Hello computer enthusiasts. I would like to clarify something that many of you seem to be getting wrong. I’m not sure if it’s due to lack of education, carelessness, or people absorbing the mistakes of others.
“MAC” is an acronym for Media Access Control, colloquially known as a MAC address or Ethernet address. It is the unique hardware identifier for each network adapter, expressed in hexidecimal.
“Mac” on the other hand, is short for “Macintosh,” a computer made by Apple, Inc. It is not an acronym, therefore not capitalized. Just because it’s three letters doesn’t automatically make it an acronym. For example, Robert’s nickname is Bob, not BOB.
Most of the time, this mistake hardly matters. However when you’re trying to discuss technical networking issues with Macs and MACs, it’s quite frustrating to decipher what is a Macintosh and what is a Media Access Control address.
Stay tuned. Next week I’ll have a rant on “your” versus “you’re” and apostrophe usage.
3 Responses
Cheri
21|Dec|2007 1Also, I detest when people write that something happened in the 50’s rather than the ’50s. Turns out that That ’70s Show did not cure the world of that particular evil as I had hoped.
Bryce Boe
22|Dec|2007 2Interesting though I think in a verbal discussion MAC takes precedence as it is far more specific; though I guess that doesn’t really matter if it is not the speaker’s intended use. How far are you with galaxy?
Adam Nelson
22|Dec|2007 325 stars, I believe.
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