One of my pet peeves is when people refer to Macintosh computers, or Mac OS computers, or anything else Apple- or Macintosh-related as “MAC”. It happens way, way too often, most often with people who ought to know better.A good example is found on Sioux Falls’ own KELO.com website, where they make use of an inline video player that uses .wmv video files. Out-of-the-box, the Mac OS doesn’t play .wmv files; since .wmv is a Microsoft format, that’s really no surprise. To acknowledge that, most KELO pages you pull up on a Mac OS computer show a disclaimer like this;
The in-line video player is currently disabled for MAC users.
Why do they capitalize MAC? Typically, in computer jargon, MAC is the acronym for Media Access Control, the quasi-unique identifier for network interface cards. A Mac has a MAC address, but most PC’s also have a MAC address. Then again, a Mac is also a PC (Personal Computer), but that’s another discussion for another time.They do have a reference there to Flip4Mac, so I must give them credit for that, but I just think it’s screwy for people to use all caps when referring to a Mac. Especially for the people who maintain the KELO website. A geek ought to know better!