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I’m sure many people if they stop and think about it view email and texting as the same as snail mail and telegrams. And to a reasonable degree the similarity h
by jleyank 4y ago
I’m sure many people if they stop and think about it view email and texting as the same as snail mail and telegrams. And to a reasonable degree the similarity holds - things get originated, they travel through one or more “hubs” or “stops” and then get delivered to the recipient. Faster, yeah, but similar. Does it matter how they go from place to place to be useable? No, not really. As long as people know how to use the tools. Few care how a transmission works but have a working knowledge of gears if they drive in multiple weather conditions.
There’s magical stuff in tech but the best implementation just fades into the background. Proper abstraction lets people concentrate on more important things.
- tharkun__ 4y agoThat approximation of how email works was definitely helpful in the days where most people got their email via POP3 and actually downloaded those emails. And I agree, I do not need to know how the USPS works internally, how FedEx or DHL do what they do exactly. Same with email. But the approximation is no longer true. The approximation would now be that the USPS stores all mail at the post office and if I want to read it I have to go to the post office and when I do I only take a copy of the mail back home to read. The post office keeps the original. Oh and the post office also reads all my mail and checks if they can show me relevant ads based on the content.
- jleyank 4y agoYou're peeking inside the abstraction. And on my mac, my gmail is downloaded into my Apple Mail from the gmail server. I can process it there. Similarly, it's written in Mail and set to Google's server. And there's like 9 people not using Google products for home emails :-).