Although Google did not prepare its users for the launch of a human translation tool, as of yesterday, people could access the homepage of the new Google Translation Center. One day after its early beta launch and the new application has already failed, probably because Google engineers only wanted to offer a preview of their new interesting product.
The Google Translation Center is basically a translation tool, but what it makes it special is that translations are provided by humans, instead of programs. People who want to have their texts translated into one of the 40 languages have to upload them and wait for the documents to be taken off their hands by professional or volunteer users. Read the rest of this entry »
If you sell or otherwise dispose of your computer you must delete all of the data it contains. This is vitally important, not just from a security standpoint, but it’s also technically illegal to sell on a PC with Windows and many commercial programs installed unless you also transfer the licences, though this is almost impossible to do.
Active KillDisk remains my favourite method for deleting the data on a drive, but here’s a new one, called Darik’s Boot and Nuke, and this program really lives up to it’s name! Just boot the PC using a CD, DVD, pen drive or floppy and it totally destroys all of the data on every drive it finds. Read the rest of this entry »
Don’t ask us how they know, but SanDisk claims that its new 128Mb Write Once, Read Many times (WORM) SD memory card will store data for up to 100 years. If true and they’re on pretty safe ground from warranty claims — that’s a definite improvement on current technology. Data on rewritable cards and drives can start to deteriorate in as little as 5 years, though most manufacturers reckon they’re good for between 10 to 25 years.
Potential applications for the new WORM card includes storing evidential data used in police investigations, medical data, company records and so on. WORM cards can also be used for archiving photographs and home videos, in fact anything that you would like still to be around in 100 years time, though the big question with all these things is, will there be anything that can read SD cards in just 10 years, let alone in 2108…
Windows application launchers come and go, and I must have used scores of them in my time, but this one, called Stick, is one of the best, and certainly one of the easiest to use. Basically it puts a series of tabs along the top of the screen and when you click or hover on it, it opens the chosen program, folder or applet. It’s highly configurable, easily customisable and you can also access tabs using Hot Keys. Needless to say it’s free, and it works on both XP and Vista. Give it a try; you’ll wonder how you ever managed without it…
Customize your 404 error pages with the Web Page Error Toolkit!
For large web sites with extensive amounts of content, 2 to 10 percent of traffic is looking for pages that either don’t exist or have been moved. Most web servers return a generic 404 error page or a sitemap when a user’s desired page cannot be found. These unhelpful pages often result in a dead end for users.
With Microsoft’s Web Page Error Toolkit, you can create dynamic 404 pages that contain customized error messages along with search results seeded with relevant keywords to help your users move past the missing page and find the information they need. Below is an example of a screenshot of what the typical 404 error page looks like “before & after” the application of the Web Page Error Toolkit: Read the rest of this entry »
Although Google did not prepare its users for the launch of a human translation tool, as of yesterday, people could access the homepage of the new Google Translation Center. One day after its early beta launch and the new application has already failed, probably because Google engineers only wanted to offer a preview of their new interesting product.
