Spam@Wherever

[dales]

A computing legend has died. The inventor of email, Ray Tomlinson, suffered an apparent heart attack on Saturday, according to reports. He was 74 years old.

Tomlinson sent the very first email back in 1971; at the time, he was working in Boston at Bolt, Beranek, and Newman (BBN), a company that was instrumental in the development of a very early version of the internet, called ARPANET. As an employee, he was "looking for problems [ARPANET] could solve," Tomlinson told The Verge in a 2012 interview.

"It's the only preposition on the keyboard"

Others had thought about sending messages to other users before, and there were some early versions that let you share notes to users on the same computer, but Tomlinson came up with the SNDMSG command. Unlike what came before it, SNDMSG actually sent mail files to the recipient's computers. It was the first networked messaging program.

He also decided to use the @ symbol to designate a user from its host. The decision lifted the humble symbol from obscurity to international icon — it even entered MOMA's collection in 2010. The fact it was little-used at the time made it appealing to Tomlinson, as it reduced ambiguity. Also, as he liked to say, "It's the only preposition on the keyboard."

Unfortunately for us, the very first email has been lost to time. As he said in an NPR interview from 2009, they were just random strings of text. "The first e-mail is completely forgettable ... and, therefore, forgotten." Thanks to his invention, Tomlinson won't be.

[oldr_n_wsr]

RIP
and thanks. Next to the answering machine, email is a close second in my book of great technology.

[Long Run]

RIP
and thanks. Next to the answering machine, email is a close second in my book of great technology.

Yes, what we do without all the ads and useless banter that fills up 80-90% of our inbox each day, and then the resulting question of what to do with the remains of the day. Email is necessary and (outside of all the crap it brings into our lives) has been a great productivity driver, but are there any really good email programs? Outlook is adequate but filing is a chore, and I know people who like gmail but they are, of course, mistaken and their opinions not to be trusted. With each iteration, Yahoo and the other "free" emails get worse and slower.

[BoSoxGal]

It's an amazing technology, very cool and certainly useful, but lately I have been really, really missing life before email and internet.

RIP just the same, Mr. Email.

[kmccune]

Did Al Gore help him develop E-Mail ? Are there any programs better then Mozillia ? Outlook used to work for me ,now it doesnt .

[oldr_n_wsr]

I was always fond of Eudora but I don't think it exists anymore.

Email is good because I can answer when I want to, IF I want to.
My work email is very good at keeping spam out and I have found yahoo doesn't suck but one has to label stuff as spam and then it gets blocked.
I don't get much spam anyway.

[kmccune]

Thanks ,havent heard of Eudora for awhile either .