Gizmodo
Oh Spam, my how you have grown! Thirty years ago, on this day, you came into the world as a little misguided e-mail sent by an equipment engineer over Arpanet to promote a new line of computers. You were quickly shot down by other Arpanet users who called it an "insult... to have an obvious commercial message sent out over a research network." Yet, at some point in time, people stopped protesting you loudly enough. Now you comprise 80 percent to 95 percent of all e-mail sent, your crafty trojans and pesky viruses have infected millions of computers, and you've cost IT departments nearly $200 billion to combat you. But since it's your birthday, instead of telling you like we usually do to GTFO, let us sing you a little song instead. It goes something like this:
Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, SPAM! LOVELY SPAM!
Comments
Ewww!
Spam and Monty Python: two things that I'll never understand…
@Adolf: So true.
Wait, 30th anniversary of the food, or the computer term "spam"?
The internet didn't exist 30 years ago, did it?
@Andham: The email version. If you look only at teh pictures it's misleading, bu the article clears it up, including the "internet" in use 30 years ago.
@Andham: Yes, but not as we know it today, and it existed (mostly) in its current form long before most people knew what it was. My dad's a professor at one of the early universities to connect to it so I saw it early on and thought it'd never come to much.
Oops.
@Andham:"The internet didn't exist 30 years ago, did it?"
The arpanet did, as it says in the post. The first batch of Spam the food was made over 70 years ago. We're almost done with that, and Hormel will be making another batch soon.
Some info and picture of the device being sold:
• [ricm.museum.com]
• [en.wikipedia.org]
@GadgetPlay said, "The first batch of Spam the food was made over 70 years ago. We're almost done with that, and Hormel will be making another batch soon."
HAHA
Yes Spam has been amazing. Where else can you get such a wide selection of fake Rolexes, "generic" Viagra certified by the Food and Drug Administration of India, and all manner of wee wee enlargers? Why I just got an email from Arbinger T. Milhouse telling me so.
I suppose it's good we can't time travel. Even going back 50 or 100 years people would ask if we have flying cars by now, and we'd just have to tell them about these instead.
@GadgetPlay: yeah, to be sold in S Korea and the P.I., man. those people eat Spam like with every fricking meal! and they know how to make it taste actually kinda good!!
As for the email spam, what blows my mind and pisses me off at the same time is that after 30 years we still haven't figured out a reliable way to keep it from showing up in our damn inbox!! FTW!
If it doesn't age how can it grow older?
Happy birthday spam. I hate you. :D
@CutePuppyz:
YES!
@banmojo: what's with the weird monkey in sombrero?
spam and eggs and spam.
But these things come from eggs...so where are all the eggs coming from?
I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
try explaining this skit to someone who has never seen it makes you understand how not funny it is, then you are sad.
@Andham: It did. Al Gore invented it. In his mind!
@GadgetPlay: Spam was created the same year the US Forest Service Smoke Jumpers came into existence. To commemorate this fact, every Smoke Jumper has a can of Spam in his gear. It's true. I sent Spam a letter once, and they sent me a whole info kit.
@oo0cyst0oo: It's always bothered me the first two dishes mentioned didn't have any Spam in them, but she never mentions it when asked what hasn't got much Spam innit.
If it wasn't for spam I wouldn't have got that email from the ex-president of Nigeria wanting to deposit some money in my accounts. Who could pass up a deal like that? Thanks spam!
me too. it's a shame.
oops.
that was a reply....@git em?
@Git Em SteveDave: why am i so dumb?
Oh lowly spam, why are you so despised?
Except that is in Hawaii, where not only is this the state that consumes the most spam per capita, it is often featured in haute cuisine in some of the finest restaurants.
Go figure...
@Leonard Nimrod: Jeez! I worked on the DEC20s, and the DEC10s. And now they're in museums? I am officially old...
@Git Em SteveDave: "To commemorate this fact, every Smoke Jumper has a can of Spam in his gear."
Man, those guys must be really old!
@banmojo: "after 30 years we still haven't figured out a reliable way to keep it from showing up in our damn inbox!!"
Try G-Mail. In the last 30 days, it's filtered out 601 spam e-mails. All were spam, and no spam made it through.
@Hello_Newman:
Food and Drug Administration of India?
Yea, I'm sure they must be corrupt since they have a longer life expectancy than Americans...
But seriously, out of all the places in the world, you picked one of the healthiest...
@GadgetPlay: But it still reached you. Just b/c a filter moved it, doesn't mean it's gone. 20 emails a day were sent to you ALONE. Multiply that by the millions of people out there, that's a considerable amount of data that is in essence, useless and wasted.
@Git Em SteveDave: Just as every sperm is sacred, so must be every piece of spam. If any spam is wasted, well - you get the idea.
@GadgetPlay: Dude, that was Commenter Hall of Fame worthy. LOL!
Funny. Just had to share this with everyone. Out here in Hawaii they are having the SPAM JAM. They have this festival every year in Waikiki. It should be in the local paper tomorrow with pics, but here is the event link. Its a riot! [spamjamhawaii.com]
Plus spam makes a tasty breakfast meat at McDonalds and now Burger King!!!
lol
@GadgetPlay: Agreed that was a good one!
@Git Em SteveDave: Absolutely. They wanted to know how to keep it from getting to our inboxes, and I made a suggestion.
Amazon sells spam?!?
$2.73 each hehe
[www.amazon.com]
Isn't Spam what doesn't make it into hot dogs, scrapple, and sausages?
@bms: I believe Spam is just processed meat, not the scraps that don't make into scrapple, which incidentally, are the scraps that don't make it into the trash bin.
I love spam ... there is nothing better then thin sliced spam cooked on a grill
@ banmojo: There's a perfectly reliable method of preventing spam in your inbox. Well, two methods:
1. Legalize death-by-torture of spammers. That includes the forced liquidation at 2 cents on the dollar of corporate spammers, like Amazon.
2. Don't use email.
Anyone have a screenshot or archive of the Arpanet thread mentioned in the post?
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