Archives for March, 2004

aaaaargh

Work. Way too much of it. It’s past seven on a Wednesday night now and I will be here for maybe five more hours doing this rewriting that should have been done a while ago, and would have, except for this rush translation and that urgent set of corrections and this meeting with a client who doesn’t really know what he wants to do with the project or how much money is going to be available for it and oh yeah, we’re hiring some people so please take part in three mornings worth of interviews and meetings to decide which person is best for the part. I WANT BEER NOW. Maybe I’ll get one on the way to the station late tonight; maybe I’ll get a case to keep me company if I get to the station too late for that last train back to Koganei.

In other news, I may be getting a job translating a whole freaking book, which would be really cool, even if it meant lots more work for me. More on that as the project comes more clearly into view.

03/17/2004 | work | Comments Off

The computer will work for us!

More exciting translation-related stuff! Namely, this stuff. A sample:

“T-Cube (tentative name)” is half applied product which made the best use of the result of this T-Engine project. It is possible to use it widely as a computer for a high function and an efficient built-in control in standard T-Engine board besides being able to use it for the usage of a business terminal and IA(Internet Appliance) with “T-Cube (tentative name)” unit by adding LAN function not included and the high resolution graphic function, etc.Moreover, the customer oneself can design hardware for end-products again based on the hardware of “T-Cube (tentative name)” because technological information in the circuit chart etc. is open to the public, and [it] develop with original customer’s variegated (*yubikitas*) equipment. In this case, the development of the software of end-products also precedes on “T-Cube (tentative name)”, can advance, and has merit that the development period of the entire product can be greatly shortened.

These people used a translation software package of some kind and didn’t even bother to go through the output to replace the terms it didn’t have a suggestion for–the stuff marked in (*these*). (The original text is over here, if you can read Japanese and want to see what’s going on.) Hey, if there are people out there happy with this kind of translation, then maybe these morons have a shot at getting some work.

In related news, here’s an article that sheds some light on the companies that willingly pump out inexplicable English instead of paying people (me!) real money for real language.

03/14/2004 | work | Comments Off

The Comfy Return of the King

Saw the movie on Saturday evening. The theater was sweet. We spent 6,000 yen for two tickets (pricy!) but we did so over the web, which was comforting. No need to go hours early and stand in line, hoping to be close enough to the front to avoid the rush for remaining seats located next to each other. We got seats E8 and E9; a look at the chart on the theater website showed a little blob of some kind separating them, but this turned out to be the table (lit softly from within so you can see your drinks and snacks in the dark).
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03/01/2004 | fun | 2 Comments

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