Why does he sign everything with }*{?
When you read this you will know why.
I have been asked by folks many times, why do you sign things with }*{? Well here is the story:
I went to The University of Pittsburgh, started in 1979 finished a
C.S. degree in 1984 with some time off for 'bad grades', but that
isn't really important although the time reference is important. I
took my first computer courses in 1980/81 and we began to learn about
the wonders of electronic mail. This was back in the days of
DEC-System 1099. Everyone had PPNs (Compuserve people this is why you
have PPNs, they are using, or at least did use, DEC-System 1099s I
know, I almost went to work for them). Therefore you actually had to
sign email to be sure the recipient, who may not recognize your
number, knew who you were. At this time Star Wars was popular. I think
'The Empire Strikes Back' was in or had just left theaters. A friend
of mine would sign things with a <*>, which of course looks like
Darth Vader's Fighter. Another chose to use |*|, the standard issue
Tie-Fighter. I wanted to be on the side of good, >*< was sort of
X-Wing like, but too close in theory to <*> so I started using
}*{. In the days before proportional spacing and all sorts of wild
fonts, it looked pretty good on the VT-100s and DECWriter-300s that
were all the rage in the RJEs at Pitt. Take a look at it on a VT100
and I think you'll see what I mean. An MS-DOS screen i.e. 24x80 and
whatever font they use looks pretty good too.
Here is a screen shot from SecureCRT
- Frank P. Bresz }*{