Email Was Invented By A 14 Year Old Indian Boy 32 Years Ago. But Sadly, Nobody Remembers Him.

[4Vikram]

Yes, you heard that right. No matter how difficult it may be to believe, email really was invented by an Indian. But sadly, he has been forgotten.

 

This is the story of VA Shiva Ayyadurai, a 14 year old Indian-American boy who made one of the most noteworthy inventions in the world history of technology. You heard that right too – he was just 14 when he invented the email!

On July 15^th, as the email completed 32 years of its existence, a post by Beyond Concepts Advertising & Designing surfaced on the internet and we were stunned to read Shiva’s awe inspiring story. Here it is!

 

The 14 Year Old Indian Boy Who Invented Email

Email turned 32 yesterday. But how many of us know that, VA Shiva Ayyadurai an Indian-American scientist invented Email when he was just 14.
Ayyadurai was born to a Tamil Family in Bombay. At the age of seven, he left with his family to live in the US. In 1978, aged 14, he developed a full-scale emulation of the interoffice mail system which he called "E-mail". It replicated all the functions of the interoffice mail system: Inbox, Outbox, Folders, Memo, Attachments, Address Book, etc. These features are now familiar parts of every email system.

Studying at Livingston High School in New Jersey, Ayyadurai began his work on the email system for the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. He closely observed that the desktop of each secretary, in addition to the typewriter, had an Inbox, Outbox, Drafts, Carbon Copy Paper, Folders, Address Book, Paper Clips (for attachments), etc, which they used each day to create and process incoming and outgoing mail.

Then he conceived an electronic version of this system. He created a computer programme of over 50,000 lines of code, which electronically replicated all the features of the interoffice mail system. On August 30, 1982, the US government officially recognized Ayyadurai as the inventor of email by awarding him the first US Copyright for Email for his 1978 invention. Yet his name is nowhere in modern history of computer science. Whoever claims the invention, Ayyadurai will remain the father of E-mail. Hope he gets the name in history he deserves.
(source-www.younews.in)

[mastercheif]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva_Ayyadurai

Ayyadurai is notable for his controversial claim to be the "inventor of email"

[thanks]

db lo kuda gurtuinchatledu... reply ledu

[tennisluvr]

Here's The Truth: Shiva Ayyadurai Didn't Invent Email

from the let's-try-this-again dept

So, yesterday we wrote about how Nick Denton had settled all the remaining legal disputes that Gawker had involving three lawsuits filed by lawyer Charles Harder. Most of the attention was paid to the big one -- the settlement with Hulk Hogan. We, however, focused on one of the other cases, since it was one that we followed closely and which showed how Peter Thiel was full of  in claiming he only bankrolled these anti-Gawker lawsuits to "protect privacy" (and, yes, it's hilarious to see the early backer of both Facebook and Palantir pretending to care about privacy). 

The case of Shiva Ayyadurai is the really telling one. For almost five years now, we've been among those explaining why Shiva Ayyadurai's claim that he invented email is complete bullshit. It's not true. Not even remotely. What does appear to be true is that as a fairly bright kid, Ayyadurai was working for a small college in New Jersey and he wrote an electronic messaging program for the school, which he named Email. It was not the first. It was not the last. It was nothing special. Nothing about what Ayyadurrai did was new -- even if he came up with the ideas entirely on his own. Basically every feature that he put in the application was previously discussed on open mailing lists and RFCs about the internet and the messaging systems that would be grafted onto it -- sometimes many years earlier. Ayyadurai tries to rely on the fact that he got a copyright for his program as proof, hoping to confuse people who don't understand the difference between a copyright and a patent. As we've noted in the past: Microsoft has a copyright on the "Windows" operating system. That doesn't mean it invented windows-based graphical user interfaces (because it did not). 

Apparently, part of the settlement involved Ayyadurai getting $750,000 along with the agreement to take down the article (it's not entirely clear to me if the article was still up, since Univision had already taken it down). As plenty of people quickly noted on Twitter this was insane. Ayyadurai has spent many years falsely claiming to have invented email and trying to tarnish the obituaries of Ray Tomlinson who was critical in the creation of email (though was humble enough to admit that no one individual actually "invented" email). And now he was getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for suing a news site that correctly explained the actual truth: Shiva Ayyadurai did not invent email. I'm sure a good chunk of that money is going to Charles Harder. Who knows if any of it makes its way back to Peter Thiel, who recently explained that he had to help Hulk Hogan because mere "single digit millionaires" couldn't fight back. 

In response to this, Ayyadurai has put out a self-congratulatory press release claiming that the settlement supports his blatantly false claims:

Certain of the settlement terms are incorporated within Gawker Media's latest proposed plan of liquidation, filed today, and include a proposed settlement payment to Dr. Ayyadurai and removal of the article at issue. More details will be forthcoming. Dr. Ayyadurai stated: "History will reflect that this settlement is a victory for truth."

No, it's not. It's a victory for bullshit. It's a victory for trying to rewrite history and smear the actual truth. And it was aided by Peter Thiel. I do wonder, though, if Ayyadurai continues to sue publications that properly point out that he is not telling the truth, and targets us, if Thiel will come to our aid. Hell, I'm not even a single-digit millionaire. So, clearly, he's going to help us out, right? 

Let's discuss some truth: Ayyadurai did not invent email. Ayyadurai also filed a highly questionable lawsuit over a news story correctly claiming he did not invent email. Ayyadurai's case was only settled because Nick Denton and what remains of Gawker recognized that it was easier to move on with things and end these cases. For Peter Thiel to champion this and for Ayyadurai to claim that his little spat -- which got caught up in the whirlwind of a billionaire's personal grudge -- is a "victory for truth" is complete bullshit. That's the truth.

 

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20161103/11502935958/heres-truth-shiva-ayyadurai-didnt-invent-email.shtml

[chicchara]

 Ayyadurai holds four degrees from MIT, including a Ph.D. in biological engineering, and is a Fulbright Scholar.

[perugu_vada]

Nice info

[tennisluvr]

2 minutes ago, perugu_vada said:

Nice info

He didn't invent ani ochindi Google chesthe. 

[kakatiya]

No he didn't invent email..email was already being used by ARPANET. He wrote a program during high school. Electronic mail was already in use for ARPANET project. 

Email is not light bulb or telephone to invent. It requires Ethernet medium , Ethernet protocol and a layer 6 application level program. 

 

What this kid did as a student is he wrote a program that succesfully worked !! So it's a big achievement but he can't claim he invented something which he mimmiced in program .

[Idassamed]

2 minutes ago, kakatiya said:

No he didn't invent email..email was already being used by ARPANET. He wrote a program during high school. Electronic mail was already in use for ARPANET project. 

Email is not light bulb or telephone to invent. It requires Ethernet medium , Ethernet protocol and a layer 6 application level program. 

 

What this kid did as a student is he wrote a program that succesfully worked !! So it's a big achievement but he can't claim he invented something which he mimmiced in program .

+1

[BUDDY]

No he did not 

[k2s]

Coz he is desi and not kop or kamm

[4Vikram]

10 minutes ago, k2s said:

Coz he is desi and not kop or kamm

yes why this intolerance daddy man ask this @BUDDY man 

29 minutes ago, BUDDY said:

No he did not 

mem opukom man he dided anthe

[k2s]

42 minutes ago, 4Vikram said:

yes why this intolerance daddy man ask this @BUDDY man 

mem opukom man he dided anthe

whoseDadNoListen anta