Monthly Archives: October 2009

Anyone else been confused by random Js in their e-mails? I have received many e-mails that often end up with a J at the end of a line, often where one thought a smiley would fit right in. At first I suspected that it was a particular company that had an internal way of typing jokes since I couldn’t find anything about the abbreviation J as Internet slang. Since I never asked at first it felt silly to ask later on when many Js had passed. One day however I started receiving Js from other companys as well! I got more confused. How could these companies, with employees who where not particullary Internet savvy, have the same unbeknownst to me style of Internet slang? The clue lies in the character code for J, 0x4A.

It turns out that J and a Wingdings smiley share the same character code 0x4A. What was happening was that the persons where most likely typing a smiley which the e-mail system, Microsoft Exchange, automatically converted to a Wingdings smiley. I also examined the source code of the e-mail and found this to be true:

<span style=3D'font-s=ize:11.0pt;font-family:Wingdings;color:#1F497D'>J</span>

Unfortunately neither my e-mail client nor gmail showed me the J in Wingdings, rather just a plain old J. So next time you see a random J, don’t get confused, it’s most likely a smiley!