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".
RMS would reply to most on topic emails, I think I emailed him just a few years ago and got a reply. And in place of email, some people have had similar success with Twitter. Tim Dodd comes to mind, his Twitter communications with Elon Musk, always on topic and well researched, helped propel his career.
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.
His voice sounds a bit higher pitched than the famous 90s recordings. I wonder if that's a product of the original recording equipment or format used to store it, or something like that.
The fundamental pitch sounds similar but the tonal quality is different. The infamous "You've Got Mail" is probably lower bit depth and sample rate which lead to crunchier and darker sound qualities respectively. It also sounds like the AOL soundbite was recorded with him very close to a dynamic mic with a healthy dose of proximity effect which would explain the omnipresent low frequency.
I saw that too, but also I thought I read he was a broadcast trained professional voice, so he might have had some decent equipment at home.
I was wondering if the format might also be a factor. The comment above talking about sample rates is the direction I was thinking. Also I remember coming across formats other than the ubiquitous 16-bit LPCM, like 8 bit formats or mulaw and alaw, I don't know enough about those to say this is the difference I hear, but am aware that different encodings exist.
> 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:)
When I was a kid, using AOL with all my friends, I spent a few hours in Soundforge editing a clip of me saying "worms" as close to the AOL tone as possible. I did it pretty convincingly and began distributing the "You've got worms!" notification everywhere I could.
Anyone under 100 will probably think this was really stupid, but it was amusing to me - and all the other silly hacks on windows and such.
When emails were infrequent enough that you’d only hear this a few times per day. I feel like setting it up now just to see how irritating it is. RIP EE.
Sadly the Fastmail app wouldn’t let me set a custom notification sound but a few weeks ago I switched a frequent text contact sound to his “You’ve got mail”
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 :)
You’ll hear it every time you watch one of his movies. He has four movie credits, and some TV, most as “You’ve Got Mail voice”. And he has his own IMDB page. That’s probably more immortal than I’m going to be.
https://archive.ph/bxiFP
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 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...
RMS would reply to most on topic emails, I think I emailed him just a few years ago and got a reply. And in place of email, some people have had similar success with Twitter. Tim Dodd comes to mind, his Twitter communications with Elon Musk, always on topic and well researched, helped propel his career.
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.
His voice sounds a bit higher pitched than the famous 90s recordings. I wonder if that's a product of the original recording equipment or format used to store it, or something like that.
The fundamental pitch sounds similar but the tonal quality is different. The infamous "You've Got Mail" is probably lower bit depth and sample rate which lead to crunchier and darker sound qualities respectively. It also sounds like the AOL soundbite was recorded with him very close to a dynamic mic with a healthy dose of proximity effect which would explain the omnipresent low frequency.
The ars article on this suggests it was simply recorded on his personal cassette recorder:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/11/the-voice-of-america...
I saw that too, but also I thought I read he was a broadcast trained professional voice, so he might have had some decent equipment at home.
I was wondering if the format might also be a factor. The comment above talking about sample rates is the direction I was thinking. Also I remember coming across formats other than the ubiquitous 16-bit LPCM, like 8 bit formats or mulaw and alaw, I don't know enough about those to say this is the difference I hear, but am aware that different encodings exist.
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:)
When I was a kid, using AOL with all my friends, I spent a few hours in Soundforge editing a clip of me saying "worms" as close to the AOL tone as possible. I did it pretty convincingly and began distributing the "You've got worms!" notification everywhere I could.
Anyone under 100 will probably think this was really stupid, but it was amusing to me - and all the other silly hacks on windows and such.
love that The Simpsons actually tracked him down to do the "You've Got Leprosy" line. Dedication to the authenticity.
We used the same voice in GE's BusinessTalk system. I think BT and AOL shared a codebase. Not sure which was first.
Pretty sure it was BT and AppleLink (disclosure: my article): https://oldvcr.blogspot.com/2024/03/an-apple-district-manage...
Yes. We actually ran AppleLink.
I just remember that we had exactly the same “You’ve got mail!”thing.
Our UI was also almost identical.
In case you just want to hear it: https://www.myinstants.com/en/instant/youve-got-mail/
The Twenty Thousand Hertz podcast had a episode featuring Mr. Edwards: https://www.20k.org/episodes/youvegotmail
When emails were infrequent enough that you’d only hear this a few times per day. I feel like setting it up now just to see how irritating it is. RIP EE.
Goodbye!
If I'm running a command in the background, and want to be notified when it's done, I usually run it like
I wish I could use his voice though! These were sounds of my childhood.Sadly the Fastmail app wouldn’t let me set a custom notification sound but a few weeks ago I switched a frequent text contact sound to his “You’ve got mail”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elwood_Edwards
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 :)
I always assumed that voice was one of those fake UI they do in the movies, in the movie "You've got mail".
Only made $200 for his voice recordings.
That sucks, but he's also now immortal.
Is he, though? When was the last time you heard that sound?
You’ll hear it every time you watch one of his movies. He has four movie credits, and some TV, most as “You’ve Got Mail voice”. And he has his own IMDB page. That’s probably more immortal than I’m going to be.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0249977/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk
About 30 minutes ago, it has been my Gmail notification sound for a few years :)
A final "{S goodbye"
Good-Bye
Goodbye!
[dead]