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In my day-to-day translation work, I get a lot of mileage out of a number of different computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools, one of which is the very impressive OmegaT, an open source translation memory tool that has an innovative approach to the way translation tasks are handled. One of the most impressive things about OmegaT, however, is that although it has many robust features, it is developed by a team of volunteers who make it available to anyone who would like to use it absolutely free of charge.

Because the developers do not ask for any sort of compensation for their efforts, I am always pleased when I see someone write a nice review of OmegaT, like the one Corinne McKay recently wrote in her blog, Thoughts On Translation. I hope other translators who have tried OmegaT and found it useful will do the same, because the word-of-mouth marketing helps call well deserved attention to this useful application.

I see that UltraBob and his wife have added another Ultra to the family. Congratulations to all involved. Linc, welcome to the world outside mommy’s belly.

UltraBob, I figure you’ve got two, maybe three years before we learn whether your computers prefer to drink milk or orange juice with their staples.

After putting it off for entirely too long, I’ve now gotten around to setting up ScribeFire and Google Gears, which will enable me to read Google Reader and do a bit of light blogging even when offline. All of these things together should make it possible to return to a normal blogging lifestyle sometime soon.

Although I have previously expressed mild reservations about Barack Obama’s ability to get elected president, I have been very pleased to see that his big win in Iowa has propelled him to the front of the Democratic race.

I had long assumed that Hillary Clinton would steamroll her way to the nomination, but I’m glad to see that Obama has become much more of a contender now. Not that I have anything against Hillary winning the nomination—far from it!—but given a choice between the two, I’d rather see Obama get the nomination. Although Hillary makes a lot of her experience, I suspect her electoral strategy would end up being very similar to Kerry’s in 2004—and we all know how well that worked. We had an experienced candidate last time and another in 2000, and both of them lost to someone who was widely perceived as more personable. Why not try a charismatic candidate this time? 

I went to a Ringo meeting tonight for the first time ever and ended up winning an iPod nano in a drawing held afterward. Will I be going back there again? You bet I will!

And thanks to the presentation Kilian Muster gave at the meeting, I might even be able to figure out what I am supposed to do with this thing.