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1. From Mechanics to
Managers |
I love the radio. It allows me to be doing something else while still ingesting
bits of information that I can process if they are relevant. (My wife, on the
other hand, hates it that I constantly have the radio on. . . .) The other day
I caught this snippet that sent my thoughts spinning. The program had to do
with the history of calculators and how parents used to protest their use in
school because they thought it would mess up the way kids learned math. One of
the commentators recalled that this argument was prevalent until it was
universally understood that calculators actually were turning the little
mathematicians from mechanics into managers.
Wow, I thought: What a perfect illustration of what translation
environment tools do!
Now, nothing against mechanics (I happen to know that my car mechanic
lives in a much bigger house than mine!). Nothing against translator-mechanics
either. If you enjoy the mechanics of repetition, of having to look up terms
again and again because you feel like it might give you an added edge in
creativity or something like that -- all power to you. But, boy, I want to
manage that kind of stuff. Now, in the case of translation, I still need to
know the mechanics of actual translation, but once that's done, it gives me great
pleasure to manage what I have already achieved and rely on my computer to
recall that from my translation memory or terminology database when I know my
feeble brain won't.
But then I kept on thinking about technology beyond its immediate
application to translation. I am amazed by how we (maybe I should say I)
decide which technology is right for us and which is not.
I feel rather comfortable with my PC, but I strongly dislike cell phones
when it comes to anything but making or receiving calls. It drives me nuts to
see my kids texting ALL THE TIME.
I love the web as an information resource, like a true Web 1.0 guy, but I
really don't like web-based social networking. I don't like it because I
treasure time at home with my family and hanging out with the many real people in
my life rather than prolonging my daily stints at the office for an hour or
two. So, to all of you who have sent me invitations to LinkedIn, Xing, or Plaxo
-- it's nothing personal, but you're being ignored and you are in good company.
There was an interesting editorial about John McCain, the former
presidential candidate, in the New York Times yesterday. It
talked about his use of Twitter:
The 72-year-old senator
who seemed hopelessly 20th century when he confessed during the campaign that
he didn't know how to use a computer or send an e-mail has now mastered the
latest technology fad, twittering up a twizzard to tweak his former rival.
What do you call that? Leap-frogging technology? Or maybe
just utilizing technology to achieve one's goal? And if it's sound technology, then
you don't need much of a technological background to master it. You just use
it. Which brings us back to TEnTs!
Oh, and one more word about Twitter. I predict
that Twitter will enter the history books as the technology we adopted
because we were told by the media that we should. It seems to me that the
traditional media did not want to be overrun with new technology once again, so
they made up their mind to make something a fad before it actually was. And
apparently they have been successful.
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2. Productivity Is King? (Premium Content)
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I have written about (and poked a little fun at) software programs that
remind you to exercise regularly, eat healthy, and smoke less during your work
day. Since I have gotten some flak about the fun-poking, here is another: Procrastination Killer. This works in a no-nonsense way: it
reminds you to work for a certain
amount of time (the preset amount is 10 minutes, but you can change that) and
then to take a smoking break (preset
is 2 minutes).
Is it for you? The makers of this app seem to think so -- they even
include you in their target audience list:
- procrastinators
- the easily
distracted
- compulsive
web-surfers
- people with a
long list of very short tasks
- people having
trouble chipping away at very large tasks
Another program for self-control (and I actually like this one even
better) is ManicTime. This program
tracks your time on your computer. It shows when you start and end work, when
you took breaks and -- maybe most importantly -- what applications you were
using. The only reason I haven't used this free program (yet) is because I am
afraid that Outlook and Firefox will occupy a much too large
chunk of my time every day, and the apps that I actually make money with will
have only an embarrassingly little sliver.
Let me know if you have had a chance to try it out and what you think.
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3.
Fonts Also Make You
More Productive -- or Not (Premium Content)
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In previous articles I have talked about the power of choosing the right
font for your main work environment if your TEnT allows for that (and possibly
even changing it every once in a while -- like changing the wallpaper or color of
your living or bed room). I felt very vindicated in my mission to use the right
font when I read this story:
psychologists gave students instructions for carrying out various tasks in Arial
and in a hard-to-read but pretty font. Here were the results:
The findings were
remarkable. Those who had read the exercise instructions in an unadorned,
accessible typeface were much more open to the prospect of exercising: they
believed that the regimen would take less time and that it would feel more
fluid and easy. Most important, they were more willing to make exercise part of
their day.
Apparently the students'
brains mistook the ease of reading about exercise for the ease of actually
doing push-ups and crunches, and this misunderstanding motivated them to think
about a life change. Those who struggled through the Japanese brushstrokes had
no intention of heading to the gym; the reading alone tired them out.
And while we are talking about fonts, I also found a little free Microsoft utility that adds about 10 (!) different tabs to the Properties
dialog displayed when you right-click on a .ttf or .otf font file in Windows
Explorer and select Properties. Two of those tabs are particularly
interesting for us. One is the CharSet/Unicode tab which lists the
supported Unicode ranges and code pages. Ýou see, just because a font is Unicode-compatible
does not mean that it supports all languages or characters that can be
displayed with Unicode. This little utility will tell you whether a specific
language is supported. So for a font like, say, Gautami, only Telugu is
listed; for Arial, only the Latin-based languages, as well as those
based on Greek, Cyrillic, Hebrew, or Arabic characters are listed; for a font
like Arial Unicode there's a much longer list that includes the CJK (Chinese,
Japanese, Korean) languages, as well as many other Asian languages; and in
fonts like Code2000 the list
becomes even more impressive.
What's this good for? Especially for project managers, it's very helpful
not to have to mess around to find whether a certain font supports a certain
language, but instead quickly be able to go to C:\WINDOWS\Fonts, right-click, and see whether Devanagari is supported or not.
Oh, and the second tab that has relevant information? That would be the License
tab which, in the case of Code2000, has reminded me that it's only
shareware and that I still owe the creator of that font $5. . . .
And while we're covering little free apps from Microsoft, this one is
not really translation- or work-related, but you might still appreciate it: The
Image Resizer allows you to resize many images at a time so your friend's
inbox won't be bombarded with 5-MB-a-piece files from the last photo-shooting
trip but will be scaled down to a reasonable size.
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| 4. Terminology Work Made
Easy (or Hard) | |
Here is something I am willing to bet on. On average, translators with
TEnTs (translation environment tools) that have separate screens or columns for
source and target languages have at least twice as many terms in their
terminology databases as user of tools with one bilingual interface.
Say that again?
Here is why I think that, and why tool vendors are well advised to have
tools with independent windows for source and target:
To send something to the terminology database from tools like Trados (both
within Word or TagEditor), Metatexis, and Wordfast
Classic you need to highlight the source term, press a key combination,
highlight the target term, press a key combination, and then possibly press yet
another key combination to then have to deal with the dialog that allows you to
enter the term pair into the terminology database. That is a LOT of steps to
achieve something very simple. And that is confirmed by tools like SDLX,
MemoQ, Across, Heartsome, Swordfish, Transit,
Multitrans, and Déjà Vu, all of which have separate panes for
source and target languages and allow you to enter terms into the terminology
database by following these steps: highlight source, highlight target, press a
key combination or click on a button. Some of these tools even allow you to
circumvent the otherwise obligatory dialog that lets you enter information
about the term pair by sending it straight to the termbase.
Now, it's not that translators cannot go through four, five, or more
steps to put something into the terminology database -- some do -- but most
simply don't. Proper work practices are one thing, but deadlines are another.
To me this is a very interesting case in point that shows that the
architecture of a software product has a tremendous impact not only on the way
you work but actually on the very content of what you work with.
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| 5. About Feeling Bad and
Being Consoled | |
Oh, I felt so bad last time I sent out this newsletter. I had mentioned
our TranslatorsTraining
site a number of times (this also coincided with a postal mailing to U.S. and
Canadian translators), promoting our unique site that provides comparisons and
education on translation tools. And then the site was down for a couple of days
right after I mentioned it! My apologies. If you knocked on a closed door last
time, please come back again. The offer still stands: Receive a free
subscription to the Premium edition of this newsletter if you pay for TranslatorsTraining
access.
(As the week went on I suddenly didn't feel so bad when I learned that Gmail had been down
for a day or so as well. Hey, if they can do that, so can we.)
We have also started a new TranslatorsTraining program for academics.
Here is the text of an email that I sent out to a number of professors and
lecturers:
You might have heard
about TranslatorsTraining.com,
the site that offers introductory tutorials and comparisons for virtually all
available CAT tools. Soon it will offer the same comparisons for localization
tools as well.
Many academic
institutions already use TranslatorsTraining. The site helps students gain an
overview of the available technology without the institutions' labs having to
maintain and teach two dozen different tools. For only 300 Euro per year, your
university could have unlimited, multi-user access to our website.
Despite the
reasonable pricing, however, some colleagues have mentioned that university
bureaucracy or budgetary pressures have made it impossible for them to take
advantage of our service.
Would you consider a
quid pro quo ?
If you contribute to
TranslatorsTraining, we'll give your university free, unlimited access for a
year. All you have to do is prepare a presentation -- video, audio, PowerPoint,
Word, etc. -- on a topic that you think
will be relevant to translators.
It's a win-win
situation: We benefit by being able to offer a broader range of content, and
your university and your students benefit by having access to the most
up-to-date and clearly presented information about translation technology. We
would naturally include all your or your institution's copyright and ownership
notices on the materials. We ask you to send us presentations that completely
cover a self-contained topic, but that do not take more that 10 to 15 minutes
to watch, listen to, or read. Email me if you'd like to know more.
So, if you are a translation student at an academic institution, put
some pressure on your profs to send us some materials -- and your school will
get access to our site.
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| 6. Firefox Speed-Up | |
I recently complained about the increasing sluggishness of Firefox
with an ever-larger number of plug-ins. Dominik Kreuzer reminded me that this
might be due to the "automatic updating of installed add-ons enabled -- that
slows down the program start a lot." And he was right on.
I had to look a little, but I eventually found the option to disable the
automatic update under Tools> Options> Update. This was a much-appreciated
tip and a good recommendation if you have lots of little add-ons in Firefox that make it ever-slower to open your browser.
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7. A Love Stořy (continued)
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No one will think less of you if you declare defeat when trying to pronounce this letter. If you have a Javascript-enabled browser, hold your cursor over the character for a definition.
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| The Last Word on the Tool Kit (and MultiLingual) |
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If you would like to promote this newsletter by placing a link on your website, I will in turn mention your website in a future edition of the Tool Kit. Just paste the code you find here into the HTML code of your webpage, and the little icon that is displayed on that page with a link to my website will be displayed.
And you have nothing to promote for this one: MultiLingual, the premier magazine for our industry, has again allowed me to pass on four free digital editions to you. If you go to www.multilingual.com/promo and enter D74TKA as your promo code, you can read the current issue, and receive the next three issues in their beautiful online edition. © 2009 International Writers' Group | |
