My sister sent an instant message to me. Lora asked me not to use a lower case t in tablet whenever Tablet PC is used in a sentence. She suggested that the proper way is for the t in tablet pc to be capitalized. Oops. I did it again.

I laughed and wondered how often I’ve simply used tablet pc, tablet PC, or Tablet PC in any of my writings. After reading some of my past posts, clearly my methods were not consistent. It dawned on me that others may flip around the capitalizations too. After all, if I wasn’t consistent then maybe others haven’t been either.

You see, most people would be content to just accept their inconsistencies while people like me become defensive and look for others who haven’t followed this rule of capitalization too. It can be comforting to know that you aren’t alone.

So, have others been inconsistent? And if so, just how many others have not followed suit? Are any of them from the media? And maybe if I’m lucky there are webpages (which is shown as WebPages in the default dictionary of MS Word) belonging to manufacturers?

Lora’s statement seemed to have spawned a whole couple of hours of muddling through a mundane topic and really horrible webpages. Gee, a true time waster but well worth it if you are defensive.

I started the trek for redemption by going to the advanced search in google (or is it Google?). A little more than 49,000 pages were returned and I started flipping through the pages. It looked rather grim for me until I hit page 14. I found Toshiba tablet PC gets facelift (Broersma, 2004). I lifted my arms, let out a scream of joy and stuck my tongue out at the computer screen. Redemption.

However, one is not enough. I needed more. And preferably from a manufacturer. Good ole HP/Compaq didn’t let me down either. Their page for describing the tablet pc TC1000 set me free. I wasn’t alone.

Now, two sites don’t really matter in a sea of 49,000 but I started to feel euphoric. I was now wiggling in my chair and singing a happy tune. Obladi Oblada life goes on brahhh…

Now, to really set me free then I needed a big name to have blown it. The I, Cringely archives didn’t let me down either. Neither did the eBay.com adsense ad. Heehaw. I’m on a roll.

Sadly, the good feelings came to a crashing realization that Microsoft has the final say. Out of 1,640 pages on their site, I couldn’t find one mistake. Google showed several pages like this one page as tablet pc but in visiting them the capitalization was fine. And you know I looked and looked and looked and looked and looked because I was on a path to enlightenment (and bored). Drats.

In which case, it’s time to accept defeat. And if you are guilty too then join me in raising your right hand. I (fill in your name), do solemnly swear to capitalize the t in tablet PC. Harrumph. I mean Tablet PC.

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Layne P. Heiny / Administrator for Tux Reports Network

Please do not send private messages requesting technical support. Place your request in the proper forum and hopefully someone can help you.

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Ya know what? At the moment, I'm laughing fairly hard. It seems that the last two out of three stories posted on the frontpage of this site use tablet pc instead of Tablet PC. Instead of going to google, I could have just looked at those two stories linked ... :shifty:

__________________
Layne P. Heiny / Administrator for Tux Reports Network

Please do not send private messages requesting technical support. Place your request in the proper forum and hopefully someone can help you.

Computer Sites
Tablet PC Blogs | Technology Questions | Tablet PC Post | Windows Vista | What Is New

Prelaunch
Insane Politics