translate from spanish to english: 2013

25 Şubat 2013 Pazartesi

Chrome's Giant Touch-Optimized Menu

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Somewhere between Chrome 25 (beta) and Chrome 26 (dev), the browser's menu got bigger. It's now optimized for touch interfaces even if you're using a non-touch computer. I've checked the height of the menu and it's now 580 pixels, instead of 420 pixels. That's a 38% increase and it makes the interface more difficult to use for mouse users.

When you use Chrome's sync feature, the menu's height becomes 625 pixels. Here's how a recent Chromium build looks on my 1280x800 laptop and remember that most laptops sold right now have a 1366x768 resolution:

Chrome also changed the contextual menu:

Google Drive's File Previews

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Google Drive has a new feature that lets you preview files using an interface borrowed from Google+. This feature is not restricted to photos and videos, it also works for Google Docs documents, presentations, spreadsheets, forms, drawings, Microsoft Office files, PDF, PostScript and XPS files and TrueType fonts.

It's interesting that Google Drive shows the new previews if you click a file that's not associated with a web application. For examples, the previews don't show up if you click a Google Docs document, so you need to right-click the file and select "Preview".

"When previewing a file, it's easy to flip through nearby files by clicking the arrows on the left and right sides of the preview window. This is a great way to scan through a group of photos you've stored in your Drive," explains Google. You can also use the left and right arrow keys to navigate to the other files and up/down arrow keys to scroll up/down in documents. While the previews don't let you edit documents, you can select text, zoom in or out, find text (Ctrl+F), print the documents or share them with other people.

The feature is currently rolled out, so you may not see it yet in your account. Check back later or sign in to a different Google account.

{ via Google Drive Blog }

Google's First Ultrabook

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Chromebook Pixel is the first Chromebook designed by Google and the first premium Chromebook. Until now, Chromebooks used low-end CPUs, average displays and plastic chassis. Google decided to change all that and build "the best laptop possible" to inspire other manufacturers. It's like the first Nexus Chromebook.

But why is it called Pixel? It's the first Chromebook with a retina-like display, 3:2 aspect ratio and 2560x1700 resolution. Much like Apple's Retina MacBook Pro, Chromebook Pixel uses pixel doubling to make everything look sharp and crisp. The display has "the highest pixel density (239 pixels per inch) of any laptop screen on the market today" and it's a 12.85-inch IPS touchscreen with 400 nit brightness and 178° extra-wide viewing angles.

Pixel has an anodized aluminium body, glass touchpad, backlit keyboard, hidden vents, Intel i5 processor and 4GB of RAM. "The touchpad is made from etched glass, analyzed and honed using a laser microscope to ensure precise navigation. The Pixel also has powerful, full-range speakers for crisp sound, a 720p webcam for clear video, and a total of three microphones designed to cancel out surrounding noise," informs Google.

Google also includes 1TB of free Google Drive Storage for 3 years. You can also buy a special model with an integrated LTE modem for Verizon.

The Verge has some cool pictures. "There are subtle design touches throughout the machine that help add to the 'premium' feel that Google is going for. The fan vents out in the hinge, every edge is subtly bezeled to prevent sharp angles, the speakers are fairly loud despite being hidden underneath the keyboard, and Google even opted to not put labels next to the ports."

The downside is that Google's Chromebook is really expensive: $1300 (WiFi)/$1450 (WiFi+LTE). It's more expensive than Apple's MacBook Air and most ultrabooks. While it has a better display, Chrome OS is more limited than MacOS (or Windows) and it only became popular when Samsung and Acer started to offer $200-$250 Chromebooks. When you can buy tablets with high-resolution displays for $400 (Nexus 10) or $500 (iPad), the $1300 Chromebook Pixel feels out of place and overkill. After all, you can buy a Nexus 4, Nexus 7, Nexus 10 and a Samsung Chromebook for less than $1200. An ARM device would've been a lot cheaper, but less powerful.

"The Pixel will be available for purchase starting today on Google Play in the U.S. and U.K., and soon on BestBuy.com. The WiFi version ($1,299 U.S. and £1,049 U.K.) will start shipping next week and the LTE version ($1,449) will ship in the U.S. in April. If you're interested in a hands-on experience, you can visit select Best Buy (U.S.) and Currys PC World (U.K.) store locations."

Now Google has a good reason to open its own physical stores.

{ via Google Blog }

Book Review: Wiley's English-Spanish and Spanish-English Dictionary

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If you have been in the translation business as long as I have, you have probably amassed your fair share of dictionaries and glossaries. As legal translations are my specialty, I have taken great pains to buy as many Spanish-English legal dictionaries/glossaries as possible.

To get the most out of your money and time spent researching, it is important to have resources with concise translations for each term that suit your translation style. There are many works on the market that have terms that are more explanatory than they are translations.

I have read mixed reports about the Wiley's English-Spanish Spanish-English dictionaries. Some translators are not keen about the "word list" aspect about them. Although I wouldn't use this dictionary as my primary source for legal translations, I have found terms that I hadn't come across in my other legal resources (It has a total of 40,00 of them).

If you have many Spanish<>English legal dictionaries/glossaries, perhaps you don't need this one, but if you only have a few, I recommend it.

Adding foreign terms to Word's spell checker, where do you draw the line?

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When spell checking a legal translation in Word, do you ever find it obnoxious to have to keep hitting the "Ignore" or "Ignore all" button? I know I do. This has led me to add some foreign terms and all names, foreign or not to Word's spelling dictionary by pressing alt+a in the spellcheck dialog.

However, I do not add words like Calle, which must be kept in Spanish if it is part of a street address or Colonia or CircunvalaciÃ³n or PolÃgono or Zacatecas or any number of place names.

This, of course makes the spell checking process more tedious and cumbersome. I could decide to add them and have them infiltrate as "visitors" to the official English realm, but then what if for some reason I was overwriting a document in Spanish and I left some of those words in by accident? This would make the spellchecker less reliable.

I know that there is a custom spellcheck dictionary that I could set up in Word, but I have not taken that step yet. Another possibility would be to use a different word processor and create a spell check scheme to accomodate my needs. A good place to find solutions to this and other Word-related dilemmas is Word Tips.

24 Şubat 2013 Pazar

New Interface for YouTube Channels

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YouTube tests a new interface for channels. For now, the updated layout is only available for a few channels like Sorted Food, iJustine, The Pet Collective and YouTube's own channel, but it will soon be enabled YouTube-wide.

What are the changes? The persistent left sidebar and the list of featured channels limit the channel's real estate, but make the interface more consistent. Most of the features from the old interface are still available, but they're more difficult to find. For example, to find the "feed" view, you need to click the arrow next to the home icon and click "feed". The list of playlists, the featured playlists and the list of likes are buried in a drop-down. There's also a new "about" section that shows the channel description, the number of subscribers and the video views, which is used to be placed in the right sidebar. The search box is only displayed when you click the new search icon.

The channel trailer replaces the featured video for non-subscribers. "You can show a trailer that will only appear to viewers who aren't already subscribed to your channel. This is your chance to let visitors know what your channel is all about and tell them why they should subscribe."

{ Thanks, Sterling. }

YouTube Background Audio in iOS 6.1

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For some reason, the latest version of Apple's mobile operating system breaks one of my favorite features: playing videos in the background. It worked in Apple's old YouTube app, YouTube's mobile site and almost any other video app/site (an important exception is YouTube's official app). Close the app, double-tap the Home button, swipe from left to right and tap the "Play" button to continue playing the video in the background. In iOS 6.1, the "play" button doesn't work.

It's a great feature for music videos, podcasts, ambient sounds and it's unfortunate that Android doesn't include it and Apple (accidentally?) disabled it in iOS 6.1. Until Apple fixes the bug, you can install two third-party YouTube apps that use some undocumented APIs to support background audio: McTube and YouPlayer. McTube continues to play the video after closing the app, while YouPlayer lets you manually enable background audio.

Chrome's Giant Touch-Optimized Menu

Chrome also changed the contextual menu:

Google Drive's File Previews

The feature is currently rolled out, so you may not see it yet in your account. Check back later or sign in to a different Google account.

{ via Google Drive Blog }

Google's First Ultrabook

23 Şubat 2013 Cumartesi

We'd Like to Pay More, Please

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It's all about the money. Or is it?

A few weeks ago, we received a pair of quite puzzling phone calls from two of our favorite clients. We've tried to transcribe the gist of both conversations here. We've added some lines for comedic effect, but the point of the conversations has been left intact. We are on very friendly terms with both clients and our conversations are usually quite casual.

Client: Hi Judy, thanks for the holiday chocolates. I am eating them right now. No calories, right? Just like you said on the card?

Judy: You got it! No calories. Happy holidays. What can I do for you?

Client (making munching sounds): Oh, you know, we are a pretty big client of yours.

Judy (stomach dropping, quick to answer): Of course you are! We are so grateful for your business. That's why you get chocolates.

Client: Glad to hear. We think you are awesome, too, but we really have to talk about what we are spending with Twin Translations.

Judy (fearing the worst): Sure. Looks like you are working on your 2013 budget. Is it tight?

Client: Yes, I am working on the budget. It's taking forever. What do you mean by tight?

Judy (telling herself to grab the bull by the horns): Well, I mentioned the tight budget because you are calling a vendor to get a lower rate.

Client (laughing): Oh, I am sorry. You misunderstood! I was just reviewing the rates of what we pay for services that I think are essential to our business, and I don't think you make enough. We would like to pay you some more. So have a look at our current contract and change the number on the per-word rate.

Judy (cannot believe her good luck): Oh wow, yes, of course. I am sorry, I almost fell out of my chair. I thought you would be asking me to lower our rates. And yes, certainly, I will adjust the rate and send the contract back to you.

Client: Great. Just come up with a new number that you feel comfortable with and send it my way. Happy holidays!

Judy: Thank you so much, will do. Happy holidays to you as well. It's a pleasure to do business with you.

Client: By the way -- I just recommended you to a friend. I told her you guys were great, professional and very affordable!

Judy (baffled): Thanks so much for the referral. We really appreciate it. Have a great day!

Client: Talk to you soon.

Our thoughts:
1) Christmas miracles do happen.
2) Things aren't always what they seem.
3) It's important to hear people out.
4) We've been called a lot of things, but never affordable.
5) Looks like we've done a good job at convincing our client of our value.
6) We should raise our prices across the board.
7) We have the world's best clients.

We'd love to hear your thoughts, dear readers!

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It's all Greek to Me!

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Roughly a year and ahalf ago, Dagy decided to take a few Greek lessons, with no goal in mind exceptwanting to be able to order her Greek coffee in Greek when in Greece (a country she adores and likes to visit). Also, an EUinterpreter friend had recommended looking into a new language before takingthe accreditation test for freelance conference interpreters, as this might impress the jury (it sure did!). Read on to learn about Dagy's Greek learning adventure.

Î‘Î»ÎµÎ¾Î¬Î½Î´Ï�Î± and Î�Ï„Î¬Î³ÎºÎ¹ inclass.

Initially, I had no intention of going beyond the very basics. I struggledto learn the alphabet and threw a fit or two until I finally got those lowercase, upper case and handwritten letters straight. At some point, my ambitionkicked in and on New Year’s Eve, I decided on a very ambitious long-termproject: reaching a level of Greek that would allow me to interpret from Greekinto German at the European Union by early 2017. That’s four years down theroad. It might sound like a daunting task, but it’s certainly doable. “Adding”new languages is the new normal for interpreters, both freelance and staff, atthe institutions of the European Union, where I am a freelance conference interpreter. After all, relay interpreting can be frustrating. It's a process that's frequently used in conference interpreting sessions for languages of lesser diffusion, say, if there's no Greek->German interpreter available, speeches are interpreted into English and then into German, resulting in a delay for all parties. And since all of ushave learned languages in the past, why not add another? I know a lot ofinterpreters who have added languages and it takes them about fouryears on average. This project will certainly require a high level of self-discipline anddedication, both of which I have in abundance (probably because I was a serious athlete in my previous life). Even though I have a lotof other things on my plate (running our business, translating, interpreting, serving as theSecretary General of my professional association UNIVERSITAS Austria, workingout, reading books etc.), I think I can do it.
Now, how am I doingit? For the time being, I am still a slightly advanced beginner. I've taken twosummer courses and one full semester course, all of them at beginner level, since noothers were offered. While it’s a small group, not everybody is learning at the same pace and I felt I needed to take it to the next level if I was to getpast Î Î¿Ï� Î¼ÎÎ½ÎµÎ¹Ï‚; (where do you live?)and Î¤Î¹ ÎºÎ¬Î½ÎµÎ¹Ï‚; (how are you?) soon.So I asked the excellent teacher, Athens-born Alexandra (Î‘Î»ÎµÎ¾Î¬Î½Î´Ï�Î± in Greek), to give me private lessons. Together, we will focus on whatinterpreters need most: understanding complex speeches. That will involve a lotof listening comprehension exercises, numbers and tons of vocabulary, after weget past the grammar basics, that is. In addition, I listen to Greek talk radioevery day as well as to EU plenary sessions and committee meetings to hearhigh-level Greek. Unlike just six months ago, I do understand a few words hereand there. The great part about starting out with a new language is thefantastic progress you see at the beginning. I’m also looking into taking anintensive course at a language school in Athens that comes highly recommendedby a fellow EU interpreter who learned her Greek there. I also purchased a few comic booksin Athens last September and hope to be able to read them soon. I sometimesventure to Greek news sites to practice my reading skills (albeit withoutunderstanding).
Wish me luck! Mysignificant other, Tommy, said that he’s we willing to buy a small summer houseon a Greek island if I pass the EU accreditation exam for Greek in 2017. We are so on!

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You Don't Need an Interpreter!

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Those who interpret in community and court settings will probably be quite familiar with this interesting species: the person who does not really need an interpreter, but who requests one (and is certainly mostly entitled to one) anyway. We've never personally seen this happen in conference interpreting settings (or at least we don't find out, but we have heard of conference attendees who get a headset to listen to the interpreting just to see if it's good). Those who DNRNAIs (=do not really need an interpreter) can present a wide variety of potential challenges, and it also makes for an interesting interpreting assignment. Here's our take on how and why this happens and how to deal with it.
The first thing to keep in mind is that the interpreter is there to interpret and has not been retained to give an expert opinion of the person's ability (or lack thereof) to speak the language. Many times, attorneys, especially during highly contentions civil depositions, will try to pull the interpreter into the argument, asking him or her to "tell us if the deponent (the person who has requested an interpreter) speaks _________." When we are in that situation, we politely say that we are not qualified to give an on-the-spot language ability assessment nor has it been agreed upon which criteria or scale should be used. Our advice: don't give an opinion. While you may have some insight into the person's language ability, you are probably not qualified to give an expert opinion, so you should not. Stick to your role.

Who needs an interpreter?

Now that it's probably been established that the interpreter should stay (after much bickering between attorneys or other parties), the tough part starts. For example: it is probably quite true that the person in question (the DNRNAI person) understands the source language quite well. That means that the DNRNAI person doesn't really need an interpreter to understand the question, but does need one to answer, as he or she is simply not that strong in the second language -- understanding is always easier than speaking. There are a variety of reasons for requesting an interpreter when you don't truly need one (again, there's a lot of debate as to who needs an interpreter):

For tactical advantages in court. We've seen this a lot during divorce and custody proceedings. Sometimes things are so contentious that the parties don't want to leave anything to chance, even though they can communicate in English with their attorneys just fine. However, once proceedings start, the parties (or party) do want an interpreter, many times in the hopes that court interpreters will simplify or explain the proceedings to them, which of course we cannot.
As a security blanket. Some parties just want an interpreter present in case they don't understand something and request the interpreter to be on stand-by. Usually the other party loudly protests this and demands that the interpreter either interpret everything or nothing. Of course everyone knows things will take a lot longer with an interpreter, which is why occasionally attorneys will kindly suggest sending the interpreter home. Again, as the interpreter, we don't chime in. We sit there, looking pretty (if we can), smile, and let the parties sort it out.
Because they can. Depending on the state, the jurisdiction and the type of case, people have a well-established right to an interpreter (Civil Rights Act of 1964, etc.), so many times people just want their interpreter, period. Sometimes, this can get a bit odd. Judy has interpreted for well-known business owners who've lived and worked in the United States for years, yet want an interpreter for their native language (Spanish), which is no longer their dominant language. The problem: when you interpret correctly into their native language, they oftentimes don't understand it, because English is really their dominant language. Still, they insist on answering in half-English, half-Spanish. We just keep calm and carry on.

Now, during the actual proceedings, DNRNAI persons will routinely NOT wait for the question to be interpreted, since they understand it just fine in English. They will start answering the question in their foreign language immediately, even while the interpreter is still rendering the (unnecessary on all fronts) interpretation. Usually, their counsel will instruct them to let the interpreter finish, but that rarely works (in our experience). One must be prepared for hours of constantly being interrupted. This also really confuses the court reporter, and it's one of the big problems of interpreting for someone who doesn't need an interpreter. In addition, their attorney will usually instruct them to answer exclusively in their native language and let the interpreter do the job. The problem with that is that they are no longer fully fluent in their native language and thus speak Spanglish, Denglish, etc., which is of course also challenging on all fronts, especially since they use many terms incorrectly.
As you can see, interpreting for people who don't really need an interpreter (DNRNAI persons) is full of potential landmines, but somehow, we manage to enable communication without too many problems. What's your experience? We'd love to hear about it.

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