THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS "DIVA"

Normally I try to come up with some kind of witty post title..but I just can't come up with anything else but.... I'm bummed.  I'm watching CNN.com/NEXT show and this is the last edition of this show.  First I lost CNet's computer TV show that used to be on Discovery channel.... and now CNN's NEXT show.  TechTV is into video games [which I'm not]... I mean what's a girl geek to do when all of her geek shows start going off the air?

Starts to make me think ...why is that?  Is it that technology just isn't newsworthy anymore?  Or is it that it's just more common place and normal?  I mean walk into any department store [like Target] and look at all the technology that is just normal.... digital cameras, DVDs, MP3 players, are just normal now. 

Daniel Sieberg... while you say you'll still be doing tech and science spots throughout CNN, it just won't be the same.  I'll miss you on the weekend.  I've been used to you every weekend for the past three years.  Thanks for what you did do, showing me some new things, and providing things for me to google.

Seems a bit odd when we should be emphasizing science and technology in this world, that in the media that I see, the level of science and technology feels like it's actually decreasing.  The Learning Channel seems like it is more home makeover shows than it is really teaching me anything these days.

Well I'll have to go in search of geek shows.  I'll let you know what I find to take Daniel's place.  It's going to be hard to fill his shoes is all.

Thanks for three interesting years!

Out and about running a few errands today, I stopped and got gas and noticed at the gas station not far from my house the advertising banners at the station were half in English and half in Spanish.  Later when I went to Target [we call it Tar-shay you know], the voices around me were mixtures of English/Spanish and English/Laotian.  Keep in mind that I live in the 'breadbasket of California' and yet look at the United Nations around me that I totally take for granted.  It's just part of California and where I live.  In fact in Fresno, the Spanish TV and radio stations have higher ratings than the English speaking ones do.

It got me thinking on the localization issues that businesses must face on a regular basis, and of course Microsoft and SBS being an example of a business that needs to take something and translate it.  For SBS I think if I remember right, they come out with 17 different language versions of SBS.  Just the other day in the newsgroups a guy posted in about hotfixes and I used Google's translation service to translate the “hotfixes are free” but I apologized for using Google translation because I know how it can lose meaning and be a bit insulting sometimes to the poster.

Take for example this phrase: 

• Hotfixes es una llamada libre, servicios de ayuda justos del producto de Microsoft de la llamada. 

Let's see what happens when we now stick it in Google to go back to English.

• Hotfixes is a free call, right services of aid of the product of Microsoft of the call.

Uh...yeah... that's sounds self explanatory doesn't it?  Want to know what it started out as?  Hotfixes are a free call, just call Microsoft Product Support Services.  Yeah, see what I mean?  Loses a bit in the translation, doesn't it?  So now think of the problems we face in a global world of technology.  Geeks have a problem communicating in the first place and we lose things in translation.  Talk about a compound problem.  

I'll admit this is one area that I am vastly undereducated on.  I slid though my education without the need for a secondary language [and no, Geek is not officially designed as a language so I can't count that].  My sister knows enough French to say “My pencil is yellow“, I know enough Spanish to be able to order off the menu of a Mexican Food Restaurant.  Meanwhile in the ranks of my fellow MVPs from other countries... while they speak and write fluent English and it's not even their only language.  I think Mariette and Marina probably know about 10 languages between them.

Heck, look at Sam the SBS server... he speaks 17:

I barely speak English and he speaks two versions of Chinese, two versions of Portuguese and Russian.  I got a book on learning Russian in high school and more than anything else I remember that “e's” look like “'3's”.  Like I said, vastly undereducated when it comes to foreign languages and 'localizations'.

But remember, while we do have localized newsgroups, they don't get as much traffic as the English speaking ones.  As long as you can speak write English, can translate the error messages if Google can't do it for us, just remember that the communities of SBS that have the primary language as English, your geek peers, can still help you.  A computer error is a computer error and I still say that Geek truly is the universal language.  And if you don't mind if Google and I massacre your language I can always do this:

• Hotfixes sind ein freier Anruf, gerade Anrufmicrosoftprodukt-Beistandsservices.
• Hotfixes sont un appel gratuit, services de support justes de produit de Microsoft d'appel
• Hotfixes è una chiamata libera, servizi giusti di sostegno del prodotto del Microsoft di chiamata
• Hotfixes é uma chamada livre, serviços de sustentação justos do produto de Microsoft da chamada

For the record that's German, French, Italian, Portuguese .... well...it's supposed to be anyway.  In the original post I also included Japanese, Korean and Chinese but .TEXT didn't like the characters and wouldn't post them. 

So what about you?  Do you face any localization or translation issues where you are?

Like I said... I barely speak English.