And what would we only do without him? Darling, dear, beloved, the only one! Wonderful, all-knowing, our hope and support! Of course, options are also possible here: for example, wives who spend long evenings and even nights alone will find completely different definitions for it, and yet … Computer! Our misfortune and our happiness! Money extractor and assistant in making money! A wonderful and terrible friend of ours! But there were times, and not so long ago, when we did not know the words of something like that. Many people remember what a curiosity in the late 80s - early 90s were computer classes in schools, how many difficulties accompanied the search for a computer science teacher. But very little time passed, and the inhabitants of the former Soviet Union, having dealt with foreign technology well, began to explore the virtual space …
Digital life
O. Internet! … E-mail, online libraries, online shops have made our life almost perfect for a long time - at least, more convenient. The exchange of information between people from different countries is now just super-fast, the videophone from science fiction novels - the Skype program - is now available to everyone. "Live Journal", "Vkontakte", "Odnoklassniki" - which just did not come up with skillful virtuals for communication. Digital life is in full swing!
It already has its own history, legends, myths that circulate on the Web and are told to beginners. Each person can now create their own website, upload their texts on it (and not only texts - music, paintings, photographs, etc.), and amazed readers, accustomed to believing every printed word, now have dozens of versions of the same event, so and not understanding, but where, in fact, is the truth? But in order to "make up a true picture of what is happening, you just need to" know the places "and go to sites with a reputation for serious media, fortunately, there are a lot of them on the Internet. Well, if knowledge is still not enough, the user is provided with virtual encyclopedias, reference books, which are also abundant on the Internet.
Most popular dog
There are various versions concerning the invention of electronic mail. Actually, there was no such one-time invention - there were gradual improvements in programs, which led to the current state of affairs. And yet, among most Internet users, the founding father of e-mail (a program for transferring information from computer to computer already existed then) is considered to be the chief engineer of BBN Technologies (Cambridge, Massachusetts) Ray Tomlinson, who in 1971 created remote personal mailboxes … He also put into circulation the famous "@" symbol, which separates the username and the address of the server that provided the mailbox.
Promotional video:
It is believed that this icon was first discovered … in 15th century manuscripts. Then it was used as a commercial symbol, denoting either the unit of measurement of the goods (in different countries - their own, in Portugal, for example, 25 pounds), or its value. So, in some old documents they wrote: "Apples @ 5 pence." In English-speaking countries, it was used as an abbreviation for the often used polysemantic preposition at. The popular icon was present on the keyboard of the first typewriter model, and from there it smoothly moved to the computer keyboard.
Interestingly, each country has its own name. Americans and British call it modestly and without fuss "sign et", Hungarians see it as a worm, Dutch - a monkey's tail, Greeks - a duck, Danes - an elephant trunk, Chinese - a mouse, Finns - a curled up cat. Well, we, Russians, Runet users, as you know, call the icon a dog.
Nowadays, most people cannot imagine life without their own email account. Business companies use e-mail to conduct business negotiations, writers send their creations to the editorial office, and ordinary users communicate by e-mail with friends who are scattered around the world. Or they live in a neighboring house.
Lend-Lease spam
Email is, without a doubt, a wonderful thing. But, unfortunately, it provides services to everyone indiscriminately, including those who are hated by the Internet population - the so-called spammers. The idea of sending advertisements - spam - to addresses found on the Web once came to mind of an intelligent person. This is a very profitable business for spammers, since advertising is practically free and very simple from the technical point of view - at the same time, several hundred thousand users receive the letter at once.
The word spam means actually canned meat, SPiced hAM, pepper ham - something like minced sausage. The word was invented and reserved as a trademark by the Hormel corporation, which in the 1930s accumulated a monstrous amount of meat that was not of the first freshness. Having made canned food from it, the company began a marketing campaign to sell the deposits. The word spam was conspicuous on every corner, shone in the windows of all cheap shops, flaunted on buses and trams, on the facades of houses and on the pages of newspapers, and was continuously broadcast on the radio. In general, it was impossible to hide from him. Then the American Lend-Lease ham got to friendly countries. They say that in the post-war years of famine, she was crushed for a sweet soul.
And in 1986, a lot of the same messages appeared in Usenet newsgroups from a certain Dave Rhodes, who was advertising a new pyramid scheme. The headline read "Make a ton of money," and the letters contained instructions on how to do it. The author, with enviable persistence, continued to duplicate his texts, and the subscribers became so boring that they began to be compared with the pre-war advertising of canned food.
Funny dots and brackets
When communicating on the Internet, it is quite difficult to fully express your emotions, unless you are a professional writer. And here emoticons come to the rescue. In the usual punctuation marks placed next to each other, when imagination is connected, you can now see funny faces that express a wide variety of feelings - smile, delight, fear, hatred, indignation and so on. An ordinary laughing face looks like this:). And this is a sad face ":(". To express the degree of joy or sadness, the number of brackets increases. In letters you can often find such phrases: "Hello!:))) Why don't you write to me?: (((". Emoticons can be winking";) ", sticking out their tongue": P ", surprised": -0 "and many, many others. Using signs and letters, you can even compose a definition of, say, the profession of a person - a cook, boxer, clown … Here's how, for example,jokingly denote a banker: ": -%". So users who are exploring "cold virtual spaces" are actually people with humor and rich imagination. By the way, a person who disappears on the Internet gets so used to emoticons at the end of sentences that he then mechanically puts them in quite serious documents or articles:).
Slang virtuals
A newbie user, first time visiting a forum or chat, often does not understand a word, because the local inhabitants use the slang that has developed on the World Wide Web for a long time and is developing from year to year. For example, the following phrase: "ICQ is dead, throw old on the soap." Horror! In fact, everything is simple: "ICQ" on the Internet is called the ICQ program, which allows friends and acquaintances to "talk" (correspond) "live". The program tends to often let down its owners, and then the information is sent "to the soap" - to regular e-mail. Here are some more translations from virtual to everyday language. "Klava" - keyboard; "Message" - message, letter (from the English message - message); "User" - user: "bug" - an error in the program; "Screw" - hard drive, hard drive; "Loaf" - a key on the keyboard (from the English button - button);"Prog" - a computer program; "Nickname" - network nickname, name. An inexperienced user can often hear in his address: "Lamer!". This word on the Internet means a fool, stupid, narrow-minded person. Translated from English - this is "weakling".
Few of today's people have not heard the word "hacker" (from the English. To hack - to manage successfully). Initially, this was the name for highly professional programmers capable of non-trivial solutions. Such a programmer with his work could both be of great benefit to the employer and cause significant damage. Currently, the word "hacker" is understood as an attacker who "breaks into" other people's computers, stealing information, money from accounts and infecting operating systems with viruses.
The most legendary personality on the Internet is virtual Vasya Pupkin. This is what users call themselves when registering on any site when they do not want to reveal their real name, surname or nickname. There is a story circulating on the Web about how one foreign company was very amazed that the majority of users from Russia are called Vasya PupKin …
Magazine: Secrets of the 20th century №35. Author: Victor Nikolaev