Comments on: Stripped Down Naked to Honor Web Designers and Developers

By: Sherice

Sherice — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:29:13 +0000

What a great way to show just how much goes into a website design - and how very drab and…naked, the internet would look without us!

I missed this year’s CSS Naked day, but I’ve got my calendar marked for next year!

By: ロバート

ロバート — Fri, 02 May 2008 11:10:46 +0000

It would be nice if machine translation could work but I have severe doubts. (Good) Translation usually needs human intelligence. At best you might get a sketch of the original ideas. In 20 years time who knows?
It’s an interesting topic though.
It should be easier to deal with multiple languages on the Internet at the moment. (Even WordPress mangles non-English stuff in my experience) Browser integration is a good place to start. The most interesting thing I’ve seen recently is the large user contributed dictionary held by WordChamp which appears as multiple language pop-ups including audio samples as you mouse over text in Firefox.

By: Beloy

Beloy — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 07:11:46 +0000

Please, don’t understand my previous comments as an anti-tech memorandum. It’s not to say machine translation or AI businesses are ever going to disappear from the market. There is, - and always will be, - a place for some weird things in our life. No matter how unpractical they are.
Speaking about your initiative: In the sense of convenience, - YES, Lorelle! A browser is a very good place for that!

By: Beloy

Beloy — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:23:13 +0000

Lorelle, guess what scientific idea was the most expensive in the history of mankind? The Artificial Intelligence! There was a record number of $BILLIONS invested into it for the last sixty years. Best world’s experts have been engaged. But in result … there is NO single competitive AI-based solution up to now!

I’m trying to say it’s always useful to be aware about fundamental(!) limitations for some modern technologies. There are some things we can try approaching to forever, - but with no final result! AI, Perpetual Mobil, and … Machine Translations are on the list.

Anyway, the price for using translation systems is a decreasing quality of blogosphere.

By: Lorelle VanFossen

Lorelle VanFossen — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 15:10:16 +0000

@ Beloy:

Actually, I’ve recently seen some machine translations that blew me away. Yes, currently, with limits on bandwidth and CPU capability, it stinks. But I have access to the future of technology and I’ve seen the future. It’s possible for a computer to be programmed with phenomenal abilities. Don’t be short-sighted on this. Take the long view. This is possible.

The issue is where does the onus lie for the user. Should I have to find a page in a language I don’t understand, then take the URL link to a translation service, put it in, not quite knowing what language it is in, so I have to guess, and then wait for the translation? Or should it happen seamlessly? I vote for seamless.

Machine translations are coming, and they are going through growing pains, but there are some amazing experts working on this. Twenty years from now, you will be stunned. The issue I bring up is implementation. It’s coming. I want the conversation on the “how” to begin now.

By: Beloy

Beloy — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 13:03:13 +0000

Lorelle, your Machine Translation Dream is a bad idea!
I think in Russian. But if I decide to use automatic translators for all my Internet activity, e.g., for writing this comment, - you will stop reading it after first couple words. Why? Translation programs will NEVER approach the level of native language speakers. You are looking at the wrong direction …

Wanna proof? Take the simplest experiment:
Translate THIS blog into, say, Tanzanian language. Obviously, if you don’t know that language, the result might look OK for you. But then translate it back to English! Now see the difference?!!

In the case you still have doubts, - REPLACE your original blog with similar double translations, and wait reaction from your readers …
I can guarantee, the resulting lorelle.wordpress.com will never be on the top of blogosphere as it is now!

By: Raul

Raul — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 03:39:37 +0000

Hi Lorelle,

I went naked too but my trackback doesn’t show.

http://hummingbird604.wordpress.com

By: Voyagerfan5761

Voyagerfan5761 — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 10:09:36 +0000

I did this, too, though I’ve already switched my site back to its theme. It was white and skinless for about 17 hours (23:00 to 02:00, approximately). I like the idea of this thing. When’s next year’s?

Oh, and a minor point: I believe they would prefer to be called Linux users rather than Linus users.

@Paul: There’s already a Google Translation API.

By: Chris | Martial Development

Chris | Martial Development — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 00:50:39 +0000

I’d be surprised if there isn’t already a Firefox plugin that simplifies page translations.

By: oso

oso — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 23:39:04 +0000

It makes much more sense to do machine translation in a centralized location rather than in the browser as it needs to tap into vast database of translation memory. For example, Google Translate works by searching for clusters of words that have already been translated by professional translators working for the UN.

Blogging uses too many slang words and idioms that don’t exist in machine translation lexicons. For now, if you want to read translations of posts from bloggers around the world, you should be reading Global Voices.