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View Full Version : Happy 25th birthday Digital Smiley Face


Bluedawg
09-19-2007, 12:52 AM
It was a serious contribution to the electronic lexicon. :-) Twenty-five years ago, Carnegie Mellon University professor Scott E. Fahlman says, he was the first to use three keystrokes - a colon followed by a hyphen and a parenthesis - as a horizontal "smiley face" in a computer message.

Digital 'Smiley Face' Turns 25 (http://home.bellsouth.net/s/editorial.dll?bfromind=7820&eeid=5415787&_sitecat=214&dcatid=0&eetype=article&render=y&ac=1&ck=&ch=ne)

Happy Birthday!

:-)
YmoBeThere
09-19-2007, 07:14 AM
This got mentioned on several major news outlets...must have been a very slow news day.
colchar
09-19-2007, 11:26 AM
Happy Birthday!

:-)

So he's the one to blame for emoticons?!?
DevilAlumna
09-19-2007, 01:13 PM
What's sad is that I'm so used to typing colon-rightparenthesis that if I'm (gasp) actually handwriting a note, I make a horizontal smiley like that as well. Amazing how pervasive it's become in such a short time.
billybreen
09-19-2007, 01:35 PM
What's sad is that I'm so used to typing colon-rightparenthesis that if I'm (gasp) actually handwriting a note, I make a horizontal smiley like that as well. Amazing how pervasive it's become in such a short time.

What the heck is handwriting? ;)
hc5duke
09-19-2007, 01:36 PM
What the heck is handwriting? ;)

You use your feet on your iPhone? That's gross...:D
billybreen
09-19-2007, 01:51 PM
You use your feet on your iPhone? That's gross...:D

Well, unlike some inferior devices, the iPhone doesn't involve a stylus or anything that could remotely be called 'writing.' It's all typing.
hc5duke
09-19-2007, 02:28 PM
Well, unlike some inferior devices, the iPhone doesn't involve a stylus or anything that could remotely be called 'writing.' It's all typing.

Good point, my much superior Treo actually has a tactile keyboard as well :)
billybreen
09-19-2007, 02:31 PM
Good point, my much superior Treo actually has a tactile keyboard as well :)

2001 called. It wants its phone back.
hc5duke
09-19-2007, 02:41 PM
2001 called. It wants its phone back.

Wait, which phone supports MMS, video (recording), and EVDO?
billybreen
09-19-2007, 02:56 PM
Wait, which phone supports MMS, video (recording), and EVDO?

Bah. Features. My phone is teh shiny!
DevilAlumna
09-19-2007, 03:42 PM
Bah. Features. My phone is teh shiny!

Until you use it for 30 seconds....
Indoor66
09-19-2007, 03:58 PM
2001 called. It wants its phone back.

Absolutly brutal! I love it. LOL
billybreen
09-19-2007, 04:15 PM
Until you use it for 30 seconds....

Oh please. Haven't you seen testimonials from several happy iPhone users on this board? It is shiny, but it also just works.

Yes, it wasn't the first phone to do most of what it does, and it doesn't have some features that others have. But it's easy, slick, and has the features most of us care about in a package and interface vastly more usable than anything else I've seen.

Same reason the iPod won.
colchar
09-19-2007, 04:20 PM
Same reason the iPod won.

By that I take it you mean a superior marketing department/campaign?
hc5duke
09-19-2007, 04:31 PM
By that I take it you mean a superior marketing department/campaign?

That's really all it takes in the cell phone industry. The RAZR is one of the crappiest phones out there (Motorolas suck in general IMHO) and has been for a while, yet people just got it because of the cool commercials and because that's what was considered hip.

Having said that, I will give you that the iPhone did live up to a lot of the hype and expectations... for someone with FFS (fat finger syndrome) like myself, non-tactile kbd is the worst thing in the world (where's my typing wand, Steve Jobs?)
DevilAlumna
09-19-2007, 04:36 PM
Oh please. Haven't you seen testimonials from several happy iPhone users on this board? It is shiny, but it also just works.


Oh, I was just referring to the fact that it picks up fingerprints like a freshly polished mirror.

I've not yet met a person who was showing it off who didn't have to wipe it down before passing it along to the next person.
billybreen
09-19-2007, 04:46 PM
Oh, I was just referring to the fact that it picks up fingerprints like a freshly polished mirror.

I've not yet met a person who was showing it off who didn't have to wipe it down before passing it along to the next person.

Oh. I guess compared to the fingerprint magnet that is the PSP, I don't notice it as much with the iPhone. At least with the iPhone you _can_ wipe it clear. The PSP laughs at everything short of an acid bath.
captmojo
09-19-2007, 09:02 PM
Darn it. I finally burned a hole clear through my smoke signal blanket.