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Email Inventor Ray Tomlinson Dies At 74 (techrepublic.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the rest-in-peace dept.

vikingpower writes: ARPAnet pioneer and networking legend Ray Tomlinson, who is best known for his contributions in developing email standards, has died at 74. Tomlinson was best known for choosing the @ symbol to indicate a message should be sent to a different computer on a network. He also led development of standards for the from, subject, and date fields found in every email message sent today. When Tomlinson first showed his invention to his colleague Jerry Burchfiel, Tomlinson said, "Don't tell anyone! This isn't what we're supposed to be working on." May Ray rest in peace in /dev/null.

4 of 58 comments (clear)

  1. Re:@ symbol... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I would have put the apostrophe key on a 35 foot extension, since most people seem unable to grasp that it's means it is.

  2. Thankfully by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Thankfully the real inventor of modern email is getting due credit, rather than charlatans like VA Shiva Ayyadurai.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  3. Re:@ symbol... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Only thing I wish he had done - make the thing case SENSITIVE. Like Foo@Bar.com would have been different from foo@bar.com or FOO@BAR.COM.

    Which would have lead to endless confusion, leaks due to case bugs, and phishing attacks. Thank goodness he took the smart option.

  4. telnet Ray Tomlinson 25 by fhage · · Score: 4, Funny

    HELO

    MAIL FROM: 80sgeek@early.inter.net

    RCPT TO: raytomlinson@cloud.hev

    DATA

    Subject: Thanks.

    Ray,

    Thanks for all your work on this new tech. I've found it especially useful and it has given me great joy at times.

    One of the best times is when I emailed the school staff list "from the District Superintendent", clarifying the dress code for staff on "Casual Fridays".

    I started with a few stolen lines from a real memo. I included some choice text from the district's student dress code for maximum troll effect and ended with a school colors clown nose requirement.

    I actually got to hear one of the office staff say: "I didn't know the district had a casual Friday!". Everyone laughed, and I did not go to jail. The district IT staff got the message and updated their SMTP server to use authentication.

    -A grateful user.