Monthly Archives: August 2004

Here's What You Should Think

It’s Just “wired magazine” Now

Effective with this sentence, I, Chris Finke, will no longer capitalize the “W” and “M” in wired magazine.

At the same time, Wired News becomes wired news.

Why? The simple answer is because there is no earthly reason to capitalize any of these words. Actually, there never was.

True believers are fond of capitalizing words, whether they be marketers or political junkies or, in this case, techies. If It’s Capitalized, It Must Be Important. In German, where all nouns are capitalized, it makes sense. It makes no sense in English. So until it becomes Die Wired Nachrichten, I’ll just follow customary English-language usage.

Still, the decision wasn’t made lightly. Style changes are rarely capricious, since change plays havoc with my sacred cow, consistency.

But in the case of wired magazine, wired, and wired news, a change in my writing style was necessary to put into perspective what wired magazine is: another medium for delivering and receiving information. That it transformed human communication is beyond dispute. But no more so than moveable type did in its day. Or the radio. Or television.

This should not be interpreted as some kind of symbolic demotion. Think of it more as a stylistic reality check.

But now, by lowercasing wired, wired magazine, and wired news, I, Chris Finke, am simply giving the medium its proper due.

Chris Finke is an Internet user, a Web surfer, and an e-mail sender.

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Here's What You Should Think, Politics

Common Sense and Logic for President in 2020

In case I forget, here’s my platform for when I run for President in 2020:

  • The metric system: we should use it. All measurements must be have metric equivalents listed by the end of my first term. The U.S. will be metric-only by the end of my second term.
  • College textbook prices: they’re ridiculous. A cap of $.10 per page will be placed on all textbooks; none of this $ 120 for a 250 page book on hamster psychology.
  • Vehicle mileage. Under my administration, it will be illegal to sell a consumer vehicle (ie. not applicable to semis, U-Hauls, etc.) that gets less than 30 mpg. Electricity is here; let’s use it.
  • Broadband Internet for everybody: all libraries and schools will have government-provided broadband Internet access and current computer hardware.
  • Television stations will be required to have their average volume set at a standard level. The volume buttons on my remote don’t work so well, and I’m tired of leaning in to hear one channel and having my eardrums blown by the next channel.
  • Bike lanes will be mandatory on all roads on public University campuses. I’m sick of almost getting mowed down on Washington Avenue just because I can’t bike on the sidewalk.
  • In order to receive welfare, government-subsidized student loans, or any other sort of federal cash, the recipient must have voted in the last federal election. If they were not old enough to vote, they must at least be currently registered.

If we can focus on and achieve these goals, the U.S. will be a better place. Admit it; you agree with me.

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