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27 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981

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Volume 28 : Issue 79 : "text" Format

Messages in this Issue:
  Re: History of AT&T Mail 
  Re: History of  eMail [TELECOM]
  Re: History of AT&T Mail [TELECOM]
  Re: History of AT&T Mail [TELECOM]


====== 27 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ====== Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer, and other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 20 Mar 2009 14:52:01 +0100 From: "earle robinson" <earler.removethis@remove-this-too.gmail.com> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Re: History of AT&T Mail Message-ID: <01af01c9a963$0c2caa40$2485fec0$@com> In fact, it was ibm that was the mail carrier and its system was quite good. It had more cachet than CompuServe or aol, and was more used by business people. Then ibm decided to get out of the business and sold the email service to at&t, which was struggling to build a decent sized isp. There were two sides, one for consumers, the other for business oriented people. The ibm addresses were maintained for a few years then changed to at&t. The business oriented addresses were attworld.net, but then changed to att.biz, though the former is still valid. -er ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 20 Mar 2009 10:59:48 -0400 From: Matt Simpson <net-news69@jmatt.net> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Re: History of eMail [TELECOM] Message-ID: <net-news69-C10F39.10594820032009@news.toast.net> In article <5be3499c-1f96-42c9-af06-9949edaf3c01@a39g2000yqc.googlegroups.com>, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > A related question is: When did email--using today's standards-- > begin? That is, when did people get email addresses of "PERSON@SITE" > and there was an Internet capable of routing such messages to the > appropriate site. >From http://www.livinginternet.com/e/ei.htm SNDMSG & READMAIL. In the early 1970's, Ray Tomlinson was working on a small team developing the TENEX operating system, with local email programs called SNDMSG and READMAIL. In late 1971, Tomlinson developed the first ARPANET email application when he updated SNDMSG by adding a program called CPYNET capable of copying files over the network, and informed his colleagues by sending them an email using the new program with instructions on how to use it. To extend the addressing to the network, Tomlinson chose the "commercial at" symbol to combine the user and host names, providing the naturally meaningful notation "user@host" that is the standard for email addressing today. These early programs had simple functionality and were command line driven, but established the basic transactional model that still defines the technology -- email gets sent to someone's mailbox. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 20 Mar 2009 15:17:06 +0000 (UTC) From: Paul <pssawyer@comcast.net.INVALID> To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Re: History of AT&T Mail [TELECOM] Message-ID: <Xns9BD473113A96CSenex@85.214.105.209> John Mayson <john@mayson.us> wrote in news:6645152a0903190858k42ae1dd2hd3990576aeb4cde@mail.gmail.com: > When I was in college in the late 1980's I worked for AT&T as a > co-op student. During my second quarter I was given the task of > rolling out AT&T Mail to our site and training people how to use > it. At the time I thought the service was pretty neat. It had > email-to-fax and email-to-snail-mail gateways. It was used mostly > by AT&T, but the service was available to the public and I found > the governor of Kentucky listed in the directory. It didn't take > me long to realize I could send email to @attmail.com from my > school account, which raised a few eyebrows about me "hacking into > AT&T Mail". When it came time to graduate I had promised myself I > would get an AT&T Mail account if my future employer did not have > Internet access (turns out they did). > > I was reminiscing about the service, so I visited Google and > Wikipedia trying to find information. I cannot find anything. > The search terms bring up information about today's at&t email > service via their DSL service or really old archives containing > messages from people with @attmail.com email addresses. Perhaps > I'm the only person on the planet who thinks this topic is > interesting, but in case I'm not, does anyone have more > information about AT&T Mail? Until my last move I still had all > of my manuals, but they're long gone. I want to create a > Wikipedia entry. I believe AT&T Mail was as significant as > Compuserve or Prodigy. > > John > We had ATT Mail for a while at UNH Telecom. Dept., partly because we had their S85 PBX and 3B5/3B15 computer. I also got rid of my manuals some time before I retired, but I seem to remember that it ran over UUCP. It became obsolete with the spread of (TCP/IP) networking and the centralized campus e-mail system. -- Paul ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:15:59 -0700 (PDT) From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu Subject: Re: History of AT&T Mail [TELECOM] Message-ID: <ecbfc827-2387-4eff-a896-3c7a0ee3c8bd@q11g2000yqh.googlegroups.com> > ***** Moderator's Note ***** > > I think there will always be a job for the Postal Service: after all, > our business and government will be dependent on paper records for the > foreseeable future. The Western way of life revolves around written > records, and there has to be some way to get them from place to place. There will always be the Postal Service, but I think the volume of mail it handles will significantly shrink. It is now losing money and another stamp increase is coming in May. Despite huge investments in automation and reductions in service (fewer mailboxes, fewer collections), they'll still gonna have to rethink their model. > Our businesses, educational institutions, and governments still use > paper as the primary medium-of-record. Despite the plethora of > electronic alternatives, the post office is still, and probably always > will be, in the business of carrying the mountain of Purchase Orders, > checks, bills, magazines, stock certificates, bank statements, > greeting cards, and personal messages that keep the wheels of society > spinning. When they first spoke of the "paperless office", paper consumption actually increased with the coming of "office automation". But now things have changed and paper transactions are being reduced as follows: 1) Bill payments: Many people have automatic pay billing--the creditor directly deducts money from a checking account--eliminating the need to write a check and mail it in, and for it to be processed. 2) E-Commerce: instead of filling out an order form from a printed catalog, many consumers order from a web page. No paper transaction. 3) Official correspondance via email: Many formal contracts are now sent as .pdf files with an email instead of a hard copy. 4) Social correspondance--cheap telepony has killed off what was left of this, but the Internet is finishing the job. This year, with things rushed, I couldn't get and send out birthday cards to some friends, but sent an email instead. Tacky, but did the job. The web allows sharing of family pictures electronically instead of mailing prints. 5) Online account statements: Some firms only print out account statements upon request (and for a fee); they may be viewed on the web. 6) Annual Reports: Company no longer send out glossy annual reports and proxy statements, but a simple card advising where to look for it all on the web. A large company that has many hundreds of thousands of shareowners saves a huge amount of postage and printing. 7) Govt interaction: Many govt agencies (of all levels) have websites in which a citizen can renew their driver's license, get a permit, register for this or that; all eliminating filling out a paper form and a personal visit. Private companies also allow customers to use the web to register, get an account, etc. [] I suspect e-commerce permits a greater risk of fraud, but I suspect organizations are willing to assume that risk thinking it's still cheaper than processing paper by hand. Face it, every time someone fills out a form it means an employee must read the form and enter it; that means the employee must have a desk and computer terminal. By having customers do it, they eliminate all that which is a big saving. Paying electronically means no one has to open a letter and handle the check. > Having said that, I can't help but wonder if the electronic signatures > that were made possible by public-key cryptography will someday > supplant the paper records we now rely on. It would be a monumental > change, and would require that every family have both access to the > Internet and a computer, not to mention training in electronic > record-keeping. That's happening extensively now in the business world. Consumers don't all have computers, but most businesses do, and with standard software. Friends who work in law offices tell me "signature on file" is good enough for much of the word, and email is used very extensively. > I doubt it will happen: there's nothing like getting a letter that you > can read anywhere and anytime you want, again and again. (If you don't > believe me, just ask any other ex-GI). Personally, I like reading stuff on paper, not the screen, for many years. But the rest of the world is changing. Many people I deal with prefer an email to a hardcopy report. ***** Moderator's Note ***** I suppose it's like anything else: first a few, then a lot, then it's old news. Since I'm a Thawte Notary, I'm ready for the change, but I think most people will still prefer a written record: they may _send_ a contract as a PDF file, but they'll still want the signatures on a paper copy that they can show in court. Bill Horne Temporary Moderator ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecom- munications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to Usenet, where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. The Telecom Digest is currently being moderated by Bill Horne while Pat Townson recovers from a stroke. Contact information: Bill Horne Telecom Digest 43 Deerfield Road Sharon MA 02067-2301 781-784-7287 bill at horne dot net Subscribe: telecom-request@telecom-digest.org?body=subscribe telecom Unsubscribe: telecom-request@telecom-digest.org?body=unsubscribe telecom This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Copyright (C) 2008 TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of The Telecom digest (4 messages) ******************************

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