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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 remember a conversation I had once many years ago, when I was a young journalism student, with a friend of mine who worked part-time for a local ISP. I was telling him about all the amazing things I was learning in one of my information-gathering courses, a lot of which focused on how to make profitable use of library resources. He remarked casually that libraries would one day cease to exist, because any and all valuable information would eventually find its way onto the Internet. Although I didn’t doubt even then that such a thing might happen one day, I was taken aback by the confident assertion that followed: “Heck, almost everything worthwhile already is.”

I was reminded of that conversation when I came across this article at CNN:

Use with caution: The perils of Wikipedia

In particular, this part caught my attention:

[Former American Library Association president Michael Gorman] added that Google and Wikipedia were creating a generation of “intellectual sluggards incapable of moving beyond the Internet,” with no interest in exploring non-digital resources.

I know this is true simply by the attitudes of many of the people I know and work with. If they can’t find something with a few Google searches or a quick swing by Wikipedia, it might as well not exist. It’s a shame, really, because even as remarkable as Google and Wikipedia are, they both barely amount to a drop in the bucket of human knowledge. To consider either of them anything more than the starting point for any significant information need would be foolish.

But what can be done about it? If everyone assumes that all the world’s knowledge is available in one place, how will they ever find out otherwise?

Over the past several weeks, I have encountered a strange pop-up ad that hijacks Firefox and will not relinquish control unless Firefox is forcibly shut down. Has anyone seen this before? (Click on the image to see a larger version.)

It’s the same ad every time. I’m wondering if this represents a Firefox vulnerability or something more sinister, like malware on my PC.

Update:
Well, it turns out to be malware after all. It seems that ErrorSafe is a reasonably well known piece of scareware. Symantec has generously published instructions on how to remove it. Seems like a pretty tedious process, though. I’m now wondering if it wouldn’t be a better idea to simply back up all of the data my wife and I need and then completely reinstall Windows—or better yet, go back to being a no-Windows household again.

Around this time last year, we bought a new Windows PC, which naturally means that we bought an anti-virus/security package to go along with it; in this case, we decided to go with McAfee. The software itself works well enough, so there is really no reason to complain about it, except for when it periodically requires you to “check in” to make sure that your software is still current. The problem is that, upon logging in, you get presented with a screen that looks exactly like this:

Just this morning, McAfee notified me that our coverage has now expired, so I will have to either log into the Web site and pay for an extension, or buy a new version of the product from my local software vendor. After logging in and being greeted by the cheerful but mostly blank screen above, I’m considering buying new software—but probably not McAfee’s. They just don’t seem to want my business enough to go that extra mile and actually, you know, offer me something to buy. 

By now, anyone who cares about these things has probably already read Steve Jobs’ ”Thoughts on Music,” an open letter that advocates the abolition of digital rights management (DRM) technologies as currently applied to downloadable music. Among other things, Jobs writes: “This is clearly the best alternative for consumers,” which is undoubtedly true. I’ve never met anyone who has actually liked DRM, but some people put up with it because they feel there is no other choice. I am very much not one of those people.

To me, DRM on music is unacceptable and I have long refused to buy an iPod (or any other type of music player) or download any music simply on principle. That’s how strongly I disagree with the fundamental concept of DRM. For a long time, I assumed that DRM was simply an inevitable trend in the music industry. I wasn’t happy about it, and I certainly wasn’t going to buy into it, but I thought that it would, unfortunately, take root regardless of my resistance to it. But now Steve Jobs seems to have shaken up the assumption that DRM is even necessary, much less inevitable, for which I think he deserves to be applauded.

Following the initial news about Jobs’ letter, there have been a number of additional ones indicating that DRM isn’t very popular with European music company executives, either. I think most people in the music business realize that restricting how music can be played back is not a good way to increase sales, and I am just one of presumably a large number of consumers demonstrating exactly that. I would buy an iPod and start fleshing out my music collection tomorrow if the music labels would drop DRM. And they should, but they won’t, which means I will continue to spend my money on other things until they wise up.