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<p><font size="4" face="monospace">I just was in an extended
argument with my two daughters, about something I suspect might
be a generational thing. Let me know what you think.</font></p>
<p><font size="4" face="monospace">So the discussion started with me
complaining that "because" Google respects neither
uppercase/lowercase nor punctuation in their email, I get lots
of email addressed to people whose email is similar to mine. I
myself have always thought that the problem was that Google's
email address parser did not respect these differences, as they
should, and so I wind up receiving email meant for someone in
Great Britain with a similar name.</font></p>
<p><font size="4" face="monospace">My daughters argued vigorously
that this is not a bug but a feature -- you wouldn't want people
to have to pay attention to either cases or punctuation when you
write your email!</font></p>
<p><font size="4" face="monospace">I replied that back when there
was a net but no web of course you paid attention to these
differences: we were all trained as programmers to be careful
about punctuation and case. (Hell, I learned on punch cards.)</font></p>
<p><font size="4" face="monospace">Their view was that this was a
dumb view and that I wasn't in fact getting email for everyone
who signed up for email with some version of
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:peter.king.1@gmail.com">peter.king.1@gmail.com</a>, but also <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:peterking1@gmail.com">peterking1@gmail.com</a>,
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:peterking.1@gmail.com">peterking.1@gmail.com</a>, and so on, but only when other people --
like, say, <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:peter.king.11@gmail.com">peter.king.11@gmail.com</a> -- mistyped their email
addresses when signing up for some service or other (for
instance leaving off the last digit).</font></p>
<p><font size="4" face="monospace">The discussion was inconclusive,
to say the least, and I thought (and think!) that we should
respect case and punctuation. But I certainly hadn't considered
the arguments against it...</font></p>
<p><font size="4" face="monospace">Thoughts? Experiences with
gmail? Reflections on generational differences in the approach
to computing?<br>
</font></p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Peter King <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:peter.king@utoronto.ca">peter.king@utoronto.ca</a>
Department of Philosophy
170 St. George Street #521
The University of Toronto (416)-978-3311 ofc
Toronto, ON M5R 2M8
CANADA
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://individual.utoronto.ca/pking/">http://individual.utoronto.ca/pking/</a>
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