Archive for the ‘Proper English’ Category

Broadband is an Adjective

Saturday, March 27th, 2010

Over the past two weeks, I have heard people talk and read people’s blogs about the FCC’s National Broadband Plan.  One of the things which troubles me is the use of the term “broadband.”  An illustrative comments might be, “we have to ensure rapid deployment of broadband.”

Broadband is an adjective, not a noun.  It refers to the available frequencies in a given communications channel to transmit information.  Further, networks are not “fast”.  Signals in an electronic communications network travel at the speed of light for the given medium, no faster or slower.  The only thing that changes is the width of the band of frequencies used which has a direct impact on data transfer rate – the time it takes to transfer a file of a certain size between two points on the network.

So, to be precise, we want to ensure rapid and widespread deployment of broadband networks.

Insight:  I do not drone on about this just to be a smartass.  Communications networks and policy are extremely complicated matters.  In this arena, it is really hard to get things “right”.  It is therefore very important that we use language with precision.  There is, of course, this creative use of the broadband as a noun from former-FCC Chairman Kevin Martin.*

Tags: , ,
Posted in Broadband, Proper English | View Comments

Highest use of spectrum

Thursday, May 7th, 2009

When I was at the FCC, one of its stated policy goals was to ensure that radio spectrum was put to its “highest use”.  It now appears that one carrier is going to do precisely that, albeit not in the United States.  According to a report by Reuters, Nepal Telecom plans to extend its mobile network coverage to the summit of Mount Everest in the Himalayas.  This network will allow climbers upto the 29,035 foot summit to have access to terrestrial-based communications, without having to rely on expensive satellite phones.  This use of spectrum is an even higher use than the unlicensed spectrum employed at the Wi-Fi hotspot which China Mobile built at the Mount Everest base camp.  That’s only at 17,000 feet above sea level.

Insight:  I am not sure that this is the meaning of ‘highest’ the FCC intended when it chose the term.  Perhaps what was meant was ‘highest value use’.  However, adding that one little word opens a messy intellectual can of worms.  Does this mean highest monetary value use or highest social value use?  Monetary value is easy to determine.  Just look at who is willing to spend the most money to use the spectrum.  Social value is much harder to determine.  If we forgo social value for a monetary determination, we might have to give up such intangibles as public safety and national defense.  Good thing the policy goal has since been restated to promoting the “efficient and effective use of non-federal spectrum”.

Tags: ,
Posted in Optimal Regulation, Proper English, Wireless Communications | View Comments

One Word Oxymorons

Sunday, January 11th, 2009

We’re all familiar with the term oxymoron.  Oxymorons are a subset of the expressions called contradictions in terms. The definition of an oxymoron is a figure of speech that combines two normally contradictory terms. Oxymoron is a loanword from Greek oxy (‘sharp’) and moros (‘dull’); itself an oxymoron. In popular usage, the term oxymoron is sometimes used more loosely, in the sense of a simple contradiction in terms.

One of the most famous examples of colloquial oxymorons is jumbo shrimp.  The term Jumbo, coming from the name of P.T. Barnum’s enormous African Elephant, now synonymous with ‘large’ and shrimp has taken on the meaning of ‘small’.

Insight:  The other day I got to thinking whether is there a word so confused, so self-contradictory that it is its own oxymoron.  Well, I came up with two: naturalize and favorites.  Naturalize means literally, “to put into the state of nature;” however, to be in the state of nature means to be unaffected by human intervention.  The word favorite is itself a superlative, meaning something that one likes the best.  The word favorites is then a plural superlative, itself an oxymoron.

Tags:
Posted in Cool Stuff, Proper English | View Comments

Network Neutrality vs. Network Management

Saturday, May 24th, 2008

There is no generally agreed upon definition for Network Neutrality and deviations or violations against the principal.  Network neutrality is something of a catch-all phrase that has come to reflect a number of potential behaviours that some have considered to be anticompetitive.Network neutrality implies that all IP packets should be treated more-or-less the equally, and the debate reflects concerns that they might not be in the future – that a network operator might somehow apply different treatment to IP packets (or datagrams) associated with different services, applications, destinations or devices.

Insight:  The term network neutrality is a loaded one. It implies that any deviation from its principals is not neutral, and in some way unfair. In many instances, it is perfectly fair to provide preferential treatment to some network uses, say premium customers or emergency services. Well, the highly-paid lobbyists have returned with their own term to redraw the chalk lines on the level playing field. In recent discussions involving the US FCC, the term network management practices has come to take the place of the term network neutrality.  While the semantics of this term are more objective, it does not accurately describe the nature of the problem.  Network management refers to a much broader scope of activities including business practices, sales and marketing, security, fault tolerance, and capacity planning. Since the issues present in this debate represent only a narrow slice of network management, what term should be used?  How about false and deceptive advertising or anticompetitive practices?  Somehow that lacks the sexiness of Net Neutrality.

Posted in Network Neutrality, Proper English | View Comments

Better than Best Efforts

Monday, March 24th, 2008

In hearing the Network Neutrality debate, does it strike you as odd when you hear the term ‘best efforts’? Most classes of Internet service are billed as being best efforts; however, if you want guaranteed delivery of your packets, you have to pay more. Why should you have to pay for something which is better than the best?! I know what it means colloquially, but this drives me crazy. Wiktonary defines effort as: noun, 1. The amount of work involved in performing an activity; exertion. 2. An endeavour. Since best is a superlative, you cannot have really something which is better than your best exertion. Can you? Well Okay, what about endeavor? Endeavor: noun, 1. A sincere attempt. A determined or assiduous effort towards a specific goal. Ah yes, always be sincere whether you mean it or not. If your best attempt doesn’t guarantee service what would more could you do?

Insight: Isn’t false advertising, if not a grammatical impossibility, to label a lower class as being “best”?

Posted in Network Neutrality, Proper English | View Comments

You can’t “incentivize” anyone.

Wednesday, January 30th, 2008

MBA’s use the word “incentivize” all the time. However, there is no such word in the English language. If there were, it would literally mean “to turn into an incentive”. So unless you are planning grind a person up and use the bits as a reward, do not use it.  To use the active voice of this transitive verb in proper English, one can “provide incentives” or more succinctly, “incite someone to do something”. The verb to incite is not necessarily coupled to the predicate “to riot”.

Posted in Pet Peeves, Proper English | View Comments