Warning – it’s a scam! November 30, 2012
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Scam alert.2 comments
Someone just posted the following e-mail on the GLD listserv. If you received it DO NOT FALL FOR IT! I seriously doubt a translator owns all 11 of these tools. I have three tools myself, but certainly not four versions of the same tool!
I’d like to quickly sell my unneeded CATTs at reasonable prices, since I am going into the travel business, and since I do not need them anymore, I’d like to sell them to a colleague who really needs them to work with, but cannot afford the high prices:
1. SDL Trados v7.5 2006 at only 100 GBP
2. SDL Trados Suite Professional v8.3 SP3 2007 at only 150 GBP
3. SDL Trados Studio Professional v9.1 SP3 2009 at only 200 GBP
4. SDL Trados Studio Professional v10.2 SP2 2011 at only 250 GBP5. Atril DejaVu X Professional v7.5 2009 at only 200 GBP
6. Atril DejaVu X2 Professional v8.0.505 2012 at only 250 GBP
7. Star Transit XV Professional 2005 at only 100 GBP8. Multilizer Enterprise 2011 v7.8.5 at only 200 GBP (www.multilizer.com )
9. Sisulizer Enterprise 2012 v3.0 at only 200 GBP (www.sisulizer.com )
10. Systran Translator Professional v6 2009 at only 50 GBP (www.systran.co.uk)
11. Babylon Translator Professional v8.0 at only 50 GBPor all 11 software ( ot at least 5 of them) at a discounted price of only 700 GBP. If interested, please, send the payment (for the CAT you want to have) to my bank account (bank details below) or via http://www.moneybookers.com to my MB e-mail as well as send me the mail address you want your software sent to. I will send any software from the list to any mail address by 1st class royal mail or by DHL courier same day I see my payment in my bank account.
My payment details are:
#ata53: Common German Terms That Make Native English Speakers Want to Bang Their Heads Against the Wall November 26, 2012
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in ATA.1 comment so far
In this workshop-style session a panel of experts discussed some of their favorite “thorny enemies,” that is, German terms that are difficult to pin down and frequently mistranslated. Participants were invited to contribute their own “thorny enemies,” and everybody threw out suggestions for the best translations for these. This session had a lot of potential, with a stellar panel of German to English and English to German translators, but I was somewhat disappointed with the final result. The “contributions from the audience” part kind of made it a free-for-all, with people shouting out suggestions. And all of the suggestions were right depending on the context. Some examples included: Absatz/absetzen, abwickeln, Bereich, betrieblich, Es ist zu + verb, Fach- + anything, grundsätzlich, im Rahmen der/des, kompetent, maßgeblich/maßgebend, plausibel, qualifiziert, Sachverhalt, Wahrnehmung/wahrnehmen and wobei.
The session was amusing, but I don’t feel I learned anything new. Then again, that wasn’t the point of the session. This kind of session would be a difficult one to conceive and implement, and I appreciate that the presenters banded together to come up with it.
(Almost) Wordless Wednesday – a day late and a dollar short November 22, 2012
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff.3 comments
Sorry I missed (Almost) Wordless Wednesday this past Wednesday. I had a visitor and was buying a car. Hope everyone in the States and all you expats abroad enjoyed a peaceful Thanksgiving.
#ata53: Orientation Session for First-Time Conference Attendees November 15, 2012
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in ATA.add a comment
Since I was the presenter and not an attendee I don’t have much to say about this session at the ATA conference – other to say that you can watch it on the ATA webinar page (for FREE!) and prepare yourself for next year’s conference. Sarah Dillon told me she is a huge fan, having listened to the webinar a whopping 7 times before the conference, and numerous other attendees came up to me thanking me for presenting the session. If you are nervous about attending the conference, this webinar is a great way to prepare for it mentally as well as physically (I include tips on how to write a resume, what your business cards should have on them, how to dress, networking tips, etc.).
As the abstract for the session states:
Is this your first time attending ATA’s Annual Conference? Do not be shy-we would love to meet you! The speakers will provide tips to help you get the most out of the conference and answer your questions. This will be a great opportunity to network with other first-time attendees from around the country and around the world!
We always start off the session at the conference with a five minute “introduce yourself to someone you don’t know” so that everyone knows at least one new person by the time they leave. So be sure to watch the webinar and prepare yourself for next year’s conference in San Antonio. We look forward to seeing you!
Success! Dictionaries and glossaries happily co-mingling in UniLex… November 9, 2012
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Tech tips, Tools.3 comments
I was able to install Der Große Eichborn, my Collins Unabridged German Dictionary, and a pharmaceutical/medical glossary with 1006 entries that I have had for a while. All three of them are happily co-mingling. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to upgrade/purchase a couple of dictionaries at the UniLex website because my versions of Ernst, Kucera and Brinkmann/Blaha were all produced before 2000 and are not compatible with Windows 7.
#ata53: Managing, Importing, and Exporting Bilingual Glossaries with UniLex November 8, 2012
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in ATA, Tech tips, Tools.4 comments
I checked into the Hilton Bayside in San Diego on the Tuesday before the annual ATA conference to attend the above-named preconference seminar by Fabio Said (@fidusinterpres) on Wednesday morning. I like attending preconference seminars, because they allow you to really delve into the material in three hour increments. The conference sessions are usually around one hour and don’t allow that much detail. The preconference seminars went up in price this year, so I only attended one. That said, I was glad I chose Fabio’s presentation, because I can see how it will really benefit me in everyday practice.
To quote the abstract, “This hands-on seminar [showed us] how to use UniLex, a professional (and free) terminology management tool, to keep all your existing and future bilingual glossaries in a single application.” I was probably one of the only people in the room who had actually worked with the tool; however, I had never known that it could be use to manage my own glossaries. Having trained under terminologist extraordinaire Sue Ellen Wright at Kent State, after graduation I worked as a terminologist for six months at a translation agency in Germany and then off and on for them as needed for another six months. I am quite familiar with the process of creating glossaries for clients and for your own use.
Acolada’s UniLex is a German tool that allows you to look up terms and translations in a number of dictionaries within seconds. I have been using the professional version for years when I purchased German-English dictionaries such as the Collins/PONS German-English dictionary, Wahrig Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, Brinkmann/Blaha: Data Systems and Communications Dictionary, Ernst: Dictionary of Engineering and Technology, Dietl/Lorenz: Dictionary of Legal, Commercial and Political Terms, Kucera: Dictionary of Chemistry, der Große Eichborn, and several specialized Langenscheidt dictionaries, which are all available on UniLex Pro. It is a stand-alone tool, which does not allow you to copy a term in Word and look it up in the interface, but this makes it an ideal tool to manage your own glossaries as well. Both tools are free, but Fabio stressed several times that we should download and use the regular version, because the regular version allows you to edit the data.
Fabio discussed what the tool can and cannot do. Like I said, it does not integrate with Word or CAT tools. However, if you are a word geek you can really customize it to meet your needs, with spaces for part of speech, context and other details. You can import existing glossaries, add new entries to existing glossaries, and export the data into nice-looking RTF Word files. Not bad for a free tool…
I wrote about using electronic dictionaries back in 2008 and am using the screenshot of the UniLex interface from that post. Since I haven’t had a chance to install it on my new Windows 7 system it may or may not look a little different than in the screenshot below, which was taken from an XP system.
He then walked us through how to create a dictionary in UniLex and import a bilingual glossary (as an Excel file). One thing to remember is that “Key” is the source term and “Equivalents” is/are the target term(s). He also shared a sample Excel table to use for the process, which was organized in 8 columns. The Excel table should then be copied into Notepad or another text editor to ensure no hidden formatting is copied with the data into UniLex. The text file should then be saved using ANSI encoding to ensure any special characters are maintained; however, some systems may do better with UTF-8 encoding. You should test your system before importing large glossaries and editing existing dictionaries. The last step is to close UniLex and reopen it to view the contents of your dictionary.
I have downloaded the tool, but haven’t gotten around to playing with it on my own yet. I’ve been pretty busy dealing with the insurance company, running errands, and following up with the people I met at the conference. Oh yes, and translating. Can’t forget the day (and night) job. I do, however, look forward to playing with it once my life calms down (maybe after the holidays?). In summary, I am very happy I attended Fabio’s preconference seminar and look forward to becoming an amateur terminologist again. I’m curious to see if my old dictionaries and the glossaries I create from my Excel glossaries will be able to happily and smoothly co-exist.
Dealing with adversity November 3, 2012
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Tech tips.Tags: loss of electricity, loss of Internet, power outage, wifi
4 comments
We may not all have to deal with adversity such as those in New York and New Jersey are dealing with at the moment – or the folks in New Orleans and the Gulf coast back in 2005. However, at some point we all deal with the power going out or our Internet going down. It goes without saying that you should at minimum have an emergency radio that is solar powered and has a hand crank to keep you informed about the storm. However, there are quite a few other steps you can take to be as prepared as possible.
If your Internet goes down due to a technical glitch or problem with your Internet service provider, consider trekking to the local coffee shop or McDonald’s to use their WiFi. The Internet always seems to go down when you have a major deadline. This happened to me once when I had a major looming deadline, so I drove to the Panera around the corner and delivered my files from the comfort of my car. I was in my pajamas, so going in wasn’t an option. I am comforted to know that the McDonald’s three miles away from my home that is open 24 hours. Who knows when that may come in handy. If power is out all around you, consider driving to a friend’s home who might have power. I relocated to my parents’ house during the Northeast Blackout of 2003. Driving was tricky and slow with no street lights, but I managed to make it there safely.
If it’s likely that you’ll lose power during a major storm, you should always charge all of your devices ahead of time. Most importantly, when power does go out, unplug your devices to prevent them from being damaged when power is restored with a jolt. Also, if you’ve got a generator, it’s best not to run electronics like phones, laptops, and tablets off of it.
Once power is gone, it stays gone. A good backup battery is great to have on hand to allow you to safely power down your computer. I have used this feature several times now during minor power outages. The Energizer Powerpacks website offers a ton of options such as battery backups, external batteries, and a solar charger. I also own a Energizer Energi To Go battery charger for my phone that I used during the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3-Day walk. I keep it in the drawer next to my desk in a Ziplock bag with fresh batteries. I bring it with me on trips just in case I need it. In fact, it was with me in San Diego. I am also seriously considering buying a solar charger I saw in the Skymall magazine on my flight to San Diego. It will conceivably allow you to recharge electronics such as cell phones or tablets by harnessing the power of the sun.
You can extend your phone’s battery life by disabling certain features, like WiFi and Bluetooth. It takes a lot of power to constantly search for a WiFi or Bluetooth signal. Also, dim the screen brightness and avoid playing audio at a high volume. If your phone is set to check email automatically at regular intervals, turn that off too. All of those processes drain battery life.
You should all already have a backup system for your computer. If you don’t, you need to start thinking about it now. Rather than rehash the subject again, I will simply refer you to my blog post from January 2011 called Backing up your stuff to the cloud. It’s nice to have a backup in your house, but inadequate if that’s all you’ve got. Remote backups with a service like Crashplan, Dolly Drive or Carbonite can be invaluable. I use Carbonite, and it has saved my skin twice now. Your most important criteria for choosing a service is to make sure that it is secure and reliable.
You should also store copies of important documents such as your family and your passport(s), birth certificate(s), car title(s), medical records, insurance inventories, bank records, etc. in the cloud somehow. This helps when you need to evacuate in a hurry as well as in the ensuing aftermath of recovery. The original documents should be stored in a big Ziplock plastic bag and the bag should be stored in a water-resistant and/or fire-resistant safe or emergency kit. I use Suze Orman’s Protection Portfolio. If something ever happens to me my sister knows that everything she needs is in this kit. A little preparation goes a long way to save you some headaches and protect your business.
It’s a trap! November 2, 2012
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff, TGIF.1 comment so far
If you receive an e-mail called “LinkedIn new messages” do not click on the link(s). It’s linked to a malicious website. This applies to any e-mail from an unknown source. I must have not drank enough coffee yet today, because I absentmindedly clicked on one of its links (not even realizing that it wasn’t sent to the e-mail I use for LinkedIn!). Luckily my anti-virus protection stopped it in its tracks. I just knew I had a couple pending messages in LinkedIn, because I had just accepted a colleague’s LinkedIn request (hi, Tom!) about 15 minutes before. So think before you click!
REMINDERS
Invitation reminders:From Concepcion Bonds (systems analyst at TCU)
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This video should explain the blog post title. It’s from my favorite TV show, The Big Bang Theory.
And here’s the original (I like Sheldon’s better):
Musings from an overworked translator 