Date: Thu, 1 Nov 90 11:08:14 EST
From:: tar@hx.lcs.mit.edu (Thomas Russ)
To: gsl@ai.mit.edu
Subject: Hazards of Computing/Cryptology Joint Seminar

			       C=}>;{))


	When:  Noon, Friday, November 2, 1990
	Where: NE43 8th Floor Playroom


    Of late the press has been full of articles describing some of the
purported hazards of working with computers---electro-magnetic
radiation, strained limbs, strained eyes.  They have neglected to
mention crooked heads.  That is what you get from trying to read the
expressions of a new hieroglyphic language that computer addicts have
invented to enliven messages.
    Like prehistoric cave-dwellers, the devotees of electronic bulletin-
boards and e-mail have struggled to find a new way to express
themselves.  Wall pointing would not work.  Words, it seems, are not
enough.  Inarticulate sounds cannot be displayed on screens.  To make
their messages feel more like personal contact, they have hit on using
the punctuation marks on an ordinary keyboard in order to pull faces
at each other.  To read these signs, you have to put your head on your
left shoulder.
    The basic unit is:
			 :-)

the "smiley", a standard smiling face.  In context, this can mean "I'm
happy to hear from you", or other pleasantries.  The smilely can also
wink:			 or frown:
	 ;-)				 :-(	

among other things.  The language can express many things about the
user's appearance:

	8-)	:-{)	8:-)	:-)-8	:-Q	@:-)

These signs mean, respectively, that the user wears sunglasses, has a
moustache, is a little girl, is a big girl, smokes, wears a turban.
    The smilely can alos indicate some subtleties of mood and response:

	:-D	:-/	:-e	:-7	:-X

These mean that he is laughing, is sceptical, is disappointed, is wry,
is keeping his lips sealed.
    Many of the signs (perhaps the majority in use on America's biggest 
computer networks) are simply absurd fun, verging on the unintelligble:

	:-F	*:o)	+-:-)	@=

The user is a buck-toothed vampire with one tooth missing, is a clown,
holds religious office, is pro-nuclear.  The hieroglyph of the title
means that the user is a drunk, devilish chef with a toupee in an
updraft, a moustache and a double chin.  Now you know what electronic
mail is used for.

		C=}>;{))

Hosts: Lukas Ruecker, Joe Heel, Angelika Hecht
Humor: Stolen from "The Economist" (10/6/90)"