Berlin is a wonderfully international city, offering a delicious cultural buffet in many languages. On December 11, 2010 at 4 pm at A Livraria bookstore (Torstrasse 159, 10115 Berlin) the feast will include a reading in Portuguese by Brazilian children's author Tânia Maria Rodrigues-Peters, whose works are available in English, German, Spanish and Portuguese.
Ms. Rodrigues-Peters is married to Carsten Peters, who recently launched the publishing venture Ceditora announced on this blog.
Nov 7, 2010
Nov 3, 2010
Long-awaited Déjà Vu X update released (Build 335)
The following notice was received today via the dejavu-l list on Yahoogroups, one of the best sources for information and support for Déjà Vu users. Build 335 includes the following fixes/improvements:
As usual, it is recommended that you unplug your dongle before updating, since the installer will need to update the dongle drivers. If you are prompted for the location of the drivers when plugging your dongle back in (this is a signal that the old drivers were not updated properly), you can point Windows to the \Dongle subfolder of your DVX installation folder (usually C:\Program Files\ATRIL\
Version 8 of the application, expected to be released in 2009, is on schedule to arrive before Godot.
Update: The word on the Yahoo user list is that there are a number of bugs in the new build and there have been two "patches" for it already. Some of the issues seem to be very configuration-specific. I'm going to wait a while with the upgrade myself until the bug reports on the list subside.
- Added support for Adobe InDesign CS5 IDML
- Added support for Office 2010
- Performance improvements to SGML/XML filters (including Adobe InDesign INX and Office 2007/2010)
- Performance improvements to DOC/RTF filter
- Performance improvements to XLIFF filter
- Improvements in MIF filter handling of markers and character sets
- Number-only segments present in the TM are now retrieved correctly
- Fixed bugs in XLIFF filter
- Fixed performance issues when using TeaM Server with AutoSearch enabled
- Fixed a bug in match sorting for AutoSearch/Assemble
- Fixed a bug where PowerPoint 2007/2010 slides were imported in the wrong order
- Fixed issues with missing spaces in Office 2007/2010 files
- Fixed bugs in AutoSearch
- Fixed bugs in Assemble
- Fixed bugs with renumbered matches
- Fixed issues with incorrect characters in External Views
- Fixed bugs in the Alignment Wizard grid
http://www.atril.com/dvx/current/ Update.exe
http://www.atril.com/dvx/current/ WebSetup. exe
The link for the full setup package is http://www.atril.
Version 8 of the application, expected to be released in 2009, is on schedule to arrive before Godot.
Update: The word on the Yahoo user list is that there are a number of bugs in the new build and there have been two "patches" for it already. Some of the issues seem to be very configuration-specific. I'm going to wait a while with the upgrade myself until the bug reports on the list subside.
Nov 2, 2010
Dancing in the lion's den
By now I suppose most of us have read or heard about the arrogance of Lionbridge and its Vice President of World Wide Vendor & Supply Chain Management, Didier Hélin, whose name appeared at the bottom of a ransom note sent to the company's "partners", which demanded a 5% cut in fees for future work. Though there is no hard evidence presently available to confirm rumors that the company is in the process of merging with a well-know organized crime family as a means of improving its organizational discipline, this letter does at least indicate that the extortionist traditions of such families are not unappreciated by senior management at the Big L.
I must admit to feeling a bit left out, not having received an invitation to the discount party. In this Age of AIDS, I am a bit careful in the choice of my associates, and I never felt the urge to catch what Lionbridge has been so generously passing around in our professional circles, though I've seen the drill with similar organizations. Nonetheless, the wealth of responses to the company's initiative to increase the bottom line by flogging the bottoms of its vendors harder has been commented upon widely in our circles. Interesting reading can be found
I must admit to feeling a bit left out, not having received an invitation to the discount party. In this Age of AIDS, I am a bit careful in the choice of my associates, and I never felt the urge to catch what Lionbridge has been so generously passing around in our professional circles, though I've seen the drill with similar organizations. Nonetheless, the wealth of responses to the company's initiative to increase the bottom line by flogging the bottoms of its vendors harder has been commented upon widely in our circles. Interesting reading can be found
- in this ProZ thread,
- this open letter from Finland,
- a hilarious commentary on the Financial Translation Blog by Miguel Llorens,
- a even more hilarious commentary on the Big L by Mr. Llorens,
- and here, where the Empire Writes Back to Miguel,
- Alex Eames' blog,
- Jill Sommer's blog,
- a Dutch blog (in English),
- the No Peanuts! blog,
- Twenty-Two Bridges,
- the About Translation blog,
- Dave Grunwald's comments on how we aren't schmucks,
None of this is new, really. Those accustomed to dealing with the supply chain etiquette of many large companies will recognize the uncouth, predatory practices that are encouraged in this environment. That is perhaps not universally the case, but it is close enough to universal that it is a good working premise when dealing with organizations like the top volume LSPs. You might as well dance in the lion's den, but don't count on coming out of it as well as Daniel.
My experiences in dealing with LSPs are largely positive. In thousands of interactions over the past decade, I can probably still count the issues of concern on my fingers and have a good number left over. This is in part due to careful screening of my agency partners, a selection process which includes a very conscious preference for smaller, specialized agencies or at least SMEs with a very personal touch. They don't spam me with cattle call project "inquiries" sent to hundreds of translators, they don't play twist-my-arm-to-save-a-penny games, but they do work with me rather often as real partners to get jobs done, deliver some real value and retain our dignity while we do it. These are the LSPs who deserve our best efforts and support. For all the talk of "consolidation" as the big fish try to swallow each other and encourage the little ones to feed on their excrement, I believe that disciplined, well-focused small LSPs have a bright future. For all the mindless babble about our collective future as post-editors of MT-spew, I know that there will always be room at the top for real translators and LSPs able to do real, crafted translations for a clientele that not only cares about quality but needs it as well.
My experiences in dealing with LSPs are largely positive. In thousands of interactions over the past decade, I can probably still count the issues of concern on my fingers and have a good number left over. This is in part due to careful screening of my agency partners, a selection process which includes a very conscious preference for smaller, specialized agencies or at least SMEs with a very personal touch. They don't spam me with cattle call project "inquiries" sent to hundreds of translators, they don't play twist-my-arm-to-save-a-penny games, but they do work with me rather often as real partners to get jobs done, deliver some real value and retain our dignity while we do it. These are the LSPs who deserve our best efforts and support. For all the talk of "consolidation" as the big fish try to swallow each other and encourage the little ones to feed on their excrement, I believe that disciplined, well-focused small LSPs have a bright future. For all the mindless babble about our collective future as post-editors of MT-spew, I know that there will always be room at the top for real translators and LSPs able to do real, crafted translations for a clientele that not only cares about quality but needs it as well.
Addendum 2010-11-17: Thanks to Kirti Vashee for tweeting this bit of news from today's Wall Street Journal online:
Lionbridge Technologies Inc. topped the list of Biggest Percentage Price Decliners among common stocks on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
Looks like shareholders know value when they see it ;-)
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