Smileys: 30 years

On Wednesday, it will have been 30 years since the birth of the smiley emoticons. You probably don't know who invented them.




Well, here is the original e-mail from its creator:

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

:-(

Note that the format of the e-mail address is a bit obsolete today.

Unfortunately, computer scientist Dr Fahlman forgot to include the following line

Could someone please help me with applying for a U.S. patent?

and this omission decided that he hasn't become a billionaire. ;-)

Some acronyms have become useful, too. For example, David Cameron used to sign his letters with an "LOL" which, he believes, is interpreted as "Lots Of Love". :-D