Hey, F U Buddy!

According to this Wired article, people correctly interpreted the tone of an email only 50% of the time. In other words, no better than guessing.

That falls right in line with my assertion that email is a completely toneless medium, and as such, one has to be extremely careful when employing sarcasm. It also helps explain the huge proliferation of emoticons -- I love em, and use em like pepper. :)