From: VoicePro@aol.com
Date: Sat, 16 Nov 2002 22:16:04 -0500
Subject: Your files :)
Hi, John.
Thanks for your order. Here are your files... and I included a
"You've got mail, John" file, too. Enjoy!!
El Edwards
I just have a high-degree of curiosity and a tendency to email random people and see if they'll respond. And I got on the Internet in 1986 so I've been around a while.
Fun story about that. Back in 1996 Nicholas Negroponte wrote a column in Wired lamenting the fact that laptop batteries didn't show their charge state. This mattered because all of us who travelled a lot carried multiple batteries to switch them in our laptops (some laptops could have two batteries at once allowing hot swapping without a shutdown). See: https://web.media.mit.edu/~nicholas/Wired/WIRED4-12.html: "I now carry eight to ten battery packs during long trips. I won't even consider a laptop design that includes unstackable batteries. The fact that most batteries don't indicate their charge state is pathetic."
I emailed Negroponte with my solution: before a trip I'd charge all my batteries up (I think I had five) and I had numbered them by writing 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 on them with a sharpie. Then, I'd simply use them in numerical order. He graciously replied something along the lines of "Sometimes the best solution is the simplest".
I emailed a suggestion to, and received a response from Steve Jobs in the late-90s. Didn't think a thing about it, changed jobs a time or two, business I was at closed. Yeah.
> Just to clarify, I initially received $200 for doing the AOL phrases. Perhaps in my attempts to preserve confidentially, I have given the impression that AOL is cheap..but that is not the case! will only state that my relationship with AOL through the years has been satisfying and rewarding. File's done...Goodbye:)
In America maybe :). I only know it from the movie.
Ps wasn't he the same guy that did the "Welcome to Noviephone, brought to you by the New York Times!" Thing? I always called that to test if international calls were working :)
For a while it was possible to pay Elwood Edwards to record a short message (https://web.archive.org/web/20080613203307/http://www.makinw...). In 2002, I had him record "Mail classified by POPFile" for my POPFile machine learning email classifier (https://getpopfile.org).
You can listen to it here: https://soundcloud.com/john-graham-cumming/mail-classified-b...
I paid $30 for that. And him saying "Use the source, Luke!"
This is beautiful. I wish I knew this eons ago!
Ok. I’m glad I clicked those. I know it’s his voice. But still worth hearing.
hes got a great voice! thanks for sharing
Ooh. I found the original email from him.
So, now I can upload "Use the source, Luke!" (https://soundcloud.com/john-graham-cumming/use-the-source-lu...) and "You've got mail, John!" (https://soundcloud.com/john-graham-cumming/youve-got-mail-jo...).What a cool piece of internet history. (And awesome that he was a good sport)
JGC, you seem to be one of those people that always has a finger in many little internet trivia things.
I'd be bold to say, almost like a Forrest Gump of the internet.
I just have a high-degree of curiosity and a tendency to email random people and see if they'll respond. And I got on the Internet in 1986 so I've been around a while.
Fun story about that. Back in 1996 Nicholas Negroponte wrote a column in Wired lamenting the fact that laptop batteries didn't show their charge state. This mattered because all of us who travelled a lot carried multiple batteries to switch them in our laptops (some laptops could have two batteries at once allowing hot swapping without a shutdown). See: https://web.media.mit.edu/~nicholas/Wired/WIRED4-12.html: "I now carry eight to ten battery packs during long trips. I won't even consider a laptop design that includes unstackable batteries. The fact that most batteries don't indicate their charge state is pathetic."
I emailed Negroponte with my solution: before a trip I'd charge all my batteries up (I think I had five) and I had numbered them by writing 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 on them with a sharpie. Then, I'd simply use them in numerical order. He graciously replied something along the lines of "Sometimes the best solution is the simplest".
I emailed a suggestion to, and received a response from Steve Jobs in the late-90s. Didn't think a thing about it, changed jobs a time or two, business I was at closed. Yeah.
I miss those days when you could email someone serendipitously and expect a response. Now its all filled with spam and nobody responds to anything
Maybe. I emailed this guy and it went well: https://blog.jgc.org/2024/09/cracking-old-zip-file-to-help-o...
He was paid piecemeal for the recordings.
He drove for Uber later in life. Here's a video on it from Inside Edition:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sN67w6y1uig
> Just to clarify, I initially received $200 for doing the AOL phrases. Perhaps in my attempts to preserve confidentially, I have given the impression that AOL is cheap..but that is not the case! will only state that my relationship with AOL through the years has been satisfying and rewarding. File's done...Goodbye:)
love that The Simpsons actually tracked him down to do the "You've Got Leprosy" line. Dedication to the authenticity.
The Twenty Thousand Hertz podcast had a episode featuring Mr. Edwards: https://www.20k.org/episodes/youvegotmail
We used the same voice in GE's BusinessTalk system. I think BT and AOL shared a codebase. Not sure which was first.
https://archive.ph/bxiFP
Goodbye!
A final "{S goodbye"
If the early internet had a voice it was definitely his, "You got mail!" is iconic.
I'm a sad panda hearing that he passed. Rest in peace, and thank you.
In America maybe :). I only know it from the movie.
Ps wasn't he the same guy that did the "Welcome to Noviephone, brought to you by the New York Times!" Thing? I always called that to test if international calls were working :)
Goodbye!
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