and too true that second languages should be taught earlier. some schools in the US do teach other languages in elementary/primary school, but by and large, these are private schools. i live in new jersey and have never yet heard of a public school that does.
heaven knows that enough studies were done illustrating the greater capacity younger children have learning languages than older children.
a good example of why translation is an art, not a science.
as the parent notes, there are many expressions in many languages which will get mangled using word for word translation. but doesn't this mean that there should be a table of expressions and other items not to translate literally?
and here's a fun little detail: although you can find bilingual attorneys when dealing in international law, do not try to get most translation services to certify (in a legally-binding sense) that their translation of a contract is identical for all intents and purposes in both languages. i used to run into this a lot a few years ago when i used to do contract work.
in response to a different reply to the same parent: in order to produce these massive quantities of parallel texts in multiple languages, someone(s) will continue to have to translate a certain baseline amount of material as usage and new expressions enter usage.
1. skewed towards shopping. duh: this is what the majority of people are searching for: something to buy.
2. "skewed synonyms". this is a weakness of any search engine. but it's not like it's difficult to include search operators when you assemble a search.
3. book learning. does the author of this article not understand what an *internet search engine* is supposed to be? fscking moron.
exactly right and no offense but i'm mildly surprised nobody mentioned this earlier.
what i'm finding intriguing is the likelihood that some indeterminate time in the future, will albums include the videos that go w/ the audio tracks? will we even be able to get audio tracks w/out the videos? i mean, they could release the video in a format (likely not yet extant) that supports voice-only and AV output, and you tell your player which output you want.
but then, what about the very concept of an album? some artists craft an album to have a specific theme or message, so how would these artists release music in a micropayment=1 world?
(yes, i know we're not talking the majority, but it's the old 90/10 rule at play, isn't it?)
we're talking about the context of paying for a single song. there are precious few albums i know of that i would keep every track and not delete at least 1 or 2. maybe download sites would provide remarks re: artists's recommended track selections.
like superdug, i gotta wonder why the obligatory M$ jabs are being supplanted by gratuitous SCO jabs. i mean, remaining moderately on topic wouldn't be such a bad thing...
except that no matter how competent a military leader the president may be, there's no reason to risk his life. you didn't see colin powell leading a tank brigade during desert storm for good rason: modern command, control & communication functions are solid enough to remove such a need.
sitting heads of state have never ridden into battle in US history; washington, grant, teddy roosevelt, and ike's military accomplishments preceded their presidencies. truth be told, as i'm not a military historian, i wouldn't know the last time a sitting head of state took to the battlefield in world history.
perhaps the admin staff who pre-sort the e-mails use a variant of the slashdot moderation system and the president only sees the ones rated +5. i can just imagine the modifiers now...
goodness me, yes! i had the same problem and it really aggravated me. i remember the happy day that i discovered the skinny transparent pieces so i could at least use only skinny pieces to create ships...of course, trying to create missiles was another story...
ah, the good old days when i could reconstruct the argo from the big blue 2x8 bricks...i never did have enough pieces to make appropriately scaled fighters...
[waxes nostalgic]
32 years old and here i am waxing nostalgic about freaking legos. this is telling. i'm not sure if it's in a good or bad way, but it's definitely telling.
[gapes & tries to figure out how i got modded up as insightful]
seriously: good call by that webmaster. i was having a lot of trouble bringing up the techspot site for about half an hour or so...anybody know if there many sites doing this sorta heads-up, anti-slashdotting armoring?
"seems kind of foolish for sony to have different strategies"
maybe they're just waiting to see which approach will win out. they can afford to continue both lines until a clear winner emerges, i would think. pundits keep saying that will emerge in the next year or so and have been for how long now?
"welcome slashdot visitor! you have been redirected to a ligher version of our article in order to conserve bandwidth and keep the site running smoothly for everybody. this is the whole text of the article, if you would like to read the story along with our reader comments, please click here."
slashdot provides anti-spam armoring, and the sony site apparently offers anti-/. effect armoring?
ah, if only i could find a way to bring that full circle, my karma would be mighty indeed...
sadly, i had an idea to categorize sites by the dewey system back in the day. of course, once i realized what a "portal" was, that idea died a quick death, as books only have one dewey decimal number.
the other thing that killed it was that the dewey system only treats of non-fiction and as we all know, most sites are definitely fiction.:>
Slashdot Mirror
goodness, i certainly didn't think that when i first logged into /. today that i would be seeing old english...
it's astonishing just how germanic it looks to me.
ed
good joke, that.
and too true that second languages should be taught earlier. some schools in the US do teach other languages in elementary/primary school, but by and large, these are private schools. i live in new jersey and have never yet heard of a public school that does.
heaven knows that enough studies were done illustrating the greater capacity younger children have learning languages than older children.
ed
a good example of why translation is an art, not a science.
as the parent notes, there are many expressions in many languages which will get mangled using word for word translation. but doesn't this mean that there should be a table of expressions and other items not to translate literally?
and here's a fun little detail: although you can find bilingual attorneys when dealing in international law, do not try to get most translation services to certify (in a legally-binding sense) that their translation of a contract is identical for all intents and purposes in both languages. i used to run into this a lot a few years ago when i used to do contract work.
in response to a different reply to the same parent: in order to produce these massive quantities of parallel texts in multiple languages, someone(s) will continue to have to translate a certain baseline amount of material as usage and new expressions enter usage.
ed
o, sure: *that's* gonna happen... :>
ed
OK, now that's just a nifty expression.
at some point, it may be co-opted, mass marketed and then overused into extinction, but for right now, really cool.
ed
how did the parent get +5 flamebait? are there D&D-playing moderators?
ed
strangely, i've noticed that in my local supermarket, the buns & hot dogs are marketed in equal numbers.
it might be local to you too: http://www.wegmans.com/
ed
googolplex? hey, isn't that the name of that new movie theatre that's going up? :D
ed
let's look at this point by point:
1. skewed towards shopping. duh: this is what the majority of people are searching for: something to buy.
2. "skewed synonyms". this is a weakness of any search engine. but it's not like it's difficult to include search operators when you assemble a search.
3. book learning. does the author of this article not understand what an *internet search engine* is supposed to be? fscking moron.
ed
exactly right and no offense but i'm mildly surprised nobody mentioned this earlier.
what i'm finding intriguing is the likelihood that some indeterminate time in the future, will albums include the videos that go w/ the audio tracks? will we even be able to get audio tracks w/out the videos? i mean, they could release the video in a format (likely not yet extant) that supports voice-only and AV output, and you tell your player which output you want.
but then, what about the very concept of an album? some artists craft an album to have a specific theme or message, so how would these artists release music in a micropayment=1 world?
(yes, i know we're not talking the majority, but it's the old 90/10 rule at play, isn't it?)
we're talking about the context of paying for a single song. there are precious few albums i know of that i would keep every track and not delete at least 1 or 2. maybe download sites would provide remarks re: artists's recommended track selections.
ed
i just wish SCO' FUD would just go huntin' wabbits or otherwise not waste bandwidth...
[sighs]
ed
when did you add this code to the site? i think that's pretty heads-up of you.
ed
for anybody who is getting through:
"slashdotted!
not available at the moment due to the slashdot effect. will be back shortly as a (much faster) static page. thank you for your patience."
i really, really dig webmasters who account for this. clearly, this one must be a regular here.
ed
like superdug, i gotta wonder why the obligatory M$ jabs are being supplanted by gratuitous SCO jabs. i mean, remaining moderately on topic wouldn't be such a bad thing...
ed
you'll notice the absence of reference to the redmondites in the parent post.
ed
would the AIM text read "you've got cash!"?
ed
assuming that those who use l337 consistently use the same character substitutions, this would make some insanely strong passwords. i mean, heck:
|?h3@4 |\/|y l337 5|1ll5
becomes |yl5 based upon 2 inkblots.
of course, i kinda now hate myself for having found a possible actual value in l337...
[offs self]
ed
except that no matter how competent a military leader the president may be, there's no reason to risk his life. you didn't see colin powell leading a tank brigade during desert storm for good rason: modern command, control & communication functions are solid enough to remove such a need.
sitting heads of state have never ridden into battle in US history; washington, grant, teddy roosevelt, and ike's military accomplishments preceded their presidencies. truth be told, as i'm not a military historian, i wouldn't know the last time a sitting head of state took to the battlefield in world history.
ed
perhaps the admin staff who pre-sort the e-mails use a variant of the slashdot moderation system and the president only sees the ones rated +5. i can just imagine the modifiers now...
+1 campaign donor
-1 civil liberties kook
+1 convenient ally
-1 democrat
-1 libertarian
+1 republican
+1 useful tool
ed
goodness me, yes! i had the same problem and it really aggravated me. i remember the happy day that i discovered the skinny transparent pieces so i could at least use only skinny pieces to create ships...of course, trying to create missiles was another story...
ah, the good old days when i could reconstruct the argo from the big blue 2x8 bricks...i never did have enough pieces to make appropriately scaled fighters...
[waxes nostalgic]
32 years old and here i am waxing nostalgic about freaking legos. this is telling. i'm not sure if it's in a good or bad way, but it's definitely telling.
[sighs]
ed
[gapes & tries to figure out how i got modded up as insightful]
seriously: good call by that webmaster. i was having a lot of trouble bringing up the techspot site for about half an hour or so...anybody know if there many sites doing this sorta heads-up, anti-slashdotting armoring?
ed
"seems kind of foolish for sony to have different strategies"
maybe they're just waiting to see which approach will win out. they can afford to continue both lines until a clear winner emerges, i would think. pundits keep saying that will emerge in the next year or so and have been for how long now?
ed
"welcome slashdot visitor! you have been redirected to a ligher version of our article in order to conserve bandwidth and keep the site running smoothly for everybody. this is the whole text of the article, if you would like to read the story along with our reader comments, please click here."
slashdot provides anti-spam armoring, and the sony site apparently offers anti-/. effect armoring?
ah, if only i could find a way to bring that full circle, my karma would be mighty indeed...
ed
sadly, i had an idea to categorize sites by the dewey system back in the day. of course, once i realized what a "portal" was, that idea died a quick death, as books only have one dewey decimal number.
:>
the other thing that killed it was that the dewey system only treats of non-fiction and as we all know, most sites are definitely fiction.
ed
whoops, got lost in my own text there...that's embarassing...thanks for the clarification.
ed