Here's one birthday that no one wants to celebrate: Spam - as it refers to the e-mail annoyance, not the processed meat product - is 15 years old today. According to Digital Trends, Usenet administrator Joel Furr is believed to be the person who coined the term as a way to describe bulk posting on online discussion boards.

Furr reportedly swiped the name from a Monty Python sketch.

Although spam the term is only 15, spam the concept of unwanted bulk e-mail, has been around since 1978, the article says, dating back to when a salesman sent a message to "every user of the fledgling Arpanet" inviting them to check out his company's products.