Computer archaeology, invention of smiley

By Geoff Richards, 2002 Sep 15 at 22:00

The first known message to use ‘:-)’.

Mike Jones at Microsoft has managed to dig up the original bulletin board post by Scott Fahlman where :-) was first used as an emoticon to indicate humour:

19-Sep-82 11:44    Scott E  Fahlman             :-)
From: Scott E  Fahlman <Fahlman at Cmu-20c>

I propose that the following character sequence for joke markers:

:-)

Read it sideways.  Actually, it is probably more economical to mark
things that are NOT jokes, given current trends.  For this, use

:-(

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(nuggets of inanity)

Tuesday Apr 24th 2007, 16:54 »
Just took the annual web design survey that AListApart do. I don't realy consider myself to be a web designer, but I have been doing a lot of HTML and CSS lately.
Monday Apr 23rd 2007, 18:23 »
Strange, there appears to be a bare-knuckle boxing match going on in the field outside my flat. Wish they wouldn't make so much noise about it.
Thursday Mar 1st 2007, 18:47 »
“In its written form, Hebrew has no vowels, making it the ideal language for texting.”
—Said in jest on some Radio 4 programme just now.

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