Sure, colloquial translation is lacking, but text that is deliberately composed to *be translated*, goes through suprisingly well.
I mean, would you use "out of sight, out of mind" in a conversation with someone who had only a couple of years of English classes without having to explain it? Probably not. Rather, you'd most likely use a smaller vocabulary with fewer long phrases and idioms. If you do that with your text intended for translation, it does pretty well.
The goal of most translation is the ability to communicate and things like Babelfish have allowed me to communicate with users of my software from around the world with little difficulty, each using our own language. Are we going to be collaborating on great literature? No. However if I can get Babelfish level translation done portable and cheap, traveling will be much more enjoyable.
Running your post from English to Russian, and back from Russian to English, using Babelfish, yields:
Confident, razgovornoyy-narodn the transfer requires, but text which is deliberately comprised * transfer *, it goes to end suprisingly in the best way.
I will intend, you would be used tyuey &.tsuot;.out sighting, from mind&.quot; in the negotiation someone it did have only a pair of years of English types without to explain it? Probably not. It is sufficient, benefit you'.d most likely smaller terminology with a few dlinnimi phrases and idioms. If you make first with your text intended for the transfer, then they make dear good.
It will ability connect with the purpose of the majorities of transfer and with things as Babelfish it made it possible me to connect with the users of my means of programming from around the world with the smaller difficulty, each use of our own language. We do go to collaborate on the large literature? No. However, if I can obtain Babelfish flat portable and it is cheap, then those made a transfer, move will be very enjoyableee.
PS: In all fairness, I write mails in Japanese and Spanish, and I forget the occasional word or phrase - Babelfish can be useful to assist me with that. But I wouldn't use it for anything more.
No, that's why you have passports and visa requirements. Why do you need fingerprints and a mugshot?
While I doubt the grandparent post has personal need of either, obviously figerprints and a mugshot are used to identify criminals after the fact.
Since the data will be kept in a database in a "foreign" country where the person whom the details refer to has no legal recourse to oversee the data. How will I know who will use the data in the US-Visit database? How can I stop them when I'm not in the US? I can't.
Please, don't be so naive. The US government has access to a lot more information on UK citizens, even ones who've never been to the US, than a current mugshot and a fingerprint. The procedure is rude and intrusive (reminding one of how criminals are booked), but it's hardly the most severe US infringement on UK privacy. Google or Carnivore deserve this special "award", far before US Immigration.
What use would a fingerprint have been to the authorities at 9am, September 11th, 2001?
Not much. On the other hand, such information could potentially be very useful to the Spanish Government, in investigating the Barcelona bombings.
Does anybody still have sympathy for the RIAA any more?
Sure, as much as I would for any other big group of businessmen. As they don't have a stranglehold on popular music, musicians aren't forced into signing with them if they want to make a career out of music. Slashdot has a strong libertarian focus, and so it seems incredibly hypocritical to think big government should stop the RIAA from enforcing their contractual rights (or, musicians from signing contracts with the RIAA). Under a more libertarian system, RIAA-like groups would flourish.
And while I'm at it, popular music in the US may be inane, but I prefer it to popular music in Europe or Japan.
Yeah, it was great how a no-talent assclown like Courtney Love (who would be playing bowling alleys if it wasn't for the heavy support of Geffen Records) can go on and on about how the major record labels are such a bad deal.
The essay was a self-righteous joke, it's amazing people take it seriously. Anyway, if she really meant it, she should have directed the essay at bands, not a general audience. She thinks music labels shouldn't have the right to exist, and bands shouldn't have the right to sign with them? Give me a break!
Since she wrote that essay, she went on to sign with Virgin Records, shows how sincere she was.
This musical fad is as long-lasting as glam was, disco was before it, and doo-wop was before that.
That's not at all true - the genre's been going strong for 20+ years.
Every rap video has the same
Judging a musical genre by its videos is hardly fair! You could make the exact same criticisms about the pop & rock genre by talking about Avril Lavigne or Slipknot videos.
Just as in other genres, there's huge differences in style and quality between different musicians.
Why can't music companies sell the music (and make money) in the way they wish? What's restricting them from selling music with the stipulation that the music isn't for spreading on P2P networks - and if you don't like it, don't buy the music in the first place?
Just because copyrights can be easily circumvented, doesn't mean people have a right to do so.
No! People who are going to enjoy "Ender's Game" are the sort of people who would read "Ender's Game" anyway. Most people would be turned off by the silly premise, and the general nerdiness of Science Fiction. It's the same as if they had you read a Romance novel, for school.
A genre novel like "Ender's Game" doesn't contain the thematic intensity or intelligence or cultural relevance or literary significance or historical insight as a book such as "Jane Eyre." Obviously it's best for students to enjoy the novel, but part of the reason to go to school is to get an exposure to the best of what's out there, isn't it? And "Jane Eyre" is generally considered a classic of literature (and I thought a pretty fun read, but what do I know). "Ender's Game" is airplane reading for nerds.
I can't help but think you personally really like science fiction, and wish everybody else really liked them too. Well, get real! I love Chinese gangster movies, but I don't expect that everybody else will, or even many (OK, any) of my friends.
bull built weapons for saddam hussein. how exactly do you rationalize that?
Are you serious? Wernher Von Braun led the design of the V2 vengeance rockets for the Nazis.
At the time, Iraq was the republican government with US backing, pushing back fundamentalist Iran. Iran had declared an anti-US bias, declared a desire to spread their theological revolution against US puppet states across the Mid-East, and been associated with groups that made attacks against the US military.
In an ideal world, advanced weapon makers would be given a show trial, declared enemies of the people, and sent to work in rural Chinese re-education camps. But what he did isn't more terrible than what other weapon designers do.
As an author with hundreds of pulp fictions to his name, you've got to consider the source. At one time, books were the principle percieved method of learning, the principle artistic medium, and the principle way to sound erudite at cocktail parties. Their role has been replaced by, respectively, the Internet, movies & music, and business concerns. Reading for its own sake isn't a bad thing, and I myself read quite a bit, but I wouldn't call it a scholastic ideal.
There is GREAT sci fi. Ender's Game ought to be required reading. It is interesting, easy to read, and speaks to adolescents. This is the kind of book that will make kids want to read, not Great Expectations or Jane Eyre.
If the point is to keep students entertained without challenging them, why not watch the X-Men movie in class? Genre fiction may be a fun way to spend your time, but I don't see a point in studying them in a general class.
liked the movie, but i did not like the demonization of fusion in spider man ii
in a world of smog and wars fought over oil prices (pro-iraq war people: read why iraq invaded kuwait, anti-iraq war people: read why us invaded iraq) we do not need an ultra-pop movie demonizing one of the few technologies which could save us from the petroleum age
Whatever. Anybody who's even vaguely familiar knows that these compressed audio formats are approximately equivalent, and a 192kbps compressed in any popular format will definitely sound better than a 128kbps compressed in any other popular format.
Who cares what the company marketing departments are doing? The article is right: for certain people, 128kbps is only acceptable for certain purposes (listening in a bus), 192 is generally acceptable.
Wow, Slashdot makes it all the way until 3:15 before posting uninformative pro-use propoganda for Linux or the iPod? I think that's some kind of record!
It's encouraging to see movie studios go after the actual perpetrators, rather than raise a blanket assumption that everybody is guilty and everybody deserves restrictions to their activity. I remember Roger Ebert complaining that a year or so ago critics were being patted down before being allowed into movie screenings.
I have a friend that does this - The XBox isn't really that form-fitting, plus you have to spend money on getting a mod chip, a DVD remote, a larger HD, an XBOX 802.11 connection, etc., and then put the time into making it. It's cheaper & easer to get a PC (or, a Gateway DVD), which will also be more powerful.
Plus, Modded XBoxes don't have a power button on the remote, and crash all the fucking time (much worse than Windows).
XBMC would have been really cool if it had come out two years ago. Now, I don't see so much a purpose.
The regulations haven't changed, not because of a scam, but because the federal beaurocracy is a mess
I know it's trendy to bag on bureaucracies, but obviously it doesn't take 15 years to change a tax law. Rather, the regulations have taken on a different purpose - auto manufacturing still accounts for a large percentage of America's GNP, and SUV/large truck construction is more-or-less the only market American car companies are doing well in.
But the "problem" for independents isn't that all the good actors are locked away in a studio system, and nobody wants to see a movie without big actors in it - it's that they don't have the money to create big-spectacle movies, and they don't have the publicity machines of the big studios.
Shrek 2 cost $75 million to create, and a smaller, comparable amount of money to promote. There's no way an independent studio could do anything like it.
On the other hand, part of the reason why I like independents is I'm not so into movies as a pure spectacle, and independent movies tend to be something different. I'm not rooting for independent studios to start releasing "Shrek 2"s, I'm happy with they release now.
About anime: I don't think most anime has such a great storyline, they're popular because they're well-stylized (and Cowboy Bebop is a case in point). Make it entirely CGI, and it's not anime anymore, it's just a computer-generated movie from Japan, with a whole new style - & anyway anime has used CGI to assist in animation for a long time.
Hemp can be legally grown in other countries, where they'd be free to use hemp as a fuel source - and they don't! Using Ethyl alcohol as a mainstream fuel source is thoroughly discredited - it takes a lot of energy to grow plants. Susbtantially more energy than is derived from distilling it.
I'm sympathetic to hemp advocacy, but in practice it comes off as blind support by people who primarily are pro-marijuana - why not advocate sunflowers as an energy source?
It's not a strong match - Luddites are associated with people whose current job was threatened by technological advance, and would rather slow progress than be forced to re-start their careers.
India's rural poor don't have work that's threatened by India's technological advances. It's a non-issue. They're not smashing computers in the streets. In fact the discontent is because they'd like more technological advances, but in the form of running water, electricity, etc.
To my mind, economies are healthiest when there's a possibility of economic migration for exceptionally talented poor. India doesn't have a working public education system or basic utilities, so how can those from poor areas even hope to improve? The previous government's bragging about technological extravagences showed their priorities were out of wack. It's not that you have to end all suffering in the nation, but having, say, non-fatal drinking water should have been a higher priority.
In the much richer USA, many Slashdotters are opposed to the Mars program, thinking it takes resources that could better be used elsewhere - that hardly means they're all Luddites!
Small electrical bicycles are far, far more energy efficient than large SUV's. Small-engine motorcycles get fuel efficiency of ~150 mpg, and I'm sure that these bicycles are far more energy efficient than that. SUVs, on the other hand, can get 15 mpg or lower.
Slashdot Mirror
I mean, would you use "out of sight, out of mind" in a conversation with someone who had only a couple of years of English classes without having to explain it? Probably not. Rather, you'd most likely use a smaller vocabulary with fewer long phrases and idioms. If you do that with your text intended for translation, it does pretty well.
The goal of most translation is the ability to communicate and things like Babelfish have allowed me to communicate with users of my software from around the world with little difficulty, each using our own language. Are we going to be collaborating on great literature? No. However if I can get Babelfish level translation done portable and cheap, traveling will be much more enjoyable.
Running your post from English to Russian, and back from Russian to English, using Babelfish, yields:
Confident, razgovornoyy-narodn the transfer requires, but text which is deliberately comprised * transfer *, it goes to end suprisingly in the best way.
I will intend, you would be used tyuey &.tsuot;.out sighting, from mind&.quot; in the negotiation someone it did have only a pair of years of English types without to explain it? Probably not. It is sufficient, benefit you'.d most likely smaller terminology with a few dlinnimi phrases and idioms. If you make first with your text intended for the transfer, then they make dear good.
It will ability connect with the purpose of the majorities of transfer and with things as Babelfish it made it possible me to connect with the users of my means of programming from around the world with the smaller difficulty, each use of our own language. We do go to collaborate on the large literature? No. However, if I can obtain Babelfish flat portable and it is cheap, then those made a transfer, move will be very enjoyableee.
PS: In all fairness, I write mails in Japanese and Spanish, and I forget the occasional word or phrase - Babelfish can be useful to assist me with that. But I wouldn't use it for anything more.
While I doubt the grandparent post has personal need of either, obviously figerprints and a mugshot are used to identify criminals after the fact.
Since the data will be kept in a database in a "foreign" country where the person whom the details refer to has no legal recourse to oversee the data. How will I know who will use the data in the US-Visit database? How can I stop them when I'm not in the US? I can't.
Please, don't be so naive. The US government has access to a lot more information on UK citizens, even ones who've never been to the US, than a current mugshot and a fingerprint. The procedure is rude and intrusive (reminding one of how criminals are booked), but it's hardly the most severe US infringement on UK privacy. Google or Carnivore deserve this special "award", far before US Immigration.
What use would a fingerprint have been to the authorities at 9am, September 11th, 2001?
Not much. On the other hand, such information could potentially be very useful to the Spanish Government, in investigating the Barcelona bombings.
Sure, as much as I would for any other big group of businessmen. As they don't have a stranglehold on popular music, musicians aren't forced into signing with them if they want to make a career out of music. Slashdot has a strong libertarian focus, and so it seems incredibly hypocritical to think big government should stop the RIAA from enforcing their contractual rights (or, musicians from signing contracts with the RIAA). Under a more libertarian system, RIAA-like groups would flourish.
And while I'm at it, popular music in the US may be inane, but I prefer it to popular music in Europe or Japan.
The essay was a self-righteous joke, it's amazing people take it seriously. Anyway, if she really meant it, she should have directed the essay at bands, not a general audience. She thinks music labels shouldn't have the right to exist, and bands shouldn't have the right to sign with them? Give me a break!
Since she wrote that essay, she went on to sign with Virgin Records, shows how sincere she was.
That's not at all true - the genre's been going strong for 20+ years.
Every rap video has the same
Judging a musical genre by its videos is hardly fair! You could make the exact same criticisms about the pop & rock genre by talking about Avril Lavigne or Slipknot videos.
Just as in other genres, there's huge differences in style and quality between different musicians.
Just because copyrights can be easily circumvented, doesn't mean people have a right to do so.
That'd be great - after all, if it's possible to vote from your X-Box, then we'd all come out as big winners! Ha Ha Ha!
I could explain it to you but why don't you try reading the parent? Don't be so thick.
A genre novel like "Ender's Game" doesn't contain the thematic intensity or intelligence or cultural relevance or literary significance or historical insight as a book such as "Jane Eyre." Obviously it's best for students to enjoy the novel, but part of the reason to go to school is to get an exposure to the best of what's out there, isn't it? And "Jane Eyre" is generally considered a classic of literature (and I thought a pretty fun read, but what do I know). "Ender's Game" is airplane reading for nerds.
I can't help but think you personally really like science fiction, and wish everybody else really liked them too. Well, get real! I love Chinese gangster movies, but I don't expect that everybody else will, or even many (OK, any) of my friends.
Are you serious? Wernher Von Braun led the design of the V2 vengeance rockets for the Nazis.
At the time, Iraq was the republican government with US backing, pushing back fundamentalist Iran. Iran had declared an anti-US bias, declared a desire to spread their theological revolution against US puppet states across the Mid-East, and been associated with groups that made attacks against the US military.
In an ideal world, advanced weapon makers would be given a show trial, declared enemies of the people, and sent to work in rural Chinese re-education camps. But what he did isn't more terrible than what other weapon designers do.
As an author with hundreds of pulp fictions to his name, you've got to consider the source. At one time, books were the principle percieved method of learning, the principle artistic medium, and the principle way to sound erudite at cocktail parties. Their role has been replaced by, respectively, the Internet, movies & music, and business concerns. Reading for its own sake isn't a bad thing, and I myself read quite a bit, but I wouldn't call it a scholastic ideal.
If the point is to keep students entertained without challenging them, why not watch the X-Men movie in class? Genre fiction may be a fun way to spend your time, but I don't see a point in studying them in a general class.
in a world of smog and wars fought over oil prices (pro-iraq war people: read why iraq invaded kuwait, anti-iraq war people: read why us invaded iraq) we do not need an ultra-pop movie demonizing one of the few technologies which could save us from the petroleum age
You're fucking kidding me.
Whatever. Anybody who's even vaguely familiar knows that these compressed audio formats are approximately equivalent, and a 192kbps compressed in any popular format will definitely sound better than a 128kbps compressed in any other popular format.
Who cares what the company marketing departments are doing? The article is right: for certain people, 128kbps is only acceptable for certain purposes (listening in a bus), 192 is generally acceptable.
Wow, Slashdot makes it all the way until 3:15 before posting uninformative pro-use propoganda for Linux or the iPod? I think that's some kind of record!
It's encouraging to see movie studios go after the actual perpetrators, rather than raise a blanket assumption that everybody is guilty and everybody deserves restrictions to their activity. I remember Roger Ebert complaining that a year or so ago critics were being patted down before being allowed into movie screenings.
Yeah, it worked for Apple really well!
Plus, Modded XBoxes don't have a power button on the remote, and crash all the fucking time (much worse than Windows).
XBMC would have been really cool if it had come out two years ago. Now, I don't see so much a purpose.
I know it's trendy to bag on bureaucracies, but obviously it doesn't take 15 years to change a tax law. Rather, the regulations have taken on a different purpose - auto manufacturing still accounts for a large percentage of America's GNP, and SUV/large truck construction is more-or-less the only market American car companies are doing well in.
There's a 90 day mandatory waiting period between wars, or what's the significance of it being 90 days?
Shrek 2 cost $75 million to create, and a smaller, comparable amount of money to promote. There's no way an independent studio could do anything like it.
On the other hand, part of the reason why I like independents is I'm not so into movies as a pure spectacle, and independent movies tend to be something different. I'm not rooting for independent studios to start releasing "Shrek 2"s, I'm happy with they release now.
About anime: I don't think most anime has such a great storyline, they're popular because they're well-stylized (and Cowboy Bebop is a case in point). Make it entirely CGI, and it's not anime anymore, it's just a computer-generated movie from Japan, with a whole new style - & anyway anime has used CGI to assist in animation for a long time.
I'm sympathetic to hemp advocacy, but in practice it comes off as blind support by people who primarily are pro-marijuana - why not advocate sunflowers as an energy source?
I'm glad to see the legacy of E-40 getting distilled all the way down to Slashdot.
Although I'm waiting for it to be an option on Babelfish.
To my mind, economies are healthiest when there's a possibility of economic migration for exceptionally talented poor. India doesn't have a working public education system or basic utilities, so how can those from poor areas even hope to improve? The previous government's bragging about technological extravagences showed their priorities were out of wack. It's not that you have to end all suffering in the nation, but having, say, non-fatal drinking water should have been a higher priority.
In the much richer USA, many Slashdotters are opposed to the Mars program, thinking it takes resources that could better be used elsewhere - that hardly means they're all Luddites!
Small electrical bicycles are far, far more energy efficient than large SUV's. Small-engine motorcycles get fuel efficiency of ~150 mpg, and I'm sure that these bicycles are far more energy efficient than that. SUVs, on the other hand, can get 15 mpg or lower.