Thirty years ago, a Massachusetts engineer named Ray Tomlinson sent a message from one computer to another, inventing a system of communication that would revolutionize the way people around the world exchanged jokes.

Thanks to email, a friend of mine in Pennsylvania, believing that the recent terrorist attacks on America hadn't scared me enough, sent me a picture of what President Bush would look like if the Taliban took over America.  I may never eat again.

Thanks to email, my wife and I keep in touch during the day by forwarding various articles to each other.  Her first words upon returning home: "Did you read the articles I forwarded you?" My first words: "No, I was too busy forwarding articles to you."

Thanks to email, several men in Nigeria have sent me confidential messages, offering to split millions of dollars with me if I help them transfer the money abroad.  Email allows me to receive such lucrative offers from around the world, not just from American crooks.

Yes, email has come a long way since Tomlinson sent that first message in late 1971. And like almost all major inventions -- guns, cars, baseball bats -- it has been used for good and evil.

The emails I've received in the last month include:

Dozens of attachments carrying computer viruses, the electronic version of the anthrax bacteria. Thankfully, computer viruses do not result in physical harm to humans, though that could change quickly if I ever run into a virus creator.

An Asian entrepreneur's offer to sell a product called Viacreme, touted as the "women's Viagra." It's the answer to many prayers, I'm sure. With enough Viacreme and Viagra, sex will be viable.

Five copies of a press release from a company called BioShield Technologies announcing better than expected revenue in the first quarter of its fiscal year. I'm so impressed, I've forwarded all five copies to my recycle bin.

An irresistible opportunity to make "over half million dollars every 4 to 5 months from your home for an investment of only $25 ... thanks to the computer age and the Internet!" It sounds rather promising: All I have to do is send in $25, then spend the next five months searching the Internet for 20,000 suckers like me.

My mother absolutely loves email, for she can keep in touch with friends and relatives in America, India, South Africa and other countries without paying phone bills or spending her golden years in line at the post office.  Her Hotmail account has more activity than Bill Gates' bank account.

I'm grateful for email, too, because it allows me to send my column to thousands of readers around the globe, including a longtime subscriber in Poland who is still waiting for some humor.  "I thought he was a humorist. Maybe he's a humanist."

Email has helped make the world a lot smaller, so small that even Eskimos are enjoying the funny picture of President Bush.

And we owe it all to an engineer named Ray Tomlinson, a man whose contribution to science is almost as great as his contribution to comedy.

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