Internet Cachet

Over the next few days, I'm going to be sending out a mass e-mail to those folks in my e-mail address book: my e-mail address is changing. My current e-mail address of rgu@world.std.com is being changed to rgu@TheWorld.com (you can uncapitalize the "T" and "W" of TheWorld).

I've had world.std.com as my personal e-mail address since December of 1994. At the time, I had wanted to change jobs, and I felt that I needed a different e-mail address on my resume. Finally, I wanted a close-to-permanent home for my personal e-mail. I didn't want to ask people to remember my work e-mail address: just remember my personal e-mail account.

In the early 1990s, Barry Shein's Software Tool and Die (the "std" of world.std.com) was the only company offering public access UNIX accounts. And since I did everything with UNIX, it felt natural to sign up with The World as my Internet Service Provider (ISP).

I always felt that world.std.com had a certain Internet cachet. It's an old ISP. Certain Internet legends used it as their e-mail address. If hotmail.com and AOL were the fancy new ways to get on the Internet, World was the tony, sedate neighborhood full of Internet old-timers.

Times change though: "std" is too closely associated with "sexually transmitted diseases" (and who is impressed by 'software tool and 'die' anymore?). Plus two "dots" (world-dot-std-dot-com) is no longer vogue. "world.std.com" felt creaky. Enter "TheWorld.com". The times have caught up with my e-mail address. It's time to get with it.

Note: You can keep rgu@world.std.com in your address book. AFAIK, this will continue to be active.