Happy Emoticon Day! :-)

[Richardo]

1982: At precisely 11:44 a.m., Scott Fahlman posts the following electronic message to a computer-science department bulletin board at Carnegie Mellon University:

19-Sep-82 11:44 Scott E Fahlman :-)
From: Scott E Fahlman

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:

:-(

With that post, Fahlman became the acknowledged originator of the ASCII-based emoticon. From those two simple emoticons (a portmanteau combining the words emotion and icon) have sprung dozens of others that are the joy, or bane, of e-mail, text-message and instant-message correspondence the world over.

...and that's the way it was: September 19, 1982 - 29 years ago today. :) :party:


Article: http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2011/09/0919fahlman-proposes-emoticons/

[pokerfan]

1. Truly a shame Shakespeare didn't have emoticons

Then we could have understood what he was writing. :sarcasm: As seen on another board...

Polonius: Do you know me, my lord? :hi:
Hamlet: Excellent well; you are a fishmonger. :)
Polonius: Not I, my lord.
Hamlet: Then I would you were so honest a man.
Polonius: Honest, my lord. :shrug:
Hamlet: Ay, sir; to be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand. :P
Polonius: That's very true, my lord. :eyes:
Hamlet: For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a god kissing carrion, :P -- Have you a daughter? ;)
Polonius: I have, my lord. :shrug:
Hamlet: Let her not walk i' the sun: conception is a blessing, but not as your daughter may conceive. :D
Polonius: :o