E mail
Electronic mail, e-mail was started
in the late 1960's by the armed forces of the United States of America. The
army or military officers were looking for a way that communication could be
carried out in the even of a large-scale nuclear war. They needed a system that would be very
decentrazed, reliable, and fast in case central institution were destroyed. They
came up with e-mail.
In the early 1970's, e-mail was
limited to the United States military, defense contractors and universities
doing defense research. By the 1970s it
had begun to spread more broadly within university communities. By the 1980's, academics in a number of
university disciplines were using e-mail for professional collaboration. The early 1990s saw an explosion of the use
of e-mail and other computer networking tools for a wide range of professional,
academic, and personal purposes. Whereas a few thousand people were using
e-mail in 1980, it was estimated that in 2000, more than 25 million people throughout
the world were using it.
E-mail is a way of sending a message
one computer to one or more computers around the world. First, you write down the e-mail address of
the person you're sending the message to.
Then you compose the message, either by writing it directly in a e-mail software
program or by writing it first in a world-processing program, then transferring
it into the e-mail software. You push a
button to issue a simple command to send the message. The compute system you're connected to will
break the message up into tiny pieces and send them electronically to the
destination, usually over common telephone lines. The pieces might travel through different
routes to various computers on the way.
Then usually within two to three minutes, the pieces will all arrive at
their destination, where the receiving will re-assemble them into a message
that can be read. The person receiving the message can then log in to his or her
computer account at a convenient time read the mail.
Today, in Sri Lanka, many
professionals. Especially those in urban
areas, use e-mail. It is very useful and cheaper than making telephone calls. While
overseas telephone calls are very expensive, e-mail messages can be sent to the
same people at a fraction of the cost.
Ofcourse, both parties must have access to computers and
telephones. The main problem with e-mail
is that it's so dependent on telephone lincs and electricity, that in
developing countries like ours, it's not
totally reliable because you never know when the telephones will be out of
order, or when there'll be a power
cut. But as far as personal messages are
concerned, e-mail is quicker and cheaper than other methods such as the
telephone or ‘snail mail’.
No comments:
Post a Comment