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Old 09-19-2002, 01:11 AM   #1
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Online 'Smiley Face' :-) Turns 20

Thu Sep 19,12:57 AM ET
By Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It was 20 years ago today that Scott Fahlman taught the 'Net how to smile.



The IBM researcher has devoted his professional life to artificial intelligence, the practice of teaching computers how to think like humans.

Fahlman is known for his work with neural networks -- a computer technique designed to mimic the human brain -- and helping develop Common Lisp, a computer language that uses symbols instead of numbers, but the bearded scientist is perhaps best known for a flash of inspiration that helped to define Internet culture, in all of its ungrammatical glory.

On Sept. 19, 1982, Fahlman typed :-) in an online message.

The "smiley face" has since become a staple of online communication, allowing 12-year-old girls and corporate lawyers alike to punctuate their messages with a quick symbol that says, "Hey, I'm only joking."

Fahlman's innovation has since inspired countless other "emoticons" like ;-) to signify a wink or :-0 to show surprise.

"I've certainly spent 10 times as much time talking with people about it as I did coming up with it in the first place," Fahlman said from his Pittsburgh home. "Hopefully my actual research career will add up to more in the long run."

In the early 1980s, computer networks were rarely found outside university science departments and secretive government facilities.

But even then, discussions on primitive online "bulletin boards" could quickly turn nasty when touchy users misinterpreted remarks meant to be taken lightly.

After a particularly tangled joke about mercury contamination in an elevator, users of a Carnegie Mellon University bulletin board proposed a variety of markers for humorous comments, including *, %, &, (#) and \__/.

Fahlman suggested :-), along with the admonition to "read it sideways." Before long, other bulletin board users were placing the smiley face in their messages. The practice spread as Internet users found the symbol useful as a rough approximation of a twinkle in the eye.

A FEW FROWNS

Predictably, the smiley face encountered a few frowns as the online population exploded.

"Humans have managed to communicate with the written word for thousands of years without strewing crudely fashioned ideograms across their parchments. It is as if the written word were a cutting-edge technology without useful precedents," groused Neal Stephenson in the New Republic in 1993.

Fahlman stands by his creation. "If Shakespeare were tossing off a quick note complaining about the lack of employee parking spaces near the Globe Theater, he might have produced the same kind of sloppy prose that the rest of us do," Fahlman writes on his Web site.

Yahoo!, Microsoft and America Online all incorporate emoticons into their instant-messaging systems, while telecom firms, jewelry makers and online retailers have filed trademark applications for products and slogans that incorporate Fahlman's smiley face.

But Fahlman has never seen a dime from his creation.

"If it cost people a nickel to use it, nobody would have used it. This is my little gift to the world, for better or worse," he said.
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Old 09-19-2002, 08:02 AM   #2
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I thought this was for smile_at_me.....[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img]
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Old 09-19-2002, 09:42 AM   #3
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Old 09-19-2002, 10:52 AM   #4
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And the award for "Who has the most time on their hands" goes to:

ROB!!!!!!!!!!
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Old 09-19-2002, 10:59 AM   #5
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haha, nah, that's just 1 big gif/pic. Those aren't seperate smilies [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img] .
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Old 09-19-2002, 08:11 PM   #6
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thank GOD! I would be worried if that was the case![img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]
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Old 09-19-2002, 09:07 PM   #7
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you really do have too much free time Rob.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]
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Old 09-19-2002, 11:29 PM   #8
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me too!

i thought, "hey, don't age me before it's time!" [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]
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Old 09-21-2002, 02:40 AM   #9
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<< I thought this was for smile_at_me.....[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img] >>



&quot;Smiley&quot; and &quot;Smiles&quot; are not to be confused. Many &quot;smileys&quot; in the world, but only one &quot;smile_at_me10&quot;, sometimes aka &quot;smiles&quot; [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]
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Old 09-23-2002, 08:50 AM   #10
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&quot;i got mix up!&quot;

in college, i did answer to &quot;smiley&quot; now and then.

needless to say, i much prefer being smiles, [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] &amp; original. thank you.
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Old 09-23-2002, 01:11 PM   #11
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smiles' got a not so smiley icon....scary....
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Old 09-23-2002, 02:05 PM   #12
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maybe we should start calling her frowns.....ai yai yai....[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-shocked.gif[/img]
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Old 09-23-2002, 10:05 PM   #13
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everyone has a blue phase now and then, but i'm still smiling at ya'll. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]
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Old 09-23-2002, 10:55 PM   #14
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