25 years of emoticons

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/09/18/emoticon.anniversary.ap/index.html
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.

To mark the anniversary Wednesday, Fahlman and his colleagues are starting an annual student contest for innovation in technology-assisted, person-to-person communication. The Smiley Award, sponsored by Yahoo Inc., carries a $500 cash prize.
Little did Fahlman know emoticons would ultimately breed a culture of brevity and text-messaging babies. :ganishka:

Anyway, I figured I should give this guy some respect, since without him, we'd probably never have the above row of disembodied heads from Berserk blinking, winking, laughing, biting, crying, licking, kissing, smoking, bringing-it-on, etc. at us.

I think me and Griff pioneered a new form of communication through image/sound combinations with AIM's DirectConnect feature... but unfortunately, I think only a few people get the humor in it. :-)
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Well, here's to the man!
beer.gif
 
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