One great contribution to science and comedy
|
January 18, 2002
A LOT of things have happened since Ray Tomlinson sent a test message to himself in 1971. "QWERTYIOP", the first e-mail message, was sent by Tomlinson to himself from one computer to another via Apranet, a computer network that was the precursor to the Internet.
Now, three decades later, Mother Earth has become much smaller--thanks to Tomlinson and company, including that software architect named Bill Gates.
Thanks to Tomlinson and company, I can write stories almost anywhere and send them to my editors in Manila in just a matter of seconds. Someday, I see myself working in shorts--writing, editing and designing newspaper pages in the comfort of my own house, that is--and sending the goods to the newsroom before the deadline via the Internet.
With Yahoo and company, I need not worry about communicating with my wife everyday while I'm in Sydney and Canberra a few weeks from now. Why should I place expensive long-distance calls when all I have to do is look for a PC with an Internet connection? We can simply send e-mails to each other on a daily basis. And with mics and webcams, we can even voice chat and see each other live. Cool.
Editors Ruel and Nelson who will put the opinion pages to bed while I'm gone are worried about what fillers to use in place of my column. "Why should you worry?" I asked them. "These days, technology allows journalists to beat the deadline wherever they are."
Believe me when I tell you that without the e-mail, I would be less productive as a newsman and I would be losing approximately half my income. And so would the thousands of e-mail-dependent journalists around the third planet from the sun.
Because of e-mail, my playmate and closest cousin Joel and I have managed to locate each other after many years (Joel now lives in Canada). We now send e-mails and pictures to each other often and, if time allows, occasionally chat by way of Yahoo.
But despite its many benefits, the e-mail is subject to misuse and abuse. I for one get a lot of unsolicited e-mails from people and groups I do not even know. And most often, these e-mails are designed to rip people off.
"Congratulations, Herbie! You won!" reads the subject of one e-mail I got.
Normally, I never open messages like this for the simple reason that I'm not into online gambling or lottery and the like. So if I'm not into those kind of things, common sense tells me that I can never win. After years of deleting e-mails like this at first glance, I decided to open one similar incoming message just for the heck of it. Just as I had suspected, it was nothing but a catch, and no more than a hoax. Just imagine if one opens all these incoming messages. It'll be a waste of precious time.
If one isn't careful, he/she may just come across an e-mail with an attachment carrying a computer virus. (Once, a bug managed its way into my PC, leaving nothing but empty directories!)
I also do get a lot of gossips and black propaganda in my mailbox. Many of them come from Cagayanons and Misamisnons who evidently have an ax to grind against some local officials. There are however e-mails that raise legitimate issues and concerns but there are plenty of messages that end up in the 13th File simply because they are downright far-out, lies, obvious hatchet jobs if not, not worth printing at all because they don't make any sense.
Believe me when I tell you that the No. 1 target of the hate e-mails I get is Mayor Dongkoy Emano. From where I sit, the mayor is the most hated Cagayanon, este Tagoloanon, on the Internet today.
The mayor need not worry though. Many of his masa voters in Cagayan de Oro aren't into computers. Besides, many of the hate e-mails I have been getting come from Cagayanons and Misamisnons in the US. (Thanks to the Internet, they are getting local news updates daily through Gold Star and other papers that maintain websites.)
Please don't ask me to print any of the libelous I-hate-Dongkoy-Emano e-mails because I won't.
With all its disadvantages and imperfections, the e-mail--and the Internet for that matter--has made this world smaller, so small that even a Lebanese named Ghassan is enjoying the funny picture of Mayor Emano.
We should be grateful to computer engineer Ray Tomlinson, Bill Gates and company for their contribution to science which is nearly as remarkable as their contribution to the world of comedy.
Pastilan.
| Webweaving by Zerobull |