There's also the old network email program PINE, which is the only
example I know of of a self-referential software name ("Pine Is Not Elm"
-- apparently, it replaced an earlier program named after the other
tree).
---Bill Spruiell
-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of STAHLKE, HERBERT F
Sent: Saturday, January 31, 2009 7:44 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: E-mail delete filters
Let me reply with another bit of computer arcana (which I prefer to the
overused "trivia" in this case). Anyone who's worked with UNIX is
familiar with lots of odd command keywords. The mail command is "biff"
or "bff" (I no longer remember which--UNIX was a long time ago). That
was the name of the dog, a pet of the group at Bell Labs that developed
UNIX, and they had trained Biff to fetch the mail for them.
Herb
Herbert F. W. Stahlke, Ph.D.
Emeritus Professor of English
Ball State University
Muncie, IN 47306
[log in to unmask]
________________________________________
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Don Stewart
[[log in to unmask]]
Sent: January 31, 2009 6:46 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: E-mail delete filters
DD,
A bit off-topic, but your mention of the e-mail program Eudora
reminded me of an interesting bit of trivia. From the Eudora web site:
Eudora was developed by Steve Dorner at the University of Illinois,
where Mosaic was also eventually developed. Dorner was a computer
programmer working on TCP/IP applications and servers for the computer
science department on the Urbana-Champaign campus.
After working on the new e-mail program for a year, Dorner was ready
to release it for free to the Internet community at large. The working
name was UIUCMail, which Dorner realized was a tongue twister. Then he
remembered a short story written by Eudora Welty titled "Why I Live at
the P.O." It's a story about a woman who decides to live at the post
office where she works rather than put up with her family at home any
longer. Dorner was processing so much e-mail at the time that he felt
like he lived at the post office, and his program used a "post office"
protocol to fetch mail, so he saw a metaphorical connection.
--
Don Stewart
Write for College
______________________
Keeper of the memory and method
of Dr. Francis Christensen
To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web
interface at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
and select "Join or leave the list"
Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/
To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web
interface at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
and select "Join or leave the list"
Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/
To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
and select "Join or leave the list"
Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/
|
