RE: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] Origin of SPAM (Yes! I am a google GOD)

[Jonathan King <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On Wed, 1 Oct 2003, Spurling, Shannon wrote:

> I think that guy from the other article pointed out why the term spam.
> He stated that the contents of the SPAM song were used many times as the
> text garbage used against the mud. One thing to keep in mind here is
> that Spam, as a word, was one step down from Foo and Bar. Spam was not a
> meat product or a line from a skit any more. It was a nonsense word like
> widget, foo, bar, etc... But, it was much more fun.

Right.  The nonsense variable names of yore were "foo", "bar", and
"baz".  People used them in pseudo-code all the time.  "spam" was
similar, except that it seems to be used (even in the mid-80s!)  
more as a subroutine name. 

>  When being silly and knocking other people off the net with a
> repeated text, why not just create a message that says spam spam
> spam, and hey, it looks just like the Vikings singing in that one
> skit. I think you have to understand the nonsensical fun loving
> academic geek attitude of the early Usenet. Now it's all full of
> stodgy old AOL, marketing driven, pop culture livin', investor
> givin' people who have no silly sense of humor. :-) They need a
> definition of spam that is short, terse, and definitive. They
> say," yeah, it's from the skit because it drowns out any thing
> useful". That's so not in the same sprit as the original internet.

Nope.  It was all about uber-geekdom, of mixing as many metaphors as 
you could.  I'm pink, therefore I'm SPAM.

jking

_______________________________________________
discussion mailing list
EMAIL:PROTECTED
http://mlug.missouri.edu/mailman/listinfo/discussion