Assume v. Presume

Web search shows divided opinions with an increasing tendency to use the lower case form. Evolution of language I suppose...
 
Just like Apple's stupid i stuff and the BBC's stupid iPlayer, but at least the BBC has got some justification for the 'i' although I fail to see Apple's.
 
I have not noticed any tendency to internet, and always use Internet.

gomezz said:
Traditionally and conventionally the internet has always been spelt with a small i so it should be iot or ioT or iOT..
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I beg to differ. It may be becoming more widespread (although I'm not convinced), but traditionally and conventionally it's "Internet".

However, with regard to IoT, there is no confusion: initialisms either use all capitals, or capitalisations based on how one would capitalise in a title (by leaving the less important words uncapitalised). Thus: MoT.
 
The lower case "i" is probably due to the plethora of people who haven't got a shift key on their keyboards or the lazy b***** who just can't be arsed.
 
Trev said:
The lower case "i" is probably due to the plethora of people who haven't got a shift key on their keyboards or the lazy b***** who just can't be arsed.
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I am harking back to the days of using the internet and its forebears using teletype machines which did not go in for distinguishing between upper and lower case which were then supplanted by dumb CRT terminals in text mode where we did not waste keystrokes on using the SHIFT key unless absolutely necessary. Ignore all later sources in the media which imposed their own editorial practises to influence how it was spelt when it became more widely used outside the academic and engineering community.
 
Nah. An internet is any arbitrary set of interconnected local networks. The Internet is what we use for accessing the World Wide Web etc. You forget you're not the only one with a computer industry heritage. Are you sure you haven't got your "use cases" mixed up?
 
gomezz said:
...which did not go in for distinguishing between upper and lower case which were then supplanted by dumb CRT terminals in text mode where we did not waste keystrokes on using the SHIFT key unless absolutely necessary.
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Those terminals where we used to SHOUT in our emails because we couldn't or wouldn't change case. Good for writing programs in FORTRAN.
Black Hole said:
Nah. An internet is any arbitrary set of interconnected local networks. The Internet is what we use for accessing the World Wide Web etc.
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Whilst true, would the general population make this distinction?
Black Hole said:
Are you sure you haven't got your "use cases" mixed up?
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I would have thought that if you hadn't got a shift key on your terminal or teletype you would be stuck SHOUTING, not whispering.
 
EEPhil said:
I would have thought that if you hadn't got a shift key on your terminal or teletype you would be stuck SHOUTING, not whispering.
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It was the ingrained teletype usage which carried over to dumb terminal usage. Later got smarter terminals which let you change the key usage so I swapped the @/' key round so I did not need to use SHIFT to produce an @ which was the single most important keystroke on the mainframe system we were using. Curiously, it did not catch on with my colleagues who were always caught out if they happened to use my terminal.

(another consequence is that, as you will have noticed, my user name which dates from the 80s is invariably spelt with an initial lower-case g)
 
so all the peeps who rite in wisper case on their phones and puters wer brung up on early teletypes were they i dont fink so its just cause they r lazy buggers and standards have unnecessarily slipped due to lazy buggers
 
How do you work that out? One is telling the computer to do summat which doesn't care if the command is in upper, lower or mixed case. The other is modern messaging where the recipient does care. For example, I don't bother with the shift key when using a search engine but I do when writing posts for you to read.
 
gomezz said:
For example, I don't bother with the shift key when using a search engine but I do when writing posts for you to read.
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That's because you don't fall into my general category of "lazy b*****" and obviously have a little pride in how others perceive your written prose.:)
 
EEPhil said:
Why is it still called an MoT test when the Ministry of Transport no longer exists? An error the general population, government, testing stations and AvP contributers make - or something that has slipped into common usage?
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It's a deliberate decision to continue with it as it is now so embedded in our culture. The term MOT (with the capital O) is still used on the official documents, etc. such as at https://www.gov.uk/getting-an-mot/the-mot-test
 
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