Rudi

FlyerTalk is the only board 'I hang out'.

doc

"way before email got invented!"

OMNI- Ozstamps/Glen, as you may choose!

Actually, just a very minor point, but to clarify this Email vs Sheraton Gold issue - the over 40+ computer literate crowd will recall that Email has actually been around for quite a while (1977 or 1978 perhaps?) and notably predates Sheraton Gold!

It has been popularized the last 10, and especially, the last 5 years!

Unless, of course, I'm mistaken!

ffhound

cheers Peter

[This message has been edited by ffhound (edited 08-09-2000).]

ozstamps

Doc .. you are the whizz on stories and links .. I am surprised e-mail has existed for 23 years!

So, I correct that, as I have only been a Sheraton Gold member for half that time or so.

Love someone to dig up a link to some geek site that documents the first e-mial.

Make a great Trivial Pursuit question!

PG

Starwood also contacted me - but with my handle PG and not my name. I tend to be a little less paranoid about these things, and would have been ok if I was contacted by my real name.

Tim_T

I guess my first name is pretty clear, and by checking my email address, the rest is easy to find It would not be difficult for someone to find out my membership (and levels) in programs either.

I don't use my company email address for two reasons a) I want to keep personel email separate, b) We're not allowed

I would never publish anything on this board that was illegal, or would support anyone else doing so. Its a public board, and there is no knowing who might be looking. I think its great that hotels and airlines are monitoring, and reply via personel email to specific problems.

However, I agree with Catman, its very very important that theses sources / angels are not abused. They are a valuable resource that could be lost in a click of a ill informed mouse.

Tim

ozstamps

Hey, Doc is not the only one who can dig out links!

History of e-mail:

http://www.pretext.com/mar98/features/story2.htm


Interesting stuff, and the guy who "invented" it is still working for wages for GTE, so seems like he did not make a buck out of the concept, nor anyone else it appears!

doc

You could Ask Jeeves and maybe win a trip to Maui!
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum...ML/001072.html

ozstamps

"Recently, Tomlinson answered a few questions about his role as the inventor of e-mail. The interviews were conducted, appropriately enough, through e-mail.

Asked what inspired his invention, his response comes back as undramatic as the event itself: "Mostly because it seemed like a neat idea," he writes. "There was no directive to 'go forth and invent e-mail".

dg1

Of course, assuming someone's first name can go wrong too.. A lot of people make assumptions about my name based on my email address. As a few people on this board know, that is NOT my name... So don't make assumptions either way.

Comicwoman

And Nathan Detroit is not from Detroit, nor is his name Nathan.

freeflyer

I never use my real name when posting on the Internet. You'd be surprised what kind of profile can be created of someone when searching through their past posts, especially when compiling several years worth of information. I learned my lesson a few years ago when I used my real name when posting to Usenet. Now, all those controversial and even embarrassing posts are still there for everyone to see simply by doing a bit of searching.

Think about all the personal information people post about themselves here on Flyertalk. Not a whole lot in each individual post, but when taken together one could put together a very good dossier of an individual's jobs, place of residence, hobbies, interests etc. at a given point in time. And now realize that all this information is available to anyone willing to do a search, even several years from now.

Call me paranoid, but I value my privacy!

Still remaining,

freeflyer

ozstamps

Freeflyer .. I think you have a good point.

Problem is, a few minutes after your post, and using your [email protected] and New Brunswick address, you both readily post here, and using on-line Canada search I have your address, home phone and email!

5 minutes more and your traffic convictions (if any), licence fees paid, etc, etc, are all there for the asking.

So does anyone else with 2 minutes to look.

Try it yourself!

Efrem

Actually, e-mail goes back to well before Tomlinson. The Multics system, developed at MIT in the mid-60s, commercialized by GE and taken over by Honeywell when they bought GE's computer operations in 1970, had a well-developed e-mail system. What the Internet and Tomlinson did was to extend the concept to multiple computers connected via the Net, using a protocol that identified the computer someone was on and that different kinds of computers could understand. This, of course, made it incredibly more useful than the more limited Multics capability was, but to call it "inventing e-mail" is stretching a point beyond plausibility. It's kind of like saying that airplanes didn't exist until they could carry passengers on scheduled routes.

On the other topic of this thread, this is my real first name.

freeflyer

Thanks for the email, Glen/ozstamps, and nice try! But while I'm currently here in New Brunswick, I'm actually a resident of another province. And there is no phone line listed in my name.

No, I'm not a drug dealer or underworld figure, I just don't like having lots of personal information about me available to whoever wants to pry.

Best,

freeflyer