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French Response to Google is Microsoft
efp writes "Mark Liberman posted over in the Language Log that, in considering alternatives to Google's library initiative in Europe, French President Jacques Chirac would consider a partnership with Microsoft 'since he has so many views in common with its president, Bill Gates'. This comes out of talks between the French president, the head of the French National Library and the Minister of Culture, in in part 'building an alter ego to the American project, before thinking of an eventual collaboration with Google, so as not to negotiate from a position of weakness' as they plan to digitize their cultural resources."
They are both filthy stinkin rich, hate google, and dream of a new world order?
I have this really funny quote that I like to put here. Unfortunately, there's this really annoying thing called a char
for all the French+Bill Gates jokes
"When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail." - Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)
Moi, j'aime bien nos maitres francais des biblioteque borg.
__________ Leave me alone I'm compiling a RPG II program on my S/36...Thanks to metamucil I'm a Regular Meta Moderator
Come on! We're Americans! Do you think we *care* what everyone else thinks?
All joking aside, regardless of my feelings towards the French, which are pretty close to neutral, this does seem contrary to their nationlistic zeal to keep France French. I (like other posters) assumed that the government would come up with its own solution. It seems absurd that France would team up with that oh so American company Microsoft to thwart that other oh so American company Google.
P.S. The US was attacked by terrorists because of numerous things, but name calling is not one of them.
P.P.S. The rest of the world bashes the US. Don't you think we get tired of that?
Does someone realize that Chirac never actually talked about partnering with Microsoft??? Not even close?
This post relates to ANOTHER post which translates ANOTHER article in a French newspaper which says that some UNNAMED assistant to Chirac when asked about the possibility of partnering with Microsoft answered "why not?" (which does not seem like a terrible answer..., there is no reason to dismiss anybody before the project is launched...).
Because France (and the rest of Europe) is in a position of weakness when it comes to ebook.
The BNF http://www.bnf.fr/ has attempted too early to scan lots of books, without the right plan.
The result? a bunch of low res image in locked PDF (can't select and copy) of some two hundred years books.
What google has done, is making a few people think in France: hey! We have completly fucked up our electronic library!
Given that it has costed several millions to citizen without any results,
maybe we should try to not suck so that the docile citizen do not notice the millions of euros which have been stupidly spent for a totaly useless project!
What happened up to now is that: The president of France said that he'd rather have his own "very large digital library" rather than let google do it all on their own. What some of his "minder" said in answer of a journalists question was: yes Microsoft could be a partner. Most probably if the journalist would have asked if Oracle, or Mysql or any other organisation/person/BEM the answer would have been more or less the same.
The first issue being: Should the governement fund a public "digital library" The second issue being: How.
So I do find it very unfortunate that people make a lot of "advertizement" for a mediocre propriaitary software provider (as in you can write good things or bad things about me, but first of all write about me !), based on partial information.
For the record, I do like the google search engine, but I do think that any government should make the effort of putting as much as possible of cultural content as possible online.
Of course I do hope that when the project will start it will use Free and Open Source Software, but for the time being there is not even a call for tender
BTW the french national library is called "La tres grande bibliotheque"/"Bibliotheque François Mitterand", (socialist predecessor of Chirac) no wonder Jacques wants his own.
For those actually interested in what is there http://gallica.bnf.fr/
I have always had the impression that, when in France, French people are typically rude and snotty toward Americans.
However, all of the French people I've dealt with at work and otherwise (in person) have been extremely nice people. Then again, I've never found any group of people from any place in the world that, in general, struck me as stupid, stubborn, snobbish or anything else. There may have been an individual or two that did - but no more so than any general population.
I think most people adhere to this stereotype of French people simply because it's what they hear on Fox News, talk radio and other random people - with no experience of their own.
I would probably feel uncomfortable and out of place in France - but I have no doubt that I'd find the people themselves easy to deal with - just as I've found them easy to deal with when they visit my country.
Actually, I think the anti-French thing in the US comes mostly from the second half of the last century, mostly because of Charles de Gaulle (although Churchill, Roosevelt and Ike certainly had problems with him during WW2, but that stuff didn't come to light until later).
Chirac to my (typically uninformed American) eye seems to be in the mold of de Gaulle, and I'd guess that part of his popularity is from him "standing up" to the US.
England, otoh, does have a looooong history of conflict with France. The English version of the finger is two fingers held defiantly (with the palm inwards, as opposed to peace or victory, where the palm is outward), from the days when the French would cut off the fingers of any English longbow troops they captured.
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
The translation isn't correct for the first paragraph. That's quite a problem, since it changes the meaning significantly.
Le président serait-il prêt à s'entretenir avec le concurrent de Google, Microsoft, puisqu'il a tant de convergences de vues avec son président, Bill Gates, qu'il a longuement reçu à l'Elysée? "Pourquoi pas?", répondent les conseillers de M. Chirac.
The initial translator wrote "Would the president be ready to make a deal with Google's competitor, Microsoft" which is incorrect.
A correct translation would be:
Would the president be ready to talk with Google's competitor, Microsoft, since he has so many views in common with its president, Bill Gates, whom he has long welcomed to the Elysée?
Quite a different meaning, don't you think ?