Raymond Tomlinson , inventor of the modern email and who selected the “@” symbol, died Sunday, Raytheon Co. confirmed the company for which he worked, without revealing further details. He was 74.
Before Tomlinson, emails existed with limited capabilities with which messages could be shared between several people within a limited structure. But until the invention of 1971 the first email network between two people, there was no way to send something to a particular person and a particular direction.
The first e-mail message was sent in the ARPANET system, a computer network created for the US government which is considered as a precursor of the Internet and whose development also contributed Tomlinson.
At that time, few people had personal computers. The popularity of personal email cashed boom years later, when he became an integral part of modern life
“It was not an assignment, I was just hanging out, looking for something to do with ARPANET.” He said Raytheon spokeswoman, Joyce Kuzman, on creation of email networks.
ever Tomlinson said in an interview that created the corporate email “mainly because it seemed a good idea.” The first email was sent between two machines were placed next to each other, he said in the interview.
He explained that the text of the message was “something that anyone had forgotten, and therefore , I already forgot it”. But when he was satisfied with the program seemed to work, he announced through his recent invention, by sending a message to his coworkers to explain how to use it.
Tomlinson chose the “@” symbol to connect the user name with the destination address, and it became a cultural icon.
Why this symbol? Tomlinson noted the keyboard and needed something that was not part of the address, and it seemed a logical solution, said Kuzman.
“It’s a symbol that might have disappeared if not for e-mail” he said.
the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York added the symbol to its collection in 2010, credit Tomlinson.
Tomlinson had with titles electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Tomlinson was inducted into the Hall of Fame Internet and received several awards, but was always described as a humble and modest person.
jram
No comments:
Post a Comment