suite.

There are some linux developers who like SM much better than the Firefox
Tb combo that is so popular, nearly ubiquitous. Two that come to mind
are Ronnie Whisler for LXLE and Barry Kauler for Puppy, and their
followers/community.

Mostly, it is a more efficient package.

[wicklowham]

Post by SilverSlimer
No. Mozilla had decided that there wasn't much more that they could do
with Thunderbird so they were going to move some of the programmers they
had working on the project to others. They're not wrong to do so as there
is only so much you can do with an e-mail program.

======================
Happily using TB for Usegroups since many ..many years.

Frank in County Wicklow -Ireland

[SilverSlimer]

Post by wicklowham

Post by SilverSlimer
No. Mozilla had decided that there wasn't much more that they could do
with Thunderbird so they were going to move some of the programmers
they had working on the project to others. They're not wrong to do so
as there is only so much you can do with an e-mail program.

======================
Happily using TB for Usegroups since many ..many years.
Frank in County Wicklow -Ireland

You'll notice that if you essentially remove all of your Thunderbird
settings and start from scratch, you CAN still set up a Usenet account
but it's considered "Other" or something of the sort if I remember
correctly. It should give you an idea of how important this part of the
'Net is to them. The software still does an excellent job with Usenet,
but they treat Thunderbird as a primarily e-mail-oriented program. As the
latter, there truly is so much you can do.

[Mark Lloyd]

Post by SilverSlimer
You'll notice that if you essentially remove all of your Thunderbird
settings and start from scratch, you CAN still set up a Usenet account
but it's considered "Other" or something of the sort if I remember
correctly.

I checked on that. You select "Other Accounts" from the menu and then
you get to choose between "Unix Mailspool (Movemail)" and "Newsgroup
Account". It doesn't actually get created as "other".

Post by SilverSlimer
It should give you an idea of how important this part of the
'Net is to them. The software still does an excellent job with Usenet,
but they treat Thunderbird as a primarily e-mail-oriented program. As the
latter, there truly is so much you can do.

[SilverSlimer]

Post by Mark Lloyd

Post by SilverSlimer
You'll notice that if you essentially remove all of your Thunderbird
settings and start from scratch, you CAN still set up a Usenet account
but it's considered "Other" or something of the sort if I remember
correctly.

I checked on that. You select "Other Accounts" from the menu and then
you get to choose between "Unix Mailspool (Movemail)" and "Newsgroup
Account". It doesn't actually get created as "other".

I didn't say that it did; I pointed out that the settings for a Usenet
account appear in "Other" rather than one the first panel like an e-mail
account.

[Mike Easter]

Post by SilverSlimer
I pointed out that the settings for a Usenet
account appear in "Other" rather than one the first panel like an e-mail
account.

There are a world of places where Tb refers to itself as a mail agent.

IMO the 'vast' majority of Tb developers do not /do/ usenet. They do
chat or other 'interactive' processes and don't use usenet nor specialty
nntp such as the moz newsgroups.

Thus, Tb developers don't even USE nntp, much less Tb's implementation
of it.

You don't get much 'love' if you are a news agent and your developers
don't use you.

[WaltS]

Post by SilverSlimer

Post by Mark Lloyd

Post by SilverSlimer
You'll notice that if you essentially remove all of your Thunderbird
settings and start from scratch, you CAN still set up a Usenet account
but it's considered "Other" or something of the sort if I remember
correctly.

I checked on that. You select "Other Accounts" from the menu and then
you get to choose between "Unix Mailspool (Movemail)" and "Newsgroup
Account". It doesn't actually get created as "other".

I didn't say that it did; I pointed out that the settings for a Usenet
account appear in "Other" rather than one the first panel like an e-mail
account.

Account Central shows Email, Chat, Newsgroups, Feeds and Movemail for me.

Account Central is the one that appears when the user selects an account
in the Folder pane.

[Mike Easter]

Post by WaltS

Post by SilverSlimer
I didn't say that it did; I pointed out that the settings for a Usenet
account appear in "Other" rather than one the first panel like an e-mail
account.

Account Central shows Email, Chat, Newsgroups, Feeds and Movemail for me.
Account Central is the one that appears when the user selects an account
in the Folder pane.

There are 'several' ways the user is or can be presented with accounts
and some of those put news agent into other.

File/ New/ accounts such as mail, chat, feed and also Other; where you
can find Unix mailspool account and Newsgroups

There are several ways to get to the function of Account settings which
has Account actions at the bottom. Add Mail, Chat, Feed and Other.
That is as above (mailspool & news), and the function is called Account
wizard.

I don't know what you are calling Account Central. The function I
consider 'central' for accounts because it shows all accounts in the L
pane has a title bar Account settings as in the par above.

[WaltS]

Post by Mike Easter

Post by WaltS

Post by SilverSlimer
I didn't say that it did; I pointed out that the settings for a Usenet
account appear in "Other" rather than one the first panel like an e-mail
account.

Account Central shows Email, Chat, Newsgroups, Feeds and Movemail for me.
Account Central is the one that appears when the user selects an
account in the Folder pane.

There are 'several' ways the user is or can be presented with accounts
and some of those put news agent into other.
File/ New/ accounts such as mail, chat, feed and also Other; where you
can find Unix mailspool account and Newsgroups
There are several ways to get to the function of Account settings which
has Account actions at the bottom.  Add Mail, Chat, Feed and Other. That
is as above (mailspool & news), and the function is called Account wizard.
I don't know what you are calling Account Central.  The function I
consider 'central' for accounts because it shows all accounts in the L
pane has a title bar Account settings as in the par above.

See: <http://kb.mozillazine.org/Window_layout_-_Thunderbird#Layouts>

I did say something similar to, "Account central is the pane at the
right when you select an account in the folder pane:".

See: <http://kb.mozillazine.org/Window_layout_-_Thunderbird#Account_central>

In Account Central you can click the "View settings for this account"
link to open the Account Settings window. That is where here one finds
an Account Actions button at the very bottom of the left pane of the window.

One of many ways to add a new account. I like the simple Account Central
method for creating accounts when QA testing release candidates.

[Mike Easter]

Post by WaltS

Post by Mike Easter
I don't know what you are calling Account Central.  The function I
consider 'central' for accounts because it shows all accounts in the L
pane has a title bar Account settings as in the par above.

See: <http://kb.mozillazine.org/Window_layout_-_Thunderbird#Layouts>

Yeah; I grok the layout concept for folder pane, thread pane and message
pane for communications purposes. I use those 3 panes to orient very
frequently.

Post by WaltS
I did say something similar to, "Account central is the pane at the
right when you select an account in the folder pane:".
<http://kb.mozillazine.org/Window_layout_-_Thunderbird#Account_central>

Indeed your terminology for the concept of account central as a *PANE*
is correct. I don't normally tend to name functions by what pane they
live in, but I can accept that usage for terms of orientation in the
specific context of 'where you are' when you are needing to refer to a
specific pane when you have landed someplace. Personally, if there is
any chance of ambiguity, I like to name the title bar of the window for
the function as opposed to the window's particular pane.

I would like to note that there are a variety of different 'focuses' you
can be in and have a 'folder pane'. Since it is necessary to have a
folder pane to orient an 'account central' pane, we need to be in a
specific focus to be described.

Post by WaltS
In Account Central you can click the "View settings for this account"
link to open the Account Settings window. That is where here one finds
an Account Actions button at the very bottom of the left pane of the window.
One of many ways to add a new account. I like the simple Account Central
method for creating accounts when QA testing release candidates.

I agree with you that there is such a thing as an 'account central' pane.

If I close Tb and open it as an app; on my system, it opens to a window
title bar Local folders with the accounts on the left (folder pane) and
the Pane title 'Local folders' and I accept that that pane has a name,
ie (Local folders specifically account central pane - based on your
reference).

I also accept your argument that in that one view the function in the
account central pane has equal status in the 'create a new account' for
Email, Chat, Newsgroups, Feeds, and Movemail.

IMO that display of 'hierarchy' is in the 'minority' in terms of how Tb
treats the function of creating new accounts. More frequently, a news
account creation is in Other.

[Paul]

Post by bilsch
OK. I just reinstalled ubuntu 18.04.1 (including thunderbird) and right
away I get the big red dot in the upper pane of alt.os.linux.ubuntu. It
is connected to thread
TrueOS for Linux Junkies
5/21/2018
downloaded from eternal-september
It hasn't infected my email yet, but it will before long. It does more
mischief than just display colored dots and stars.

Normally Thunderbird looks good.

Loading Image...

*******

But your "TrueOS for Linux Junkies" reference cinched it.
It's not an infection, at least not yet.

The offending messages have emoji in the Subject line.

Loading Image...

This thread hints at a fix.

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1178430

Now, I tried that, but the font in question is already
*in* that folder.

Instead, I got this to work. I moved the font file out
of this folder, so the giant dots cannot render.

Loading Image...

/usr/share/fonts/truetype/noto
NotoColorEmoji.ttf moved to my home directory Downloads...

It's owned by root so you'll need some sudo magic.

Paul

[WaltS]

Post by Paul

Post by Mark Lloyd

Post by Dirk T. Verbeek

Post by bilsch01
After the last time I installed Ubuntu (including Thunderbird) I
get large colored dots or stars on the screen when viewing certain
news groups or emails.  I can eliminate these by deleting the
offending message or email.  Has anyone else seen this happen?
Bill S.

Weird.
You mean not just in the message pane but also over/in other parts
of the screen?

IIRC, when I had it, the large stars appeared in the message list
rather than the message preview. Disabling JavaScript did not fix it.

Thunderbird is a copy of Firefox, with 10% more code added.
Thunderbird is not some kind of X or QT application with
bottom up custom code. It's a thin layer on top of Firefox.
The three pane view, is based on web code. If your copy of
Thunderbird tips over, rather than crashing, the window
for all three panes turns yellow, and a message in black text
will mention a problem with some XML file.
In terms of "exploits" if you will, it should be possible
for the tool to draw just about anything, into the three
pane view. You would have to inject some HTML or .js
into the thing, to make it render stuff.
One explanation is a font attack. Or maybe something
involving SVG (because a star-shaped symbol would be
easy for a perp to draw with SVG).
Or maybe overloading a CSS style or something.
But the "stars" should not appear outside the
boundary of the main Thunderbird window.
Thunderbird has an option to turn off HTML rendering,
so at least HTML newsgroup postings could not do stuff.
Font attacks can be stopped to some extent by a
filter on the newsserver, catching violations of
newsgroup charters for content. But server operators
don't sit around crafting filter code 24 hours a day,
and there are plenty of "idle hands" to craft attacks.
And who knows, it could be a problem with EmojiOne font.
I'm sure that's a popular feature of a modern copy of
Thunderbird.

OK.  I just reinstalled ubuntu 18.04.1 (including thunderbird) and right
away I get the big red dot in the upper pane of alt.os.linux.ubuntu.  It
is connected to thread
TrueOS for Linux Junkies
5/21/2018
downloaded from eternal-september
It hasn't infected my email yet, but it will before long.  It does more
mischief than just display colored dots and stars.

Upper Pane?

Do you mean the message header Subject: line?

Is this similar to what you are seing?

<Loading Image...>

Have you tried any of the suggestions for fixing large emojis appearing
in message headers?

[Aragorn]

On Wednesday 12 September 2018 03:52, bilsch01 conveyed the following to
alt.os.linux.ubuntu...

Post by bilsch01
After the last time I installed Ubuntu (including Thunderbird) I get
large colored dots or stars on the screen when viewing certain news
groups or emails. I can eliminate these by deleting the offending
message or email. Has anyone else seen this happen? Bill S.

Personally I can't say that I have ─ I haven't used Thunderbird all that
much yet ─ but I have heard about this happening in Thunderbird before,
and that was several years ago already.

So I'm guessing it must be something specific to Thunderbird, perhaps
related to GTK, which is what Thunderbird uses for its widgets, and
perhaps this only occurs in combination with a particular video driver.
Are you using the proprietary nVidia driver perchance?

[bilsch01]

Post by Aragorn
On Wednesday 12 September 2018 03:52, bilsch01 conveyed the following to
alt.os.linux.ubuntu...

Post by bilsch01
After the last time I installed Ubuntu (including Thunderbird) I get
large colored dots or stars on the screen when viewing certain news
groups or emails. I can eliminate these by deleting the offending
message or email. Has anyone else seen this happen? Bill S.

Personally I can't say that I have ─ I haven't used Thunderbird all that
much yet ─ but I have heard about this happening in Thunderbird before,
and that was several years ago already.
So I'm guessing it must be something specific to Thunderbird, perhaps
related to GTK, which is what Thunderbird uses for its widgets, and
perhaps this only occurs in combination with a particular video driver.
Are you using the proprietary nVidia driver perchance?

I don't know. How do I check to see what driver I am using?

[Mark Lloyd]

On 09/12/2018 08:08 AM, bilsch01 wrote:

[snip]

Post by Aragorn
So I'm guessing it must be something specific to Thunderbird, perhaps
related to GTK, which is what Thunderbird uses for its widgets, and
perhaps this only occurs in combination with a particular video driver.
Are you using the proprietary nVidia driver perchance?

I don't know.  How do I check to see what driver I am using?

For me, it was in "Software & Updates" / "Additional Drivers".

[Mark Lloyd]

Post by Aragorn
On Wednesday 12 September 2018 03:52, bilsch01 conveyed the following to
alt.os.linux.ubuntu...

Post by bilsch01
After the last time I installed Ubuntu (including Thunderbird) I get
large colored dots or stars on the screen when viewing certain news
groups or emails. I can eliminate these by deleting the offending
message or email. Has anyone else seen this happen? Bill S.

Personally I can't say that I have ─ I haven't used Thunderbird all that
much yet ─ but I have heard about this happening in Thunderbird before,
and that was several years ago already.
So I'm guessing it must be something specific to Thunderbird, perhaps
related to GTK, which is what Thunderbird uses for its widgets, and
perhaps this only occurs in combination with a particular video driver.
Are you using the proprietary nVidia driver perchance?

I think I was. I have a nVidia card, which at that time was not working
right without it.

[WaltS]

Post by bilsch01
After the last time I installed Ubuntu (including Thunderbird) I get
large colored dots or stars on the screen when viewing certain news
groups or emails.  I can eliminate these by deleting the offending
message or email.  Has anyone else seen this happen?   Bill S.

Do you mean emojis?

Open a terminal.
Type sudo apt-get install fonts-symbola

<https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2390875&p=13770732#post13770732>

[SilverSlimer]

Post by bilsch01
After the last time I installed Ubuntu (including Thunderbird) I get
large colored dots or stars on the screen when viewing certain news
groups or emails. I can eliminate these by deleting the offending
message or email. Has anyone else seen this happen? Bill S.

As far as I know, it has to do with Thunderbird's "feature" to replace
words with emoticons.

[Jonathan N. Little]

Post by SilverSlimer

Post by bilsch01
After the last time I installed Ubuntu (including Thunderbird) I get
large colored dots or stars on the screen when viewing certain news
groups or emails. I can eliminate these by deleting the offending
message or email. Has anyone else seen this happen? Bill S.

As far as I know, it has to do with Thunderbird's "feature" to replace
words with emoticons.

It that is the case Edit > Preferences > Display
Uncheck Display emoticons as graphics

[Mike Easter]

Post by Jonathan N. Little

Post by SilverSlimer

Post by bilsch01
After the last time I installed Ubuntu (including Thunderbird) I get
large colored dots or stars on the screen when viewing certain news
groups or emails. I can eliminate these by deleting the offending
message or email. Has anyone else seen this happen? Bill S.

As far as I know, it has to do with Thunderbird's "feature" to replace
words with emoticons.

It that is the case Edit > Preferences > Display
Uncheck Display emoticons as graphics

And from a security perspective, I recommend that one configure Tb to
not display the html in message bodies.

If there's a menu bar, View/ Message body as/ Plain text - else get to
it from the hamburger icon.

Allowing browser engine rendering activity for anything anyone might put
into an email or news message is a reckless configuration.

[SilverSlimer]

Post by SilverSlimer

Post by bilsch01
After the last time I installed Ubuntu (including Thunderbird) I get
large colored dots or stars on the screen when viewing certain news
groups or emails. I can eliminate these by deleting the offending
message or email. Has anyone else seen this happen? Bill S.

As far as I know, it has to do with Thunderbird's "feature" to replace
words with emoticons.

It that is the case Edit > Preferences > Display Uncheck Display
emoticons as graphics

Yeah, I don't use Mozilla products myself so I couldn't double-check.

Either way, it was an incredibly irritating feature and I have to wonder
what kind of crack the hipsters at Mozilla were smoking to want to
implement it.

[Mike Easter]

Post by SilverSlimer

Post by SilverSlimer

Post by bilsch01
After the last time I installed Ubuntu (including Thunderbird) I get
large colored dots or stars on the screen when viewing certain news
groups or emails. I can eliminate these by deleting the offending
message or email. Has anyone else seen this happen? Bill S.

As far as I know, it has to do with Thunderbird's "feature" to replace
words with emoticons.

It that is the case Edit > Preferences > Display Uncheck Display
emoticons as graphics

Yeah, I don't use Mozilla products myself so I couldn't double-check.
Either way, it was an incredibly irritating feature and I have to wonder
what kind of crack the hipsters at Mozilla were smoking to want to
implement it.

There's several 'features' that Tb considers to be 'enhanced' plain text:

emoticons, making italic, bold, underlined text, and how it handles URLs.

Also, there are the features of format=flowed, which I applaud, and the
'feature' of using vertical lines for levels of quoted material which is
just 'OK' with me.

The Moz development of Tb was burdened with its 'browser-ness' and lack
of strength in the news agent features. For me personally; I use Tb
only as a news agent these days and have no use for its html-ness for
which it pays such a heavy price in terms of bloat and such.

[SilverSlimer]

Post by Mike Easter

Post by SilverSlimer

Post by SilverSlimer

Post by bilsch01
After the last time I installed Ubuntu (including Thunderbird) I get
large colored dots or stars on the screen when viewing certain news
groups or emails. I can eliminate these by deleting the offending
message or email. Has anyone else seen this happen? Bill S.

As far as I know, it has to do with Thunderbird's "feature" to
replace words with emoticons.

It that is the case Edit > Preferences > Display Uncheck Display
emoticons as graphics

Yeah, I don't use Mozilla products myself so I couldn't double-check.
Either way, it was an incredibly irritating feature and I have to
wonder what kind of crack the hipsters at Mozilla were smoking to want
to implement it.

emoticons, making italic, bold, underlined text, and how it handles URLs.
Also, there are the features of format=flowed, which I applaud, and the
'feature' of using vertical lines for levels of quoted material which is
just 'OK' with me.
The Moz development of Tb was burdened with its 'browser-ness' and lack
of strength in the news agent features. For me personally; I use Tb
only as a news agent these days and have no use for its html-ness for
which it pays such a heavy price in terms of bloat and such.

Even though I like Thunderbird, I avoid it simply because I'm not fond of
where things at Mozilla are going. Brendan Eich should never have been
forced out and the company should never have taken a side in the left vs.
right war in the United States. Since they did, I can't support them.

In addition to that, Firefox, despite loading faster than every other
browser on Linux, routinely causes my CPU's temperature to jump up to
60c-80c whereas Brave remains in the 40-50c range. I'm not sure what's
wrong with it, but I'll bet that one of the social justice warriors they
hired got the position because she "punched a fucking Nazi" and not
because she knew how to code.

[Mike Easter]

Post by SilverSlimer
Even though I like Thunderbird, I avoid it simply because I'm not fond of
where things at Mozilla are going. Brendan Eich should never have been
forced out and the company should never have taken a side in the left vs.
right war in the United States. Since they did, I can't support them.
In addition to that, Firefox, despite loading faster than every other
browser on Linux, routinely causes my CPU's temperature to jump up to
60c-80c whereas Brave remains in the 40-50c range. I'm not sure what's
wrong with it, but I'll bet that one of the social justice warriors they
hired got the position because she "punched a fucking Nazi" and not
because she knew how to code.

It is interesting where Brendan Eich and Brave have gone since the
beginning.

2017 Jun:
https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/01/brave-ico-35-million-30-seconds-brendan-eich/
Former Mozilla CEO raises $35M in under 30 seconds for his browser
startup Brave

2018 Jun:
https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/20/blockchain-browser-brave-starts-opt-in-testing-of-on-device-ad-targeting/
Blockchain browser Brave starts opt-in testing of on-device ad targeting

2018 Jun blog:
https://brave.com/brave-launches-user-trials-for-opt-in-ads/ Brave
Launches User Trials for Opt-In Ads That Reward Viewers


Did you volunteer for the Early Access trial? I think it is closed
since June. Naturally the trial would be standing the privacy concept
on its head.

[SilverSlimer]

Post by Mike Easter

Post by SilverSlimer
Even though I like Thunderbird, I avoid it simply because I'm not fond
of where things at Mozilla are going. Brendan Eich should never have
been forced out and the company should never have taken a side in the
left vs.
right war in the United States. Since they did, I can't support them.
In addition to that, Firefox, despite loading faster than every other
browser on Linux, routinely causes my CPU's temperature to jump up to
60c-80c whereas Brave remains in the 40-50c range. I'm not sure what's
wrong with it, but I'll bet that one of the social justice warriors
they hired got the position because she "punched a fucking Nazi" and
not because she knew how to code.

It is interesting where Brendan Eich and Brave have gone since the
beginning.
https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/01/brave-ico-35-million-30-seconds-

brendan-eich/

Post by Mike Easter
Former Mozilla CEO raises $35M in under 30 seconds for his browser
startup Brave
https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/20/blockchain-browser-brave-starts-opt-

in-testing-of-on-device-ad-targeting/

Post by Mike Easter
Blockchain browser Brave starts opt-in testing of on-device ad targeting
https://brave.com/brave-launches-user-trials-for-opt-in-ads/ Brave
Launches User Trials for Opt-In Ads That Reward Viewers
Did you volunteer for the Early Access trial? I think it is closed
since June. Naturally the trial would be standing the privacy concept
on its head.

I beta-tested from the beginning but I have to admit that I sometimes
stopped using the browser because of a show-stopping bug here and there.
In Linux though, it is my default browser and the only one I am willing
to use since Mozilla seems to have forgotten the principles of freedom
and Gnome Web is just... incomplete. Brave works great on Ubuntu at least.

[Bobbie Sellers]

Post by Mike Easter

Post by Mike Easter

Post by SilverSlimer
Even though I like Thunderbird, I avoid it simply because I'm not fond
of where things at Mozilla are going. Brendan Eich should never have
been forced out and the company should never have taken a side in the
left vs.
right war in the United States. Since they did, I can't support them.
In addition to that, Firefox, despite loading faster than every other
browser on Linux, routinely causes my CPU's temperature to jump up to
60c-80c whereas Brave remains in the 40-50c range. I'm not sure what's
wrong with it, but I'll bet that one of the social justice warriors
they hired got the position because she "punched a fucking Nazi" and
not because she knew how to code.

It is interesting where Brendan Eich and Brave have gone since the
beginning.
https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/01/brave-ico-35-million-30-seconds-

brendan-eich/

Post by Mike Easter
Former Mozilla CEO raises $35M in under 30 seconds for his browser
startup Brave
https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/20/blockchain-browser-brave-starts-opt-

in-testing-of-on-device-ad-targeting/

Post by Mike Easter
Blockchain browser Brave starts opt-in testing of on-device ad targeting
https://brave.com/brave-launches-user-trials-for-opt-in-ads/ Brave
Launches User Trials for Opt-In Ads That Reward Viewers
Did you volunteer for the Early Access trial? I think it is closed
since June. Naturally the trial would be standing the privacy concept
on its head.

I beta-tested from the beginning but I have to admit that I sometimes
stopped using the browser because of a show-stopping bug here and there.
In Linux though, it is my default browser and the only one I am willing
to use since Mozilla seems to have forgotten the principles of freedom
and Gnome Web is just... incomplete. Brave works great on Ubuntu at least.

You might try Qupzilla and/or Palemoon.
Both seem to work just fine for my daily browsing.

bliss

[SilverSlimer]

Post by Bobbie Sellers

Post by Mike Easter

Post by Mike Easter

Post by SilverSlimer
Even though I like Thunderbird, I avoid it simply because I'm not
fond of where things at Mozilla are going. Brendan Eich should never
have been forced out and the company should never have taken a side
in the left vs.
right war in the United States. Since they did, I can't support them.
In addition to that, Firefox, despite loading faster than every other
browser on Linux, routinely causes my CPU's temperature to jump up to
60c-80c whereas Brave remains in the 40-50c range. I'm not sure
what's wrong with it, but I'll bet that one of the social justice
warriors they hired got the position because she "punched a fucking
Nazi" and not because she knew how to code.

It is interesting where Brendan Eich and Brave have gone since the
beginning.
https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/01/brave-ico-35-million-30-seconds-

brendan-eich/

Post by Mike Easter
Former Mozilla CEO raises $35M in under 30 seconds for his browser
startup Brave
https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/20/blockchain-browser-brave-starts-opt-

in-testing-of-on-device-ad-targeting/

Post by Mike Easter
Blockchain browser Brave starts opt-in testing of on-device ad targeting
https://brave.com/brave-launches-user-trials-for-opt-in-ads/ Brave
Launches User Trials for Opt-In Ads That Reward Viewers
Did you volunteer for the Early Access trial? I think it is closed
since June. Naturally the trial would be standing the privacy concept
on its head.

I beta-tested from the beginning but I have to admit that I sometimes
stopped using the browser because of a show-stopping bug here and
there. In Linux though, it is my default browser and the only one I am
willing to use since Mozilla seems to have forgotten the principles of
freedom and Gnome Web is just... incomplete. Brave works great on
Ubuntu at least.

You might try Qupzilla and/or Palemoon.
Both seem to work just fine for my daily browsing.

Nah, I'm good with Brave. I occasionally use Firefox only to view
websites which require DRM like dazn.com and Netflix.

[WaltS]

Post by Jonathan N. Little

Post by SilverSlimer

Post by bilsch01
After the last time I installed Ubuntu (including Thunderbird) I get
large colored dots or stars on the screen when viewing certain news
groups or emails. I can eliminate these by deleting the offending
message or email. Has anyone else seen this happen? Bill S.

As far as I know, it has to do with Thunderbird's "feature" to replace
words with emoticons.

It that is the case Edit > Preferences > Display
Uncheck Display emoticons as graphics

That setting is for Plain Text messages.

How does that help with oversize emojis in a message header?

[Paul]

Post by WaltS

Post by Jonathan N. Little

Post by SilverSlimer

Post by bilsch01
After the last time I installed Ubuntu (including Thunderbird) I get
large colored dots or stars on the screen when viewing certain news
groups or emails. I can eliminate these by deleting the offending
message or email. Has anyone else seen this happen? Bill S.

As far as I know, it has to do with Thunderbird's "feature" to replace
words with emoticons.

It that is the case Edit > Preferences > Display
Uncheck Display emoticons as graphics

That setting is for Plain Text messages.
How does that help with oversize emojis in a message header?

If you thought it was EmojiOne, maybe you could rename
the font file so the program cannot find it ?

Paul

[RobH]

Post by Paul

Post by WaltS

Post by Jonathan N. Little

Post by SilverSlimer

Post by bilsch01
After the last time I installed Ubuntu (including Thunderbird) I get
large colored dots or stars on the screen when viewing certain news
groups or emails.  I can eliminate these by deleting the offending
message or email.  Has anyone else seen this happen?   Bill S.

As far as I know, it has to do with Thunderbird's "feature" to replace
words with emoticons.

It that is the case Edit > Preferences > Display
Uncheck Display emoticons as graphics

That setting is for Plain Text messages.
How does that help with oversize emojis in a message header?

If you thought it was EmojiOne, maybe you could rename
the font file so the program cannot find it ?
   Paul

I have renamed bot files in the Noto folder with a .bak extension, but
they are still showing in the subject pane

[Paul]

Post by RobH

Post by Paul

Post by WaltS

Post by Jonathan N. Little

Post by SilverSlimer

Post by bilsch01
After the last time I installed Ubuntu (including Thunderbird) I get
large colored dots or stars on the screen when viewing certain news
groups or emails. I can eliminate these by deleting the offending
message or email. Has anyone else seen this happen? Bill S.

As far as I know, it has to do with Thunderbird's "feature" to replace
words with emoticons.

It that is the case Edit > Preferences > Display
Uncheck Display emoticons as graphics

That setting is for Plain Text messages.
How does that help with oversize emojis in a message header?

If you thought it was EmojiOne, maybe you could rename
the font file so the program cannot find it ?
Paul

I have renamed bot files in the Noto folder with a .bak extension, but
they are still showing in the subject pane

Yeah, I finally figured out you have to move the file (NotoColorEmoji.ttf)
out of its folder. Adding .bak to the end won't do anything.

https://s15.postimg.cc/d7fmpk03f/notocolor_font_moved_out_of_this_folder.gif

Paul

[RobH]

Post by Paul

Post by RobH

Post by Paul

Post by WaltS

Post by Jonathan N. Little

Post by SilverSlimer

Post by bilsch01
After the last time I installed Ubuntu (including Thunderbird) I get
large colored dots or stars on the screen when viewing certain news
groups or emails.  I can eliminate these by deleting the offending
message or email.  Has anyone else seen this happen?   Bill S.

As far as I know, it has to do with Thunderbird's "feature" to replace
words with emoticons.

It that is the case Edit > Preferences > Display
Uncheck Display emoticons as graphics

That setting is for Plain Text messages.
How does that help with oversize emojis in a message header?

If you thought it was EmojiOne, maybe you could rename
the font file so the program cannot find it ?
    Paul

I have renamed bot files in the Noto folder with a .bak extension, but
they are still showing in the subject pane

Yeah, I finally figured out you have to move the file (NotoColorEmoji.ttf)
out of its folder. Adding .bak to the end won't do anything.
https://s15.postimg.cc/d7fmpk03f/notocolor_font_moved_out_of_this_folder.gif
   Paul

Sorted now, thanks.

[Jonathan N. Little]

Post by RobH

Post by Paul
Yeah, I finally figured out you have to move the file
(NotoColorEmoji.ttf)
out of its folder. Adding .bak to the end won't do anything.
https://s15.postimg.cc/d7fmpk03f/notocolor_font_moved_out_of_this_folder.gif
    Paul

Sorted now, thanks.

Removing the NotoColorEmoji.ttf does "fix" the oversized emojis however
replaces with "broken unicode character symbol".

I fix that does work, just tested with a fresh VM install of 18.04 since
I am still on 16.04, is to install

sudo apt install fonts-symbola

You get a properly sized B&W emojis so you can recognize what your
emoji-crazed friends are indicating in their subject lines...

[RobH]

Post by Jonathan N. Little

Post by RobH

Post by Paul
Yeah, I finally figured out you have to move the file
(NotoColorEmoji.ttf)
out of its folder. Adding .bak to the end won't do anything.
https://s15.postimg.cc/d7fmpk03f/notocolor_font_moved_out_of_this_folder.gif
    Paul

Sorted now, thanks.

Removing the NotoColorEmoji.ttf does "fix" the oversized emojis however
replaces with "broken unicode character symbol".
I fix that does work, just tested with a fresh VM install of 18.04 since
I am still on 16.04, is to install
sudo apt install fonts-symbola
You get a properly sized B&W emojis so you can recognize what your
emoji-crazed friends are indicating in their subject lines...

Thanks but I'd prefer not to have any graphics of any kind in the
subject page

[Mike Easter]

Post by Jonathan N. Little
You get a properly sized B&W emojis so you can recognize what your
emoji-crazed friends are indicating in their subject lines...

... which plaintext vs emoji-ized reminds me of the plaintext vs
html-ized correspondence.

My default mode is plaintext (first and only). I would only view the
rendered html 'if I felt there was some need to.' Depending on 'what
kind of stuff' I was dealing with, friend vs spam, sometimes that mean
viewing/inspecting the html source before even /considering/ rendering it.

I guess that comes from my old
spam-handling-dissecting-reporting-discussing days.

[WaltS]

Post by Jonathan N. Little

Post by RobH

Post by Paul
Yeah, I finally figured out you have to move the file
(NotoColorEmoji.ttf)
out of its folder. Adding .bak to the end won't do anything.
https://s15.postimg.cc/d7fmpk03f/notocolor_font_moved_out_of_this_folder.gif
    Paul

Sorted now, thanks.

Removing the NotoColorEmoji.ttf does "fix" the oversized emojis however
replaces with "broken unicode character symbol".
I fix that does work, just tested with a fresh VM install of 18.04 since
I am still on 16.04, is to install
sudo apt install fonts-symbola
You get a properly sized B&W emojis so you can recognize what your
emoji-crazed friends are indicating in their subject lines...

As I suggested in my post on 9/12 10:30 AM

[Jonathan N. Little]

Post by WaltS
As I suggested in my post on 9/12 10:30 AM

Yes I noticed. It seemed to have gotten lost in the chatter.