Date: Fri 19-Dec-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: CURT

Quick Words:

iinfo-@-e-mail

Full Text:

STD HD:Internet Info for Real People: @

By Bob Brand

Some things we just take for granted. For example, right above the Number 2 on

the keyboard is found the @ symbol. Anyone who sends e-mail knows that @

separates the user ID from the destination address when we send a message. We

essentially say so-and-so receives e-mail AT [computer].

The Internet has its roots in the APRAnet (Advanced Projects Research Agency)

in the late 1950s. The details of the genesis of the Internet are described in

detail in Where Wizards Say Up Late. E-mail was one of the early applications

on the Net. The use of the @ symbol is attributed to Ray Tomlinson, an

engineer at Bolt Beranek and Newman (BBN), sometime during the summer of 1972.

This piece of trivia may get lost in history along with so many other names

like Thomas Crapper who is credited with the invention of the modern flush

toilet.

E-mail is Special

Have you noticed, when you send personal e-mail, you almost always get a

reply? It is almost like the telephone. When the phone rings, no matter what

you are doing, there is an urgency to respond. If you get a letter in the

mail, you probably do not feel the same compulsion to sit right down, grab

paper and pen and reply to the writer. In fact, you have some difficulty in

finding the stationery, writing tools and a stamp needed for a quick response.

The convenience of e-mail allows for a rapid reply. It has brought about a

fundamental change in the way many of us now communicate. Maybe we can thank

Ray Tomlinson for this.

When there is a disruption in e-mail delivery, I become annoyed. Who wrote me?

What did I miss? E-mail has become a daily routine. I now find myself checking

my mail four or five times a day, maybe more. I am part of the truly addicted.

I guess what I like most about e-mail is its informal nature. You can

communicate with total strangers yet establish a bond quickly. E-mail gets to

the point. It usually contains little in the way of idle chit-chat. You ask a

question or make a point and that's it. In almost all cases, e-mail messages

are less than one page long -- concentrated thoughts distilled for

transmitting or receiving information. Neat. There are few other methods of

communication that can rival its brevity.

Looking Good in C-Space

When we write e-mail, we expose pieces of our personality. Because the

messages tend to be one-dimensional, peppering the correspondence with a few

emoticons (symbols such as a smilie that express an emotion) personalizes a

message. I have taken for granted that messages are spelled correctly. When I

reply to an e-message, I include chunks of the sender's ideas and respond to

individual points made or questions asked. As a final step, I submit the

entire message to a spell checker. I find my misspelled words along with those

of the sender. Should I correct or skip ALL errors? I guess the proper thing

is to let them pass, but I often find myself correcting the sender's original

words.

Somehow we think that our words just melt away in cyberspace once the person

receives our message. This could be wishful thinking. Keep in mind that copies

of messages that travel across cyberspace can be trapped at each computer it

visits along the way to its destination. If you want truly secure messages,

they must be encrypted so that only the person receiving the message can read

it. With Phil Zimmermann's Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) software, this can be

done easily. Note: Zimmermann sold the company recently. This puts the future

of free PGP in some doubt. E-mail has become so convenient and widespread that

it is easy to take the privacy issue for granted. In the corporate world, all

e-mail (including private messages) belongs to the company.

We now take e-mail as a given part of communication like the telephone or the

postal service. With e-mail, we have come a long way in our ability to reach

out and "touch" someone.

URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) of interest:

http://www.piperinfo.com/pl02/etrick.html

http://www.tiac.net/users/jloose/crapper.htm

http://www.toiletology.com/history.htm

(This is the 82nd a series of elementary articles designed for surfing the

Internet. Next, "The Dummies Books" is the subject on tap. Stay tuned. Until

next week, happy travels through cyberspace.

Previous issues of Internet Info for Real People (including links to sites

mentioned in this article) can be found: http://www.thebee.com. Please e-mail

comments and suggestions to: rbrand@JUNO.com or editor@thebee.com.)