Navy Scuttles All-Cap Messages

dodbuzz.com ^

[Sub-Driver]

Navy Scuttles All-Cap Messages By Michael Hoffman Thursday, June 6th, 2013 5:30 pm Posted in Naval

WE DON’T HAVE TO SEND MESSAGES THIS WAY ANYMORE, the Navy has decided.

Word went out from the Navy’s Fleet Cyber Command on May 8 that the Navy’s internal messaging system now had the ability to transmit in lower case as well as the traditional upper case letters.

“Therefore, it is not necessary to limit Navy messages entirely to upper case,” said the directive, first reported by the Navy Times. Of course, the message saying that upper case was no longer needed went out this way: “THEREFORE, IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO LIMIT NAVY MESSAGES ENTIRELY TO UPPER CASE.”

Alone among the services, the Navy has been using all capitals for internal administrative messages from the routine to the emergency going back more than a century to the days when teletype machines only sent capitals.

The reasoning behind the change was that messages in lower and upper case were easier to read, Navy officials said. Another factor was that younger recipients of all-cap messages might tend to think that the person sending them was SCREAMING AT THEM AND REALLY TICKED OFF.

“The capability has been there for about a year” to send routine messages in lower case, said Lt. Joseph Holstead, a spokesman for the Cyber Command. The next step will be to expand that capability to secret and top secret messages, possibly in August, Holstead said.

“There are still a couple of legacy systems out there that we’ll have to convert,” probably in mid-2014, Holstead said.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

Now, we just need weather services to follow suit. The use of all-caps goes back to TeleType days, and telegraph messages before that. The technology for using lower-case letters too has been around for decades now. Using all-caps seems to have just become a habit -- or even an actual cultural "meme". Change is overdue.

Some people think all-caps is like SHOUTING! It's also very difficult to read a large amount of ALL-CAPS TEXT. Most adults don't read words letter-by-letter -- they "read" the whole word by its shape. The words in ALL-CAPS are mainly simple rectangles, so the shape of the whole word doesn't help you read it. OTOH, lower-case words can be read by their shape alone -- you don't need to see the individual letters. Reading lower-case is faster and easier than ALL-CAPS. (I know there is some controversy about why this is -- but, people do read mixed-case text faster than ALL-CAPS.)

[Billthedrill]

RIDICULOUS. TTY MACHINES DON’T USE LOWER CASE FOR THE SAME REASON REAL MEN DON’T ASK FOR DIRECTIONS - BECAUSE THEY DON’T NEED TO. WHAT THE HECK HAS HAPPENED TO MY NAVY INTERROGATIVE. THESE YOUNG PUNKS ARE EVEN TRYING TO FLY AEROPLANES OFF THE DECKS OF PERFECTLY GOOD DREADNOUGHTS. RIDICULOUS. EOT.

[napscoordinator]

After all those messages I typed for 24 years....Yeah! lol.

[Cvengr]

Semaphore to now only use one flag!

Morse Code reduced to only dots!

Aldis Lamp to now operate without any shutter!

[logi_cal869]

NOW it makes sense:

It’s the OLD SALTS that do the all caps in the forums I visit...

[SamAdams76]

Well I think this is very exciting news. Finally, the Navy will adopt lower case letters.

Now if only the NWS (National Weather Service) will follow suit. Not only do they still capitalize all their weather reports, but they have to abbreviate everything - as if they are experiencing a critical shortage of capital letters.

TROPICAL MOISTURE WITH 2" PWATS WILL ADVECT INTO SNE WHICH WILL SET THE STAGE FOR HEAVY RAINFALL LATE FRI INTO FRI NIGHT. PWAT AND LLJ ANOMALY IS +3SD WHICH IS A STRONG SIGNAL FOR HEAVY RAINFALL.

[logic101.net]

Gezz, when I was a 70250B in the USAF messages were enough of a pain without having to worry about upper and lower case! Really that was the only up side; everything else was so particular. Ok, then again anything typed in my squadron was really particular now that I think about it!

[Boogieman]

“There are still a couple of legacy systems out there that we’ll have to convert,” probably in mid-2014, Holstead said.

---

Uh oh. That sounds like the beginning of a B-movie disaster plot to me. Don’t worry, just a few legacy systems, like the launch program for the warheads aboard the nuclear submarines...

[jimfree]

Amazing. I retired 20 years ago; hard to believe it took that long.

[21twelve]

I’m thinking all those ship CAPTAINS kept it around for so long.

[JRios1968]

[Conserev1]

JUST SEND THE MESSAGE AND STOP WHINING!

[spodefly]

Navy Scuttles All-Cap Messages

JUST THINK OF ALL THE INK THIS WILL SAVE.

[Petruchio]

I was a 30671 when I was in the AF. I remember reading msgs. in text, ITA-2, ASCII, and Hollerith.

[cynwoody]

.SDRAWKCAB DNA SPAC LLA ETAH I

˙spɹɐʍʞɔɐq puɐ sdɐɔ ןןɐ ǝʇɐɥ ı

[Conspiracy Guy]

!ffo wohS

[Riley]

That one would be in all caps, regardless of the era.

Unless it was a White House press release today.

"There has been an incident at a US military facility in the Pacific. Details are unclear, but it appears to have been an isolated instance of workplace violence based on a misunderstanding with an unspecified foreign government. We believe that the incident has its roots in the policies of the previous administration and we are in talks with the involved parties to determine what can be done to rectify the misunderstanding."

[Bruce Kurtz]

I was a tape-ape (72B) in the Army (71-74), and I think we used 5 bit baudet.

[bert]

Those who percieve all caps a screaming never used telex.

[dfwgator]

WHAT A BUNCH OF HORSE MANURE.