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Machine translation is free and quite good now, it's just that Google is at the bottom of the quality curve even for the free ones so few realize it. Look at http://www.freetranslation.com... for a better result.

Computers have a hard time translating written things as it is... any bilingual will tell you that online translators for complete sentences will do nobody any good, for the most part. My Spanish teachers are all able to see papers with computer translations very easily, due to similarities in words and meanings (such as the word "pants" which can be colthing or breathing heavily) Not to mention, grammar and things like that are not done well at all. For the fun of it, try going to an Online translator and write something in English, translate it to Spanish, then back to English. Some results are pretty crazy. I guess the point I'm trying to make is this: what makes the translators so special compared to the ones we have now? How can they work better? Sure, there is probably a bit more effort put into these, but I don't think that a good translator will be available for another 5 years, not to mention the whole "take the speech you aren't saying" thing is hard to believe.

Try this free website out. http://www.freetranslation.com/

I know it is fairly accurate because I have fooled my spanish speaking friends once in an IM conversation. I told them I learned spanish via hypnosis and basically just copy/pasted everything spanish into IM. The conversation went on for like 15 minutes full spanish before I told them I was using the website. They were pissing their pants.

Here are some German Language sites from a site I set up for a German class at my university. Most of the sites have other languages also. (Would link to it, but don't want to get slashdotted, so I just copied the code over.)

German Language Web Sites

leo.org German-English dictionary. Just enter a German or English word in the Search Term box. Note the 3 symbols following the word entered:Press the1stfor grammar information, the 2nd for definition and sample uses, the 3rd for spoken pronunciation.

german.about.com Everything you ever wanted to know about the German language. Includes grammar and vocabulary guides.

travlang.com Click on the German Flag for German words for travel, shopping, dining, directions, etc. Click on a word for pronunciation.

webgerman.com A collection of links on the German language as well as comics, music, and games in German.

freetranslantion.com Type or paste a word or phrase into the box for a free translation between languages by a computer. The computer translations are somewhat crude, but you can also pay for a human translation.

One of the biggest German political magazines, the Spiegel, has a story about this topic in German. Here is the automatic translation into something similar to English.

Personally I do know at least one person that won't be allowed to study in the US anymore. She is listed in one of those mysterious lists and as a consequence isn't allowed to study in the US anymore. She can't figure out how and for what reason she came into that list. Perhaps she knows the wrong people like some of my friends and ... ohhh, I should ask too, I guess.

It is an awesome idea though, I would give Kudos to whichever company succesfully impliments it. I have tried BabbleFish and Free Translation, and they do an ok job for the most part, but for something as precise and advanced as war, I think it would be hard to do.

Also this transmission would be being transmitted wirelessly, and would be subject to eavesdroping, so it's encryption will have to be the strongest that is practical. Going against Iraq this probably doesn't matter, but up against more technologically advanced armies this would certainly be a concern.

Babblefish English Translation

I am aware that it is a rather crazy idea to construct myself its characteristic CPU, but perhaps there are yes people whom I can animate through these websites to something similar or who want even my CPUS reproductions. I will allocate everything on this side gradually, what is required to the reproduction of the CPUS.

Slightly dodgy web translation
No mention of GPL being the only license allowed (surely not a journalist embellishing the facts?). They mention other flavours (I'm English hence the u ;) ) of unix including FreeBSD. The interview also mentions that they are likely to go for Debian or Latinus (local distro). Interesting read and rather more illuminating than the article.

... but some guy from germany resently patented a bike with an additional front drive (see picture)
This should bring the next speed improve. You can reed more about it here (in german).

Here is a translation - I leave it like this because its sounds so funny -):

- Translation Results by SDL International --
That patented is "Tigerbike" especially smart conceived bicycle. In front and back wheel drive leave in this construction independently from one another make use of. A tip speed can be reached of 50 km/h by the additional front wheel drive. This drive functioned over a step warehouse appropriate in addition over the Lenker. This be connected over a chain with a Ritzel mounted at the Vorderrad. A hubs control provides also at the Vorderrad for the suitable translation. In the manual actuating of the front wheel drive can nevertheless problem-free directed become. With this practicable fitness machine, one trains the entire body during a drive.

As, if Hemos had even bothered to read the translated article, he would have realized that it is long, and that babelfish STOPS TRANSLATING it less than a third of a way through the article.

use freetranslation.com or one of the many other available translators instead.

yeesh.

At least not as far as I know. I work for a language learning company and by and large there's not a huge market at all for language software, let alone under specific OS'. We've done primarily Win32 and Mac stuff, but I'd say the two biggest reasons are (1) by and large linux doesn't have a strong enough place in the "common household" (our biggest market) and (2) if under linux it would generally be understood that the company would make little money for the work, which just doesn't fly, simply because of the sheer size of the undertaking (you go ahead and master different discs of English speakers learning French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Irish, Chinese, Russian. Making *one* distro would probably be more feasible, but a total of 13 separate discs for one product is a bit tougher) I guess the main thing would lead to cost, since every language tool we make (including machine translation) is made by us, we need to balance costs somehow, I'm assuming other companies are the same way.

As with every computer integration solution, there are possible drawbacks.

First, it seems a bit like taking a drink out of a firehose. Tobit's David is a full messaging platform, not just an answering machine software.

Second, the RandomWav! .DLL was written for an older version of David (5.2) and all of the documentation is in German.
But hey, what else is new?

Or, as the (Freetranslation.com translated) web site of RandomWav! puts it best:
"To the good fortune, the Skript-Engine of David can be expanded, under Windows NT mithilfe by DLLs, whose functions in the Skripten can be used. Exactly here our Utility jumps into the Bresche: it is a DLL, lauffähig under Windows NT 4.0, that includes a function to the accidental selection of a file that corresponds to a delivered pattern. They can program so mithilfe of the Skript-Editors within David an Anrufbeantworter, that the Anrufer with an accidentally selected greeting delights! For which things can yet be used entirely to one side of of Messaging and Anrufbeantwortern this function, remains leave your imagination."
Good luck. :-)

- philos

Established became should show the BigBrotherAward Germany to promote around the public discussion around privacy and data protection - it improper use of technology and information and contribute so to its acceptance.

Since 1998 such a "price" in different countries has become lent and this year also in Germany at firms, organizations and persons, that impair in special manner and persistently the privacy of persons, or (personal) accessibly make data of third.

The name is taken, in which the author already end of the vierziger years sketched its vision of a future company that stands under total supervision, from George Orwells of more negative utopia "1984".

The price sculpture to the "BigBrotherAward Germany" was sketched by the Oerlinghauser artist Peter summer. It shows one with lead volume gefesselte figure, that becomes of a glass disk durchtrennt on which a binaryer or hexadezimaler code stands to read: a passage out of Huxleys "quite new world".

The german BigBrotherAward becomes moved itself organized of the Bielefelder FoeBuD e. V., that 1987 as a society the production of the public and established unbewegten data traffic. The society was declared by Vernetzungsarbeit in that "Zerberus-network", its Mailbox "Bionic", the peace network "ZaMir" and its monthly organization row "PUBLIC DOMAIN" for subjects out of the future and technology, science and politics, art and cultivation.

On these pages, you find all information round around this first award of the trophy in Germany. The this year's Nominierungsfrist has been expired for the 25 September, would please us over stimulations and/or criticism under marginal address we.

--

Personally, if I ran one of these websites, I'd just run my entire website through a free web translator such as babelfish, go translate, or freetranslation, to name a few. Then just paste the result into an obscure directory on my site, and put a link to it.

Sure, these wouldn't be very good translations, but it'd probably be enough to scare off any stupid provincial official.

I've given up on Babblefish. www.freetranslation.com does a much better job. Running barrapunto.com through FreeTranslation gives a pretty readable result.


...phil

I've given up on Babblefish. www.freetranslation.com does a much better job. Running barrapunto.com through FreeTranslation gives a pretty readable result.


...phil

"Linux" soon no longer freely?

The Hamburger patent attorney Hauck, Graalfs, Wehnert have have the word sign protected "Linux" in the german patent office. This today a colleague of the Sozietät confirmed on inquiry of c' t. Also the german sign sheet itemizes the sign protection. In notebooks 36 of the 9.9.1999 (page 9919), Linux is listed under the acts sign 399,36 517.6 in the category software.

What sign proprietor Roy Boldt with the registration plans, is unclear. The manager of the Hamburger system house and the firm deliberation ChannelOne was today by telephone not attainable in spite of several attempts. Whether it around a new case of Markengrabbing acts itself, or whether Boldt wants to act unselfish like a More austrian Linux-noted proprietor , Remains first of all in the darkening. To be sure Boldt of the sign "Linux" can be not yet certain itself. To US-right, the Trademarks have lain since 1997 with Linux-father Linus Torvalds. Torvalds must itself the rights however first before court erstreiten.

The exit of a comparable lawsuit in Germany would be meanwhile uncertain. After information of the german patent office, the sign right ends at the respective country boundaries. How it goes on here by land, becomes first in the next weeks appear.

At the 9.12.99, the contradiction time period against word sign "Linux" expires. Until there, anybody can make a so named "relative protection hindrance" validly. The patent office is already mobilized for such a case. The form planned for contingent objections "W7202 " has already a firm place in the Internet.