abc@defghi.jkl

Remember in the old days (like 10 years ago) when companies would start out small and give employees e-mail addresses like sue@coolcompany.org? Then they’d hire another Sue. Then there would be Sue1 and Sue2 and then Sue3…hmmm…soon there were problems. So they’d have to totally revamp the e-mail system to add last names which meant you had to tell all your business contacts your new info. There weren’t even aliases so the “bad” old address would get forwarded to your new address. Fun!

So the new protocol was “first initial.lastname@...” This also presented problems when the organization got too big. Because even though they'd make you start being 1, 2 and 3 etc...again, no one rememberd that and they'd just type in the persons first initial and last name and send, send, send. When I worked for an international organization there was a country director working half way around the world who had my same first initial and last name, and let me tell you, I got some e-mails that were really meant for that guy’s eyes only. Confidential stuff that his volunteers really thought they were sending to him. I’d of course forward them on to him, but it was really not cool at all.

Also then if someone was named Cindy Hill she’d end up with an address like chill@xyz.com. Sam Tinker would be stinker@xyz.com, or true story, my friend whose first name started with a “B” with last name Allgood became Ballgood@xyz.com. Needless to say she REALLY, REALLY didn’t like that. Anybody else have any funny ones?

I wonder if one day we’ll just look in a camera and think of the person we want to send an e-mail to, and it will magically get to them.? Or, what the heck, skip the writing the e-mail part. Yeah, I’m looking forward to the future. ;-) -Monica