Mark Twain wrote a wonderful essay about this and other oddities of the German language.
I can also always tell if an unknown English word is a noun… The whole point of capitalization is to place emphasis. There’s few ways that modern, anally-sanitized written language shows emphasis, and I think the German language is worse off for having spoiled capitalization.
And apparently, until the 20th century, the whole country used a single font?
You VILL pay fuer your ARROGANTZ!
I know a little German.
And there he is -----> (Midget in lederhosen.)
(Apologies to Top Secret.)
And during the war, in the Resistance I cached a small Czech one time when they were hunting him.
Big tangent but I once heard a joke about a German college professor who spewed on for 45 minutes with what seemed like a single sentence and then spent the last 5 minutes saying all the verbs.
Speaking as a non-tech person, I agree with this. In my experience temping, “local internets” are usually referred to as “the network” or even “the system.” “Intranet” is sometimes used, as in “this is how you access the company’s own intranet.” but usually in practice it’s one of the other two. “The internet” is only used to refer to the larger internet.
[related]
Is anyone else in the habit of adding an apostrophe when referring to the 'net?
I thought that went out when people stopped referring to a 'bus. 
?
What do you mean?
If “president” is ever used as a proper noun, then it would be capitalized. Otherwise, it’s lower case. How has that changed?
Actually, I don’t think I ever see “the net” used in print. Do I?
I got confused at first, because buses is what early networks ran on.
I think you’re confusing “proper noun” with “title.” If not, it’s changed enormously.
http://www.cornerstoneword.com/wbrn/capital/capital.htm
Proper nouns all over the place, but few of them are capitalized, even though they once would have been.
A search on “the net” in Google yields 101,000,000 hits. I didn’t go through absolutely all of them, but every one of the 50 on the first page seem to refer to the internet. Most of them capitalize the n, but certainly not all.
The proper nouns in that selection are:
Mike Harris
Ontario
Aunt Mary
Mary
Jean Chrétien
Brian Mulroney
Newfoundland
Brian Tobin
Bill Clinton
Clinton
Chirac
Nelson Mandela
All the proper nouns in what you quoted have been capitalized.
A proper noun is a name of specific individual person, place, or thing. “President” and “prime minister” are seldom the name of a person, place, or thing. Generally speaking, therefore, they are not proper nouns.
Another example: “Prince,” meaning the holder of a royal or noble title, is not a proper noun. However, “Prince,” the name of the singer, is a proper noun.
President and Premier are most certainly proper nouns.
I think this is an uncommonly silly fight, so I’m not planning on pursuing it.
And whether you call them proper nouns or not, my point remains as is has throughout this thread. This style has changed. It has changed drastically. All those uses of president and premier in the quoted link would have been capitalized earlier in my lifetime. I remember this, and I still prefer to capitalize them. This is a major change in style happening before my eyes, and yours if you are old enough. You ask: “How has this changed?” I ask: “How can you possibly be disputing this?”
Ugh, expano… that’s right, your point is somethng else, so why not just say “sorry, i used ‘proper noun’ wrong.”
No, but I often see “the Net” and “the Web.” 
BTW: I found that Mark Twain essay on the German language. It’s here and originally appeared in his A Tramp Abroad (1880). Great stuff.
Excerpt:
“Gretchen: Wilhelm, where is the turnip?
Wilhelm: She has gone to the kitchen.
Gretchen: Where is the accomplished and beautiful English maiden?
Wilhelm: It has gone to the opera.”
Actually, after reading that, I have a new respect for the German language. Their way of grouping ideas by either compounding them into words or by using nested parentheses is powerful (although the business with the genders is retarded). It allows for complex sentences that are easier to parse and understand (although is also open to abuse). I even see the point of capitalized nouns. It again helps you parse, especially to find the beginnings of the compound, clause-like nouns.
Are you saying that if I compared relevant sections of my (current) ChiMan with an earlier version, the text would be drastically different?
Or are you saying that when you went to school, the perceived common practice of elementary school teachers was one way, but now the common convention seems to be different?
Not challenging you at all – these are both equally valid possibilities (though one may require you to yell whenever you see kids on your lawn).
I imagine this would be easy to test–there have to be many pre-15[sup]th[/sup] editions out there (or modern/past versions of other reference manuals). Anyone?
Because he’s right. “The President” used to be, and still is in some circles, treated as a proper noun that refers to one specific individual, the President of the United States. If it’s being used generically, then it’s in the lowercase. I would never treat president as a proper noun in my writing, but it is certainly did used to be treated as one when referring to the POTUS.