tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-201556102024-03-17T21:31:17.890+00:00Translation TribulationsAn exploration of language technologies, translation education, practice and politics, ethical market strategies, workflow optimization, resource reviews, controversies, coffee and other topics of possible interest to the language services community and those who associate with it.Kevin Lossnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14727800526216764023noreply@blogger.comBlogger938125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20155610.post-89895689415008941432024-03-17T21:30:00.004+00:002024-03-17T21:30:27.787+00:00Best memoQ Translator Pro deal ever — until March 28th, 2024<p>In the fifteen years I've been using memoQ, I have never seen a discount this good on new perpetual licenses for the desktop translator version of memoQ: 50% off the retail price. For those whose service and maintenance agreements have been lapsed for three years or more, this is also the best price you'll see for getting up to date with the latest version and a new SMA covering any releases in the 365 days following your purchase. The current version of memoQ is <b><span style="color: red;">10.5</span></b>.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiQL-C1zXLBZqB2xCa9ENth7ddTjbMXgQYaj0UkD6Z9W3d92PHlY7PdmS94MFvTVUnBKuELfw5gJWyyhWMYiEUM_3QqOjvkPpqzOw_EX3bK9t3GEeoFnm-TaQebBAbYf7yJQtYx2b9xurvnF1Q5RxY9niI6vTx5x8qVzjw_7064SU_RfJX4PWaiw/s1600/memoQ%2050%20percent%20off.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiQL-C1zXLBZqB2xCa9ENth7ddTjbMXgQYaj0UkD6Z9W3d92PHlY7PdmS94MFvTVUnBKuELfw5gJWyyhWMYiEUM_3QqOjvkPpqzOw_EX3bK9t3GEeoFnm-TaQebBAbYf7yJQtYx2b9xurvnF1Q5RxY9niI6vTx5x8qVzjw_7064SU_RfJX4PWaiw/w400-h225/memoQ%2050%20percent%20off.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div>Now lately I've heard some people claim that there have been no worthwhile improvements for individual translators since memoQ 205 (version 7.8) or so. Nonsense. Have a look at <a href="https://www.memoq.com/memoq-features-you-missed" target="_blank">the "What am I missing?" page</a> to see what changes have occurred since the version you currently use and whether and upgrade is worthwhile for you. If your version is older than 8.0, all you'll see on that page is changes since that version, but there are a lot of good ones to benefit individuals. memoQ server revenue may comprise the vast majority of profits for the company, but the rest of the user base has hardly been neglected. (What <i>has</i> been neglected is good teaching and reference tools for the most part, but that applies to server customers too.)<div><br /></div><div>In the versions 8.x, major improvements were made to term bases that I personally begged to see for years, and a lot has been done to upgrade the user-friendliness of LiveDocs corpora, backup processes for projects and entire memoQ installations, improved regex handling with a special library tool that allows us to focus on getting work done, not idiotic syntax to drive mere mortals mad... and more. These are just a few of the many things that have confirmed time and again that my friends at memoQ Ltd. really are top class and well ahead of the pack.<br /><br />So take the plunge if you need <a href="https://www.translationtribulations.com/2021/01/is-it-worthwhile-to-upgrade-to-newer.html" target="_blank">the latest features</a>, and tell others not to miss a chance they aren't likely to see again anytime soon.<br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p></div>Kevin Lossnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14727800526216764023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20155610.post-61139108172601259182023-12-29T20:47:00.003+00:002024-01-03T16:35:29.720+00:00Last chance: memoQ project management. And the translator training course.<p><span style="color: red;">Note: This post has been updated to reflect a planning change. The five-day trainer training course has been replaced with a two-day (eight hour) course for translators to master key memoQ features.</span></p><center></center><center> <a href="https://www.translationschool.org/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="129" data-original-width="391" height="106" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmr-5WztqJ7pl8t-draoYzAFcxw24rVqNA3YV6r-XbP6N5aQQfCDvGmiKxYbnS4a6Nn_8zbnbY0s74Vl1xqY5qVLftDhzg3JzB04spt-IPPcacgIvp41-LazUfMAXFoxfuQVJPzmkjfZnqfxvAij-hSqV1SMSvYY5rlD82IRunR_n7VJjh8vl1Jw/s320/CETAPS%20logo.png" width="320" /></a></center>
<p>The CETAPS institute at Universidade Nova de Lisboa FCSH has planned a week-long (20-hour) memoQ online project management training course and a two day (8-hour) course on memoQ mastery for translators in the latter part of January 2024 which might be of interest. </p><p>The first course (from January 22nd to 26th) will be for those in project management roles or similar functions using memoQ TMS servers; it will begin with a day of intense review and instructional guidance for memoQ basics in online projects from a translator and reviewer perspective and proceed from there to topics such as online project creation and administration, rights and resource management, template use, optimal preparation workflows, mid-project updates and more as well as participant-specific issues. The cost is €480.</p><p>The second course (from January 29th to 30th) is aimed at translators and reviewers, who want to better understand and handle project workflows for both their own projects and agency-created ones. This will include resource customization, project management, project templates, file import filters, and project navigation, including some regular expressions magic. The cost is €90.</p>
<p>Further information on the course and an enrollment form can be found <b><a href="https://www.translationschool.org/" target="_blank">HERE</a></b>. The registration period has been extended and enrollments will be accepted through January 5th. Questions regarding the program and enrollment can be directed to Prof. Marco Neves (e-mail: <a href="mailto:mfneves@fcsh.unl.pt">mfneves@fcsh.unl.pt</a>).</p><p>Certificates will be issued to all participants completing the courses. Course availability is subject to sufficient enrollment.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXWuc_prZJ5dfIKZUdXr6jwbN3PbnxJrVnfn00QvLSsAdewAm-aQmM8Hk1kPSuGNEtCUmXml2B5wbZjOBWYJ69m6WtWsVMTRAfQ8QSabtlCXtmsSIYxJtt9v_Kuvon_69Uy4PlqdgrnQ74JdIWqDhoX3a4ps2Q7sCO6Z7r47WBkWg46EoQcAr72Q/s831/memoQ%20logo%202020.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="317" data-original-width="831" height="153" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXWuc_prZJ5dfIKZUdXr6jwbN3PbnxJrVnfn00QvLSsAdewAm-aQmM8Hk1kPSuGNEtCUmXml2B5wbZjOBWYJ69m6WtWsVMTRAfQ8QSabtlCXtmsSIYxJtt9v_Kuvon_69Uy4PlqdgrnQ74JdIWqDhoX3a4ps2Q7sCO6Z7r47WBkWg46EoQcAr72Q/w400-h153/memoQ%20logo%202020.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p><br /></p>Kevin Lossnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14727800526216764023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20155610.post-17017760793881565102023-12-19T20:19:00.001+00:002023-12-19T20:19:49.155+00:00Translation & Interpreting in the Movies: an Introduction (webinar)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZavoPOFhISQ74jWccmlJTVYCPusPfvYH7MK7tv0e9ZZV7lwB1mRQEiv48xMnq7v5HcAjFawJAQ3hHDLwlXW05t7EbE6euiykq311sYIeb3wUokWWmEA2dPIQKXIPVB7-A6wpmGa4UL9HvqCzPcEnO68jyhVo-RtydSdPv_LOdGcTzMahqf3Opwg/s725/IAPTI%20T&I%20in%20Movies.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="427" data-original-width="725" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZavoPOFhISQ74jWccmlJTVYCPusPfvYH7MK7tv0e9ZZV7lwB1mRQEiv48xMnq7v5HcAjFawJAQ3hHDLwlXW05t7EbE6euiykq311sYIeb3wUokWWmEA2dPIQKXIPVB7-A6wpmGa4UL9HvqCzPcEnO68jyhVo-RtydSdPv_LOdGcTzMahqf3Opwg/w400-h236/IAPTI%20T&I%20in%20Movies.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><b>February 26, 2024</b> @ 2 p.m. UTC. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">To book your seat, please send an email to <i><b>info.request@iapti.org</b></i></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Interpreters and translators are not depicted often in cinema. Here we'll take stock of some cases where they are, and how they are haunted by themes of credibility and betrayal (the two sides of the coin called trust). An atmosphere of mistrust seems to transform actors in these roles into fragile creatures, vulnerable to blame by those who rely on their communicative skills. Persistent dangers remind us too well of the old adage about "killing the messenger" as the professional linguists work against the clock, alone and misunderstood, essential but distrusted, striving to defuse the ticking bomb of looming conflict in hostile circumstances.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">The film scenes selected for this presentation will underscore the value of these challenging roles and the importance of professional action in difficult situations, something that will never be reliably given by digital automation.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">The webinar is free to IAPTI members and costs USD 15 for non-members.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><b>Javier Rey</b> (host)</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Javier was born in Buenos Aires, where he studied and completed his degree in journalism. For more than a decade he engaged in many roles and topics: politics, sports, film reviews, even paranormal events. When conditions for journalists devolved to a role without dignity, he took a new path in sales. He has published 3 books: <i>El guapo en su final</i> (2010), <i>La niña con las manos detrás de la espalda</i> (2019) and <i>Superclásico</i> (2022). He recently co-founded <i>Ciempiés Talleres</i>, where he facilitates a movie club and teaches cinema, creative writing workshops and seminars.</span><br /></p>Kevin Lossnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14727800526216764023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20155610.post-89052837653595355912023-11-26T23:53:00.002+00:002023-11-26T23:54:50.771+00:00memoQ term base "roundup" chat<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://transtrib-tech.teachable.com/courses/memoq-resource-camp/lectures/50331259" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="189" data-original-width="215" height="189" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqCzsgLSZ_4urMnhpTXBJqWK1NuhkQLMlXEGDSCbCiJZQ1hKwTRcVEVxojj-Ff_dQ4qsTq7Ma0KiNWtk76GshkIJbKbuxRTfk6dEmuSGHj-aDA74NbU2vUwGZLKy2nfVDos-Ht1H6BCywjB7G33fKawjChcU3vk-IwL1V-dmExOk8X418RgK2C6Q/s1600/memoQ%20term%20bases.png" width="215" /></a></div><p></p><p>The last of the planned office hour discussions for the self-guided online course "memoQuickies Resource Camp" will be held on November 27th at 17:00 CET (8:00 PST). For those not already registered for the Zoom chats, the link to do that is <b><a href="https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAod-iprD8tE9A_06iRcImKPup6DjvpyS95" target="_blank">HERE</a></b>. If you have done so previously, the access URL is the same. The chat is open to everyone, regardless of whether they are registered or not in the online course.</p><p>We'll begin with open Q&A time on any of the course sections in the term base unit or any other presentations of the subject matter by me on this blog or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@KevinLossner" target="_blank">my YouTube channel</a>. Afterward, I will show my general method for editing or updating term base content via Microsoft Excel exports brought in to the memoQ working grid, which facilitates certain kinds of changes or actions involving regular expression use. This goes beyond the possibilities of the integrated memoQ term base editor, which will also be presented briefly.</p><p>A recording of the talk will be made available later in the course structure.</p><p>In December the course will move on to discussions of QA profiles and other aspects of quality assurance in memoQ, with some live discussion possibilities to be announced. All course material will remain online for access until the end of March. More information on the memoQuickies Resource Camp can be found <b><a href="https://transtrib-tech.teachable.com/p/memoq-resource-camp" target="_blank">HERE</a></b>.</p>Kevin Lossnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14727800526216764023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20155610.post-31374451938728747512023-11-25T00:04:00.012+00:002023-11-26T12:42:16.345+00:00Book review: "Terminology Extraction for Translation and Interpretation Made Easy"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Terminology-Extraction-Translation-Interpretation-Made/dp/B0CL2ZFXXQ/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="842" data-original-width="843" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIvaY_AFXHO8mVDcRsaiNBcYgw8zuwcYbuUuN3b2mQ9P_FfYoGYEJU4JZ3I3Rpfhans0L-ukpB7m7xxd2cckNt8gAxTkZiiJT9qIqZpwLr-BcAjeT5yrbkdhLMODfezX7QK4a24-zUsxe5g8jD4Nb3cglldISfKg7wwzYrPtHdqS8R1WGtz0au4w/s320/Uwe%20with%20book.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">A few months ago, I received a pre-release copy of this book as a courtesy from the author, terminologist Uwe Muegge, with a request to give a quick language check to the English used by its native German author. As I expected, there wasn't much to complain about, because he has lived in the US for a long time and taught at university there as well as been involved in important corporate roles. I was particularly pleased by his disciplined style of writing, the plain, consistent English of the text and the overall clarity of the presentation. Anyone with good basic English skills should have no difficulty understanding and applying the material.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">At the time I read the draft, I was completely focused on language use and style, but I found his approach and suggestions interesting, so I looked forward to "field testing" and direct comparisons with my usual approach to terminology mining with that feature in memoQ. About a day's worth of tests shows very interesting potential for applying the ChatGPT section of the book and also made the context and relevance of the other two sections clearer, I will discuss those sections first before getting to the part that interests me the most.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Uwe presents three approaches:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>ChatGPT (<a href="https://chat.openai.com/">https://chat.openai.com/</a>)</li><li>OneClick Terms (<a href="https://terms.sketchengine.eu/">https://terms.sketchengine.eu/</a>)</li><li>Wordlist (<a href="https://www.webcorp.org.uk/live/wdlist.jsp">https://www.webcorp.org.uk/live/wdlist.jsp</a>)</li></ul></div>I wouldn't really call these three approaches alternatives as the book does, because all three operate in very different ways and are fit for different purposes. That didn't register fully in my mind when I was in "editor mode", although the first part of the book made the differences, advantages and disadvantages clear enough, but as soon as I began using each of the sites, the differences were quite apparent as were the similarities to more familiar tools like memoQ's term extraction module.<div><br /></div><div><b>Wordlist</b> from Webcorp is functionally similar to Laurence Anthony's <a href="https://www.laurenceanthony.net/software/antconc/" target="_blank">AntConc</a> or <a href="https://youtu.be/z1-k4tvwJjM?si=8GIVMHlZWxzqCDB9" target="_blank">memoQ's term extraction</a>. It's essentially useful for getting frequency lists of words, but the inability to use my own stopword lists for filtering out uninteresting common vocabulary makes me prefer my accustomed desktop tools. However, the barriers to first acquaintance or use are lower than for AntConc or memoQ, so this would probably be a better classroom tool for introducing concepts of word frequencies and identifying possible useful terminology on that basis.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>OneClick Terms</b> was interesting to me mostly because friends and acquaintances in academia talk about Sketch Engine a lot. The results were similar to what I get with memoQ, including similar multiword "trash terms". I found the feature for term extraction from bilingual texts particularly interesting, and the fact that it can work well on the TMX files distributed by the Directorate-General for Translation (DGT) of the European Commission suggests that it could be an efficient tool for building glossaries to support translation referencing EU legislation, for example, though I expect only slight advantages over my usual routine with memoQ. These advantages are not worth the monthly subscription fee to me. However, for purposes of teaching and comparison, the inclusion of this platform in the book is helpful. I see more value for academic institutions and those rare large volume translation companies that do a lot of work with EU resources. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>ChatGPT</b> was an interesting surprise. I have a very low opinion of its use as a writing tool (mediocre on its best day, clumsy and boring in nearly all its output) or for regex composition (hopelessly incompetent for what I need, and anything it does right for regex is newbie stuff for which I need no support). However, as a terminology research tool I have found excellent potential, though formatting the results can be problematic.</div><div><br /></div><div>My testing was done with ChatGPT 3.5, not a Professional subscription with access to version 4.0. However, I am sorely tempted to try the subscription version to see if it is able to handle some formatting instructions (avoiding unnecessary capitalization) more efficiently. No matter how carefully I try to stipulate no default capitalization of the first letter of every expression, I inevitably have to repeat the instruction after a list of improperly capitalized candidate terms is created.</div><div><br /></div><div>I keep an e-book copy of Uwe's book in the Kindle app on my laptop, so I can simply copy and paste his suggested prompts, then add whatever additional instructions I want.</div><div><br /></div><div>The prompt</div><blockquote><span face="Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"" style="font-size: 16px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><i><span style="color: red;">Please examine the text below carefully and list words or expressions which may be difficult to translate</span><span style="color: #0f0f0f;">, but when writing the list, do not capitalize any words or expressions which don't require capitalization.</span></i></span></blockquote><p>is too long, and only the part marked red is executed correctly, but this follow-up prompt will fix the capitalization in the list:</p><blockquote><p><span face="Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"" style="color: #0f0f0f; font-size: 16px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><i>Please re-examine that text and this time when writing the list, do not capitalize any words or expressions which do not require capitalization.</i></span></p></blockquote><p>Further tests involved suggesting translations for the expressions, with or without a translated text and building tables with example sentences:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQzc0dsWg6466Xmr3UL6yuUi_vR9S1KfDKGmv451uqpHGG3wZSH7s-igcWNU15Kt-tXbqKpT_FLeKDrSUSrvhyphenhyphenmbTj9hsmmfRjekHHLmoMvPEHgqibLb_7e_03zJorSUsDOKuNSb2wqkKwd6_TEwsX20gZqxWGS9CjIhDDWhQgwsqcuODRYNPUWg/s956/ChatGPT%20test%202%20-%20Uwe%20-bilingual%20table%20with%20examples.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="714" data-original-width="956" height="299" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQzc0dsWg6466Xmr3UL6yuUi_vR9S1KfDKGmv451uqpHGG3wZSH7s-igcWNU15Kt-tXbqKpT_FLeKDrSUSrvhyphenhyphenmbTj9hsmmfRjekHHLmoMvPEHgqibLb_7e_03zJorSUsDOKuNSb2wqkKwd6_TEwsX20gZqxWGS9CjIhDDWhQgwsqcuODRYNPUWg/w400-h299/ChatGPT%20test%202%20-%20Uwe%20-bilingual%20table%20with%20examples.png" width="400" /></a></div>Other prompt variations, for example to write terms bold in the example sentences, worked without complications.<p>What about the quality of the selections? Well, I used memoQ's term extraction module on the same text I submitted to ChatGPT for term extraction in order to compare something with which I am quite familiar with this new process. </p><p>memoQ identified a few terms based on frequency, which ChatGPT ignored, but these were arguably terms that a qualified specialist would have known anyway. And ChatGPT did a superior job of selecting multi-word expressions with no "noise". It also selected some very relevant single-occurrence phrases which might be expected to arise more in later, similar texts.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbFAM5MmtKdtp9hzrUG5DDfyfOJq_feYWfkPMQK_7JuUykOn10HOZbiaOtRknch8Cy-VM6pMhoVOtrGCl8XYDklSuBtS7i2-BwcF6xvwbREGJHjvRQ5-57inc3YtG1J9bmn5oR2-4isRYp6AnaT0ImfPRPBlPzVnjp78tixCqxW3F4KPQBF7VDLA/s1919/Split%20Screen%20mQ%20and%20ChatGPT.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1016" data-original-width="1919" height="338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbFAM5MmtKdtp9hzrUG5DDfyfOJq_feYWfkPMQK_7JuUykOn10HOZbiaOtRknch8Cy-VM6pMhoVOtrGCl8XYDklSuBtS7i2-BwcF6xvwbREGJHjvRQ5-57inc3YtG1J9bmn5oR2-4isRYp6AnaT0ImfPRPBlPzVnjp78tixCqxW3F4KPQBF7VDLA/w640-h338/Split%20Screen%20mQ%20and%20ChatGPT.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Split screen review of memoQ extraction vs. ChatGPT results</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><p>The split-screenshot is an intermediate result from one of my many tests. The overlayed red box was intended to show a conversation partner the limits of ChatGPT's "alphabetizing skill", and the capitalization of the German is not correct after a prompt to correct the capitalization of adjectives misfired. It is not always trivial to get formatting exactly as I want it. However, looking at the results of each program side-by-side like this showed me that ChatGPT had in fact identified the nearly all the most relevant single words and phrases in my text. And for other texts with dates or citation formats, these were also collected by ChatGPT as "relevant terms", giving me an indication of what legislation I might want to use as reference documents and what auto-translation rules might also be helpful.</p><p>I also found that the split view as above helped me to work my way through the noise in the memoQ term candidate list much faster and make decisions about which terms to accept. The terms of interest found in memoQ but not selected by ChatGPT were few enough that I am not at all tempted to suggest people follow my traditional approach with the memoQ term extraction module and skip the work with ChatGPT.</p><p>My preferred approach would be to do a quick screening in ChatGPT, import the results into a provisional (?) term base and then, as time permits, use that resource in a memoQ term extraction to populate the target fields in the extraction grid. With those populated terms in place, I think the review of the remaining candidates would proceed much more efficiently.</p><p>All in all, I found Uwe's book to be a useful reference for teaching and for my personal work; it is one of the few texts I have seen on LLM use which is sober and modest enough in its claims that I was inspired to test them. The sale price is also well within anyone's means: about $10 for the e-book and $16 for the paperback on Amazon. For the "term curious" without access to professional grade tools, it's a great place to get started building better glossaries and for more seasoned wordworkers it offers interesting, probably useful suggestions.</p><p>The book is available <b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Terminology-Extraction-Translation-Interpretation-Made-ebook/dp/B0CL2Z92X3/" target="_blank">HERE</a></b> from Amazon.</p>Kevin Lossnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14727800526216764023noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20155610.post-71179813145172994252023-10-18T13:17:00.006+01:002023-10-20T15:01:33.386+01:00An Unfiltered Look at memoQ Filters (webinar, 19 October 2023, 15:00 CET)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAod-iprD8tE9A_06iRcImKPup6DjvpyS95" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="235" data-original-width="433" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCC0IjYhDCDwL1bGIx0ib5BvyLpTlKrxX76GxQF2INO9AetdlnAHV9s09HVI61MA418MOw116SCqwlOFRaGHMXJcw45FX6mrtQKsflPm38IahXMOQKwZ8k-F-_RjTUJ2zLjYZYL2GFQQ7_yKdgKED2ZCmkZzMA2N710NV83HKE-m9RoRn9GG3WZA/s320/memoQ%20Filters%20icon.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #232333; font-family: "Almaden Sans", Helvetica, Arial; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0.42px; white-space-collapse: preserve-breaks;">This presentation and discussion covered some of the challenges and opportunities to improve memoQ project workflows through correct filter choice and design. There are many different aspects to filters in memoQ, and the right choices for a given translatable file or project are not always clear, or different options may offer particular advantages in your situation.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #232333; font-family: "Almaden Sans", Helvetica, Arial; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0.42px; white-space-collapse: preserve-breaks;">Cascading filters - an important feature for dealing with complex source texts - are also part of the talk, not just the basics but also examples of going beyond what visible memoQ features allow, to do "the impossible".
This session is part of the weekly open office hours for the course "<a href="https://www.translationtribulations.com/2023/09/new-online-course-memoquickies-resource.html" target="_blank">memoQuickies Resource Camp</a>", but everyone is welcome to attend these talks regardless of enrollment status. Those interested in full access to all the course resources and teaching may enroll until the end of January 2024.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #232333; font-family: Almaden Sans, Helvetica, Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0.42px; white-space-collapse: preserve-breaks;">To join sessions for the October and November office hours, register <b><a href="https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAod-iprD8tE9A_06iRcImKPup6DjvpyS95" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #232333; font-family: Almaden Sans, Helvetica, Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0.42px; white-space-collapse: preserve-breaks;"><i>After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. </i></span></span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #232333; font-family: Almaden Sans, Helvetica, Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0.42px; white-space-collapse: preserve-breaks;">Here is an edited recording of the October 19th session, with a time-coded index available on YouTube in the Description field:</span></span></span></p>
<center><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HgX2onp2DaQ?si=5bDDnA32G9nCbTVj" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe></center>Kevin Lossnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14727800526216764023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20155610.post-34950727709175776732023-10-05T16:39:00.005+01:002023-10-10T11:33:43.937+01:00What's wrong with my segmentation (in translation)?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://transtrib-tech.teachable.com/courses/memoq-resource-camp/lectures/49656095" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="171" data-original-width="196" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6y92XMl2AG5wAVX8DqD3p1lgyxQnHX66dEWl3mP3AEWbsbTa-j0mfL118QTRNRa6Asa4sMbVuuhwzAbWqcy8FkuNtG4ufZm-RxRtT9efg07mPoxs9X0euwwq5xxPAj6bdxrYC7nDG16etiqU0tJGR2FT6leoEt7UXM_kvPVDLTWxF34a50Q0hew/s1600/Segmentation%20Rules%20icon.png" width="196" /></a></div><p>The fifth open office hours session for the <b>self-guided</b> online course "<b><a href="https://transtrib-tech.teachable.com/p/memoq-resource-camp" target="_blank">memoQuickies Resource Camp</a></b>" discussed segmentation problems with documents imported to translation environments such as memoQ, Trados Studio, Phrase, Cafetran Espresso, etc. and various ways that these issues might be identified so that they can be corrected.</p><p>Segmentation problems waste enormous amounts of time, and <i>bad segmentation rules are a plague on the translation and localization service community</i>. Unfortunately, nearly all the rules I have seen, for all working environments, simply suck sewage. memoQ's rules usually suck less, but still....</p><p>This week's talk presented, among other things, some methods for identifying segmentation trouble spots quickly and easily with the use of special regular expressions describing common patterns followed by texts with troubled segmentation. And a Regex Assistant library has been provided (and will be updated during the course period) to help with all of this.</p><p>The video and related course pages will remain completely open to the public, with downloads available, at least through the end of 2023. After that the pages and resources may be taken down for updates and reorganization in other courses.</p><p>The video recording of the lecture "What's wrong with my segmentation?" can be accessed <i style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="https://transtrib-tech.teachable.com/courses/memoq-resource-camp/lectures/49656095" target="_blank">o</a>n YouTube </i>(embedded below) or course participants can access the page to download it by clicking the "segmentation rules" icon at the top of this article.</p>
<center><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OnInakY5cac?si=LeUifuUtqnwDriRt" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe></center>
<p><br /></p><p>An important part of checking the performance of your segmentation rules and possibly improving them is to have a good sampling of test data. One of my favorite sources for this are the European Community archives at the DGT, where EU legislation and other important information is available in a parallel corpus of all the official languages of the Community.</p><p>I have downloaded <a href="https://transtrib-tech.teachable.com/courses/memoq-resource-camp/lectures/49364436" target="_blank">part of the 2022 DGT distribution</a> and prepared <a href="https://transtrib-tech.teachable.com/courses/memoq-resource-camp/lectures/49645299" target="_blank">a number of monolingual and bilingual corpora (about 2.6 million words, approximately 150,000 TUs) in EU languages and translation pairs</a>. Moreover, <a href="https://transtrib-tech.teachable.com/courses/memoq-resource-camp/lectures/49607797" target="_blank">information on my method</a> has been published so that others can reproduce it for the languages that interest <i>them</i>.</p>Kevin Lossnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14727800526216764023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20155610.post-14882685085479879132023-10-01T12:14:00.008+01:002023-10-01T12:20:50.457+01:00Bring the lightning.<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Quality is a slippery notion, especially when discussing it with those whose ethical approaches to providing services are even slipperier. According to one well-known figure in the trashlation sector, "Quality doesn't matter". Knowing that individual as I do, I know that this utterance was intended as a provocation, and that it is likely backed by some almost-persuasive sleight-of-hand involving differing definitions and whatnot. Given the variability in the human emotional perception of quality (as with obscenity, I cannot define quality, but I know it when I experience it), all of the attempts one sees to quantify it in language services seem all the more absurd.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">All the myriad process definitions, ISO certifications, stamps and seals of sinlessness, <i>diplomata</i>, grants of <i style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">honoris causa</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"> et cetera cannot transform the humble lightning bug into a Bolt of Zeus.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">Nor are Large Language Models (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_language_model" target="_blank">LLMs</a>) capable of such linguistic transubstantiation, but rather the opposite. The predictive practices at their core could take a training feed of all the world's great literature (and likely already have), and yet the output would be nothing more than an insipid averaging of the basest mediocrities. Only the basest of the mediocre could mistake such text for objectively good quality.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">Were we to plot the degree of enthusiasm for AI as the "future" of trashlation against the degree of actual understanding and competence for good language, the graph would look something like this:</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivjCVVTayWK2t0IZsYLxEy26r7RN54o00nPBUU8Js1APa5myas3E-ZRs7PHnoGoCxX-T8D872wiSF5wOCc6tiwWkDTdxtbBlXUUswQ49Ii7iD97cmu6ibRtlA0SyDVPhDxCJrl8FPXHbq_5Tt5AaiORw_Xv-xp21uBb9o-v75pHYpJKMIwGWch0w/s757/Graph%20of%20competence%20vs%20enthusiasm.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="757" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivjCVVTayWK2t0IZsYLxEy26r7RN54o00nPBUU8Js1APa5myas3E-ZRs7PHnoGoCxX-T8D872wiSF5wOCc6tiwWkDTdxtbBlXUUswQ49Ii7iD97cmu6ibRtlA0SyDVPhDxCJrl8FPXHbq_5Tt5AaiORw_Xv-xp21uBb9o-v75pHYpJKMIwGWch0w/w400-h211/Graph%20of%20competence%20vs%20enthusiasm.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: verdana;">But <a href="https://www.economist.com/culture/2023/09/14/the-importance-of-handwriting-is-becoming-better-understood" target="_blank">a recent article in <i>The Economist</i></a> suggests a better way. Curiously, it is a process I resort to myself when the greatest subtlety and balance are needed in a work, for example in the translation of good poetry, or a letter of condolence occasioned by the loss of a belovèd child.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: verdana;">Back to pen on paper. Where the pressure of the nib is an expression in itself, as the sweeping flourish of a final letter or a well-executed ligature.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: verdana;">"But that's ABSURD!!!" some might protest, glancing nervously at their smartphone timers counting down to the next due delivery of linguistic sausage. <i>Much too slow</i> some might think. But is it? Really?</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: verdana;">"But you need to run QA and you can't do that with a sheet of scribbles on paper!" some might suggest, more reasonably. <i>Ah, but I can</i>, merely dictate the text I will have read aloud already time and again as I refined the words and their rhythm, and then, in good electronic form, all the slings and arrows of outrageous regex are my quality arsenal.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #202122; font-family: verdana;">We have a </span><i style="color: #202122; font-family: verdana;">slow food</i><span style="color: #202122; font-family: verdana;"> movement. Perhaps if we want more delicious, digestible, properly communicative words in our translated lives, we should slow the fuck down and let them crystallize, with exquisite subconscious fractal creativity, to form bolts of emotion and understanding that pierce the veil between this world and others as they flash across a page.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #202122; font-family: verdana;">As the <i>morlocks</i> cower in their caves and hovels, tapping tiny tablets in their claws, prompting their artificial gods to take this terror of meaning from their shriveled world.</span></span></p>Kevin Lossnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14727800526216764023noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20155610.post-89153951605636314752023-09-21T09:44:00.003+01:002023-09-21T13:21:11.592+01:00Grog and grub with me mateys in Cascais<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirNerNmmHXq0--FMI1AumGd5Go6C1GEHpiU3huaffVbZIq0VvEFF7sJp7uQIOotr0whmeLILM8HAsAZv3dwLMD4FMnfsTqdt1_QoVhfIe-fOFrENc7tgUobO0ZyrgQw91Davmc_BUEgf6fytiA4SnL_3paOSFKyk40xANhZb0BnlYKu6XufMB8pw/s500/loclunch-cascais-september-2023-2023-logo-1695231136697.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirNerNmmHXq0--FMI1AumGd5Go6C1GEHpiU3huaffVbZIq0VvEFF7sJp7uQIOotr0whmeLILM8HAsAZv3dwLMD4FMnfsTqdt1_QoVhfIe-fOFrENc7tgUobO0ZyrgQw91Davmc_BUEgf6fytiA4SnL_3paOSFKyk40xANhZb0BnlYKu6XufMB8pw/s320/loclunch-cascais-september-2023-2023-logo-1695231136697.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: left;">I got my personal introduction to <i>NFTs</i> <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jahinrichs_loclunch-lisbon-cascais-activity-7110534803074015232-aE5J" target="_blank">last night over pizza</a> in Portugal. WTF? I'm still not sure what to do with this thing I minted, nor even how to download it (if this is possible), but it was a fun bit of madness in the second (or maybe third, I'll know better when the hangover clears) of these gatherings I've attended.</p><p>They say you should keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. Well, from one perspective that makes LocLunch the perfect social opportunity for our strange times in the language service professions. I had excellent chats with someone well placed in a company that is too often the epitome of Evil Trashlation... and her Russian friend, of course. And Brazilians galore, oh my, those awful people who come to Portugal to steal all the good Catholic men and women from their sanctioned wedlocks and -chains. And I saw that the tradition of German intrigue in Portugal is alive and well maintained by the organizer of last night's event, the energetic entrepreneur Jan Hinrichs, who recently moved his family and headquarters from Madrid (where the Spanish government has lost its business plot) to this, Nossa Senhora's sacred country. Who further undermined our moral defenses with the suggestion that we all get some ice cream nearby before dispersing to our scattered night shelters.</p><p>I am thoroughly compromised by those two scoops of <i>mango</i> and third scoop of <i>maracuja</i>. And by the kindness of the Russian fellow who saved me from a dodgy midnight train connection and got me home safely to Benfica.</p><p>And though the table was well occupied by those who make their own rules and view the conventional trashlation sector "wisdom" with a jaundiced eye, they followed the the LocLunch Basic Rules very well. This is a social thing, not a fucking sales event. Damn. I had my elevator speech all prepared....</p><p>Where'er ye may dwell, whate'ever seas ye may sail, matey, whene'er in port or Porto, join the motley crew of <b><a href="https://www.loclunch.net/" target="_blank">LocLunch</a></b> for some fine grog and grub with all cutlasses sleeping peacefuçlly in thar scabbards.</p><p> </p>Kevin Lossnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14727800526216764023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20155610.post-19151907784482069112023-09-19T01:17:00.001+01:002023-09-19T01:19:58.911+01:00Flirting with a Fiverr & more<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="color: red;">If you always want to get paid...</span></i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.fiverr.com/kslossner?source=gig_page" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="55" data-original-width="192" height="55" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaeJ4CZyJmBmRHQrqPeP6UnAaRHYlfm_nT-CmCUnOuOTNike8B9sxyNQdo58hbZIPcD1oqp9aOIUE1Nq7fqGjFYPMku7KjeUkuiimVSivR87_-ik4w5BceM-EL_GuucZtMAcEHIbT-eedXeQ0LvUp_BO8-PJVDxcBrOakvx2ETQjR5ziwuRxYkdQ/s1600/logo%20fiverr.png" width="192" /></a></div></span></div><p></p><p>Payment practices are a perpetual pain in <i><b><a href="https://www.translationtribulations.com/2023/05/taking-trash-out-of-trashlation-in-translation.html" target="_blank">Trashlation World</a></b></i>. What professional translator or interpreter has not, at some point, faced difficulty getting paid for work delivered. Or in my case, consultant, independent solution developer and instructor, since I retired from translation three months ago and no longer accept such tasks in the increasingly thankless environment where they are requested.</p><p><i><b>Net never</b></i> has become the <i>modus operandi</i> of too many wankers in the NMT-AI-MOUSE Fanboy and -gurl Klub, and when B of A, Barclays, Santander of some other clan of thieves fails to provide the desired credit for the Incredible Journey to Ruin, there will always be those <i>AI Artists Formerly Known as Trashlators</i> who understand that in matter of money, all that really matters is <i><b>mindset</b></i>.</p><p>Fuck you. Pay me. <i>Well, imagine getting paid! Isn't that exciting?</i> Fuck you. Pay me. I'm more excited by the structure of your fucking kneecaps and how fragile it is... <span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>SET YOUR MIND TO PAY ME</b></span>.</p><p><i>But wait, Paulie, there may be a better way!</i></p><p>A perpetually solvent friend who owns a couple of German service companies once shared his secret: when in doubt, demand payment in advance. When there is no doubt, demand double. <i>But what if the prospect just walks away? </i>Offer them a peck on the check and hold the door for them in gratitude for the grief they are about to save you.</p><p>Times are hard. But payment practices are, alas, too often limp. Like a little mushroom past its sell-by date and full of mold and other things best not named.</p><p>I'm personally fortunate not to deal with many deadbeats; avoiding business with Italian and American companies certainly helps. Well, I have a soft spot for the Portuguese, <i>but let's not go there</i>.</p><p>I have another problem. I had administrative work even more than I hate not getting paid, and since I acquired a retired surgeon as a billing assistant and, at about the same time, took on a new role as a trainer for incoherent billing software like SAGE, not getting paid has been a source of surprising pleasure. But our five dogs still demand food, and if it does come in bags and come on time, well... there is that extra weight I'm carrying, the Portuguese pit bull is fond of reminding me.</p><p>And I am sure that many clients and friends and friends with the misfortune to be clients keep a special dartboard with my face on it for those times I get around to writing the bill after a year of so.</p><p>Fuck you. Pay me. <i>Well fuck you. Write the fucking bill</i>. Yeah, right, you tell me again how all that works here in Portugal where the tax laws are so screwy that almost none of the invoicing tools typically used by translators, companies involved with language services (regardless of whether they actually provide any) in other countries are compliant with Portuguese tax law, so I often feel myself well and truly <i>fucked</i>.</p><p>Enter the performance platforms such as Fiverr, which I am beginning to consider for certain recurring requests where I have asked <i>Dios</i> for a better intake process in which people tell me exactly what they need, provide the means of doing that, including the money to pay for the electricity to drive the tools I use to reach their goal and, well, just let me get on with it and make something nice and bless them for a change.</p><p>I started toying with platformed pre-payment about four years ago, when I started using Teachable as a way to demonstrate to <i>memoQ</i> and others how professional tools instruction could be improved and content could be shaped in more useful ways. I may not have been successful in convincing others to <i>Do the Right Thing</i>, but now that I have more time on my hands and have resigned myself to take a shot at that myself and maybe actually charge for all that knowledge that so many people mint money with, I am really, really glad that the Portuguese tax mysteries are handled in a way that does not involve me at all and is completely correct. No more constant special requests for special invoices for special people in special countries and special claims on my non-existent admin time.</p><p>So, that's the news, I guess. Next time you need a training video, a dash of regex for your project soup, a magical mysterious import filter for Formats Unknown or the like, there's a process. And it's not "fuck you". That's between consenting buyers and the platforms from which they draw their services....</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.fiverr.com/kslossner?source=gig_page" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="472" data-original-width="1091" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisHNZnHwYAxlKvZzF0VCgDEmCEQsl9VffF1W0PB5xRjcfNr24Qsrdp4RH6l3hb9tcrbDgXYfaQFDdBJecHpC7WtwRvPAvF-PvjwHrnWXinb_phez7uCpd2aZVyrJhBRZc825QD8mebbL9XWr9fMkUrVedSHV68tEnnk7BU4XnQzmygw0_kk3OsPA/w400-h173/KSL%20gigs.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://transtrib-tech.teachable.com/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="254" data-original-width="568" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6-bTonB4c-qSlhg_W3BhQwvYsOxjrFPv50yjf-lcqEfnSQo2j6Y8O2YSMI2zW8BEsSy6jbvNw3VTgMk5tFU6tuZdkyb4-Q080UjJ9N-Q3QIQZgGP6VvkMm_lQyr0dKKbnuBBT0JFF17tvDF75F8lQuclXxcQSTZms7OIsWijWJU5wTxLDq0u4qQ/w400-h179/Trans-Trib-Tech%20School.png" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<center><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jVkLVRt6c1U?si=7AYa2Z7r7JHhCEJq" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></center>Kevin Lossnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14727800526216764023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20155610.post-71844650581136736662023-09-17T08:58:00.011+01:002023-09-17T09:17:08.547+01:00Say something, I'm using memoQ!<p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2hoyAyth9xA452yEUlkagvva8bUZFnVyuWpcOHnoDN5D46koIlZwnSJlVSllU3D8M-YDM0suTZ-A2OEIacBPRLkIrJcDD866xN9RRelQtgUTYtOcnh8LPUtK1HAjUuvIGEoYgjAAd6nsw0n5ZGBxQA95ebZvul3qvh3cjyMRWJer61u2LUqRGQA/s744/memoQ%20diversity%20long%20horizontal.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="213" data-original-width="744" height="92" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2hoyAyth9xA452yEUlkagvva8bUZFnVyuWpcOHnoDN5D46koIlZwnSJlVSllU3D8M-YDM0suTZ-A2OEIacBPRLkIrJcDD866xN9RRelQtgUTYtOcnh8LPUtK1HAjUuvIGEoYgjAAd6nsw0n5ZGBxQA95ebZvul3qvh3cjyMRWJer61u2LUqRGQA/s320/memoQ%20diversity%20long%20horizontal.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />It's a reasonable approximation of reality to say that no good deed goes unpunished, and that can certainly be said for the team of software artists formerly known as Kilgray. The groundlings have little idea of how very concerned the machine is to deliver the right god in communion for our times. No sausage from the golden Trados calf, no. no. The right Phrase is everything, and to delve the source of Memory for this revelation is Our Life's Work.<div><br /></div><div><div>The ways of the Great CAT who art in Hungary are a mystery, and those lacking Faith are taken aback at a lack of transparency. But I, faithful in my productivity pilgrimage, brought my offering to the High Priest in the temple. </div><div><br /></div><div>It was the Time of Offerings, of intelligence sacrificed to artificialities, offerings burnt before an MT God. Ours is a Merciful One, and yea though I walk slowly, very slowly through the Valley of Technical Debt I fear no loss of data, for I am not a user of <i>Trados</i> nor of <i>Wordfast</i>. In Orange Ecstasy I linger, savoring the gentle crush of bugs between my gnashing teeth.</div><div><br /></div><div>Initiated in the Mysteries I am, the Nine to One of the mighty dollars, flowing like a river of corporate honey or puddling as piss in a petty pool on the commons. </div><div><br /></div><div>But our Holy Ground needs a good charge of urea to grow <i>the next best thing</i>, so pay all ye faithful for your SMA renewal before the end of September, when there shall be Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth as the price of memoQ and its servicre and maintenance contract increase by a modest 20% for the nifty <i>Translator Pro</i> version.</div><div><br /></div><div>And fear not, for I am with you. My rod and staff are needed in the garden to prop up an apple tree, but I can offer this at least: if you blow the deadline and have to pay an extra €20 or so for the SMA renewal this year after October 1st, evidence of that in the form of a purchase invoice or somesuch which reaches me by the end of 2023 on the hidden paths of e-mail or social media will receive as a blessing a discount "coupon" worth twice and half again that for a stay at the <i><a href="https://www.translationtribulations.com/2023/09/new-online-course-memoquickies-resource.html" target="_blank">memoQuickies Resource Camp until March 2024</a></i>.</div><div><p>Or if the high priest ever gets back to me as he said he would, maybe there will be an alternative route. You are all nonetheless blessed that you have in your professional hands a tool, which for all its shortcomings, beats the competition to death if you know how to unlock its power (which few really do).</p>
<center><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0dYlvdLdK9w?si=gU7yymgHEdsYW59p" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></center></div></div>Kevin Lossnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14727800526216764023noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20155610.post-61091681948854886612023-09-17T04:31:00.004+01:002023-09-17T04:31:56.767+01:00All the myriad GUILTY<p>If I were really the sort who needed someone to blame for life's tribulations, I would blame <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Mangold" target="_blank">Max</a>, though it took me forty-two years to realize that. It was that tempting little seminar he offered on <i>Stuttgarter Schwäbisch</i> in autumn of 1981 that drew me into the dark world of espionage and deceit and episodic madness. But really?</p><p>Perhaps I should blame my father instead for his love of books, which he so cruelly imposed on me. How dare he! A book was a sacred object, not to be defaced, and <i>never to be stepped on</i>. How traumatic it was then to see fellow students marking up their textbooks at university, with highlighters, pencils, four-color pens or, o horror, dog-earing the pages instead of using proper bookmarks. But as university does tend to have a corrupting influence on one's character, I was seduced by the perceived utility of the practice, and years later when I learned the term <i>marginalia</i> and found that it was a thing with Samuel Taylor Coleridge and other literary heroes of mine, well....</p><p><i></i></p><blockquote><i>In Xanadu did Kevin Scott<br />A stinging margin note decree....</i></blockquote><p></p><p>Damn old Sam. I blame him too. The derelict <i>toxicodependente</i>, bumming books and free room and board off his too-tolerant friends. Not as bad as that bloody Arab who fancied himself a Frenchie and swiped his host's suits. Oh no, I'm better than that, surely....</p><p>Oh, blame there is for all, in full measure, my friends. Form a queue, please, and wait patiently for your personal portion.</p><p>What have we here? Faith, here's an English teacher come hither, for stealing out of a French hose: come in, Janssen; here you may roast your goose.</p><p>And you, Somtow, what have you to say? <i>Quam tauri merda</i>.</p><p>Round about that cauldron go, in the guilty parties throw....</p><p>But as the light fades from my dying professional eyes I see at last that I bear all the guilt in mine own Temple of Sin. For I have seen darkly, but face to face now with the social engineering <b>Instagurus of Translation</b> I know and confess: it is my bad <i>mindset</i>. And my failure to practice yoga. <i>Mea maxima culpa.</i></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0uEMcKoRYLWCwtALqE9Kgu1cWpm-rLyNt-S6FCveLee9sO0VwYcZ4dMm9XjJJZnakM8Gl6GrMEL6IiRLeuItUCZzFsrcUPmKohzewdQIKhdBGESDQ4B2Se1WMxDhLvW3udWsJJT0s2Upk3zfXTRIuway_mCh2_96LOfw7PJqi7zr6yOa7jKBufg/s1024/Nuremberg_chronicles_-_Flagellants_(CCXVr).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="836" data-original-width="1024" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0uEMcKoRYLWCwtALqE9Kgu1cWpm-rLyNt-S6FCveLee9sO0VwYcZ4dMm9XjJJZnakM8Gl6GrMEL6IiRLeuItUCZzFsrcUPmKohzewdQIKhdBGESDQ4B2Se1WMxDhLvW3udWsJJT0s2Upk3zfXTRIuway_mCh2_96LOfw7PJqi7zr6yOa7jKBufg/s320/Nuremberg_chronicles_-_Flagellants_(CCXVr).jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><i><br /></i><p></p>Kevin Lossnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14727800526216764023noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20155610.post-86695592288941675442023-09-16T01:29:00.004+01:002023-09-16T01:34:46.747+01:00The memoQ Regex Assistant Revisited at 15:00 CET on 21 September 2023!<p style="text-align: center;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqI54FBGIEfhQmAifshJnw_VUV2BoCQi3pbcvlrCPCS5FdDaPBiQvIQHHglMO2yc_ucHbmRBCZ5pMcRobiUwsKSszYXe9TdDRrnTaFJbNF-CHmLUxM4DJr4DwvGHE_vcN9RjpFCMyD9k8uMtsz3BLNFLXVyHZjg7SuwvZNCcfNaFa1zQii6h2CWA/s201/Rx.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="180" data-original-width="201" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqI54FBGIEfhQmAifshJnw_VUV2BoCQi3pbcvlrCPCS5FdDaPBiQvIQHHglMO2yc_ucHbmRBCZ5pMcRobiUwsKSszYXe9TdDRrnTaFJbNF-CHmLUxM4DJr4DwvGHE_vcN9RjpFCMyD9k8uMtsz3BLNFLXVyHZjg7SuwvZNCcfNaFa1zQii6h2CWA/s1600/Rx.jpg" width="201" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Eleven months ago I was supposed to talk about terminology in a three-hour evening class taught by one of my friends at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, but I was so excited about the progress of the quality team I was training at one of my agency clients in Portugal that I twisted what was expected to be my usual straightforward 90 minute lecture on term base best practices in memoQ into an unusual take on the role regular expressions might play in terminology management.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">That was a weird one, for sure, but the potential I saw was very real. I was defining "terminology" in rather broad terms to include not only more efficient term base management based on problem patterns but also translation memory clean-up, better filtering and find/replace operations in the working grid and QA.<br /><br />"What the heck has all that got to do with scary ol' <b><span style="color: red; font-family: courier; font-size: medium;">REGEX</span></b>?" you're probably thinking.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Well, all this was triggered by memoQ's recent release of the <i>One <strike>Ring</strike> Thing</i> we've been needing to unify our memoQ management processes for the routine use of regex by The Rest of Us. The <b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Regex Assistant</span></b>. The Nazgul of Trados World are surely jealous.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">That quality team I was training, my friends at <a href="http://linguaemundi.pt" target="_blank">Linguaemundi</a>. is headed by Inês Lucas, about whom I had heard many good things for years from her enthusiastic professors at university but whom I hadn't actually met until she was hired by the agency a few years ago. At the recent memoQ Fest in Budapest, <a href="https://youtu.be/5ObVNSlUxcU?si=p1Eyyu4Qcc7MxQks" target="_blank">she explained how changing the approach to regex mastery from the struggles of syntax to organizing and applying packaged solutions in well-engineered processes significantly upgraded their work capacities and reduced stress levels</a>. When you cut the nerdy crap and focus on understanding what solutions are called for particular tasks, everything gets much easier.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I was so amazed to see people who had struggled for years to learn regex well enough for simple tasks suddenly become solution powerhouses that I put together (rather spontaneously) a series of three online 90-minute workshops, which were repeated a month later. And new refinements to these methods come each time the ideas are presented.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The raw recordings of those six workshops are included in the current online course ("memoQuickies Resource Camp"), but one - the first of six - is <a href="https://youtu.be/KKR5aH5oGH8?si=zd1l_vNVw1zMUYIN" target="_blank">publicly available on YouTube</a>, where you can have a look.</div><p></p><div>However in the <b><a href="https://transtrib-tech.teachable.com/p/memoq-resource-camp" target="_blank">memoQuickies Resource Camp</a></b>, a self-guided course that is serving as a platform for me to organize and distribute the best resources from my 14 years as a memoQ user, solution provider and trainer before I retire, I'll be taking another more streamlined pass at teaching some of the best possibilities for using memoQ Regex Assistant resource libraries. The webinars offered in most weeks of the course are simply an overview of the current topic emphasized in the course and also serve as a Q&A platform and a means of offering some different perspectives on information from the self-guided units. Recordings are always added to the course for later viewing.</div><div><br /></div><div>This coming Thursday at 15:00 Central European Time, I'll give a brief overview of the Regex Assistant much like the public YouTube video does and answer any questions that attendees might have. Further information and an event notice can be found <i>here</i> on LinkedIn.<br /><br />You can join the webinar with <b><a href="https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87835402561?pwd=dWRUSng0Y3JJME5tOVNlOVlNUDQvZz09" target="_blank">this link</a></b>. The meeting ID is 878 3540 2561, and the passcode is 385434</div>Kevin Lossnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14727800526216764023noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20155610.post-61223712376203469172023-09-12T09:00:00.002+01:002023-09-21T08:26:11.112+01:00Save the date: IAPTI2023, 11-12 November 2023 in Timișoara, Romania<p>After all the chaotic Covid-induced delays, it's finally happening this year from November 11th to 12th:</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.iapti.org/TMconference/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1707" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4ky3GRpLTRJJVALVuPTrMjOxca6vELLBf8Ur17e54ntpyb_jqMTP4nqm_3YD5Ie-4nSZFibZEHm9BIq3L_H_PwsBEOKYoyvOD4CX3OKL4Km8jRLkezMXXOViqyyNW6LXrjV-ho_QXuVY5kihakMZxFJbKxzwAjO5TCWQLuMdqw6R62So_TMFnkw/s320/IAPTI%202023%20Timisoara.jpg" width="267" /></a></div>Registration is now open for #IAPTI2023 in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timi%C8%99oara" target="_blank">Timisoara</a>, Romania! Network with experienced #translators and #interpreters from around the world as they share their professional insights in this amazing city.<p></p><div>The <a href="https://www.iapti.org/" target="_blank">International Association of Translators and Interpreters</a> (IAPTI) promotes professional ethics and best practice on every continent and is noted for speaking out on "controversial" issues when human rights and the health and professional stability of individual language service providers are at stake. </div><div><br /></div><div>Since I became a member in 2014, I have always enjoyed the company of some of the finest colleagues in the translation and interpreting sectors and learned so many surprising and fascinating things about specialties I would otherwise never have known. IAPTI has very often been the first to support the development of professional organizations in developing countries and for disadvantaged populations. </div><div><br /></div><div>Join this year's gathering in one of Romania's most beautiful cities and get with the program....</div><div><br /></div><div>All you need to know about this year's schedule, speakers and registration policies is here:</div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.iapti.org/TMconference/">https://www.iapti.org/TMconference/</a></h3><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.iapti.org/objectives/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi72t3FYxJ_tDi8nQ-ixCGuHEiVu32AstyhKBjrZiQuR1WmekEkXe1IFi28lUp1hTUGlW2d1zMs-IBnEpkYR5p2jOgW2IeqBQwEvTV61w-r2KShEYKFxfhBwdS-G25ryGumgjkELf16nssRQJOz3JF9k-TWs6tEu3xTqpGFXWPhJM74mbGqG65Hog/s320/IAPTI%20logo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_k8L_9zS-0spEHGq282fKL_-DNiO0cneaq0jkFFyDjebwzm_epWPT9m0ucc8Cs-gSf5nS0zHvcUrFaAemMe7cUcUADwXELk3rPCDqOcdgiiIpksz5SLNjB0zmr7xjFkaycrI1dkuV5n-6zi3zSrM_OUWPILGr7b52mCHSWzill_sfb84K5SNEEQ/s2048/IAPTI2023.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1846" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_k8L_9zS-0spEHGq282fKL_-DNiO0cneaq0jkFFyDjebwzm_epWPT9m0ucc8Cs-gSf5nS0zHvcUrFaAemMe7cUcUADwXELk3rPCDqOcdgiiIpksz5SLNjB0zmr7xjFkaycrI1dkuV5n-6zi3zSrM_OUWPILGr7b52mCHSWzill_sfb84K5SNEEQ/w577-h640/IAPTI2023.jpg" width="577" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Kevin Lossnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14727800526216764023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20155610.post-48259955396241498272023-09-11T22:49:00.000+01:002023-09-11T22:49:14.025+01:00memoQ "Auto-translation Roundup": 14 September 2023 at 15:00 CET<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/events/7105835237430992896/comments/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="484" data-original-width="1303" height="119" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgONcrfxxBNOne-PSgeHerAtmYT6YIyZiG2zQWXyrsrHxiQk_xnjOj62OU85BVRcFz58Y2z_Cp91dB-2MhkGJX3n-TgYw0BXjySL_e8fvlwlLPHl8_qJlFMk6bD2bIeqI6J7iKGJd8_RufoL3A1bSiF1ipqLDCkpTrgtCrbuXEpjCM98gt2X3AT2g/s320/auto-translation%20rules%20wide.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />This week's public lecture for the "memoQuickies Resource Camp" on Thursday, September 14, 2023, at 3:00 p.m. Central European Time (2:00 p.m. Lisbon time) will be a summary of currently available auto-translation rules on the course pages which are open to everyone (enrolled or not) and those restricted to registered participants. This is all about getting to work now with stuff that is ready to go, and how to adapt that stuff for clients with different requirements.<p></p><div>So if you want to get right down to productive work using available memoQ auto-translation rulesets in translation, review and quality assurance without wasting time on learning bloody regex, this is for you.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87835402561?pwd=dWRUSng0Y3JJME5tOVNlOVlNUDQvZz09" target="_blank">Be there or be square....</a></div><div><br /></div><div>A recording of the talk will be available to all registered course participants afterward.</div><div><br /></div><div>Last week's lecture, <i>"Auto-translation Rules for Everyone"</i>, is available <b><a href="https://transtrib-tech.teachable.com/courses/memoquickies-resource-camp/lectures/49010845" target="_blank">here</a></b>.</div><div><br /></div><div>Oh, and next week at the same time we'll be talking about the memoQ Regex Assistant and all the cool libraries available for QA, filtering, find & replace and other tasks.....</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://transtrib-tech.teachable.com/p/memoq-resource-camp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Icons of the resources covered im the memoQuickies Resource Camp" border="0" data-original-height="202" data-original-width="1491" height="54" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJTI8m1Y_PXXuSZgbrAqr12KXFq3eO8GwlltaHH_jFwGsFbQ0Vce0Phaw1OlKZyLt0GEJhrRbz_w3EWw6n674qxBnhkZUkZuwmYmoVoxqmVTtYxk3XswHMzpiS6x-VN6WkWzETLm808_MaCDILNncB68ErGlM8vaCdFqkC0eWREqenjx3NtK_P6Q/w400-h54/memoQuickies%20Resource%20Camp%20icon%20bar.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div>Kevin Lossnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14727800526216764023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20155610.post-88260738010136070082023-09-04T17:44:00.009+01:002023-09-21T09:02:41.185+01:00New online course: "memoQuickies Resource Camp"<p><span style="font-size: large;">S</span>ummer is almost over, but technically, "camping season" will continue in memoQ World until November 30th. Or maybe January 31st, depending on how you count.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://transtrib-tech.teachable.com/courses/memoquickies-resource-camp/lectures/48967660" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="202" data-original-width="1491" height="43" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyIcgv9AZAVjyDNsouZek0RSQev_r9pchZtwlCZybFiLIVTuXX19vIfrGQ-ellsnABDqsUKoVuO7A31PYMVI3FB3SA-2KALjoe4O6jD0aUubcPIpsz_yFISFV5nSbADIYUhqyhDfYbXb9Q9Uk7egcgWLMAMBJsy2X1RRKv0t2TLot0IqW9UcNQEg/s320/memoQuickies%20Resource%20Camp%20icon%20bar.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>Today, a three-month journey of exploration begins, covering six important kinds of resources to make work with the memoQ translation desktop and server environments more pleasant and efficient... and profitable. This <b>self-guided</b> online course will give participants full access to my 14 years of cumulative experience as a memoQ user translating, managing projects and developing hundreds of solutions with this world-leading productivity tool.</p><p>Click <b><a href="https://transtrib-tech.teachable.com/courses/memoquickies-resource-camp/lectures/48967660" target="_blank">here</a></b> or on the icon bar above to have a look at the course description and to see (and maybe download) some of the publicly available information and resources for better work in many language pairs. </p><p>The emphasis of teaching will shift to a new resource every two weeks (with auto-translation rules as the main topic for the first two weeks), but throughout the course, information will be added continuously to all topic sections as I trawl through, sort, upgrade and publish the best or most interesting stuff from my archives. And course participants have access to open virtual office hours each week on Thursdays and some other occasions, where any questions can be asked and special requests made.</p><p><a href="https://transtrib-tech.teachable.com/p/memoq-resource-camp?coupon_code=HALFOFFLAUNCH&product_id=4969637" target="_blank"><b>A special enrollment discount of 40% is available for the first week</b></a> (code: HALFOFFLAUNCH) until September 10th, but you can join at any time and work with any of the material posted, ask questions and receive feedback. Learning material and downloadable, ready-to-use and -adapt resources will continue to be added until the end of November, and the full course will remain online through January 2024. Enrollment fees and content are subject to change without notice.</p><p><b><span style="color: #cc0000;">Addendum 1:</span></b> <i>On Thursday afternoon, September 7th, 2023, a presentation was made to introduce the first course topic - "Auto-translation Rules for Everyone". The recording and slides can be found</i> <a href="https://transtrib-tech.teachable.com/courses/memoquickies-resource-camp/lectures/49010845" target="_blank"><b>here</b></a>.</p><p><b><span style="color: #cc0000;">Addendum 2:</span></b> <i>Payment options for groups and monthly budgets have been introduced now. These options enable teams, departments and organizations to obtain blocks of passes for their members to receive continuing professional education in translation workflow tools. The host site applies VAT and other taxes where relevant and generates appropriate invoices. All relevant information can be found at the bottom of <a href="https://transtrib-tech.teachable.com/p/memoq-resource-camp" target="_blank">the information and enrollment page</a>.</i></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://transtrib-tech.teachable.com/p/memoq-resource-camp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="756" data-original-width="999" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhajiJwqaHNpvxIusd8XgqMEvB1R3JuHedAD-jTcHm9CqQY4w7PQAEy9CZCHGNeNsjJSqbi12TwxWJIyyb_jCZdWR0H0aZugbLnZ3i8Q6DnJT6C-GdlN9Fcf1VsYRBXAhE2csgDVOvvP4bxReSHXkdPlAeOxK-p47GBMSyR4mYEwE2d0-KqZ5YLRg/w400-h303/Payment%20Options.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><i><br /></i><p></p>Kevin Lossnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14727800526216764023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20155610.post-16604716991654104062023-05-20T12:33:00.009+01:002023-05-20T12:38:36.670+01:00Taking the trash out of trashlation in translation<p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let’s be real, people. We need to start using the word <i>trashlation</i> to describe what too often passes for professional activity in the language services sector these days.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA0whwvCfI0L8SaXlbi1qYOn46vjMWtOoUeWHaQ7ZSnm8qwvu5VuIuVNZ8u0SdiLkurZ_3Bg89HYPShjVCIj8OB2h5Uj-MX7eKWrV21tPpRzU49tDlyv9Y5QBxIqvRUcz2LdNhsLC_gCbSPM3Sm_kaeoI6z3Gf75l8h4iUu6fRZ_-FkPgSbwA/s2048/trashcans.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA0whwvCfI0L8SaXlbi1qYOn46vjMWtOoUeWHaQ7ZSnm8qwvu5VuIuVNZ8u0SdiLkurZ_3Bg89HYPShjVCIj8OB2h5Uj-MX7eKWrV21tPpRzU49tDlyv9Y5QBxIqvRUcz2LdNhsLC_gCbSPM3Sm_kaeoI6z3Gf75l8h4iUu6fRZ_-FkPgSbwA/s320/trashcans.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><p></p><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">I’m looking at all of you DeepL fans among others. <span class="x3nfvp2 x1j61x8r x1fcty0u xdj266r xhhsvwb xat24cr xgzva0m xxymvpz xlup9mm x1kky2od" style="display: inline-flex; height: 16px; margin: 0px 1px; vertical-align: middle; width: 16px;"><img alt="🧐" height="16" referrerpolicy="origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/images/emoji.php/v9/t36/1.5/16/1f9d0.png" style="border: 0px;" width="16" /></span> And especially the LSPs who try to sell that garbage or other post-edited spew as <i>translation</i>. Such nonsense is seldom fit for purpose, and when I am not bent over the Porcelain God in “prayer”, I am always reminded of Mark Twain’s comment that the <a style="color: #385898; cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a>difference between something “close” to </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">the right word and </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">the right word itself </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">is akin to the difference between a lightning bug and lightning. I would suggest that in some cases the consequential difference could be compared to being strapped to the electric chair for execution as opposed to </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">watching the Natural magnificence of a lightning storm</span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">.</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Recently, a German publisher sent me a very interesting file containing a table with the original German text in the first column, a post-edited DeepL result by a German who has lived abroad for some decades in the second column, in a third the post-edited result from an American living in Germany, and in the fourth column the results of some beta program called <i>DeepL Write</i>, yet another iteration of all of this AI trash the fanboys and -girls all declare will replace human writing efforts. Although I prefer to be left out of any discussions whatsoever involving the linguistic quality of MT output, the submitter seemed pleased by what he saw and insisted on having my opinion. So I gave it to him. Unfiltered. <span class="x3nfvp2 x1j61x8r x1fcty0u xdj266r xhhsvwb xat24cr xgzva0m xxymvpz xlup9mm x1kky2od" style="display: inline-flex; height: 16px; margin: 0px 1px; vertical-align: middle; width: 16px;"><img alt="😃" height="16" referrerpolicy="origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/images/emoji.php/v9/taa/1.5/16/1f603.png" style="border: 0px;" width="16" /></span> I suggested leaving me alone with that nonsense, and said I considered all of it to be hopeless trash. Actually, I might have been harsher than that, as I don't consider that sort of “writing“ acceptable or in any way fit for purpose, any purpose with which I'll be associated. It is physically painful for me to look at verbal garbage like that. I would rather stick my nose in a garbage can full of rotting meat and inhale deeply. The original German text was not bad, and it deserved real translation like someone I recommended could provide for that subject matter.</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">In a long consulting gig in the second half of 2022, which ended only in April of this year, I had a very close look at how badly the commercial models of translation service offered by most agencies are broken, badly, badly broken. Years of social engineering propaganda by unscrupulous promotors of machine translation and artificial "intelligence" have skewed expectations badly so that if the buyer is lucky the "best" service <i>might</i> be "good enough", though barely.</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Project managers at agencies tell me of their soul-crushing duty to force ever lower rates on those external providers of translation services who typically do the real work sold as the agency's deceptive product. All the while, charts and graphs and other "quality metrics" tell the fairy story of superior delivery.</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">It's time for individuals providing independent services to take a different approach. Let the linguistic sausage providers (aka <i>LSPs</i>) eat their own product. Take the trash out of <i>trashlation</i>.</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Of course there has been a lot of talk for years about the need to find more direct clients. Most conferences for translators have at least one presentation on this topic. But many of the recommended practices are dated or have become less effective as LSPs providing trashlation have increasingly gamed the search algorithms to make their pages appear to be those of independent individual providers, and then once there the buyer is treated to lies and distortions suggesting that they may be better off with the superior "full service" of the agency. Very few of the claims on such pages reflect actual practice, something I know very well as an insider providing technical assistance to companies for a very long time.</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">I have also read suggestions recently that search engine optimization (SEO) strategies may soon be a dead letter. Why? Companies developing search engines are rushing to implement large language model (LLM) functionality, such as that found in ChatGPT, any many expect that to blow the algorithm gaming strategy to Hell, negating much of the investments companies and individuals have made to increase the visibility of their web sites and the services offered there.</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">I don't know, really, what disintermediation strategies might be most effective these days, but at the very least individual traders should examine alternative <i>representation strategies</i>. I saw an interesting one recently on <b><a href="https://fiverr.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Fiverr</a></b>, a platform I remembered only for the idiotic idea that every service should cost $5. Well, that has apparently changed.</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Although their presentations were often far from a perfect, translators offering services on those platforms are able to structure the "gigs" in such a way that buyers can easily specify relevant conditions, such as project scope, urgency, etc. And service providers can avoid overbooking by applying various kinds of throttles based on order volume. Extra services, such as multiple revisions, project glossaries and many other extras I have marketing over the years are a snap to set up.</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">In fact, I was so impressed by what I saw that I am considering to create special services for some of the routine technical services I provide for translation workflow training videos, custom import filters, regex tools to translation and text QA, etc. Frequently, more of my time is spent gathering information on a client's requirements than I actually spend providing the implementable result. The flexible FAQ functions, intake questionnaire, portfolio and communication tools look like they can be a huge time-saver.</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Compared to what I saw on Fiverr and a few similar, huge volume platforms, the structure of platforms like ProZ-dot-com and Translator's Café definitely look "last century". The times they are a-changin' and maybe we should be too in the platforms we use to promote services that our potential clients need.</span></div><div dir="auto"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div></div>Kevin Lossnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14727800526216764023noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20155610.post-29955754015606693902023-03-02T12:36:00.000+00:002023-03-02T12:36:30.095+00:00memoQ Regex Assistant workshops re-run<p>The series of three workshops on the use of regex resources in memoQ, with a particular emphasis on the integrated Regex Assistant library, has been updated and will be offered again on March 9, 16 and 23 from 3:00 pm to 4:30 Lisbon time (4:00 pm to 5:30 pm CET, 10:00 am-11:30 am EST).<br /><br />You can register here to attend any or all of the three sessions:<br /><a aria-label="https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEpde-sqTkvGtCdMsrBl825tFrpDQ98FkAI" aria-labelledby="view-registration" data-v-3392e92e="" href="https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEpde-sqTkvGtCdMsrBl825tFrpDQ98FkAI" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; color: #033a7d; font-family: "Almaden Sans", Helvetica, Arial; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: 0.42px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" target="_blank">https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEpde-sqTkvGtCdMsrBl825tFrpDQ98FkAI</a></p><p>This is an evolving course, with the content continuously adapted in response to new questions, workflow challenges and process research as well as interoperability studies with other tools. Participants in the last series asked quite a number of interesting things during and after the talks, and their questions provided excellent material for new examples and approaches, and I hope for the same experience in this round.</p><p>The <b>memoQ Regex Assistant</b> is a unique library tool introduced in its current form in memoQ version 9.9. The little bit of public discussion there has been about this tool is quite misleading. Contrary to the "pitch" from memoQ employees and nerdy fans in the user base, this isn't really a tool for learning regular expressions. There are much better means for doing that. And I have strong personal objections to the idiotic statements I hear so often that "everyone should learn some regex". What utter nonsense.</p><p>What everyone <i>should</i> do is take advantage of the power regular expressions offer to simplify time-consuming tasks of translation, review, quality assurance and more to ensure accuracy and consistency in language resources and translations. The <b>Regex Assistant</b> helps with this by providing a platform where useful "expressions" can be collected and organized with readable names, labels and descriptions in any language. These libraries can be sorted, exchange with other users and applied for filtering, find and replace operations, QA checks, segmentation improvements, structured translation of dates, currency expressions, bibliographic information, legal citations and more or exported and converted to formats for easy use in other tools such as Trados Studio, Phrase/Memsource, Transtools+ and more. All <i><span style="color: red;">without the need to learn any regular expression syntax</span></i>!</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4jQyqI_TQed_tJKvi8A8jtFEnQ6T7z6iZddupZcN401m4Lx-wbe9P4Z-_-JXuwbT68K9HVdRkqovqnzaNAwtF6FeDuXWMuGQnac3ONyiR-wYFUHoMxB3h0ltSiU46NrZDMg8T3cl3Q86zS36pyxe-P9xCTtvQl6hTFkWeOboKxqLtm-kjJR8/s886/RegexAssistant%20library%20as%20HTML.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="HTML created from a memoQ Regex Assistant library export" border="0" data-original-height="886" data-original-width="854" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4jQyqI_TQed_tJKvi8A8jtFEnQ6T7z6iZddupZcN401m4Lx-wbe9P4Z-_-JXuwbT68K9HVdRkqovqnzaNAwtF6FeDuXWMuGQnac3ONyiR-wYFUHoMxB3h0ltSiU46NrZDMg8T3cl3Q86zS36pyxe-P9xCTtvQl6hTFkWeOboKxqLtm-kjJR8/w616-h640/RegexAssistant%20library%20as%20HTML.png" width="616" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: #274e13; font-size: x-small;">An exported Regex Assistant library converted to a readable format by XSLT</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><p>My objective is not to teach regex syntax. It is to empower users to take more control of their work environment and save time and frustration for their teams and enjoy more life beyond the wordface. To help with that, I provide some usable examples in a follow-up mail after each sessions: resources that you can use in your own work and share freely with colleagues. </p><p>And in this next round of workshops, available for purchase, there will be some additional high value resources to help achieve better outcomes for work in particular language pairs and particular specialties, such as financial translations. These complex resources were developed over a period of years, sometimes at great cost. In the last session I'll be getting "down and dirty and a little nerdy" to show you my way of maintaining complex resources like these auto-translation rules and others in a very effective, sustainable way that enables you to adapt quickly to changing requirements and style guides.</p>Sign up free to join the fun <b><a href="https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEpde-sqTkvGtCdMsrBl825tFrpDQ98FkAI" target="_blank">here</a></b>.<br /><br /><p></p>Kevin Lossnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14727800526216764023noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20155610.post-5268227710754274712023-01-12T18:34:00.003+00:002023-02-18T14:06:01.883+00:00memoQ&A: The Regex Assistant in Practice<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0XOcWktloPHenimDX-nZhVua6JuLWr4ZCyg5zKOBg6315FuFdCX5yhwNwEUdI_1wRXOPewed3K1PC1BO7ok_G_HBBHMibWJIzUsnZWU_HYeSvMR72hgyOsHSho_3aDXoa1eWz2QyEWGN5aFOdA74-BL1TLi6L7bkVq9L7P8jB2C-3oQwF9Ec/s1920/Regex%20Assistant%20in%20action%20memoQ.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1017" data-original-width="1920" height="340" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0XOcWktloPHenimDX-nZhVua6JuLWr4ZCyg5zKOBg6315FuFdCX5yhwNwEUdI_1wRXOPewed3K1PC1BO7ok_G_HBBHMibWJIzUsnZWU_HYeSvMR72hgyOsHSho_3aDXoa1eWz2QyEWGN5aFOdA74-BL1TLi6L7bkVq9L7P8jB2C-3oQwF9Ec/w640-h340/Regex%20Assistant%20in%20action%20memoQ.png" width="640" /></a></div><p><span style="color: red; font-family: verdana;"><i><b>Note:</b> there will be another series of workshops for this subject matter in March. Details are </i><a href="https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEpde-sqTkvGtCdMsrBl825tFrpDQ98FkAI" target="_blank">HERE</a><i>. Register once to attend any or all of the sessions.</i></span></p><p>Users of memoQ version 9.9 or later have a powerful library tool available with which they can organize solutions or solution elements that use regular expressions and apply these without the complications of learning regex syntax. In each session, we'll look at different ways in which these portable libraries can be used, with a particular emphasis on solving common problems faced by translators and reviewers. Materials will also be made available to participants for later study and practice.</p><p>There will be three sessions of 90 minutes each on three consecutive Thursdays: <b>January 19, January 26 and February 2</b> at <b>11:00 a.m. Lisbon time (i.e. noon CET)</b>. The first session will introduce the Regex Assistant library and its basic functions for organizing and exchanging information and then move on to specific examples of using the library to deal with common problems encountered in translation and review work. Particular emphasis in the first session will be on filtering and Find/Replace operations. </p><p>The two later sessions will continue to explore filtering and options for making changes to texts and tags, and we will also take a tour of possibilities for using regular expression resources (from the library!) in other parts of memoQ such as the Regex Tagger, QA checks or auto-translation rules. As time permits, examples or requests from participants can also be explored. </p><p>Those interested in joining the free sessions can register <b><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0sf-CorT4iHtIKPVYX3FkORla4IdGfySXa" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here</a></span></b>.<br /></p><p><b><span style="color: red;">Update:</span></b> a recording of the first session is available here: <a href="https://youtu.be/KKR5aH5oGH8" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/KKR5aH5oGH8</a></p><p>To get a little taste of what's to come, have a look at this video created by a colleague last year:<br /><br />
</p><center><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NJCudZYifH4" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></center><p></p>Kevin Lossnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14727800526216764023noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20155610.post-74826594073372168312022-06-24T11:50:00.002+01:002022-06-24T11:50:50.606+01:00The Invisible Hand of Social Media<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3svf44lbiBK78xFhdeHESp82ufYGbS8xM4jF8oD175WuhqDalHUzxAbSEgqtg1vePt3_tGBF_S9EN3lel_htTRNgheq62gg-moqsNDYYckbTOhngfFXYi0IwpVFifdcWZrzZnMnQu1PReeDvYLed0j00COwboKDVeUvxbCFsHavR6IKm2kq8/s711/2022-06-24_comment_invisible-hand.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="217" data-original-width="711" height="98" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3svf44lbiBK78xFhdeHESp82ufYGbS8xM4jF8oD175WuhqDalHUzxAbSEgqtg1vePt3_tGBF_S9EN3lel_htTRNgheq62gg-moqsNDYYckbTOhngfFXYi0IwpVFifdcWZrzZnMnQu1PReeDvYLed0j00COwboKDVeUvxbCFsHavR6IKm2kq8/s320/2022-06-24_comment_invisible-hand.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKJGTNXq6Hb7ynG4EYXgz5Hv1buaFvFTQ2jw1shAXK9ASfj2Z3u_CAz8LKqWnKiqby3Sriwf-oEmd_CentnvkpPDhpxm4AKGrp5tmdJCB3cO51io4oHhp_DaMOEHkRMvbov6F8-9qCWVmnG8CcD2T8cDc2Hxn9UUqzk12C-VweVuFwDHFvugY/s686/2022-06-24_6%20day%20ban.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="686" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKJGTNXq6Hb7ynG4EYXgz5Hv1buaFvFTQ2jw1shAXK9ASfj2Z3u_CAz8LKqWnKiqby3Sriwf-oEmd_CentnvkpPDhpxm4AKGrp5tmdJCB3cO51io4oHhp_DaMOEHkRMvbov6F8-9qCWVmnG8CcD2T8cDc2Hxn9UUqzk12C-VweVuFwDHFvugY/s320/2022-06-24_6%20day%20ban.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">We've probably all been there by now. The evolution of social media platforms has seen the "rise of the machines", with artificial (non-)intelligence programmed by unintelligent humans monitoring and managing our actions, sometimes with little or no possibilities of pushback on our part or processes that waste inordinate amounts of time to obtain correction. We see this on Facebook, LinkedIn and other media which are too often also a major venue for business communication and technical support for professional tools we use. In the case involved with the screenshots above, my "wicked" comment was made with regard to an economic theory promulgated by the long-dead white Englishman, Adam Smith, and I was given the opportunity to protest to an external board after the fourth-world budget help confirmed that I was indeed a bad person promoting terrorism. I wrote:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i></i></div><blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i><span style="color: red;">There was a discussion about the abuses of capitalism and the flawed thinking of Adam Smith's "invisible hand", which he thought guided markets to do the right thing without control. As we all know, it is necessary for societies to exercise some control to protect health and safety, the environment etc. Blind belief in the invisible hand too often leads to tragedy -- in a sense, this invisible hand concept points the middle finger at us humans too often. So I suggested a metaphorical amputation of a metaphorical middle finger on a metaphorical invisible hand, meaning that we need legislation, etc. to protect against abuses in an unrestricted market. No real violence against any living beings whatsoever was suggested. The AI used by Facebook is functionally idiotic.</span></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i><span style="color: red;"><br /></span></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i><span style="color: red;">Consider also that if the hand is invisible the metaphorical blood must be too, so amputation should shock nobody, as any gore will also be invisible ;-)</span></i></div></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Now all that is just a bit of amusement over coffee in the morning. But other cases are more serious, like the automated banning of a Ukrainian software developer for two months on LinkedIn because Putinist trolls objected to him trying to describe the reality of serving his customers while coffee breaks are accompanied by missile strikes and business-as-usual genocide. It seems that a certain volume of complaints can trigger a ban even when no specific violation can be identified. Artificial intelligence indeed.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Entirely too much trust is granted to automation, almost a reflex, even when it obviously contradicts logic and common sense. In the translation sector, I encounter time and again the idea that language services work should be cheaper if it involves text pre-proccessed by machine translation such as DeepL, even when <i>it can be demonstrated that achieving the desired level of quality takes longer than if the text were translated by human effort only</i>. So time isn't money for these people, I guess. The real issue is <span style="color: red;">slavelancing</span>.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Some postulate that most people need to believe in a Higher Power of some sort and take from it the direction and meaning of their lives. I used to dispute that, but seeing now how so many educated people in the business world have replaced Nin-girsu, Shiva, Allah, Nossa Senhora da Fatima and Mighty Cthulu with the new God of MTness, I suspect I may have been wrong.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">As with most religions, it's our people and their welfare who are the true victims of this automation religion, while the priests argue that the real problem is that we haven't sacrificed enough to that invisible middle finger the technologists wave in our faces.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">But I ask, <i>what's the harm of paying a few more cents if you must if it leads at last to a lot more sense and better understanding for us all?</i></div></div>Kevin Lossnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14727800526216764023noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20155610.post-9328232973756289492022-06-17T12:34:00.002+01:002022-06-18T23:14:53.635+01:00memoQ Inside Out: Templates for Translators<p>In the summer of 2021, I was coaching a group of project managers and translators at a Portuguese service company, helping them to develop processes to overcome some rather complicated filtering and configuration challenges for recurring project types. It was clear to me that some of their difficulties could be overcome with the use of templates, but I had only recently begun to use these productively myself, and my attempts to communicate the subject matter overwhelmed the group for the most part, and examining the sample templates provided with memoQ installation simply made matters worse.</p><p>After several frustrating tutorial sessions and the failed acceptance of a template that I had developed which was tailored to a rather long wish list of automation that came out of our discussions, I decided that the only way to make the value of templates clear to this group of professionals was to wipe the slate clean, forget about all the myriad "wishes" and build a few simple templates which did just a few simple things. Starting from a new configuration with nothing at all. Surprisingly, less was indeed more, and the frustrated people began to "get it".</p><p>At almost the same time, my friend and colleague Marek Pawelec, a gifted teacher whom I often refer to quite objectively as "a consultant's consultant", mentioned that he was thinking of writing a book on memoQ templates, because he found that most people were unable to avoid the problems in the example templates provided with memoQ installation, nor were they able to work out most difficulties encountered when making their own templates. I could understand this very well, because the user interface in the configuration dialog for a template is not a stellar example of clarity, and it took me years to make proper sense of much of it. Disappointing, really, because I had been part of the chorus begging for something like templates for years, but when they were delivered, little about them made obvious sense to a dummy like me.</p><p>He sent me a chapter he had drafted, where I noted that he had adopted the same reductionist approach to getting started. A template with just a pick list or two for meta data to avoid the problem I've had for years of accidentally using different designations for the same clients, subjects, domains, etc. He had come to the same conclusion independently that the best approach to helping people use templates effectively is to start with one or two simple things they do all the time but often mess up.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://payhip.com/b/agrxM" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="808" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW-KANr0OtCGwA15Hg94QK9gdZalIzc-4HM7vfR1i0RwGG0UVeexd-dhGRcDHK73lunwsn-fZOLMml8dOkA_zb2r8-9Xzw4w0AgwcS4w-ih5O_9GG0IjsyczPZyjZEYoFowWBxMW6FG78mibhfFjp-SWb61_HSJC-XM5cVXCGa7VgvgcT-lN4/s320/Marek%20mQ%20Templates.png" width="227" /></a></div><p>That interesting draft chapter took time to evolve into a full-fledged guide of nearly 70 pages, with many practical, relatable examples of the kinds of challenges that individual translators (and many other service providers) often face in configuring translation projects. The topics cover the full range of options, from very simple tasks to extremely complex workflows involving pre-import scripts for preparing translation data and post-processing to recreate the original data formats. At every stage he offers clear examples and guidance on how to make things work in cases I have seen time and again in more than two decades of commercial translation work.</p><p>I had the pleasure to edit two drafts of this work as it neared completion. And <i>pleasure</i> really is the right word to use here. Marek has a very different explanatory style than mine, but one which I prefer for my own education. He manages very well the deep dive into messy details without drowning the reader in jargon and other unhelpful complexity. His guide gives valuable suggestions and information for every level of expertise. Much of the content can be understood and applied by unsophisticated new users of memoQ, but some of the details on content connectors and scripting can light a chandelier full of bulbs in the heads of alleged experts like myself.</p><p><i>Templates for Translators</i> is an essential reference work for all memoQ users in my opinion, the sort of thing which ought to have been provided seven years or so ago when templates were introduced. Instead we got some imperfect examples which too often - especially in the hands of under-trained PMs at translation agencies - result in unworkable projects with 50+ translation memories and term bases grinding performance to a halt or a lot of mysterious and unwanted automation that does stupid shit like write unfinished and defective translations directly into one's master TM.</p><p>In addition to explaining clearly how to create your own helpful project shortcuts and automation from scratch, Marek included a great chapter in which he describes in detail the templates provided for local projects, what works in them and what doesn't, and how to fix any issues so things work right for <i>you</i>. Even if you are a server user working primarily with online projects, there is a wealth of material in this version of the templates guide to help you work more effectively with templates for online projects. A second edition is planned for later this year, which will cover the additional features of templates for memoQ Server projects, but the real problems of most people working with those are covered in the basics presented in the "translators" edition, not in a lack of guidance on the many extra event "triggers" for online projects or other details. So if you are a server user, don't wait for the later edition, get this guide now, read every damned page and try to contain your exuberance as you finally understand a lot of stuff that has been confusing the Hell out of most of us for a long time. Then when the "server edition" of the guide is published, you'll be better prepared to absorb the increment of information it offers.</p><p>This book is now a valued part of my teaching "arsenal", and I recommend it without reservation to every memoQ user who aspires to work independently and create more effective processes for the special needs of various clients and subject matter. If you are a consultant or trainer at a serious level, it could well be considered malpractice to train without some of the information you'll find in <i>Templates for Translators</i>. But that's just what I see too often: discussions of templates glibly use the few defective examples installed with memoQ with little consideration given to how many translators should work in the real world with real, common client projects. This book is a welcome aid to move beyond all that and improve our satisfaction with the routine of translation in memoQ.</p><p>So for less than the cost of half an hour of consulting, the €30 invested here will save nearly anyone a large multiple of that and continue to pay dividends for a very long time, even if you understand and apply only 10% of the material presented. I charge far, far more to teach people less than that.</p><p><i>memoQ Inside Out: Templates for Translators</i> is available for purchase at <b><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://payhip.com/b/agrxM" target="_blank">https://payhip.com/b/agrxM</a></span></b></p>Kevin Lossnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14727800526216764023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20155610.post-33580242663335264322022-05-30T16:50:00.004+01:002022-06-01T14:19:22.074+01:00Cleaning up language variants in memoQ term bases<p>While the idea of using sublanguage variants, such as UK, US or Canadian versions of English, sounds nice in principle, in practice these often create headaches for users of translation environments such as memoQ, particularly when exchanging glossaries with others but also when viewing and editing the data in the built-in editors. Many times I have heard colleagues and clients express a wish to "go back" and work only with generic variants of a language in order to simplify their management of terminology data. In the video below, I share one method to do so.</p>
<center><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/c2W_8QdAgpU" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></center>
<p><a href="https://youtu.be/c2W_8QdAgpU?t=188" target="_blank">At 3:08 in the video</a>, I share a little "aside" about how the exported term data can be edited to mark a term as forbidden (for instance, if its use is not desired by the translation buyer). Other changes to the information are also possible at this stage, such as the addition of context and use information for example. Other data fields from the term base can also be included in the export for cleanup if these play an important role in your memoQ term bases.</p><p>For years, users have requested an editing feature in memoQ that would make "unifying" language variants possible, but as you can see in this video tutorial, this possibility already exists and is neither difficult nor time-consuming to implement. </p><p>If you do not wish to create a new term base to import the cleaned-up data (as shown in the video) but would rather bring it in to the same term base, it is important to configure the settings for your import correctly so that the original data will be overwritten and you won't end up with messy duplication of information. This is achieved with the following setting marked in red:<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRw8S8BjUgWbmbOJaeMXhzbXo_xHyf_OHU243hFTUPCv8DiIyEXDrxRB32w1ALycF_hTgniKq3beG_20TUe39RACIn7VtZdS1Cu2Y8NzjOMO39UfLt1LCES9QhTbZnr-4AjjFgmi9KeOOHsZLyJgOOXhqWMOIQ3AMesC_ze28jy7zz43uXd4E/s647/Import%20Overwrite.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="616" data-original-width="647" height="381" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRw8S8BjUgWbmbOJaeMXhzbXo_xHyf_OHU243hFTUPCv8DiIyEXDrxRB32w1ALycF_hTgniKq3beG_20TUe39RACIn7VtZdS1Cu2Y8NzjOMO39UfLt1LCES9QhTbZnr-4AjjFgmi9KeOOHsZLyJgOOXhqWMOIQ3AMesC_ze28jy7zz43uXd4E/w400-h381/Import%20Overwrite.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">However, it should be noted that the term base will still have all the now-unused language variants, albeit with no entries for them. These can be removed by unchecking the boxes for the respective language variants in the term base's <i>Properties</i> dialog.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Speaking of the <i>Properties</i> dialog, some may have noted that in recent versions of memoQ there is an automated option for cleaning up those unwanted language variants:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK-_BUh0wNGVTwX98S69qFOmQnT_kmUq6r9JGhsm8rhM85JgoZK4KC8sqcntjvcK5NltVZ5D7E0P-LpsUT0PCBb1K6OnTgvDO2abPSDYoJZ_zicP-jQDBlfBr1hHRf5UUN08WkDS4Ah4-XpVXQA0JBegj4vF0yL2yHrP9ZkTMqGPhqTzcBV8I/s1046/Properties%20Dialog%20Cleanup.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="460" data-original-width="1046" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK-_BUh0wNGVTwX98S69qFOmQnT_kmUq6r9JGhsm8rhM85JgoZK4KC8sqcntjvcK5NltVZ5D7E0P-LpsUT0PCBb1K6OnTgvDO2abPSDYoJZ_zicP-jQDBlfBr1hHRf5UUN08WkDS4Ah4-XpVXQA0JBegj4vF0yL2yHrP9ZkTMqGPhqTzcBV8I/w640-h282/Properties%20Dialog%20Cleanup.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Why bother with the XSLX route then? Well, depending on what version of memoQ you use, you may not have that command available in the dialog. But more importantly, I find that when merging data from various language variants I often want to do additional editing of the term information, and that really isn't possible when merging language variants in the <i>Properties</i> dialog. Doing the edits in Microsoft Excel gives you an overview of the data and the option to make whatever adjustments may be needed. In Excel you can also make further changes, such as altering the match properties for better hit results or more accurate quality assurance.</div><br />Kevin Lossnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14727800526216764023noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20155610.post-43783166274380035902022-05-28T17:30:00.002+01:002022-05-28T20:57:56.478+01:00Filtering formatted text in Microsoft Office files<p> Recently, I shared <a href="https://www.translationtribulations.com/2022/05/forget-cat-gimme-bat.html" target="_blank">an approach to selecting text in a Microsoft Word file with editing restricted</a> to certain paragraphs. This feature of Microsoft Word is, alas, not supported by any translation tool filters of which I am aware, so to import only the text designated for editing it is necessary to go inside the DOCX file (which is just a ZIP archive with the extension changed) and use the XML file which contains the document text with all its format markers.</p><p>This approach is generally valid for all formats applied to Microsoft Office files since Office 2007, such as DOCX from Word or PPTX from PowerPoint. I have prepared a video to show how the process of extracting the content and importing it for translation can work:</p>
<center><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/x4u4ZdBwUws" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></center>
<p> After translation, the relevant XML file is exported and the original XML is replaced with the translated file inside the archive. If the DOCX or PPTX file was unpacked to get at the XML, the folder structure can then be re-zipped and the extension changed to its original form to create the deliverable translated file.</p><p>What I do not show in the video is that the content can also be extracted by other means, such as convenient memoQ project templates using filters with masks to extract directly using various ZIP filter options. But the lower tech approach shown in the video is one that should be accessible to any professional with access to modern translation environment tools which permit filter customization with regular expressions.</p><p>Once a filter has been created for a particular format such as red text, adapting it to extract only green highlighted text or text in italics or some other format takes less than a minute in an editor. Different filters are necessary for the same formats in DOCX and PPTX, because unfortunately Microsoft's markup for yellow highlighting, for example, differs between Word and PowerPoint in the versions I tested.</p><p>Although this is a bit of a nerdy hack, it's probably easier for most people than various macro solutions to hide and unhide text. And it takes far less time and is more accurate than copying text to another file.</p><p>In cases where it is important to see the original context of the text being translated, this can be done, for example, using memoQ's PDF Preview Tool, a viewer available in recent versions which will track the imported text in a PDF made from the original file. This can be done using the PDF Save options available in Microsoft applications.</p><p><br /></p>Kevin Lossnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14727800526216764023noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20155610.post-24930194075200583592022-05-05T18:55:00.002+01:002022-06-18T23:15:14.481+01:00Understanding and mastering tags... with memoQ!<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><i style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://payhip.com/b/tHUDx" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="947" data-original-width="670" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk-_M9csmW_UcBhpao5To3cLDNAHydKJXpUPJ-2rwfA1KdZ5Ucuj3uvMLLCY6zusbEYpM5Ki0hipD2tocE90gGjyq8Au2C7GZtC9pJQxCxaiSkqEK6kmq94YpNU7q6Nqv_nm_j6GlFY6EYlISCWkgcH4O4CTOLF6Mb0a3XrFuhTf5IkZcklNo/w283-h400/Marek%20-%20Tags%20book%20cover.png" width="283" /></a></span></i></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://payhip.com/b/tHUDx" target="_blank">Everything you need to know... in 36 pages!</a></span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Following up on the success of his excellent <a href="https://www.translationtribulations.com/2021/02/memoq-guide-to-machine-translation.html" target="_blank">guide to machine translation functions in memoQ</a>, Marek Pawelec (Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/wasaty" target="_blank"><b>@wasaty</b></a>) has now published his definitive guide to tag mastery in that translation environment. In a mere 36 pages of clearly written, engaging text, he has distilled more than a decade of personal expertise and exchanges with other top professionals in language services technology into simple recipes and strategies for success with situations which are often so messy that even experienced project managers and tech support gurus wail in despair. Garbage like this, for example:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://payhip.com/b/tHUDx" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="408" data-original-width="685" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisLSIYpklz-Wx7Q-8zCHFviuNR2jjFg_7ZdrMn6rJD2HivYp2M8ISpvOEkfv7ajspIFczA85jQtfrGypAzmGshMAEUoLeOvZFHbVez_225-tCkSFkOls5wrKZEPQzpueQNuBG4WxIBCferDZVBwfvG3i6gXAxYwBjGO9yKvRY0FgJOnESyWdk/w400-h239/Tag%20Hell.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>This screenshot is taken from the import of <i>The PPTX from Hell</i>, which a frustrated PM asked for help with just as I began reviewing the draft of Marek's book about a month ago. It contained nearly 32,000 superfluous spacing tags and was such a mess that it choked all the best professional macros usually deployed to deal with such things. Last year, I had developed my own way of dealing with these things that involved RTF bilingual exports and some search and replace magic in Microsoft Word, but when I shared it with Marek, he said "There's a better way", and indeed there is. On page 23 of this book. It was much cleaner and faster, and in a few minutes I was able to produce a clean slide set that was much easier to read and translate in the CAT tool. A page that costs 50 cents (of the €18 purchase price of the guide) earned me a 140x return and saved hours of working frustration for the translation team.</p><p>The book covers a lot more than just the esoterica of really messed up source files. It is a superb introduction to dealing with tags and markup for students at university and for those new to the translation profession and its endemic technologies, and it has sober, engaging guidance at every level for experienced professionals. I consider it an essential troubleshooting work for those in support roles of internal translation departments and, quite honestly, for my esteemed colleagues in First Level Support at memoQ. Marek is a superb trainer and an articulate teacher, with a humility that masks expertise which very often surprises, delights and informs those of us who are sometimes thought to be experts.</p><p>I am also particularly pleased that in the final version of his text he addresses the seldom discussed matter of how to factor markup into cost quotations and service charges for translations. memoQ is particularly well designed to address these problems, because weighting factors equivalent to word or character counts can be incorporated in file statistics, offering a simple, transparent and fair way of dealing with the frustrations that too often leave project managers screaming and crying in frustration shortly before... or after planned deliveries.</p><p>Whatever aspect of tags may interest you in translation technology and most particularly in memoQ, this book will give you the concise, clear answers you need to understand the best actions to take.</p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The <b>PDF e-book</b> is available for purchase here:<b> <a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h f1sip0of lzcic4wl gpro0wi8 oo483o9r gmql0nx0" href="https://payhip.com/b/tHUDx?fbclid=IwAR2dCamkxPjj7WYbDw1CG_Bb5-9qjKQWGnIX_j8Pa6vv-JM2zXOk1hu93PM" rel="nofollow noopener" role="link" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: #e4e6eb; border-color: initial; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; touch-action: manipulation; white-space: pre-wrap;" tabindex="-1" target="_blank">https://payhip.com/b/tHUDx</a></b></span></p><br /><p></p>Kevin Lossnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14727800526216764023noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20155610.post-21896251237590161702022-05-05T00:44:00.002+01:002022-05-05T18:59:52.467+01:00Forget the CAT, gimme a BAT!<p>It's been nine months since my last blog post. Rumors and celebrations of my demise are premature; I have simply felt a profound reluctance to wade in the increasingly troubled waters of public media and the trendy nonsense that too often passes for professional wisdom these days. And in pandemic times, when most everything goes online, I feel a better place for me is in a stall to be mucked or sitting on a stump somewhere watching rabbits and talking to goats, dogs or ducks. Certainly they have a better appreciation of the importance of technology than most advocates of "artificial intelligence".</p><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtNacwAvZFy1ZgAdu78TDqKfqLfisdfmGZyfbOvFhbuQ5xKuDKJJq5am0E2OlNCJtdzzK159Piml3N3QqRzqD2oAxsZpuiP8cRHWMTbRy-J-lz5D-AHpeLvLmw7CodsEeJo2APd3myPiK9OQz1E8O6JcUS3zNe2q6CeOYLGDUlF41LORE5C5g/w640-h426/Ducks+BC-1.jpg" style="color: #0000ee; text-align: center;" width="640" /><br /><p>But for those more engaged with such matters, a recent blog post by my friend and memoQ founder Balázs Kis, <i><b><a href="https://blog.memoq.com/the-human-factor-in-the-development-of-translation-software" target="_blank">The Human Factor in the Development of Translation Software</a></b></i>, is worth reading. In his typically thoughtful way, he explores some of the contradictions and abuses of technology in language services and postulates that</p><p></p><blockquote><p><i><span style="color: #38761d;">... for the foreseeable future, there will be translation software that is built around human users of extraordinary knowledge. The task of such software is to make their work as efficient and enjoyable as possible. The way we say it, they should not simply trudge through, but thrive in their work, partially thanks to the technology they are using. </span></i></p><p><i><span style="color: #38761d;">From the perspective of a software development organization, there are three ways to make this happen: </span></i></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><i><span style="color: #38761d;">Invent new functionality </span></i></li><li><i><span style="color: #38761d;">Interview power users and develop new functionality from them </span></i></li><li><i><span style="color: #38761d;">Go analytical and work from usage data and automate what can be automated; introduce shortcuts </span></i></li></ul><p></p></blockquote><p></p><p>I think there is a critical element missing from that bullet list. Some time ago, I heard about a tribe in Africa where the men typically carry one tool with them into the field: a large knife. Whatever problem they might encounter is to be solved with two things: their human brains and, optionally, that knife. In a sense, we can look at good software tools in a similar way, as that optional knife. Beyond the basic range of organizing functions that one can expect from most modern translation environment tools, the solution to a challenge is more often to be found in the way we use our human brains to consider the matter, not so much the actual tool we use. So, from a user perspective and <i>from the perspective of a software development organization</i>, thriving work more often depends not so much on features but on a flexible approach to problem solving based on an understanding of the characteristics of the material challenge and the possibilities, often not adequately discussed, of the available tools. But developing capacities to think frequently seems much harder than "teaching" <i>what</i> to think, which is probably why the former approach is seldom found in professional language service training, even when the trainers may earnestly believe this is what they are facilitating.</p><p>I'll offer a simple example from recent experience. In the past year, most of my efforts have been devoted to consulting and training for language technology applications, trying to deal with crappy CMS systems for which developers never gave proper consideration to translation workflows or developing methods to handle really weird outliers like comment translation for distributed PDFs or filtering the "protected" content of Microsoft Word documents with restricted editing to... uh... protect the "restricted" parts.</p><p>That editing function in Microsoft Word was new to me despite the fact that I have explored and used many functions of that tool since I was first introduced to it in 1986. I qualify as a <i>power user</i> because I am probably familiar with at least five percent of the program's features, though I am constantly learning new ways to apply that five percent. And the 95% remaining is full of surprises:</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYdcHt8z3BoUHQojNWXytR8LHxMjPv86yFwSojZ0ox-byurg2pzNu7ZUR9xDI6XlygzhysCHrGHkk-7n4vk7GcMDwvssPsGYedfs7v23hIjkfBnFTwArhaeNyetH81U6lSIxQ-h1kI2zG4oxxijt9nI27kce0N0QYM6mn0VPuYeUXyvsOy7CA/s1437/RestrictedEditing.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="643" data-original-width="1437" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYdcHt8z3BoUHQojNWXytR8LHxMjPv86yFwSojZ0ox-byurg2pzNu7ZUR9xDI6XlygzhysCHrGHkk-7n4vk7GcMDwvssPsGYedfs7v23hIjkfBnFTwArhaeNyetH81U6lSIxQ-h1kI2zG4oxxijt9nI27kce0N0QYM6mn0VPuYeUXyvsOy7CA/w640-h286/RestrictedEditing.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Most of the text here can't be edited in MS Word, but default CAT tool filters cannot exclude it.</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>Only the highlighted text can be edited in the word processor, and that was also the only text to be translated. The real files were much larger than this example, of course, and the text to be translated was interspersed with a lot of text to be left alone. What can you do?</p><p>It was interesting to see the various "solutions" offered, some of which involved begging or instructing the customer to do one thing or another, which is not always a practical option. And imagine the hassles of any kind of manual selection, copying and replacement if you have hundreds of pages like this. So some kind of automation is needed, really. Oh, and you can't even hide the protected text. It will import with the default filters of the translation tool, where it will then be indistinguishable from the actual text to be translated and it can be modified. In other words, bye-bye "protection".</p><p>What can be done?</p><p>There are a number of possibilities that fall short of developing a new option for import filters, which could take years given the often sluggish development cycles for any major CAT tool. One would be...</p><p>... to consider that a Microsoft Word DOCX file is really a ZIP archive with a bunch of stuff inside it. That stuff includes a file called <span style="font-family: courier;">document.xml</span>, which contains the actual text of the MS Word document:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZdbEX_nVinh2bhyRwWBaJxVOqtWZnLABOYpeTZguJzVFPj51WCCrMzDc6ba6A1CYeQiAZh_tH4N90i_peyukcbvQlDvVsDjQaE46n7dIaH1DdOzCGjYa0WGj2gOVSYqhC-RH_-XGMWmKdsTfc4uzYgh78CMS6qjvTMNLwk17UPBIEgO6qhIs/s676/7-zip%20internal%20DOCX%20view.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="441" data-original-width="676" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZdbEX_nVinh2bhyRwWBaJxVOqtWZnLABOYpeTZguJzVFPj51WCCrMzDc6ba6A1CYeQiAZh_tH4N90i_peyukcbvQlDvVsDjQaE46n7dIaH1DdOzCGjYa0WGj2gOVSYqhC-RH_-XGMWmKdsTfc4uzYgh78CMS6qjvTMNLwk17UPBIEgO6qhIs/w400-h261/7-zip%20internal%20DOCX%20view.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>That XML file has an interesting structure. All the document text is in one line as one can see when it is opened in a code editor like Notepad++:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggO5LZ8i1QBpsfH4FtOnGpSbSSNlLkRvXq6grdJQNgLLs5Z7nmDkYaueo6RtNxj9t3sYfvKjSKkqMIfEPugTQGWMmsaU7rUW_8OdxWpLIWFDV_M6COMHofsQJB0IXwLgFQdQX8w3_i_E1zcmvfjjEb6yJQPgelggwQwUVBvMy9P8rOI_cb7dA/s1039/View%20of%20XML%20with%20text.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="767" data-original-width="1039" height="472" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggO5LZ8i1QBpsfH4FtOnGpSbSSNlLkRvXq6grdJQNgLLs5Z7nmDkYaueo6RtNxj9t3sYfvKjSKkqMIfEPugTQGWMmsaU7rUW_8OdxWpLIWFDV_M6COMHofsQJB0IXwLgFQdQX8w3_i_E1zcmvfjjEb6yJQPgelggwQwUVBvMy9P8rOI_cb7dA/w640-h472/View%20of%20XML%20with%20text.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p>I've highlighted the interesting part, the part with the only text I want to see after importing the file for translation (i.e. the text for which editing is not restricted in MS Word). Ah yes, my strategy here is to deal with the XML text container for the DOCX file and ignore the rest. When the question was raised, I knew there must be such a file, but despite exploring the internal bits of MS Office files with ZIP archive tools for about a decade now, I never actually had occasion to poke around inside of <span style="font-family: courier;">document.xml</span>, and I knew nothing of that file's structure. But simple logic told me there must be a marker there somewhere which would offer a solution.</p><p>As it turned out, the relevant markers are a set of tags denoting the beginning and end of a text block with editing permission. These can be seen at the start and finish of the text I highlighted in the screenshot. So all that remains is to filter that mess. A simple thing, really.</p><p>In memoQ, there is a "filter" which is not really a filter: the Regex Text Filter. It's actually a toolkit for building filters for text-based files, and XML files are really just text files with a lot of funky markup. I don't care about any of that markup except in the blocks I want to import, so I customized the filter settings accordingly:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmtUu8OMzw0B-Io1BCWnUirLiSsrQXzUo_lgjW3MvSagBk9v6f1E9-b82DPxBrQVG99iER0W9Q1VPvNNq9XypP31SfrQngntWInHKwE5Gw43qx5vPNIUaManhv72aBR1YRWK9SRMZvO494HRByCJK68h0Kia6YGRPZ2Ynad98eP0oqhmQAfB0/s931/Filter%20Config%20for%20Editable.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="931" data-original-width="698" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmtUu8OMzw0B-Io1BCWnUirLiSsrQXzUo_lgjW3MvSagBk9v6f1E9-b82DPxBrQVG99iER0W9Q1VPvNNq9XypP31SfrQngntWInHKwE5Gw43qx5vPNIUaManhv72aBR1YRWK9SRMZvO494HRByCJK68h0Kia6YGRPZ2Ynad98eP0oqhmQAfB0/w480-h640/Filter%20Config%20for%20Editable.png" width="480" /></a></div><br /><p>A smattering of regular expressions went a long way here, and the expressions used are just some of many possible ways to parse the relevant blocks. Then I added the default XML filter after the custom regex text filter, because memoQ makes filter sequencing of many kinds very easy that way. This problem can be solved with any major CAT tool I think, but I don't have to think very hard about such things when I work with memoQ. The result can be sent from memoQ as an XLIFF file to any other tool if the actual translator has other preferences. Oh, the joys of interoperable excellence....</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-YPqiAHxBlPBDVcZ1b60OFdAHr-FJPSKd7R3QcqWZfCMlyTTmAzGSGNwCW8BkbN-uS4X-KwBQpdRB7qRsstkh67bHacaykzdqpDqGFzQKQ_dMPvhuV6B7yzRxZzr_cyv3cQ5OdB-m-ufxqc9GciXowoJkvzdzxOPBvLFL2IL_2DzD6JgrCU0/s1524/Imported%20XML.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="547" data-original-width="1524" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-YPqiAHxBlPBDVcZ1b60OFdAHr-FJPSKd7R3QcqWZfCMlyTTmAzGSGNwCW8BkbN-uS4X-KwBQpdRB7qRsstkh67bHacaykzdqpDqGFzQKQ_dMPvhuV6B7yzRxZzr_cyv3cQ5OdB-m-ufxqc9GciXowoJkvzdzxOPBvLFL2IL_2DzD6JgrCU0/w640-h230/Imported%20XML.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">The imported text for translation, with preview</span></i> </td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div>After translation, <span style="font-family: courier;">document.xml </span>is replaced in the DOCX file by the new version, and the work is done, the "impossible" accomplished without any new features added to the basic toolkit. Computer assistance is all very well, but without brain-assisted translation you're more likely to achieve half the result with double the effort or more.<p><br /></p></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />Kevin Lossnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14727800526216764023noreply@blogger.com0