[math-fun] Herstory of email?!?
Henry> There's a real howler going on on Huffingtonpost.com about the history of email. An MIT professor (!) named Deborah Nightingale claims that email was invented in 1978. Perhaps she hasn't talked with anyone at MIT/Stanford/CMU/BBN/Xerox/IBM/DEC/BellLabs/... about this? The Boy Who Invented Email -- History of Email http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larry-weber/the-history-of-email-boy-who-inven... <HGB Just adding my fuzzy memories to the confusion. The MIT AI Lab Incompatible Timesharing System had an instant messaging command. E.g. to talk to Tom Knight, :SEND TK mumble mumble <ctrl something, probably z> . But if he wasn't logged in, as soon as you typed TK, ITS would insert "(MAIL)". ("Oh cr@p, he just logged out on me.") I.e., mail was mostly considered just a poor substitute for chatting. I came West in '74. I'm pretty sure this was in place well before. The Stanford AI Lab independently developed a mail system, and many of its old timers think they were the pioneers. "Electronic Mail" started gaining attention in the 80s. The Postal Service, wanting to get in on the action, held a big conference someplace. But they thought "electronic mail" meant faxing. --rwg
My favorite is "missle mail": https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/missile-mail.pdf Sent from my iPhone
On Sep 4, 2014, at 9:01, Bill Gosper <billgosper@gmail.com> wrote:
Henry>
There's a real howler going on on Huffingtonpost.com about the history of email.
An MIT professor (!) named Deborah Nightingale claims that email was invented in 1978.
Perhaps she hasn't talked with anyone at MIT/Stanford/CMU/BBN/Xerox/IBM/DEC/BellLabs/... about this?
The Boy Who Invented Email -- History of Email http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larry-weber/the-history-of-email-boy-who-inven...
<HGB
Just adding my fuzzy memories to the confusion. The MIT AI Lab Incompatible Timesharing System had an instant messaging command. E.g. to talk to Tom Knight, :SEND TK
mumble mumble <ctrl something, probably z> .
But if he wasn't logged in, as soon as you typed TK, ITS would insert "(MAIL)". ("Oh cr@p,
he just logged out on me.") I.e., mail was mostly considered just a poor substitute for chatting. I came West in '74. I'm pretty sure this was in place well before.
The Stanford AI Lab independently developed a mail system, and many of its old timers think
they were the pioneers.
"Electronic Mail" started gaining attention in the 80s. The Postal Service, wanting to
get in on the action, held a big conference someplace. But they thought "electronic mail"
meant faxing.
--rwg _______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
Hello, that's interesting, !, but perhaps the price of the stamp is a bit high ? But seriously, one thing has not changed since the first emails : how to send math by mail ? I still use a fixed font and so far it survived html5 and other mixed languages. Best regards, Simon Plouffe 2014-09-04 15:50 GMT+02:00 Victor S. Miller <victorsmiller@gmail.com>:
My favorite is "missle mail": https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/missile-mail.pdf
Sent from my iPhone
On Sep 4, 2014, at 9:01, Bill Gosper <billgosper@gmail.com> wrote:
Henry>
There's a real howler going on on Huffingtonpost.com about the history of email.
An MIT professor (!) named Deborah Nightingale claims that email was invented in 1978.
Perhaps she hasn't talked with anyone at MIT/Stanford/CMU/BBN/Xerox/IBM/DEC/BellLabs/... about this?
The Boy Who Invented Email -- History of Email
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larry-weber/the-history-of-email-boy-who-inven...
<HGB
Just adding my fuzzy memories to the confusion. The MIT AI Lab Incompatible Timesharing System had an instant messaging command. E.g. to talk to Tom Knight,
:SEND TK
mumble mumble <ctrl something, probably z> .
But if he wasn't logged in, as soon as you typed TK, ITS would insert "(MAIL)". ("Oh cr@p,
he just logged out on me.") I.e., mail was mostly considered just a poor substitute for chatting. I came West in '74. I'm pretty sure this was in place well
before.
The Stanford AI Lab independently developed a mail system, and many of its old timers think
they were the pioneers.
"Electronic Mail" started gaining attention in the 80s. The Postal Service, wanting to
get in on the action, held a big conference someplace. But they thought "electronic mail"
meant faxing.
--rwg _______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
_______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
Re "missile mail": I have argued for perhaps 20 years that Fedex/UPS/USMail should utilize "JDAM"-style "smart bomb" (aka "smart tailfin") technology to deliver their packages to people's roofs/backyards. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Direct_Attack_Munition JDAM basically adds "smartness" to a WWII-style "dumb bomb" to enable it to find its target. Smartness could include GPS, radar, computer vision terminal guidance, etc. With today's nearly throw-away GPS chips & CPU's, one could attach cardboard computer-controlled fins to a standard Fedex cardboard package and automatically guide it to its destination. The "smartness" could be built for < $100, and could easily be recycled by dropping it into any Fedex box. While these packages may land at 15-20mph, the packaging could easily protect the contents; e.g., there's already a YouTube video of a Fedex or UPS guy throwing a package over someone's wall. For example, almost every engineering school has an "egg-drop" contest, to find an easy, cheap way to protect an egg from breaking from a 40' or so drop. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg_drop_competition So safely landing such a package isn't really a problem. Thus, instead of having thousands of Fedex/UPS/USMail trucks clogging the streets, you take a Fedex plane up to 40,000' and simply dump the entire cargo out the back C-130-style. Each Fedex package then flies itself to its destination using its origami JDAM fins. ("When it Absolutely, Positively has to be there overnight".) To keep from interfering with normal air traffic, these drops should be done only in short time windows -- perhaps once in the morning, once in the afternoon. Yes, I have mentioned this idea to my robotics friends at Google. (No response so far.) At 06:50 AM 9/4/2014, Victor S. Miller wrote:
My favorite is "missle mail": https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/missile-mail.pdf
Sent from my iPhone
On Sep 4, 2014, at 9:01, Bill Gosper <billgosper@gmail.com> wrote:
Henry>
There's a real howler going on on Huffingtonpost.com about the history of email.
An MIT professor (!) named Deborah Nightingale claims that email was invented in 1978.
Perhaps she hasn't talked with anyone at MIT/Stanford/CMU/BBN/Xerox/IBM/DEC/BellLabs/... about this?
The Boy Who Invented Email -- History of Email http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larry-weber/the-history-of-email-boy-who-inven...
<HGB
Just adding my fuzzy memories to the confusion. The MIT AI Lab Incompatible Timesharing System had an instant messaging command. E.g. to talk to Tom Knight, :SEND TK
mumble mumble <ctrl something, probably z> .
But if he wasn't logged in, as soon as you typed TK, ITS would insert "(MAIL)". ("Oh cr@p,
he just logged out on me.") I.e., mail was mostly considered just a poor substitute for chatting. I came West in '74. I'm pretty sure this was in place well before.
The Stanford AI Lab independently developed a mail system, and many of its old timers think
they were the pioneers.
"Electronic Mail" started gaining attention in the 80s. The Postal Service, wanting to
get in on the action, held a big conference someplace. But they thought "electronic mail"
meant faxing.
--rwg
participants (4)
-
Bill Gosper -
Henry Baker -
Simon Plouffe -
Victor S. Miller