Posted on Sunday, July 2, 2006 - 11:18 pm:

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Double spacing was used from the typewriter days when text was fixed spaced. Since the full stop (period) took the same space as a capital M it wasn't necessarily clear as to the end of a line. So too with a comma etc. Obviously now that typewriters are in the museum and most of us have left the world of DOS wordprocessors, ie all text is now proportionally spaced, then putting a double space after a full stop is no longer relevant.

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Posted on Tuesday, July 11, 2006 - 1:10 pm:

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Forgive me for saying, but those who choose "internet" over "Internet" are as wrong as those who would visit london, meet the queen or go for a boat trip down the river thames.

The fact is that the Internet is the name of a specific collection of networks, while internet is a generic term for two or more connected networks.

The two are as distinct as planet Earth and the earth around your begonias, and they should be distinguished in print.

This is not just pedantry, although I am happy to admit to wanting to be careful in my use of language.

It is also about history, about understanding where one of the key tools of our modern life came from and appreciating its true nature.

Because while the Internet is certainly an internet, it is not just any old internet: it is the one that was created in January 1983 when the research network Arpanet and the Computer Science Network (CSNET) were linked together and everyone started using the TCP/IP protocol that we still have today.

The difference between the Internet and any other internet is therefore quite fundamental and, I would argue, worth recognising.

It may be unfortunate that Vint Cerf and the other network pioneers chose to name their network after its most distinguishing technical characteristic rather than give it a proper name, but that does not allow us to disregard the distinction.

Special status

There are words that can be used in both ways without a capital - atmosphere, for example, is used both in a generic (some planets have atmospheres) and specific (the atmosphere exerts a pressure) sense without capitalisation.

But we built the Internet, we did not just notice it around us, and it was named with a capital letter by the people who created it.

As a journalist I know that if I talk about a Biro then I had better be referring to one of the pens made by the Biro company, and if I mention someone sitting in a Portakabin then it had better be one of Portakabin's products and not just any old temporary office.

But I can hoover my floor with any brand of vacuum cleaner, because the term has lost its significance and no longer refers only to a cleaner made by Hoover.

It is the same with the Internet. If we let it lose its special status then we lose a connection with our online history, one that I want to retain.

Wired News and the BBC may decide otherwise, but some of us will not forget and will not give up the fight - whatever the sub-editors do to our copy after it has been emailed over.

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