Where technology names came from: WiFi and FireWire

Date:March 23, 2006 / year-entry #107
Tags:history
Orig Link:https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20060323-00/?p=31793
Comments:    4
Summary:Phil Belanger tells the story behind the name WiFi (and it is not short for "Wireless Fidelity"). Meanwhile, Michael Johas Teener tells the story of where the name FireWire came from. (Scroll down to "Why all these names?") [9:30am - I originally had a link to a NY Times article, but it was the wrong...

Phil Belanger tells the story behind the name WiFi (and it is not short for "Wireless Fidelity"). Meanwhile, Michael Johas Teener tells the story of where the name FireWire came from. (Scroll down to "Why all these names?")

[9:30am - I originally had a link to a NY Times article, but it was the wrong article and I can't find the right one, so I'm just going to link directly to Michael Jonas Teener's explanation.]


Comments (4)
  1. mikeb says:

    "The extra capitalization (from "Firewire" to "FireWire") was the big marketing-based change."

    And that’s why marketing gets the big bucks.

    I’m in the wrong field…

  2. Miles Archer says:

    You had the link right when I looked at it a couple of hours ago.

  3. Basil Hussain says:

    You could have just linked to Michael Johas Teener’s own website (which doesn’t require registration…), where he offers the same story:

    http://www.teener.com/FireWire

    Scroll down to ‘Why all these names?’.

  4. :: Wendy :: says:

    Call me ‘simple’ but I get very confused.  I have all these sockets in my PC and I plug things in – if the connector and the socket fit HOORAY!  I’ve learned ‘USB’ and that there are little USB’s (on my camera) and big USB’s on my PC and with some cables.  I have no idea what firewire is,  or the ‘1934’ (or other digits) thing is that shows up on my computer. I think there is something called an ‘S’ cable that has something to do with my TV.  Really,  I dont want to know,  just give me a cable and a socket and make sure everything I want to plug-in can plug in and that I get the right cable with each device and hopefully i’ll be ok.  firewire?  Whats that, just make it work when I need to do something…  

Comments are closed.


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