Ok, call me old-fashioned, but I’m using Netscape 7.1 to retrieve my email from my server. I recently noticed that at the bottom of my inbox (because it’s the oldest) that there is a message dated December 31, 1969. There is no subject, nothing in the “sender” field, and when I open it, it’s completely blank. LIke no headers or nothing.
A couple of days ago, I deleted it. It’s back. 
Does anyone have any idea what the f**k is going on? It’s creeping me out.
Well firstly, it’s likely from an Apple Mac (With Mac OS X 10.2.4).
You could go into the file that netscape uses to store the email using a common text editor. Search for 1969, and delete the section that corresponds to the email. But be careful, keep a backup of the file, just in case something goes wrong. Oh, and close netscape before you do any modifications.
could it be a virus?? I dont think they have internet back then… well I think maybe they had ARPANET but its not like accesable by the public…
That’s the day before the Epoch, the date computers measure time from (Midnight, 1st January, 1970). I’m guessing it’s just a crappy software bug - someone used “-1” as the time to mean “no message” or something, and it comes out as Dec. 31st, 1969.
Don’t worry too much about it.
The uwash IMAP/POP server adds a dummy indexing message to the beginning of the mailbox. If you only access email through that service then the message will not be seen, but if you access your mailbox in multiple ways, such as reading it directly one time, using a different type of POP server another time, etc. then the dummy message might become visible.
Really creepy.
I haven’t used Netscape’s email features, but is there the capability to set up a separate mail folder? You could set up a folder “Pre-1989” and possibly move this email and other email over to there.
Just a thought.
… Then when you looked in your Inbox you would see something else as the oldest email in the box.