On This Day in History: May 3
The first spam
“Grow your dick with all-natural Viagra from a Nigerian prince who has you on video!” No matter how tempting the subject line, do NOT click the link in that email.
--On This Day in History Shit Went Down: May 3, 1978--
Where does the term “spam” come from?
Originally, it’s a disgusting (or perhaps you consider it yummy, in which case, go you) canned meat product first made by Hormel Foods in 1937 that gained popularity during World War II. Stylized as SPAM, popular belief is it’s an abbreviation of “spiced ham,” but according to Hormel, the name’s origin “is known by only a small circle of former Hormel Foods executives.”
So there’s your first mystery . . . meat.
The second mystery refers to the email variety of spam. If you’re wondering whom to curse for all the shit in your inbox, his name is Gary Thuerk. Gary was a marketing manager for a now-defunct company called Digital Equipment Corporation, and on May 3, 1978, he had an assistant send out a mass advertising email to 393 recipients on a precursor to the internet called ARPANET.
People were pissed. But . . . sales! And because the message made money, an annoying-as-fuck advertising medium was born.
Speaking of advertising, there is this button here:
It would be another 16 years before it really caught on, and big surprise it was a couple of goddamn lawyers who did it to advertise their immigration services. Again, mega backlash, but the pair told their critics to eat electronic feces cuz free speech. They even wrote a book titled How to Make a Fortune on the Information Superhighway. Assholes.
But what about that spam name?
There are a few hypotheses, with the most appealing one, and therefore I’m gonna say it must be true, coming from a Monty Python sketch. In a popular skit from the comedy troupe’s Flying Circus show, a group of Vikings sing “Spam!” over and over, drowning out all other communication. Kind of like what happens in your inbox. Others allege it is an acronym that stands for “simultaneously posted advertising message” or possibly “single post to all mailboxes.”
Wherever the name originates, most of us can agree it fucking sucks.
Get the book On This Day in History Sh!t Went Down.
1. properly cooked, Spam is delicious comfort food.
2. It cannot be coincidence that my company got hit with a domain wide spam campaign this week that harvested email passwords. 17 people fell for it and their email boxes got flooded and locked by our email provider. *sigh* We are still dealing with fall out. This is also the 4th email spam related content I've seen in the past 2 days.
Never, EVER, use the same passwords on different accounts and websites. Once that password is compromised, EVERYTHING is compromised. Write it down if you must, but better yet, use a password manager. For the love Monty Python use a goddamn password manager! /cries in exhaustion
And don't forget the classic line, "But I don't LIKE SPAM!"